Aerial photograph of Ollerton Colliery and village

The village of New Ollerton was built by the Butterley Company in the early 1920s to correspond with the sinking of the pit in 1923. The pit was finally finished in 1926, during the 1926 General Strike, a nine day strike to try and prevent wage reductions across various transport and heavy industry sectors. The pit remained one of the largest in the area until its closure in 1994.

The village itself was the first built by the Butterley Company to house the workers at the colliery. Their previous collieries all had existing villages, but were extended to provide more housing for their workers. Ollerton before the colliery was a few houses and a church surrounded by fields. This aerial photograph shows what the village and colliery looked like around the time of the Second World War.