Bevin Boys at Ollerton Colliery

Bevin Boys were young men who were conscripted to work in coal mines rather than in the armed forces during the Second World War. Many of them came from backgrounds where coal mines weren't prevalent. This meant they required extra training than youths from the local areas. Ollerton Colliery was one of the training centres for Bevin Boys. They would have received a mixture of physical training, as well as classroom lessons, to prepare them for working on the coal face.

Ollerton was chosen for as a site for a new colliery by the Butterley Company in 1920 after borehole experiments showed there was enough coal. The sinking of the pit started in 1923 after securing leases for working the coal seams in the area. The pit was completed in 1926, during the 1926 General Strike, a nine day strike which aimed to 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.