Offices, Lamp Room and Medical Centre at Snibston Colliery

Summary

A mid-C20 administration building for the Snibston Colliery which incorporated many of the specialist management and welfare functions necessary for the operation of a modern C20 colliery. The interior of the building retains most of its original spatial subdivisions, its plan form and the fixtures and fittings associated with its specialist functions. An important element of the integrated colliery site at Snibston, now recognised as one of the most important sites representative of the C19 and C20 coal mining industry in England.

Reasons for Designation

The Offices, Lamp Room and Medical Centre building at the former Snibston Colliery, components of one of the best and most complete surviving examples of a mining complex dating from the British coal industry's period of peak production, are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* As an element of a multi- phase integrated colliery complex recognised as one of four such sites which best represent the coal mining industry in England from the late C19 to the period of peak production in the mid-C20;
* As a building forming part of a colliery complex first developed by the celebrated engineer George Stephenson, and incrementally developed throughout the C19 and the first half of the C20;
* As a building which contributes to the integrity, context and setting of an historic industrial site acknowledged as being of national importance by its designation as a Scheduled Monument.

Architectural interest:

* As a specialist industrial building type representative of evolving aspects of colliery activity at different stages of the coal mining industry's development in England;
* As a building which retains significant interior fabric, fixtures, fittings and plan form characteristics, attributes which enhance its special interest as components of an historic colliery site.

Group value:

* As a component of an integrated colliery site, with strong functional and visual group value with other designated parts of the colliery.

History

Snibston Colliery was first developed in 1831-1832 by the celebrated engineer George Stephenson and his son Robert, working in partnership with Joseph Sanders and Sir Joshua Warmsley.

The early colliery was operated by means of three shafts, and was further developed throughout the C19 and the first half of the C20. During the First World War a fourth shaft was sunk and equipped with a steel-framed headstocks, winding house and winding engine. This shaft was sunk to increase the output of the mine, which had been limited by the scale of its winding capacity and surface coal handling facilities. The new shaft was served by new pit top buildings and a new set of screens, and as part of the same phase of renewal, engineering and joinery workshops, a compressor house and a stable building were constructed. In 1942 the wooden headgear of the No.1 shaft was replaced with a steel-framed headstocks, and following the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, further development took place in the 1950’s, including the addition of an explosives store, a power house, and on an adjacent site, a canteen and pithead baths. A programme of modernisation in the 1960’s and 1970’s saw the replacement of the steam winding engine with electric motors and the construction of a coal preparation plant, an accompanying small-gauge rail system and new brick pithead buildings. In 1967 new service buildings were also added, including workshops, stores and a large administration block which included not only offices, but also a lamp room, time office, control room and medical centre. In 1976 a new fan and fanhouse were constructed for No 1 pit, a prototype development which provided the technological solution to the problem of excessive fan and motor noise throughout the coal mining industry.

As a result of the developments begun in 1961, Snibston became the hub of a group of four mines which were linked below ground, the coal from all four sites being handled at the Snibston coal preparation plant. The colliery continued production until its closure in 1986, and the site subsequently became the Snibston Discovery Park, opened in 1992 following the purchase of the site by Leicestershire County Council. The main central area of the colliery site was scheduled on the 19th March 1999, having been assessed as one of the four colliery sites in England which best represent the development of the coal industry in England since the 1890’s. A number of buildings were excluded from the scheduling, listing being considered to be the most appropriate form of designation for these structures.

The Offices, Lamp Room and Medical Centre complex, was built as part of the mid-C20 development and modernisation of Snibston Colliery. The building was a multi- purpose complex, which included the colliery control room, a fully-equipped medical suite, the main colliery lamp room, lamp repair workshop, shower room, timekeeping station, and wages office, as well as various administration offices. After the closure of the colliery and the establishment of the Snibston Discovery Park, the western end of the building became a museum display areas based around the original colliery interiors, whilst the eastern end continued in office use.

Details

A multi-function building complex at Snibston Colliery, completed in 1967. The building contained the Colliery Control Centre, Lamp room, Medical Centre, Time Office and Colliery Group Offices, and now forms part of the Snibston Discovery Centre, as part of the group of preserved colliery buildings on the former colliery site.

MATERIALS: buff-coloured brick with deep, tiled aprons to some window openings, and flat, felt-covered roof areas.

PLAN: irregular, elongated L-shaped plan with a two-storey wing to the east end.

EXTERIOR: the main east-west range is single storeyed, with the two-storey crosswing at the east end. The external elevations are plainly detailed, with doorways with side lights under wide overlights, narrow rectangular windows set just below eaves fascia level, and large, six-pane windows with deep tile-covered apron panels extending to ground level. The two-storey wing has a series of asymmetrically sub-divided, four-pane windows with tiled aprons to both levels.

INTERIOR: the interior of the building has retained many of the fixtures and fittings associated with the various colliery management and welfare facilities it was designed to accommodate, at a time when the colliery achieved its maximum output. In the western section of the building, the size of the mining workforce is graphically represented by the Lamp Room, with its fixed recharging stands, supported by a lamp repair workshop. Close by is the Time Office, and beyond that the Control Room which monitored the work of the four collieries, of which the Snibston site formed the focal point. Beyond the Control Room is the multi-room colliery Medical Centre, and there is a small suite of showers for the use of the staff based on the site ( the main colliery pithead baths building of the 1950s being located on the other side of the main road immediately to the north of the colliery). Other parts of the western section of the building were used as stores and offices, whilst the storeyed east end of the building was formed entirely for offices. The exterior of the building is unremarkable and utilitarian in appearance, but the spatial arrangement of the interior and the survival of the fittings related to its varied functions provides a unique insight into the scale and complexity of a mid-C20 colliery at the peak of its productive life.

End of official list entry

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