The deadliest disasters in Derbyshire's mining history

When the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, there were 68 collieries in Derbyshire. Now there are none.

The last deep mine closed in 1993, bringing an end to more than a century of deep coal mining in the county, where records show men have brought coal to the surface since the 1200s.

Bolsover, Shirebrook, and Markham were three of the county's biggest coal mines and were all opened in the late 1800s.

Disasters have also taken place in the Derbyshire coalfield that have claimed the lives of many men - including one incident in 1973 that a bystander has said is a day he will never forget.

Markham Colliery at Staveley in Chesterfield was opened in 1881 and in 1967, it merged with three other collieries to become one large site.

David Amos, a mining historian and former coal miner in neighbouring Nottinghamshire, said: "Markham was by far the largest colliery in the Derbyshire Coalfield. It was situated where Markham Vale is on the M1 motorway at J29.

"It was also the scene for the worst three disasters in the Derbyshire coalfield in 1937, 1938 and 1973.

"The latter modern day pit disaster saw the cage plunge down the shaft killing 18 miners."

The cage carrying the descending miners failed to slow down and the incident is believed to have been caused by the fracture of the brake-rod as a slowly growing fatigue crack reached a critical size and the brake-rod gave way.

One man who was at Markham on that day was Dave Hart, a mining electrician, who still lives in Chesterfield.

Mr Hart, who is now 78, was stood only 'around 100 metres' away from the cage as it crashed down.

He said: "I trained at Grassmoor Colliery in 1957, when I was 15 and started working there as an electrician before I moved to Markham.

"Mining was such a big operation in Derbyshire and both the deep mines I worked at were quite old. It felt like you knew the end was coming.

"Markham closed as part of the general closures in the 1990s by the coal authorities. I was there on the day the cage went down the shaft too. It was really quite shocking to see.

"We were in our office around 100 metres away. We did not really know what happened at first before it all became clear.

"It was an eventful and harrowing day, it's one that has stuck with me and I won't forget. I remember as people started trying to pull out survivors and bodies.

"Wherever I worked, everyone got on really well. We all looked out for one another as much as we could.

"After Markham, I worked at Eckington which was a much smaller drift mine. It had brought machines from other pits that closed and refurbished them so it was a bit like a museum.

"I finished there in 2005 when I was 70 after working on a part-time basis."

Markham closed in 1993 along with Bolsover and Shirebrook, bringing an end to deep mining in Derbyshire.

Mr Amos added: "In total 106 miners were killed in the three disasters at Markham Colliery and memorials representing each fatality are being installed between the former pit site and the mining community of Duckmanton.

"The small Eckington drift mine closed in January 2019 when the firm went bust and the last opencast coal mining took place at Hartington near Staveley which closed in September this year."