Skip Navigation | Sheffield IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

UK Indymedia UK Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia

Inside The Earth Centre Doncaster

underclassrising.net | 23.02.2010 09:04 | Sheffield

The sinking of cadeby main colliery near Doncaster began in 1889 and the Barnsley seam was reached in 1893, the colliery remained open untill 1986.


















The history of Cadeby main is dominated by a single event. On the morning of 9th july 1912, two explosions shook the underground workings. The first explosion occurred on the night shift in the early hours of the morning. The explosion killed thirty five men.The second explosion between 10.30 and 11am killed 53 men who were takeing part in the rescue operations. The total loss of life was 88 men including 3*inspectors of mines and the managers of both Cadeby and near by Denaby Main Colliery.

The death toll could have been much greater had it not been that most miners had taken the day off to see the visit of King George V and Queen Mary to near by Conisbrough Castle. There were only 111 men at work at the time of the explosion, on the same shift the week before there were 489. Barnsley bed coal, the only seam worked at the time at the colliery, had a reputation of being very gassy and liable to spontaneous combustion.* Mr W H Chambers, the Managing Director of the colliery gave evidence that there had been 35 fires in the 19 years between the opening of the colliery and 1912, with an average of 1.9 fires per annum, it was clear that the pit was particularly prone to the problem.

The chief Inspector of Mines Mr Redmayne, came to the conclusion that the first explosion had been caused by a fire which had started some years previously and never been completely eradicated.* Conditions at the time provided the ideal circumstances for an explosion to occur.*The exit from the fire area had been sealed off but the failure to seal the inlet roadway allowed the accumulation of an explosive mixture of gas which lead to the explosion.* Mr Redmayne put forward the conclusion that the second explosion occurred after a large accumulation of gas ignited at the point of the fire and spread through the face and workings.

The explosion would have been even worse if it had travelled a little further on to the south plane as dust samples had shown a very dangerous mixture, had it travelled far on this plane then the whole colliery could have been wrecked. The chief inspector of mines concluded his report into the explosion by stating that he was happy to report that he could find no breaches of the coal mines act which contributed to the explosions.

In the week following the explosion there was a constant procession of funerals which dominated the life of the people in the local village of Denaby, 54 of the miners lost came from the village. Not all the bodies however were laid to rest, there were still 14 bodies which had to be left in the mine and sealed off in the effected area. The remaining bodies where not recoverd from the mine untill september , two months after the explosion.

It could be said that the explosion killed 91 miners and not the official 88. One miner who helped in the recovery of the dead and later said it was*horrible and he would never go down the mine again committed suicide by drowning himself in the near by river Don a week later. Another miner , a member of the Manvers rescue team was engaged in the recovery of bodies a month later, while climbing over a fall of rock his mouth piece came out and he was starved of oxegen and died at the scene.

Another miner to die was a pit deputy, Mr Springthorpe, he was in the area at the time of the second explosion and reported that he had felt a scorching heat, he died of his injuries on the 25th march.
The miners at the pit decided to resume normal production in other areas of the colliery 1 week after the explosion.
 http://www.freewebs.com/yorkshiremai...indisaster.htm

Both coal and livelihood were taken away in 1968 and 1986 when the pits closed, and what was left behind was a legacy of despair and high (33%) unemployment among the local population of Conisbrough, Denaby and Mexborough. There were also two huge spoil heaps where fields and an ancient fish farm had been.

In 1990 a change took place when Jonathan Smales decided that the derelict 400-acre (1.6*km2) site left behind by the pits was ideal for an Earth Centre. Jonathan was working on an idea for a museum for the millennium conceived by John Letts, Life President of the Museum of the Year Award. A suitable site had not been found elsewhere in the country, and so South Yorkshire was chosen.

"Following Earth Centre progress was a roller coaster ride of false starts, wild hopes and dashed plans." The Guardian

Initial plans were for a gradual development of the site, incorporating community-led projects and with much construction work being undertaken by Mowlem, who used the site to train apprentices. The first stage of that project opened in 1994, including a sustainable aquaculture centre and a community farm.

In 1995 the Millennium Commission made an award to Earth Centre, which became one of its Landmark Millennium projects. The site was completely redesigned and virtually all existing landscaping and projects were destroyed, which lost the goodwill of the local community who felt excluded from the project. From 1996 work progressed on the remediation of the remaining polluted land and the design and construction of the many buildings and exhibitions. Phase 1 was only just completed in time for the gala opening, after several changes of layout, design details and false starts.

Thus it was that Earth Centre re-opened in May 2001. Suzy Brain England was brought in to turn the venture around and make the visitor attraction viable. More attractions were built as money from grants and other sources became available. A pirate ship was built, a crazy golf course and indoor 'Amazon Adventure' play area.

Education visits continued and more customers were initially attracted to the improved facilities. However, by 2003 it was obvious that the target visitor numbers were not being met, and by 2004, as increasing numbers of staff were leaving, it was evident that the centre was unviable. In September 2004 the attraction closed to the public, and only pre-booked school parties were allowed. By the end of October, the Earth Centre, monument to Sustainability, was un-sustainable and was put in the hands of administrators.

The Earth Centre was used again in the floods of June 2007 for refugees whose homes had been damaged.2008 Mid 2008 the site has been acquired for use by Cerberus Airsoft for use as a 160 acre skirmish site.The site also featured as an important location in the remade version of the BBC television series Survivors, aired in December 2008. 2009 The site could also be used again in 2009 for the BBC television series Survivors.


underclassrising.net

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Inside the Earth Centre

23.02.2010 13:37

Interesting....So...are things HOT inside the Earth Centre ore what?
What goes on there these days?
Looks like it MIGHT have much potential....IF used and organised properly.

Thanks....underclass photographer.

Noah Finnity


http://welovetheearthcentre.blogspot.com

25.02.2010 10:20

there is much going on beneath the derelict earth centre, have a look at our blog for a full history of the continued squashing of a downtrodden community, squandering of millions of pounds which still affects the community now as they cant access funding for their own projects, wargames, MOD and Police and crap council.

there is a new company wishing to take it over they are all about researching for and sharing tech fast with large multinationals and other companies that involve aerospace, defense, nuclear, chemicals, 3D tech, biblical principles and a whole lot of other shit, of course they profess to be an educational research centre for making these companies 'greener' or more 'sustainable' but the managing director said he does not believe community should come first! in this case he is so wrong

do we really need to make eon and basf and costain and the others more sustainable or should be thinking about boycotting all of them and supporting grassroots and future away from centralised power and consumerisum

its a great site, amazing history and a lovely community although they are tired of this shit

reclaim the land and reclaim our freedom!

pixies


Inside the Earth Centre

26.02.2010 01:40

Pixies...inside the Earth Centre! ......HA.......now isn't that something?

Reclaim our land...Reclaim our freedom....(whatever that IS...)...

OK....sounds like a plan to me., BUT I expect...it is up to the community to choose?

Noah Finnity


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Sheffield Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Sheffield [navigation.actions2016]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2015]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Sheffield Actions 2013

G8 2013

Sheffield Actions 2012

Workfare

Sheffield Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Sheffield Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Sheffield Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Sheffield Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Sheffield Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Sheffield Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Sheffield Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Sheffield Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Sheffield Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech