Creswell One-Place Study

Creswell was traditionally a coal mining village, although Creswell Colliery closed down in 1991. In the early hours of 26 September 1950 a fire broke out caused by a faulty conveyor belt, trapping 80 men who lost their lives.

In this study I intend to tell the story of the disaster, drawing particularly on newspaper coverage at the time and the Ministry of Fuel and Power’s inquiry into the accident and setting it in the context of other coal mining disasters in the twentieth century.