Whitwick Historical Group’s Autumn Exhibition which took place on Saturday, 10th October 2026, took as its theme “Whitwick Colliery” in the 40th anniversary of its closure and was well supported by other local groups including the “Friends of Thringstone”, “Holy Cross School”, “Chris Matchett”, “Leicestershire County Council Museum Collections” and “Coalville Heritage Society” who brought their collections and reminiscences of Whitwick Colliery in their area to the exhibition. A big thank-you to everyone who helped make this exhibition a success.
The event was opened by Denise Kerr (nee Robinson), who along with her twin sister, Deborah Robinson (who now lives in New Zealand), were both Coal Queens and won many competitions.
A display recounting the Whitwick Colliery Disaster on 19th April, 1898 when 35 men lost their lives. Besides the 27 married women who became widows, 84 children under the age of thirteen lost their fathers. Photographs included the public at the top of the shaft waiting for news and the men who risked their lives to become members of the ‘exploring party’ to go down and put out the fire and remove the bodies. All those who took part were given certificates and a medal. There is a memorial to the disaster in Christ Church in Coalville, a memorial garden near the site of Whitwick Colliery and a memorial errected in Hugglescote near the location where the ten men whose bodies were never recovered from the mine remain.
Displays of the people who worked at Whitwick Colliery were on display, as well as pictures of underground working.
Whitwick Colliery had an impressive First Aid team for many years and won local and national competions. Our display showed teams from various years as well as the certificates awarded to individual team members that have been donated to Whitwick Historical Group.
Whitwick Colliery also had a football team that took part in local matches and we have programmes of them playing against teams such as Wolverhampton Wanderers on December 23rd, 1950 and against Rugby Town A.F.C. in the 1956-57 season.
Our final set of display boards recorded the last shift on the front page of the ‘Coalville Times’ on Friday 4th July 1988, which happened the day before. Also an article published in the ‘Leicester Mercury’ on October 9th, 2006, the 20th anniversary of the closure.
Whitwick Holy Cross Primary School
Supporting our event were the teachers and year 6 pupils of Holy Cross Primary School whose display showed the children wearing mining clothes and equipment, which were brought by Chris Matchett when Whitwick Historical Group attended their school. The display also included their stories relating to their relatives who worked in the coal mining industry.
“The Friends of Thringstone”
The ‘Friends of Thringstone’ were again able to attend and support our event and their display was of miners who worked at Whitwick but lived in Thringstone and included local poetry written about the end of the mining industry in Leicestershire.
Leicestershire County Council Museum Services
Another regular supporter of our events has been the Leicestershire County Council Museums Services who brought with them mining artifacts from their collections, including two trophies that were awarded at the Coleorton Hall Miners Gala, held every year in September; one for the most points won in the Horticultural section and the other was awarded to the person with most points in the cage bird section. Other artifacts included first aid memorabilia, ties, a plate and miners helmet with lamp and self rescuer.
Coalville Heritage Society
Coalville Heritage Society supported our event by their display of mining photographs of Snibston and the wider history of coalmining in the area. Stuart Warburton and Brian Hallam also brought with them the N.U.M. banner, courtesy of Pete Smith who also attended the event.
The Chris Matchett Collection
Whitwick Historical Group member, Chris Matchett brought along some of his mining memorabilia collection to support the event and several photographs show the wide variety of objects that Chris has in his collection. These include pit tallies, mining equipment, photographs and books with miners names and tally numbers for the local pits in the area.
Other photographs of the event
