The Closure of Arley Colliery

On 30th March 1968 production ended at Arley Colliery. After sixty-six years, first as The Arley Colliery Company Limited and then as a part of the National Coal Board, it was considered no longer economically viable to mine the area despite the fact that one hundred years of coal remains beneath Arley. From a closing labour force of 1,734, 247 were transferred to other collieries and 897 were made redundant (fifty of these were later given jobs in Warwickshire collieries).

27th March 1968, the end of the
last turning shift at Arley Colliery.

The National Coal Board -- later British Coal -- made a comprehensive statement concerning the closure of Arley Colliery, issued in 1968 and re-issued in 1977. Local belief, though, was very different.

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