The National Coal Board

The NCB cited the following as reasons for the closure of Arley Colliery.

Immediately exploration began problems were discovered. Arley's coal seams were geologically disturbed by faulting and "washouts", however, although not highly profitable, it was possible to mine the seams by the old hand methods yet it became unprofitable to mine by the mechanised methods introduced during the late fifties. Various methods of mechanisation were tested and, in its last few years, the colliery developed a new coalface in an attempt to make the colliery viable. It was then argued that the mine should return to the traditional mining methods, however the National Coal Board stated that "it had become impractical to mine by the old hand methods for two reasons :

1. The necessary manpower was not, at that point, available.
2. Higher wages had made hand mining uneconomical.

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