Visited with Sal.
Borne from the Derbyshire coalfield in 1980 the disposal point was utilised during opencast mining of the immediate area, although there was a drift mine across the road for many years before that. UK Coal, or RJB Mining before that, or the National Coal Board before then were able to supply customers coal tailored to their particular field of business.
Running a coal fired power station for instance require coal to be crushed to a fine dust, the disposal point had the facilities to provide exactly that. The same can be said for companies in the cement business, where they require crushed coal that can be blown into their rotary kilns, this place was set up to deliver the goods.
It is essentially a crushing and screening plant, similar to many quarries that frequent Derbyshire, just a different mineral.
However, mining and mines have a finite life, and Oxcroft closed in 2006. In fairness it's actually mothballed, and I read something somewhere that UK Coal have plans to re-open the place, although given the fact there are no working collieries in Derbyshire these days it's difficult to imagine in what capacity.
There was a brief respite in the working life of Oxcroft in 2007 when UK Coal started a coal recovery operation to sift through nearby pit tips and recover around 14000 tonnes of coal. It's all been quiet since then..
Pics.
M
Borne from the Derbyshire coalfield in 1980 the disposal point was utilised during opencast mining of the immediate area, although there was a drift mine across the road for many years before that. UK Coal, or RJB Mining before that, or the National Coal Board before then were able to supply customers coal tailored to their particular field of business.
Running a coal fired power station for instance require coal to be crushed to a fine dust, the disposal point had the facilities to provide exactly that. The same can be said for companies in the cement business, where they require crushed coal that can be blown into their rotary kilns, this place was set up to deliver the goods.
It is essentially a crushing and screening plant, similar to many quarries that frequent Derbyshire, just a different mineral.
However, mining and mines have a finite life, and Oxcroft closed in 2006. In fairness it's actually mothballed, and I read something somewhere that UK Coal have plans to re-open the place, although given the fact there are no working collieries in Derbyshire these days it's difficult to imagine in what capacity.
There was a brief respite in the working life of Oxcroft in 2007 when UK Coal started a coal recovery operation to sift through nearby pit tips and recover around 14000 tonnes of coal. It's all been quiet since then..
Pics.
M
