Monument record MDR5917 - Colliery Head Gear, Brittain Colliery, Ripley

SK 415518 Ripley, Colliery head gear. Consists of unusual head stocks partially encased in a round brick tower with a gutted engine house [see SMR 33515]. (1) The headstock tower and attached machinery were built c. 1848 from red brick with blue brick bands. The tower is three storeys high, consists of a single bay and is circular in plan. The ground floor is wider than the upper two storeys, has an advanced entrance to the south side and attached walls to the north. The second storey has small iron windows to the east and west sides and the top storey has a brick cornice and large pulley wheel to the south side set in a long slot-like opening. Attached to the wheel are a pair of iron supports at right angles to the tower which connect with the plinth on which the gearing machinery stands. Brittain colliery was founded by the Butterley Company between 1845 and 1848 and was mined for over 50 years. The buildings were roofless at time of resurvey. (2) The headstocks are all that remains of the three Butterlety Company Colliereries (Brittain, Brands and Western). Much of the site of the collieries is now the main site of the Midland Railway Trust. (3)