Hello Everyone,
I hope that you are all well today. :)
Well today we thought it would be a great idea to give a quick brief history of our lovely town Coalville. This is still a working progress so if anyone wishes to add anything please do contact us.
We hope that you enjoy today's post.
Many Thanks Coalville Express Team.
A Brief History of Coalville
Situated in the North West Leicestershire,
England, Coalville is a small town. According
to the recent census, the population of the area is about 33,000. As the name
suggests, Coalville came into being due to the direct result of the Industrial
Revolution and the abundance of coal seams found within its boundary’s.
The town came into existence in the year of
1830. In its early years, Coalville was known as Long Lane due to its roads of
dotted house settlements. The houses on the lane ended up at Snibston on the
south side and from the north side the road ended at Whitwick and Swannington.
From the 1840s, the town had started being called
Coalville due to the presence of coal mines. Before the erection of the
Memorial Clock Tower in Coalville, there was nothing but industrial waste land on
both sides with no houses either. In the location of Whitwick road and Hotel
Street there were situated a few cottages and some houses of local tradesmen.
What is pretty strange is that none of the local
government’s archives had properly maintained history records of what is
probably one of today’s biggest towns in Leicestershire. It was only in the 80s
that the history of Coalville started to be recollected. To which records were
starting to be compiled by the local historical societies. You will also find
that some visitors and independent historians have mention in their memoirs stories
regarding Coalville.
William Stenson a native engineer, who was
born in Coleorton, actually came up with the idea of deep coal mining while digging
up underneath the stones bed in Whitwick, Underneath the rock bed Stenson found
What can only be called a whole heaven filled of valuable coal resources. Then,
in Snibston, another coal miner George Stephenson found the coal mine and
later, he also developed the Leicester and Swannington Railway. William Stenson
was also known as the Father of Coalville.
In the 19th Century, the
engineering and textile industries were also booming. While in the 80s, the industry
of coal mining was coming to an end, with all six collieries being closed within
an eight year period. At this time there were a huge number of workers who
became un-employed.
In 1832, the first railway station of
Coalville called Leicester and Swannington Railway became established. This
railway station was extensive to Burton in 1845. With that, the route in-between
Burton and Leicester became important. When coal mining work was growing, more
construction occurred between Coalville and Nuneaton. Later on, it was
connected to the Loughborough via Charnwood Forest Railways. Due to the increased
cost of restoring the passenger train route on the Leicester to Burton area,
the project could not move further.
Coalville status changed in 1894 from
village level to the urban district level, whereas the various surrounding
villages were composed into the local government in 1936.
Coalville has also given the status of the organizational
headquarters of North West Leicestershire. This is mainly because the development
of Coalville was related to the coal mining, brick making, and extraction
market and quarrying. Other than these, Coalville also got economically
prosperous in terms of engineering, flour milling, and elastic web industrialization.
Not only that, the famous toy manufacturer Palitoy was also situated in the
Coalville during the 20th century. This toy manufacturer
manufactured the famous characters like Pippa, Star Wars, Action man, Tressy,
Tiny, Merlin, Care Bears, etc.
The economy of Coalville is highly
established with some of these names like Terex Pegson Limited that is famous
for mobile crushing plants. Calder Colours, which creates the material for arts
and crafts and also who is responsible for the blood red colour of the Poppies
in the Tower of London Memorial display. Aggregate industries are another well
known company for their supply of manufacturing material across the UK. Tulip
foods are the largest suppliers of pork products in Coalville and are a Limited
company now. It started off from the small supplying status. In the 60s, they
spread to the national level.
The political history of Coalville was all Labors
due to their stronghold in that area. Till the 90s, Labor used to capture 36 seats
of the 40 seats. As time moved by, the political landscape changed and many
other parties became introduced in the area as well. In the elections of 2015,
the Conservatives hold 20 seats while Labor held 16 seats.
Famous Personalities from Coalville
Moreover, some of the well known
personalities have been born in Coalville. The famous actor Anthony Geary was
born in Coalville and attended the Utah University. Tina Baker, another
renowned TV presenter belonged to Coalville. Katheleen Fidler, born in 1899 was
a writer from this area. George Smith is a Victorian Philanthropist , Tommy
Robinson, the ex-footballer, Edwin Walker- the cricketer, James hunt – the High
court judge, Sid Wileman- the footballer and many other prominent figures belongs to Coalville.
Coalville is not only rich in the
historical manner, but the great talents of England have also come out of here.