NEW MODEL COLLIERY

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21183, 5 August 1940, Page 11

NEW MODEL COLLIERY

WITHOUT SMOKE OR GRIME PLAYING FIELDS; BATHS A colliery without pithead grime or noise, its lawns and flower-beds merging naturally into the surrounding country, has been established at Calverton, a few miles from Nottingham. The B.A. Colliery Company, which owns this and other mines near by, employs 5000 men and produces 3,000,000 tons of coal a year. They called in an architect, Mr G. A. Jellicoe, and erected a plant in the middle of agricultural country just outside the village. Not only does the colliery go with the surroundings, but it is said to be unsurpassed for efficiency and for the attention to the welfare of the men who will be employed there. There will be no smoke in this modern colliery. There will be no grime, no steam, and no noise around the pithead. The only sound will be the low hum of the electrical machinery, for the Calverton Colliery is all-electric. .Tust outside the village, on a hill, stands the group of colliery buildings, general offices, store, and pithead all built in keeping with the surrounding landscape. There are lawns and beds which later will be filled with flowers, garden courts, I and belts of luxurious trees. Neat Cottages On the right is a group of creamwalled cottages with cheerful red pantiled roofs corresponding to those in the old village. Each cottage has its own ample'garden. These are the first houses of the big village which the company is building for its men. There are to be 500 of these cottages. Behind a belt of trees are the cricket, football and hockey grounds, and in a little hollow almost in the centre of the village are the tennis courts and bowling greens. A children’s playing area is also provided. There are a modern ambulance room with X-ray apparatus, a lost property office, and electrically fitted canteen for well-cooked meals. The miner changes in the warm to his working clothes and passes through a corridor to a room where there is provision for greasing his boots.

He fills his water-bottle from chromium-plated fountains, and in a spacious hall an attendant hands him his electric lamp. An underground passage leads to an entrance into the cage. Leaving the workings he alights from the cage at this corridor just below the surface of the ground, and walks to the boot-cleaning room. His boots are cleaned by electrical brushes. He goes on to the locker dressing-rooms, where he changes from his working clothes and goes into the finest pit bathroom yet provided. There are 1400 bath cubicles. He puts on his everyday clothes and ! walks home to his garden village I clean and tidy and ready to enjoy his leisure.