The Forty Horse colliery was part of the Butterley Companies Knowts hall estate and is thought to get its name from the idea that forty horses worked the pit.

The pit was sunk by the Butterley company in the 1840s to work two coal seams, the soft coal seam at 5 feet thick and the hard coal seam at 7 to 8 feet thick. It also worked an Ironstone seam, and it was this pit that provided the Ironstone used by the Butterley company to manufacture the arches in the roof of St. Pancras Station in London at a cost of £117,000. When the roof was completed in 1868 it measured 210m long and spanned a gap of some 75m, making it the largest covered space in the world.

Joseph Millott Severn, author of ‘My Village’ worked at the Forty Horse Pit for one and a half years. It was here were he nearly lost his life when a roof collapse knocked him to the floor and completely buried him. He was lucky enough to be able to wriggle free from the debris and escape with only a few cuts and bruises.

The pit closed in the 1890s but the buildings remained in place and were used as central workshops for all the other pits in the area. The shaft was fitted with a fan and acted as a ventilation shaft for High Holborn pit.

Remains of the pit buildings still existed in the 1960s as did the pond that provided water for the steam-winding engine. This was known as ‘Goss pond’ by the locals and if I remember correctly, had an old car dumped in the middle of it. All signs of the buildings and pond were removed when the Codnor Gate industrial estate was built. Gorse bushes grew on the old pit hill, which was planted with hundreds of saplings that have now grown and created lush woodland.