A team of urban explorers have taken a look inside the last deep coal mine in Nottinghamshire more than a year after its closure.
Thoresby pit shut down in July 2015, making 360 workers redundant.
A team of Nottingham ‘urban explorers’, people who enter sites illegally and share pictures, called ’28 Days Later’, have revealed an eerie world inside the abandoned Colliery.
The explorers published their photos on their website.
Stuck fast, it was time to improvise with a rake and conveyor belt
A site user, known only as Session9, said: “An unexpected bonus of the day was my feet being treated to Thoresby’s finest ‘mud’.
“What should have been a quick sprint from the relative safety of a conveyor to the Coal Preparation Plant became a quick sink into the black stuff.
“In a wide open position with a scattering of dog prints around me, this was clearly not a position to remain in!
“Stuck fast, it was a time to improvise with a rake, a bit of conveyor belt and of course the inevitable hilarity of the situation.
“After a good fifteen minutes, I was on the road again and I swear the ‘mud’ has done my hard skin the world of good.”
Thoresby opened in 1925 and was taken over by RJB Mining in the 1990s following the privatisation of the National Coal Board.
The pit at one time produced up to 100,000 tonnes of coal in a week which made profits of £50 million per year.
However it was announced in April 2014 that the pit would close in July 2015 with the amount of employees at the colliery falling from 600 to 360 during its final months.
The reasons for closure were blamed on falling coal prices and a fire at Daw Mill Colliery in Warwickshire.
Earlier this year, developers announced they want to turn the site into 800 homes, a school, business premises and a country park.
