Snowdown Colliery was started by Arthur Burr’s Foncage Syndicate in 1907. The first shaft at the colliery at Snowdown was started in 1908, but after reaching a depth of 260 feet it tragically flooded, killing 22 miners. A second shaft was sunk, and in 1912 the first coal was brought to the surface. This shaft eventually reached a depth of 3,083 feet, and a third shaft reached 2,994 feet.
In 1921 the miners went on strike over a pay dispute, and the colliery was closed in 1922, but purchased by in 1924 by Pearson & Dorman Long, who already ran the Betteshanger Colliery. The new owner modernised the mine, replacing the steam-powered winding plant with an electric one, and built the nearby village of Aylesham to house 650 mining families – previously they had lived in Dover.
In 1945, Snowdown employed 1,876 people, 1,532 of which were working below ground. It was nationalised in 1947, and work ended there in 1987, with the shafts being capped in 1988.
Since then various plans have been made to redevelop the site, but none have come to fruition yet. The two most recent were a solar farm around 2016, and a business and leisure park, which was proposed in 2018 and seemed to be making progress in November 2021, with public meetings held (see poster below) – but the website for the project has ceased to be maintained. One useful thing to come from this proposal is images of the different colliery buildings and their original names – I found a cached copy of this and have included it below.
I explored the site with my partner on a sunny weekday afternoon. I was expecting to encounter security, after reading other reports here, but we didn’t see anyone – though I did spot a car parked by buildings near the main entrance, so we stayed away from that area just in case.
Walking over the old spoil heap, it was impressive to see quickly how quickly nature is turning a pile of stone into woodland, with thousands of self-seeded birch trees, apart from where vehicles seem to be drive regularly:
The first area we investigated was the 'fan chambers', on the side of the 'winding house':
From there we moved round the winding house but didn't enter - perhaps a repeat visit with ropes/ladders (and more experience) would get us in there:
From there we moved to the 'lamp room' and the 'No 3 engine house':
I noticed Japanese Knotweed growing here, and wondered if it has been a factor in stopping the recent development plans:
At the 'stores and workshop' I got a good view through a couple of windows, but wasn't comfortable going inside this time - maybe on the next visit...
The last building we looked into was the end of the 'garage'. Again, maybe I'll go inside on another visit:
After that we were a bit spooked after seeing this car parked inside fencing by a container, and decided to call it a day for this site:
On the way out we had a nice surprise seeing this slow worm basking in the sun!
Finally, here's the cached images I got from the defunct Snowdown Park website, which give the building names and a map:
And the poster showing what they hoped to do to the site:
In 1921 the miners went on strike over a pay dispute, and the colliery was closed in 1922, but purchased by in 1924 by Pearson & Dorman Long, who already ran the Betteshanger Colliery. The new owner modernised the mine, replacing the steam-powered winding plant with an electric one, and built the nearby village of Aylesham to house 650 mining families – previously they had lived in Dover.
In 1945, Snowdown employed 1,876 people, 1,532 of which were working below ground. It was nationalised in 1947, and work ended there in 1987, with the shafts being capped in 1988.
Since then various plans have been made to redevelop the site, but none have come to fruition yet. The two most recent were a solar farm around 2016, and a business and leisure park, which was proposed in 2018 and seemed to be making progress in November 2021, with public meetings held (see poster below) – but the website for the project has ceased to be maintained. One useful thing to come from this proposal is images of the different colliery buildings and their original names – I found a cached copy of this and have included it below.
I explored the site with my partner on a sunny weekday afternoon. I was expecting to encounter security, after reading other reports here, but we didn’t see anyone – though I did spot a car parked by buildings near the main entrance, so we stayed away from that area just in case.
Walking over the old spoil heap, it was impressive to see quickly how quickly nature is turning a pile of stone into woodland, with thousands of self-seeded birch trees, apart from where vehicles seem to be drive regularly:
The first area we investigated was the 'fan chambers', on the side of the 'winding house':
From there we moved round the winding house but didn't enter - perhaps a repeat visit with ropes/ladders (and more experience) would get us in there:
From there we moved to the 'lamp room' and the 'No 3 engine house':
I noticed Japanese Knotweed growing here, and wondered if it has been a factor in stopping the recent development plans:
At the 'stores and workshop' I got a good view through a couple of windows, but wasn't comfortable going inside this time - maybe on the next visit...
The last building we looked into was the end of the 'garage'. Again, maybe I'll go inside on another visit:
After that we were a bit spooked after seeing this car parked inside fencing by a container, and decided to call it a day for this site:
On the way out we had a nice surprise seeing this slow worm basking in the sun!
Finally, here's the cached images I got from the defunct Snowdown Park website, which give the building names and a map:
And the poster showing what they hoped to do to the site:
