Donisthorpe

Names in the coalfield

The Rawdon Arms in Moira took back a name associated with nearby Rawdon Colliery, which closed in the 1980s. On Shortheath Road, the pub's L-shaped room displays commemorative plates showing local coal mines. Donisthorpe Colliery closed later, marking another chapter in the coalfield's history.

The Halfway House on Church Street was once the Turks Head. The pub has a wood-burning fire and a separate dining room, and welcomes dogs and families.

The arithmetic of closure

Donisthorpe had 14 shops when the pit was operating, and four remained by 1991. By 2024, the Village Store had closed permanently and been converted into residential accommodation.

Donisthorpe Colliery closed on 12 April 1990, when a recording crew arrived to document its steam winding engine. It was one of only two British mines still using a steam winder. The shafts had stopped winding coal in the 1960s; at closure they carried people and supplies.

From pit to paths

In 1996, Leicestershire County Council created Donisthorpe Woodland Park on 36 hectares of former colliery land, capping lagoons with clay and planting around 74,000 trees. Twenty hectares are now mixed woodland, crossed by 3km of stone-surfaced paths with interpretation boards. A separate Ashby Canal towpath link leads towards Moira Furnace.

The Ashby Woulds Trail runs for 6km along the former Ashby and Nuneaton Joint Railway from Measham to Spring Cottage. Walkers, cyclists and horse riders share its stone surface. Donisthorpe's station closed to passengers in 1931.

A church remade, a village remembered

St John the Evangelist is a Grade II-listed church of 1838. Its three-stage west tower and lancet windows preserve the Victorian design. The 2024 transformation created a level nave floor and accessible community space while retaining church use.

The Domesday Book records Donisthorpe as Durandestorp, interpreted as an outlying settlement associated with Durand. Centuries later, Donisthorpe Colliery won a national Best Pit competition in 1951. Annual output rose from around 750,000 tons during that period to just over a million by the mid-1960s.

What the trees conceal

Mature willows line the brook, while coppiced hazel supplies bean and pea sticks for local gardeners. Those everyday materials connect the restored woodland with village life.