Offices, Lamp Room and Medical Centre at Snibston Colliery

A multi-function building complex at Snibston Colliery, completed in 1967, now part of the Snibston Discovery Centre and a group of preserved colliery buildings on the former site. The building originally housed the Colliery Control Centre, Lamp room, Medical Centre, Time Office, and Colliery Group Offices. It is constructed of buff-coloured brick with deep tiled aprons to some window openings, and flat, felt-covered roof areas. The building has an irregular, elongated L-shaped plan, incorporating a two-storey wing to the east end.

The main east-west range is single-storied, with the two-storey crosswing to the east. The external elevations are plainly detailed, with doorways featuring side lights under wide overlights, narrow rectangular windows set just below the eaves fascia, and large six-pane windows with deep tile-covered apron panels extending to ground level. The two-storey wing has a series of asymmetrically sub-divided, four-pane windows with tiled aprons to both levels.

The interior retains many original fixtures and fittings associated with the colliery’s management and welfare facilities, reflecting a period of maximum output. The Lamp Room in the western section features fixed recharging stands and a lamp repair workshop, graphically illustrating the workforce size. Adjacent is the Time Office, followed by the Control Room, which monitored the work of four collieries, with Snibston as the focal point. Beyond the Control Room is the multi-room Medical Centre, and a small suite of showers for staff; the main pithead bath building of the 1950s was located north of the site, on the other side of the main road. Other areas in the western section served as stores and offices, while the eastern end was entirely office space. While the exterior is unremarkable and utilitarian, the interior spatial arrangement and survival of the associated fittings offer a unique insight into the scale and complexity of a mid-20th century colliery at its peak.