Offices, Lamp Room and Medical Centre at Snibston Colliery

A multi-function building complex at Snibston Colliery, completed in 1967. The building contained the Colliery Control Centre, Lamp room, Medical Centre, Time Office and Colliery Group Offices, and now forms part of the Snibston Discovery Centre, as part of the group of preserved colliery buildings on the former colliery site.

MATERIALS: buff-coloured brick with deep, tiled aprons to some window openings, and flat, felt-covered roof areas.

PLAN: irregular, elongated L-shaped plan with a two-storey wing to the east end.

EXTERIOR: the main east-west range is single storeyed, with the two-storey crosswing at the east end. The external elevations are plainly detailed, with doorways with side lights under wide overlights, narrow rectangular windows set just below eaves fascia level, 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.

INTERIOR: the interior of the building has retained many of the fixtures and fittings associated with the various colliery management and welfare facilities it was designed to accommodate, at a time when the colliery achieved its maximum output. In the western section of the building, the size of the mining workforce is graphically represented by the Lamp Room, with its fixed recharging stands, supported by a lamp repair workshop. Close by is the Time Office, and beyond that the Control Room which monitored the work of the four collieries, of which the Snibston site formed the focal point. Beyond the Control Room is the multi-room colliery Medical Centre, and there is a small suite of showers for the use of the staff based on the site ( the main colliery pithead baths building of the 1950s being located on the other side of the main road immediately to the north of the colliery). Other parts of the western section of the building were used as stores and offices, whilst the storeyed east end of the building was formed entirely for offices. The exterior of the building is unremarkable and utilitarian in appearance, but the spatial arrangement of the interior and the survival of the fittings related to its varied functions provides a unique insight into the scale and complexity of a mid-C20 colliery at the peak of its productive life.