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Along the Moors - Granville Nature Reserve
Reclaimation Begins
By 1840, the Lilleshall Company held mining rights over 3000 acres of the east Shropshire coalfield and its interests became so extensive that the management of its collieries was eventually divided into geographical units. Although half a million tons of coal and ironstone were extracted from the area in 1871 alone, long-term decline set in from the early 1900s as older collieries were worked out and rising extraction costs precipitated the closure of others. By the 1930s, the company’s mining activities were centred exclusively around Donnington Wood and it was here, at the nationalised Granville Colliery (first sunk in 1860s), that extraction in the coalfield ended in 1979.
After the cessation of mining, the Donnington Wood area was subjected to a large-scale reclamation scheme. Although the ravages of intensive industrial activity left an indelible mark on the landscape, many acres of precious woodland, heath and wetland habitat had also grown-up there. While much of this was lost when the former coalfield was re-developed, a sizeable amount of land was saved and now forms the Granville Nature Reserve (managed by Shropshire Wildlife Trust) where many impressive remnants of the area’s industrial heritage can be seen…