 The Shireoaks Colliery Company was formally registered in December 1864 and, in due course, had mining interests throughout the area, including those at Whitwell, Clowne and Steetley, where it began sinking a shaft in May 1873.In 1896, the company employed 690 underground workers, with another 181 working on the surface.In 1917 the colliery company gained a lease from the Estates of the 10th Duke of Leeds to mine top hard coal from below the villages of North Anston, South Anston and Thorpe Salvin.