Carrington'S Coppice Opencast Colliery, Smalley, Amber Valley, Derbyshire, 1949 (b/w photo)

Photographer, John Laing and Son Ltd; Engineer, John Laing and Son Ltd The last tons of coal being extracted from the opencast mine at Carrington's Coppice, with a 178 ft deep cut looming above John Laing and Son Ltd had started opencast mining operations in 1942 to meet wartime needs. The work was expanded by the company after the war. Carrington's Coppice was the largest site that the company worked and was the deepest opencast site in Britain. Work started in 1947 and by 1949 the seam was worked out after 523,623 tons of coal had been extracted from the site. By August 1950 the land was reinstated for agricultural use. this photograph was published in October 1949 in the Laing monthly newsletter 'Team Spirit'.