Thomas North

Thomas North was a colliery entrepreneur and local councillor, becoming mayor of Nottingham in 1844 and an alderman in 1859.

North looked after his workforce's interests, building a number of miners' cottages, so he was held in high regard by both workers and the business community. There is also a white marble plaque in his memory on the south wall of the nave in Christ Church, Cinderhill.

Legacy structures and effects

North came from a Baptist background and in 1844 he built a stone chapel for the inhabitants of Babbington village. He also constructed a Baptist mission hall in Cinderhill. Later North became an Anglican and served as a churchwarden at St Leodegarius Church, Basford, for many years. In 1856, he spent £2,000 to establish a daughter church near Cinderhill.

North created a short mineral branch line from Cinderhill Colliery and the adjacent Babbington wharf to the mainline at Basford, which was later purchased by the Midland Railway in 1877. Today, single track branch beyond Babbington Junction, of the Nottingham Express Transit (NET) light rail system, follows the trackbed of North's former railway spur. The line goes through a cutting between two original bridges until it reaches the Phoenix Park tram stop. That tram stop and car park, along with the surrounding business park, are on the site of the former Babbington Colliery at Cinderhill.

North's groundbreaking projects at Cinderhill inspired others to invest in large, well-equipped coal mines to tap into Nottinghamshire's concealed coal seams, which became one of the most profitable coal mining regions in Britain. Despite his flawed character, North's initiative and vision brought prosperity to impoverished agricultural and framework-knitting areas.