Ollerton

Ollerton is a town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ollerton and Boughton, in the Newark and Sherwood district, in the county of Nottinghamshire, England, on the edge of Sherwood Forest in the area known as the Dukeries. The population of Ollerton and Boughton at the 2011 census was 9,840.

The area is sometimes differentiated locally using the names New Ollerton for the post-1900 expansion, compared with Old Ollerton referring to the original village clustered around the church, river and mill.

Before coal
Ollerton is a settlement listed in Domesday Book, located in the Bassetlaw Wapentake or hundred in the county of Nottinghamshire at a crossing of the River Maun. In 1086 it had a recorded population of 15 households, and is listed in the Domesday Book under two owners. Formerly a rural village with a tradition of hop-growing centred on the parish church of St Giles the settlement has its origins at a point where three main routes cross. The A614 linking Nottingham north through Sherwood Forest to Blyth, Nottinghamshire and on to Doncaster; the A6075 linking Mansfield with the ferry crossing of the River Trent at Dunham-on-Trent and on via the A57 road to the cathedral city of Lincoln, England; and the A616 linking Sheffield with the Great North Road Great Britain at Newark-on-Trent.

Ollerton was an ancient parish, and became a civil parish in 1866. The civil parish was abolished on 1 November 1996 and merged with the parish of Boughton to form the new civil parish of Ollerton and Boughton. In 1961 the parish had a population of 5529.

The coal years
From the 1920s onwards the main industry was coal mining with Ollerton expanding greatly during the 1960s and 1970s, having the name New Ollerton.

The colliery was sunk in the 1920s and completed during the General Strike of 1926, which led to a saying of "Ollerton was ever built with scab labour".

The coal mine was established and funded by the Butterley Company, having an historic base of coal and iron ore mining in nearby Derbyshire; they created a model village in Ollerton for the colliery higher management and workers. A hosiery factory was established in 1937 to provide work for the miners' wives.

During the expansion of the pit, many miners from closed collieries in north-eastern England and Scotland moved to work at Ollerton. There was a large Polish community amongst the miners at Ollerton, estimated to make up roughly half the workforce at the time of the 1984-1985 strike.



Ollerton Colliery was considered one of the most left-wing pits in Nottinghamshire, and was subject to heavy picketing at the time of the ballot by the Nottinghamshire branch of the National Union of Mineworkers in March 1984. A miner from Ackton Hall Colliery, near Featherstone, West Yorkshire died at Ollerton when picketing during the miners' strike on 15 April 1984. David Gareth Jones was hit in the neck by a brick thrown by a local youth when he was picketing, but the post-mortem ruled that it had not caused his death and that it was more likely to have been caused by being pressed against the pit gates earlier in the day. News of his death led to hundreds of pickets staying in Ollerton town centre overnight. At the request of Nottinghamshire Police, Arthur Scargill appeared and called for calm in the wake of the tragedy. However, several working miners in Ollerton reported that their gardens and cars had been vandalised during the night. A memorial bench was sited near the spot where David died. As a mark of respect for Jones, Ollerton Colliery closed for a few days afterwards.

After coal
The mine closed in 1994, losing around 1,000 jobs. A group of locals including past colliery workers had a vision to try to establish a new facility that would – at least – provide as many new jobs as were lost. A non-profit organisation run by 10 trustees was established to raise "...just under £50,000" to purchase the 125-acre colliery footprint from British Coal.

A further £4.25 million was needed to reclaim and clean up the land, which was redeveloped as an ecologically sustainable business park of commercial offices occupying 40-acres, named Sherwood Energy Village.

Key-tenants, including Center Parcs and Nottinghamshire County Council, were responsible for creating their own buildings, with an emphasis on low-energy consumption by using advanced materials and technology including ground source heat pumps. Included into the layout was a nearby Tesco superstore.

The original development organisation failed in 2010 and went into administration, citing difficult trading conditions after the worldwide 2007–2008 financial crisis, having created 500 more jobs than the original 1,000 target, and having been awarded the inaugural Enterprising Britain Award in 2005.



Landmarks
In the old part of the original village, Ollerton Watermill was built in 1713 on the River Maun. It operated commercially producing flour until 1984. Restored in 1993, it now houses a teashop and exhibition. Ollerton Town has a local football team, Ollerton Town F.C.

Transport
Ollerton is served by Stagecoach Mansfield, Travel Wright. Stagecoach Bassetlaw run the Sherwood Arrow between Worksop/Retford-Ollerton-Nottingham every 60 minutes.

Ollerton was served by a station on the Shirebrook to Lincoln line. The line is in use for track testing between Dukeries Junction and Shirebrook. But the through route closed to Lincoln in 1980. The station survives and there is some ambition to reinstate passenger train services to the town by using the current test track line from Shirebrook on the Robin Hood Line to a terminus at Ollerton, with potential stations at Warsop and Edwinstowe.

Media
Ollerton receives its television signals from various transmitters: Waltham, Emley Moor, and Belmont TV transmitters.

Local radio stations are BBC Radio Nottingham, Capital East Midlands, Smooth East Midlands, and Bowe Radio, a community based radio station.

The 'Roundabout' is a community led newspaper that delivers free to all households in Ollerton & Boughton.

Notable residents
Ollerton is the birthplace of Tim Flear OBE, MVO, former career diplomat and HM Consul-General in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2006–10 and Milan, Italy 2014–19.

Trivia
Ollerton features in a related song by Australian singer Darren Hayes entitled "A Hundred Challenging Things A Boy Can Do" on his 2007 album This Delicate Thing We've Made.