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.^[6] 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.^[7] In 1961 the parish had a population of 5529.^[8]

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.^[9]

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".^[10]

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.^[4]

During the expansion of the pit, many miners from closed collieries in north-eastern England and Scotland moved to work at Ollerton.^[10] 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.^[11]

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.^[12] A miner from Ackton Hall Colliery, near Featherstone, West Yorkshire died at Ollerton when picketing during the miners' strike on 15 April 1984.^[13] David Gareth Jones^[14] was hit in the neck by a brick thrown by a local youth when he was picketing,^[15] 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.^[16] News of his death led to hundreds of pickets staying in Ollerton town centre overnight.^[17] At the request of Nottinghamshire Police, Arthur Scargill appeared and called for calm in the wake of the tragedy.^[17] However, several working miners in Ollerton reported that their gardens and cars had been vandalised during the night.^[18] A memorial bench was sited near the spot where David died.^[15] As a mark of respect for Jones, Ollerton Colliery closed for a few days afterwards.^[12]

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.^[19]

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.^[20][21] Included into the layout was a nearby Tesco superstore.^[22]

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.^[23]