Etymology

In Anglo-Saxon times, Pinxton was a small agricultural community, thought to have been recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Esnotrewic." It is also thought that it was known as "Snodeswic," given by Wulfric Spott to Burton Abbey.

In Norman times, it was under the control of William Peveril, for whom it was held by Drogo fitz Pons. It is thought that he renamed the manor "Ponceston" and it gradually changed to Penekeston and then to Pinxton.^[1]

Coal

Since 1800 BC, coal had been extracted in the area. In 1794 the Cromford Canal encouraged this trade. By the beginning of the next century there were a number of deep coal mines. Trade increased with the growth of the industrial revolution. There were also four lime kilns and a china works producing quality ware. Pinxton's prosperity increased further as the terminus, in 1819, of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway opened.

From the profits of his colliery at Pinxton, D'Ewes Coke (1747-1811) of Brookhill Hall, a clergyman colliery master, founded a local school and an educational charity. The collieries and coking ovens have been replaced by an industrial estate, and the old colliery village has all but disappeared.

John King

John King is the inventor of a mining safety device, a detaching hook, which successfully completed trials in 1873 at Pinxton No.1 colliery. The detaching hook prevents a cage raising miners from a shaft from being raised up and over the headstock pulley when raised from a mine shaft. A mining museum in Pinxton honoring John King and commemorating the invention of the detaching hook was closed in 2014 and its contents distributed to other museums and heritage centres.^[2] In Pinxton today, there remains the John King mining wheel which was used in the days when mining was available. Now the John King wheel is a historical model for the public to see. John King is also named after an infant school in Pinxton. The horse gin, or whim from Pinxton Green Colliery has been re-erected at Nottingham Industrial Museum.^[3] Pinxton signal box, which once controlled access to Bentinck Colliery has been relocated to Barrow Hill Engine Shed.