Library Research Factsheet If you would like to know more about Nationalisation, please visit our Library to continue

your research. You can access original source material as well as published documents,

oral histories and a comprehensive collection of COAL magazine and Coal News.

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Tues: 10.00am - 12.30pm & 1.00pm - 4.00pm

Thurs: 10.00am - 12.30pm & 1.00pm - 4.00pm

A Library Research Factsheet

The National Coal Mining Museum for England celebrates the

anniversary of the Nationalisation of the coal industry. It was an event

which drew the whole industry together under the newly created

National Coal Board (NCB).

This guide provides a brief introduction to Nationalisation of the coal

industry with statistics and lists some of the many key resources availa-

ble in the Museum’s Library.

What was the Nationalisation of the Coalfields?

Nationalisation is the action of transferring private businesses and

companies to state ownership. Described as ‘the great experiment of

socialism’, over 900 pits were taken from the hands of private coal

companies and given over to public ownership by Clement Attlee’s

Labour Government. All mines and collieries with over thirty miners

came under the NCB, a single body which oversaw production and

development, regulated wages, introduced widespread safety and

welfare reforms and invested heavily in technological improvements.

This shift from hundreds of individual coal companies to a single body

was a task of mammoth proportions with far-reaching consequences.

This document focuses on the creation of the NCB and examines how

Nationalisation changed the landscape of British mining forever.

Key Dates

1 January 1945 - National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) formed

27 July 1945 - Labour Party win the General Election

19 December 1945 - Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill introduced

29- 30 December 1945 - 2nd reading of the Coal Industry

Nationalisation Bill in Parliament

12 July 1946 - Nationalisation given Royal Assent

15 July 1946 - NCB formed

23 July 1946 - First meeting of the NCB and NUM

1 January 1947 - Vesting Day - over 1000 privately run collieries

and subsidiary industries passed over to NCB

May 1947 - 1st issue of NCB ‘Coal’ magazine published

Statistics

By the end of 1947, the NCB had taken over the running of:

958 collieries out of 1,542 working collieries; all mines

employing more than 30 men underground

50 coking plants

76 brickworks and other ancillary activities

Approximately 1,000,000 acres of land

140,000 houses across the country

Around 707,000 men working in the industry

© Harold White Collection at NCMME

Texts on Nationalisation available in the

Museum Library

Ashworth, W., 1986. The History of the British Coal Industry;

Vol.5, 1946 -1982,: the Nationalized Industry

Cole, G., 1948. National Coal Board: It’s Tasks, its

Organisation and its Prospects

Colliery Guardian., National Coal Board: The first ten years

Dickie, J.P., 1945.The British Coal Mining Industry:

Nationalisation. A Layman’s Guide to the Coal Mining

Industry or Private Enterprise

Foot, R., 1945. A Plan for Coal Being the Report to the Colliery

Owners

Harris, N., 1986. The Coal Mines.

Haynes, W., 1953. Nationalization in Practice: The British Coal

Industry

HMSO., 1945. Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill

HMSO., 1946. Coal Industry Nationalisation Act

Lancaster, C.G., 1951.Structure and Control of the Coal Industry

Labour Research Department., 1945. The Case for

Nationalisation, Coal, Transport, Steel and Control

Texts on Nationalisation cont.

Millward, R., 2002. The Political Economy of Nationalisation in

Britain 1920 —1950

NCB., 1948. Summer School Speeches

NCB., 1957. British Coal: the Rebirth of an Industry

NCB., 1950. Plan for Coal. The National Coal Board’s

Proposals

N.C.B., 1947. Principal and Supplementary Superannuation

Schemes (provision for pensions for staff over 60 years of age

on date of transfer to Board’s service)

Pigott, N., 2016. The Rise and Fall of King Coal

Politt, H., 1944. Take over the Mines! The case for

Nationalisation

Robson, W.A., 1952. Problems of Nationalized Industry

Supple, B., 1987. The History of the British Coal Industry; Vol.4,

1913 -1946: the Political Economy of Decline

TUC., 1953. Public Ownership. An Interim Report

© Unknown

Journal Articles

Coal Industry Nationalisation Bill.

The Colliery Guardian, 1945, 171 (4435),

pp787-781

The Curtain Falls. The Colliery Guardian,

1946, 173 (4464), pp88-90

(article on the passing of the

Nationalisation Bill)

The National Coal Board. The Colliery

Guardian, 1946, 173 (4465) pp130-131

(article on the NCB Regulations)

NCB Safety Booklets

Firedamp: How to detect it with a flame-safety lamp

Mine Gases

Pit Ventilation

Safety at Road Heads

Pamphlets Gaitskell, H., 1948. What the Public Ask of Nationalisation

Moung, T.A., 1946. Organisation of the National Coal Board

NCB., Careers in Coal

NCB., 1948. Committee on Organisation: Statement by the Coal

Board

Thorneycroft, W., 1919. The Case for Coal Owners

© Harold White Collection at NCMME

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