In 1881 two men, namely Josiah Court a Staveley surgeon and William Mannikin a mining engineer of Bolsover took out a lease from T.W.C. Master and Sir Henry Ponsonby, as trustees of the Bathurst Estate, to mine the Clowne coal and fireclay, under lands owned by Earl Bathurst to the north west of Palterton in the parish of Scarcliffe. The lessees opened the Bathurst Main Colliery to exploit the coal and also built Brick Kilns to use the clay found with the coal. Information taken from www.richardsbygonetimes.co.uk