Description: By March 1896, when sinking operations began on No.1 shaft of Shirebrook Colliery, the village was invaded by thousands of newcomers from other parts of the country - Nottinghamshire, the West Midlands, even Cornwall - in search of a home and job at the new pit. Work had already commenced on the building of a Model Village for the colliery workers, but it was impossible to keep pace with the massive influx of people. By 1901 Shirebrook's population had leapt from less than 600 to nearly 7,000, a tenfold increase in barely five years with large numbers occupying tents and the old navvies' huts in the open fields, a major and hurried building programme was carried out in the main village by Messrs. F.H. and J.W. Moore. Hastily erected, and just as hastily occupied, these houses were prey to sanitation and hygiene problems, and must have contributed to the terrible typhoid outbreak of the late 1890's that killed 150 young children in four years.