Loscoe is a village near Heanor in Derbyshire, England, lying within the civil parish of Heanor and Loscoe. It had prominent coalmines in the 19th and 20th centuries. Denby Common and Codnor Breach are hamlets on the western edge of the village.
Loscoe Manor formed part of the wider Draycott Estate; Richard and William de Draycott were recorded at Loscoe (or Loschowe) in 1401. The manor house was demolished in 1704.
Loscoe's economy in the 19th and 20th centuries was dominated by coal mining: pit chimneys and slag heaps were prominent. Three mines operated: Old Loscoe (early 1830s – 1933), Bailey Brook (1847–1938) and Ormonde (1908–1970).
Loscoe was in the ecclesiastical parish of Heanor until 1844, when a church was built between Loscoe and neighbouring Codnor to the north, and a joint parish created for them. Loscoe became a separate parish in 1927. Services were held in the mission church until a new parish church, dedicated to St Luke, was completed in 1938.
The atmospheric pressure on the night of the explosion fell 29 hPa (29 mbar) over a seven-hour period, causing the gas to be released from the ground in much greater quantities than usual. In the four hours before the explosion at approximately 6.30 am, the local Met Office had recorded average falls of 4 hPa (4 mbar) per hour. Several cubic metres of landfill gas (consisting of a 3:2 mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) collected underground near the house at 51 Clarke Avenue, and as the gas expanded it flowed into the space beneath the floor, from where it was drawn by convection to the gas central-heating boiler and ignited.
The incident led to the introduction of key British legislation and government guidance, with research into landfill behaviour and revised best practice at landfill sites. DoE Report CWM039A+B/92 Young, A. (1992) These moves were designed to vent gas into the atmosphere over time, then to burn off methane, and eventually in the most productive sites, to use gas turbines to turn the gas into electric power for the national grid.
Explosion
Demography
Governance
Notable residents
See also
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