The concept developed as a response to the closure of Ollerton Colliery in 1994. The local community identified issues important to us at that time – diversification of the local economy for jobs to replace those lost; new housing; recreational opportunities and, if coal-mining was no longer an option, then whatever was developed should be ‘clean’ (see The Energy Village Concept).

These themes were refined into the SEV Concept. It was unique in that it came directly from the community and that we wanted to keep control of future destiny within the community at a time when much of British Coal’s portfolio of properties was handed over to another national agency – English Partnerships with a few other sites sold off to the private sector.

Site acquisition was to take two years. Ownership was achieved in November 1996.

The settlement of New Ollerton had been built in the 1920s to service the coal industry, initially through private coal owners who built the pit, the houses, the shops, the church and the Miners’ Welfare Institute. With the opening up of the Midland’s coalfield and nationalisation, more estates of houses were built and the settlement expanded with miners and their families moving in from other UK regions.