There is a splendidly-named 1903 house & land called “Scot Grave Farm” (farmhouse, farmyard) on Arnold Lane that I revisited today (on the older maps it is called “Scotgrave Farm”):

The owner has both an old BT red phonebox & red Postbox in his yard:

I called to try to find more information about the very odd name but, unfortunately, he was unable to help on that score.

The Farm & house were built 1903 & coincide with the establishment of what became Gedling Pit (originally Digby Coal Company — the slopes of the pit spoil heaps can be seen behind the farm in the photo above). According to a U3A pdf Gedling Colliery began in 1899 and the sinking of shafts 1 & 2 were started in 1900. 27 seams of coal of varying — mostly small — thickness were found until they hit paydirt with the 5’ 2” (1.57m) thick Top Hard seam at 1405’ 0” (428.3m) and the earlier 3’ 9” (1.14m) thick Main Bright at 329m. The colliery finally began to commercially produce coal in 1902.

The farm was used by the pit to house the pit ponies, who were walked to & from the pit each day in two different shifts to work there (one returning as the other walked out). The current owner told me of a Mr Jennings (the final Ostler) & his daughter (Mrs Harrison) who moved to Australia, and wrote him a letter informing him of some of her life & the farm history.

Here is a healeyhero.co.uk picture of Ginger, the oldest pit-pony in Gedling, newly-retired in August 1961:

The farm was unoccupied during the strike (probably he was talking about the 1926 General Strike, which was precipitated by the country-wide coal-miners’ dispute). Pickets were camped outside the pit & raided the house for it’s floorboards as to feed the braziers.

The field next to the farm is being prepped ready for development, as are all the slopes behind the farm (he said 100,000 houses) (that will take a little while to map!).