Other Activities
The NCB operated extensive industrial railways at its collieries, employing steam traction until the late 1970s/early 1980s.
The NCB's research establishment at Stoke Orchard in Gloucestershire was founded in 1950 with Jacob Bronowski as Director of Research. It closed following privatisation of the coal mining industry.
NCB subsidiaries managed coal-based chemical products (Coal Products Division) and the production of helmets and other mining equipment (Tredomen Engineering Ltd). In the mid-1970s, the activities of Coal Products Division were transferred to two new companies; National Smokeless Fuels Ltd and Thomas Ness Ltd, although they remained wholly owned by the NCB.
In coalfield areas, the NCB was also a major landowner, both of colliery housing and of farmland originally acquired by private owners for its mining rights or to avoid subsidence claims. It also owned a number of brickworks companies.
Read more about this topic: National Coal Board
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