Collectors items from Cotgrave’s mining community have been unearthed thousands of miles away in Chicago, and will soon be on their way back home. Fifty years ago, Cotgrave grew from a village of around 750 people to a town of over 5,000 due to its profitable coal colliery built in the 1960s to supply coal to fuel the Ratcliffe on Soar power station. Hundreds of experienced miners recently laid off in Wales, Nottinghamshire and the North East, relocated with their families to the swiftly growing town and large housing estates, a shopping centre, pubs and the Miners’ Welfare Club built to accom…