Knowledge Organiser for Years 5 and 6, Autumn Term (Even Year) 2026-27
Our key questionHow did the Industrial Revolution transform mining, and what impact did it have on the local area (Worksop) and on Britain's place in the world?
Between about 1750 and 1900 Britain changed from a country of farms and villages into the world's first industrial nation. Coal powered that change. This term we find out how coal was mined, how steam power and new laws transformed the lives of miners, how coal helped Britain build and run a huge empire, and how the collieries of the Nottinghamshire coalfield shaped Worksop, its people and its landscape.
In Autumn 1 we study the history of mining. In Autumn 2 we become geographers and investigate our own local area, including a fieldwork walk at Manton pit top.
Autumn 1
Autumn 2
Local Worksop events Empire events
Before 1842, children as young as five worked long shifts in the dark. These were some of their jobs.
Sat alone in the dark for up to 12 hours, opening and closing doors to keep fresh air flowing.
Pulled heavy tubs (corves) of coal along low, narrow tunnels, often using a chain and belt.
Pushed the tubs from behind with their hands and heads to help the hurrier along.
Its wire gauze stopped the flame lighting explosive firedamp gas, saving many lives.
An empire is a group of countries or lands ruled by one powerful country. By the early 1900s, Britain ruled the largest empire the world had ever seen. Coal was at the heart of its power: it fuelled the factories that made goods to sell, the railways that moved them, and the steamships of the Royal Navy and merchant fleet that carried them around the world.
Factory owners, merchants and traders in Britain grew very rich. Jobs in mines, mills and shipyards grew, and Britain became the most powerful country in the world.
Millions of people in the empire had no say in how they were ruled. Land and resources were taken, and local industries, such as hand-weaving in India, were damaged by cheap British goods.
Was the Industrial Revolution good for everyone? How might a Worksop miner, a mill owner and a weaver in India each answer that question?
Empire words
A colliery engineer known as the Father of the Railways. He designed safety lamps for miners and built locomotives, including Rocket, that carried coal and people further and faster.
A scientist who invented the Davy lamp in 1815, helping to protect miners from explosions of firedamp.
An engineer whose improved steam engine powered pumps, winding gear and factories.
An artist famous for industrial landscapes filled with simple figures, painted in a muted colour palette.
Worksop sits on the Nottinghamshire coalfield. Collieries grew where workable coal seams could be linked to the Chesterfield Canal and the railways.
Look for the clues mining has left behind: pit-top sites now used as green space, spoil heaps that have been landscaped, and rows of houses built for mining families.
Autumn 1
Autumn 2
Autumn 1
Autumn 2
Autumn 1
National Coal Mining Museum; a visit from ex-miners on 11 November; the Manton pit-top walk.
Street Child by Berlie Doherty and Canary in the Coal Mine by Madelyn Rosenberg.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the Chesterfield Canal and Worksop area study, and Rocks in Science.
Did anyone in your family work in a pit, or remember the collieries around Worksop? Ask them what they remember.
Sparken Hill Academy: Excellence and Enjoyment in Education for Everyone.