OS grid reference SK4224547796 Country England Post town HEANOR District Amber Valley UK parliament constituency Amber Valley | Region East Midlands Sovereign state United Kingdom Shire county Derbyshire Dialling code 01773 | |
Population 5,335 (electoral ward, 2011 census) | ||
Loscoe is a village near Heanor in Derbyshire, England, lying within the civil parish of Heanor and Loscoe. Denby Common and Codnor Breach are outlying hamlets on the western edge of the village.
Contents
Map of Loscoe, Heanor, UK
History
The name Loscoe derives from the Old Norse words lopt (or loft) and skógr, specifically in the phrase lopt í skógi, and means 'loft in a wood' or 'wood with a lofthouse'. It was recorded as Loscowe in 1277.
Loscoe Manor formed part of the wider Draycott Estate; Richard and William de Draycott were recorded at Loscoe (or Loschowe) in 1401. The manor was demolished in 1704.
In the 19th and 20th centuries Loscoe's economy was dominated by coal mining, so that pit chimneys and spoil heaps were prominent features of landscape. Three mines operated in the village: Old Loscoe (early 1830s – 1933), Bailey Brook (1847–1938) and Ormonde (1908–1970).
Loscoe was within the ecclesiastical parish of Heanor until 1844, when a new church was built between Loscoe and the neighbouring village of Codnor to the north, and a new joint parish created for them. Loscoe formed its own parish in 1927; initially services were held in the mission church until a new parish church, dedicated to St Luke, was built in 1938.
Loscoe was the site of a landfill gas migration explosion on 24 March 1986. Although there were no fatalities, one house was completely destroyed by the blast and its three occupants injured. The atmospheric pressure on the night of the explosion fell 29 hPa (29 mbar) over a seven-hour period, causing the gas to be released from the ground in much greater quantities than usual. In the four hours before the explosion, which occurred at approximately 6.30 am, the local meteorological office had recorded average falls of 4 hPa (4 mbar) per hour. Several cubic metres of landfill gas (consisting of a 3:2 mixture of methane and carbon dioxide) collected under the ground near the house at 51 Clarke Avenue, and as the gas expanded it flowed into the space beneath the floor, from where it was drawn by convection to the gas central-heating boiler and ignited.
This disaster led (in Britain) to the introduction of key legislation and government guidance, much research into landfill behaviour, and revised best practice at landfill sites. Over time, these were designed to vent gas to the atmosphere, then to burn off methane and eventually, in the most productive sites, use gas turbines to turn the gas into electricity for the national grid.
Demography
In the 2011 census the electoral ward of Heanor and Loscoe (which as well as Loscoe includes the north-western parts of Heanor) had 2,285 dwellings 2,216 households and a population of 5,335. The average age of residents was 40.5 (compared to 39.3 for England as a whole) and 17.9% of residents were aged 65 or over (compared to 16.4% for England as a whole).
Notable residents
BMX racer Dale Holmes was born here on 6 October 1971.