Snibston was mainly a rural area until a part of it was transformed into a coal mining village by the Snibston Colliery Company. This happened in the early 1830s. After that, this part of the area has seen much development and has been converted into a town named Coalville.
The main Snibston Colliery faced its doom in 1831 and after that, the colliery area was transformed into a park called Snibston Discovery Park and it also had a museum named Snibston Discovery Museum. The museum however, is closed now.
George Stephenson, who was a pioneer in railway engineering, and his son Robert Stephenson came to the area in the late part of the 1820s. They were involved with the Leicester and Swannington Railway. This railway was being built in order to transport coal from the area to the Leicester.
The Snibston estate was owned by Leonard Forbrooke of Ravenstone Hall and Snibston Grange. He died in 1830 and shortly after his death, the entire estate along with an uncompleted colliery with a new Boulton and Watt type steam engine and colliery equipment were sold to the Stephensons and the completion of the Snibston No 2 colliery took place.
The now closed Snibston Discovery Museum was actually a part of the Discovery Park. This was built on the site of the former Snibston Colliery No 2 and was an award winning interactive museum filled with modern technology and learning tools. The museum was managed by Leicester County Council and the effort was supported by Next and the National Forest. The museum finally closed in 2012 and is currently Heritage Lottery funded.
The Leicester County Council announced in 2015 that the museum and the land was to be sold and the museum was finally closed on 31st July of 2015. The demolition process of the main hall began in early March 2016 and was completed by April 2016.
Bio courtesy of www.snibston.com