The famous pioneering railway engineers George Stephenson and his son Robert Stephenson came to the Snibston area in the late 1820s in their involvement with the Leicester and Swannington Railway, which was being built to carry coal from this area to Leicester. Quick to appreciate the potential, in 1831 they sank shafts to the coal on the north side of the railway near the centre of what is now Coalville. The choice of position for the mine was a little unfortunate since there were problems with water and hard rock, and the Stephensons were probably not entirely happy with what was to be named Snibston Colliery No. 1.