The D'Arcy Oil Company

The story of the United Kingdom's first Oil and Gas drilling operations on the UK mainland also how Philip Southwell and Lloyd Noble met to expand production at the UK's first Oil field.

The American Roughnecks of Sherwood Forest

The story of the forty four drillers from America who came over in the Second World War to drill for oil in Sherwood Forest.

The War Years

The story of the Eakring Oil field during World War Two.

British Petroleum

The story of British Petroleum and its operations in the Eakring Oil field.

The first Deep Oil well to be spudded in the UK in January 1936 overlooking Portsmouth harbour was Portsdown No1 (pictured above). This was the first deep well test drilling in the UK drilling into a strong 'anticline'. This well penetrated 6556 feet through the Jurassic rocks and into the Triassic rocks finding a small quantity of oil at one level only. Several other sites in the Hampshire, Dorset and Sussex regions were also tried and a little oil was found but these were abandoned due to poor development of the reservoir beds. The operation was moved to the Midlands and the North resulting eventually in a major find close to the village of Eakring in Nottinghamshire at Dukes Wood.