Staffordshire Coalfield

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This coalfield is traditionally treated as being in two main parts, a northern one around Stoke on Trent and a southern one around Cannock and the Birmingham conurbation, but modern geological knowledge shows it to be continuous through an unworked central area. The former area is also associated with two outlying coalfields to the east. One, a thin strip of coal measures, runs north-south around Shaffalong and had no modern mining. The other, a larger area, is centred on Cheadle and was worked until the 1990s.

Relatively little has been written about this large and important coalfield, but there have been some recent studies.^1-20

1. Leach, J. Coal mining around Quarnford. Staffordshire Studies 8, (1996a), pp 66-96.
2. Raybould, T.J. The Economic Emergence of the Black Country: A Study of the Dudley Estate (Newton Abbot, David and Charles, 1973)
3. Chapman, N.A. “A Certain Freehold Mineral Estate Known as the Fox Oak Colliery” British Mining No.23 (1983), pp.34-39
4. Chapman, N.A. “The Cannock and Huntington Sinking” British Mining No.34 (1987), pp.35-43
5. Chapman, N.A. “Heath Colliery Co., West Bromwich, Staffs” British Mining No.50 (1994), pp.6-23
6. Chapman, N.A. “Bournehills Colliery, Rowley Regis, Staffordshire” British Mining No.55 (1995), pp.41-46
7. Chapman, N.A. “Blakeley Hall and Bromford Collieries, Oldbury, Staffs.” British Mining No.57 (1996), pp.125-133
8. Chapman, N.A. “Fairoak Colliery, Hednesford, Staffordshire” British Mining No.59 (1997), pp.93-96
9. Chapman, N.A. A history of the Sandwell Park Collieries (Heartland Press, 1997)
10. Chapman, N.A. “Brereton Collieries” British Mining No.59 (1997), pp.156-161
11. Chapman, N.A. “Old Hill or Pearson’s Colliery, Rowley Regis” British Mining No.63 (1999), pp.56-63
12. Chapman, N.A. “The Rowley Hall Colliery, Rowley Regis, Staffordshire” British Mining No.63 (1999), pp.64-73
13. Chapman, N.A. A History of Coal Mining Around Halesowen (Heartland, 1999)
14. Chapman, N.A. “Leighs Wood Colliery Leighs Wood Colliery” British Mining No.67 (2000), pp.26-34
15. Chapman, N.A. “The Brades Coal and Steel Works, Oldbury, Staffordshire”, British Mining No.75 (2004), pp.47-57
16. Deakin, P. Collieries in the North Staffordshire Coalfield (Ashbourne: Landmark Publishing Co., 2004)
17. Various: The Cannock Chase Coalfield and its Coal Mines (Cannock Chase: Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society, 2005)
18. Edwards, K. The Brereton Collieries 1791-1960 (Cannock Chase: Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society, 2005)
19. Stone, R. The Collieries and Coalminers of Staffordshire (Chichester: Phillimore & Co. Ltd, 2007)
20. King, P.W. “Black Country Mining before the Industrial Revolution” Mining History: The Bulletin of the Peak District Mining History Society, Vol.16 No.6 (2007), pp.42-43.

Index of articles published by the Northern Mine Research Society, complied by Alasdair Neill

• Staffordshire

When the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, there were 59 collieries in Staffordshire; now there are none. The last five pits to close were Lea Hall (1990), Littleton (1993), Florence (1994), Hem Heath (1997) & Silverdale (1998)

Collieries after Nationalisation in 1947