For 33 years the extensive coalfield of Warwickshire had been free from serious disaster. Tragically this impressive record was marred by a calamity that took place at the Exhall Colliery ...
(An account of the disaster can be found in this article)
The circumstances of the disaster were investigated by the Coroner and jury at Coventry County Hall.
The first witness was Dr. ...
Travel to Baddesley Ensor and Baxterley nowadays, and the area is the epitome of rural Warwickshire. Its mining heritage is not forgotten, however, even though the mine closed in 1989. ...
During the 19th century, the Jurassic limestone layers of southern and eastern Warwickshire were quarried for flooring, gravestones and walling, and for making lime and cement. Workmen often uncovered amazing fossils ...
Young boys were employed in Warwickshire coalfields in the 18th and 19th centuries.
6d a day in 1729
A coal account book in the Newdigate archives refers to the use of boys ...
This record1 shows the plan and proposed time scale for closing the North Warwick Colliery in 1965. This process was thought to take nine months and involved removing and dismantling machinery, ...
Warwickshire has a long and proud heritage of coal mining, with the Warwickshire coalfield extending across the county from Warwick to Tamworth. Towns such as Bedworth owe much of their ...
The Warwickshire County Record Office holds quite a lot of photographs and records of the coal mining industry which went on in and around Polesworth. This industry was spurred by ...
The Miners’ Welfare Fund was introduced under the provisions of the Mining Industry Act 1920. The fund was raised from a levy of 1d per ton of coal produced, increasing ...
Warwickshire County Record Office holds a couple of dozen Compensation Registers from the Midland Colliery Owners’ Mutual Indemnity Company (MCOMIC), the pre-nationalisation employers’ insurance company. These registers list payments for occupational illness or injuries ...
Before 1947 there were some gruesome stories of how pit ponies were treated. Warning: these stories contain graphic accounts of animal cruelty.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was formed in 1944, replacing the Miners Federation of Great Britain. At the request of the Midlands Area of the NUM, Warwickshire Miners’ Association ...
The first Warwickshire Miners’ Association was formed in 1872. A Bedworth printer, Mr John Colledge, was elected as the Secretary. The society’s first report was issued in June 1872, which ...
Pit Ponies were used in mining from the mid 18th Century to the late 20th Century, with the last pit pony leaving the mines of Ellington, Northumberland in 1994. At ...
Warwickshire’s coalfield had been worked since the 13th century, but had yet to boom. It was not until the commercialisation of the steam engine in the 1830s did Warwickshire’s coal ...
In 1847 a coal mine was sunk on the Pooley Hall Estate, not far from the main house. It was completed in 1849, and coal began to be extracted in ...
The sinking of the Binley shafts began in 1904 by a company known as Merry and Cuninghame on land leased from the Earl of Craven. Sinking was completed in 1908 ...
Newdigate Colliery took its name from its first owner, Sir Francis Alexander Newdigate of Arbury Hall, Nuneaton. The family had been linked with coal mining in Warwickshire for centuries. Work ...
The first Warwickshire Coal Company was registered in 1901 by the proprietors of the Wyken Collieries, who commenced trial excavations at Keresley during 1902 and soon discovered a viable seam. ...
Ansley Hall Colliery was sunk in 1874 by William Garside Philips of Oldbury Grange, the great grandfather of Captain Mark Philips, the first husband of Princess Anne. It had three ...
Coal mining has been engrained in Warwickshire’s heritage for centuries. Stretching from Tamworth to Warwick, the Warwickshire coalfield covers 385 square kilometres and has been worked on since the 13th ...
Kingsbury Colliery was founded by the owners of the Hockley Hall and Whateley Colliery and Brickworks in the 1890s when workings were nearing exhaustion. Two shafts were sunk to the ...
The Arley Colliery Company was formed in 1901 after coal was discovered in the valley to the west of the village. Two shafts were sunk down to the Two Yard ...
Haunchwood Colliery was founded by John Nowell of Wednesbury, Staffordshire. He had previously owned Oakwood Colliery at Wednesbury, which had traded under the name John Nowell & Son. Oakwood Colliery ...