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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
When I was a child I would meet up with a small group of four or five of my friends who lived around my street as everyone knew each other ...
Before 1947 there were some gruesome stories of how pit ponies were treated. Warning: these stories contain graphic accounts of animal cruelty.
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 ...
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 ...
On 23 December 1911, the miners worked their last shift before the Christmas holidays. A small staff worked to feed the pit ponies and keep the ventilation fan and pumps ...
Daw Mill Colliery was a natural development of Kingsbury and Dexter Collieries which worked the coal in the northern end of the coalfield. It was the only new colliery to ...
Alvecote Colliery, also known as Tamworth Colliery, was sunk in 1875 by Charles Brownslow Marshall. Workers from the collieries around Nuneaton and Bedworth were often taken to the Magistrates court ...
The first shaft of Griff No. 4 Colliery was sunk in 1851. This was a downcast air shaft known as Charlie Pit that was serviced by one of the older ...
The name Birch Coppice takes its name from the original site which was a woodland area in the estate of the Earls of Beauchamp of Madresfield Court near Malvern. Although ...
The Dexter shaft was sunk in 1927 by Kingsbury Collieries Ltd to extract coal from the other side of the Arley Fault, a geological fault that had caused the coal ...
The case for a new super-pit looked promising, but there were issues and the super-pit would significantly affect the built up area of Coventry. The Headgear had to be the ...
Coal mining in Warwickshire dates back from 13th century. The rise and fall of the industry in the ‘80s and ‘90s can be seen in the proposed super-pit at Hawkhurst ...