I wanted to capture this scene before it disappeared. As it turned out I had to wait for it to appear out of the fog! But so much of Britain's industrial heritage has disappeared. From this country, Mother of the Industrial Revolution, so many magnificent Victorian power houses have been reduced to rubble and the land cleared and redeveloped. Once it was collieries like this that fueled the industrial engines that gave the world it's greatest empire. Those that remain are a shadow of themselves. The Chatterley Whitfield colliery is exceptional.
In fact at the time I took this photo my wife was telephoning her aunt in Cairns, Australia. Her husband was a miner here, but had the good sense to emigrate to Australia in the late 1980's. I hope this picture brings back some memories for him.
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery, originally Whitfield Colliery until 1891, has a history dating back to the 1830's. By 1862 it had four shafts: Institute, Engine, Middle and Prince Albert. However a fifth shaft, the Laura was completeley destroyed in an underground explosion in 1881.
The Platt shaft was sunk in 1883 to replace the Laura and a further two shafts, Winstanley and Hesketh were sunk around the time of the First World War.
The Colliery became the 'Jewel of the Crown' of the North Staffordshire Coalfield and in 1937, with manpower in excess of 4000, it became the first colliery in Great Britain to mine 1 million saleable tons of coal in one year.
The Colliery was nationalised in 1947. However with the advent of major developments to collieries in the south and west, Chatterley Whitfield's fortunes began to decline and shortly after the underground connection was made to Wolstanton Colliery.
Chatterley Whitfield closed on 25th March 1977.
In 1979 the underground mining museum was opened and utilised bothe the Winstanley and Institute shafts. Yes, you really could go down the mines! But when Wolstanton Colliery closed in 1986, the underground museum was abandoned and replaced bya 'new' replica underground experience. Falling numbers of visitors led to the closure of the underground experience in 1993 but not before English Heritage granted the site ;Scheduled Ancient Monument' status due to it being the most complete coalmine in Great Britain.
To me, the colliery is a cathedral to industry. I wish I had taken the chance to go down the mines when they were open, but now I am thankful that the buildings, the chimneys, the winding wheels are preserved for future generations to admire.
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