The Chatterley Whitfield Colliery site is acknowledged to be the most comprehensive survival of a deep mine site in England, with a range of surviving structures and buildings unequalled in any other former or surviving coalfield site in Britain.
Coal extraction here was first recorded in 1750, and the site remained in production until 1 March 1977. In 1978, the site became the Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, operated by the National Coal Board.
In 1993, the museum went into liquidation, and the site was handed back to the freehold owner, Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 1994.
Tags: chatterley whitfield colliery coal mine stokeontrent chell staffordshire pit head
© All Rights Reserved
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.
Tags: chatterley-whitfield colliery coal mine biddulph staffordshire chell brindley ford industry factory winding wheel heritage museum
© All Rights Reserved
The coal mine pit heads. As one of the finest mines around it was preserved as a museum where you could actually go deep underground. But it cost too much to keep it open to the public. Now there is 24/7 security with three rows of steel fencing set in concrete to keep people out.
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.
© All Rights Reserved
Wotsits. I'm not known for my knowledge of flora.
Can anyone tell me what it is?
Tags: pink plant orange seeds
© All Rights Reserved
The sun had already set and I had missed the best of the light by half an hour. I had to bump up the ISO and open up the lens as I held the camera with a leaping puppy pinging on the end of the lead wrapped around my wrist. With an exposure of 1/10 second and a ridiculous animal pulling my hand with the camera on it I'll never know how I got it this sharp, but this abandoned coal mine keeps luring me back, like a fascinating haunted house. This might just become the scene of my first ever HDR attempt.
Tags: coal mine colliery chimney brick winding wheels pit head shafts industrail urban chell staffordshire haunted chatterley whitfield
© All Rights Reserved