Chatterley Whitfield Colliery Stoke on Trent, visited with old skool this has been on our hit list since January but we waited until the weather and light was on our side and it was well worth it, this is an amazing site i only wish we could get better access to some of the buildings not that we were disappointed with what we saw the fact that we did all four head stock's was some what an achievement yet half way up the second head stock i looked down to see security walking past, luckily he was walking away from me..too close.Then we moved down the site working our way to the final head stock and by far the toughest to reach the top but we cracked them, after having a final look around it was time to leave, after leaving the site we walked right into the police with dog's luckily they were looking for some people who were causing trouble else where and were very polite with us and had a nice chat, this has to be one of the more interesting site's this year so far and will be going back to try and crack the rest of the site.
A LITTLE HISTORY.
The colliery was established in 1860 with the opening of the biddulph railway this led to re-opening of the shaft's so that coal could be used for the iron working, 1872 the chatterley whitfield iron company accuried leasehold of the colliery to obtain suitable coal for it's furnaces, 21 people were killed on the 7th of February 1881 in an explosion.In it's time it was the largest colliery in staffordshire and was the first colliery to produce 1,000,000 ton's of salable coal a year but by 1976 drawing coal had reached it's end, two years later a whitfield mining trust was formed but sadly closed in 1991, at it's peak it employed 4000, now all but forgotten the only saving grace is that the surrounding area is now a been turned into park area so at least people see this magnificent colliery close up and remember the men that worked there.. Enjoy
A LITTLE HISTORY.
The colliery was established in 1860 with the opening of the biddulph railway this led to re-opening of the shaft's so that coal could be used for the iron working, 1872 the chatterley whitfield iron company accuried leasehold of the colliery to obtain suitable coal for it's furnaces, 21 people were killed on the 7th of February 1881 in an explosion.In it's time it was the largest colliery in staffordshire and was the first colliery to produce 1,000,000 ton's of salable coal a year but by 1976 drawing coal had reached it's end, two years later a whitfield mining trust was formed but sadly closed in 1991, at it's peak it employed 4000, now all but forgotten the only saving grace is that the surrounding area is now a been turned into park area so at least people see this magnificent colliery close up and remember the men that worked there.. Enjoy
