We were in the area celebrating @Disco Kitten's birthday and already had a couple of fails under our belt and had been booted out of a school, so on a bit of a whim, we thought we would have a go here.
The weather was not on our side and it was booting it down as we headed over to the colliery but like the intrepid explorers we are, we didn't let a little rain stop us. Boobs getting in the way of access, however, was a different issue, but after stripping down a few layers, I squished them bastards through the gap and boom I was in
There are cameras and security on-site and we weren't sure how "on top" they were so in true umbex Ninja style, we stealthed our way across the site, (also known as running in a big group and hoping for the best). Anyway, luck was on our side and we made it past the first camera without incident.
For those of you who know me, you will know I never escape an explore unscathed and this was no exception! Climbing in the first building I sliced my thumb and fingers open on a nice shard of glass and got a lovely few pieces of rusty metal stuck in the cuts. @scrappy to the rescue though supplying me with ample supplies of plasters, the rust could wait till I got home!
We had a good mooch about in the first building before heading over to the Underground Experience but I'm going to cover that in a separate report.
Then it was onto the main engine room and I was really excited about this until I saw access. I'm not telling you how we did it, suffice to say I nearly bailed several times, but @Bigjobs as ever encouraged me to face my fears and get my arse in there and how very glad I was that I did.
History (taken from chatterleywhitfieldfriends.org.uk)
The Chatterley Whitfield Colliery site was acknowledged to be the most comprehensive survival of a deep mine site in England, with a range of surviving structures and buildings unequaled in any other former or surviving coalfield site in Britain.
Chatterley Whitfield is one of the most important sites in the Potteries: it is one of the most complete former colliery sites in Europe and has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a host of buildings on the site have Listed Building status. In its heyday, Chatterley Whitfield was one of the most productive sites in the country, and indeed, was the first colliery in the country to achieve an annual output of one million tons. This was achieved in 1937 and again in 1939.
The colliery lies on the Potteries coalfield, the largest of the North Staffordshire coalfields. The early potters favoured the Great Row seam which outcrops quite often towards the Pennine boundary, and this helped to determine the location of the Potteries towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Fenton and Longton, while the western edge of the seam runs south-west from Biddulph for some twenty miles.
It is thought that the first extraction of coal in the Chatterley Whitfield area may have occurred in the fourteenth century by the Cistercian monks of Hulton Abbey from the other side of the East Valley; there is evidence to suggest that they mined coal from bell pits in nearby Ridgway. However, the first recorded evidence of mining activity dates from 1750, when a coal merchant from Burslem worked the area.
By the mid-1800s, a colliery had started to develop, and there was an on-site engine house, wharf, carpenter’s shop, and a brickworks. During the 1850s, prominent local businessman Hugh Henshall Williamson expanded production, and after initially working footrails, he sank a number of shafts including the Bellringer, the Ten Foot, and the Engine Pit. Further expansion took place following the opening of the Biddulph Valley Railway in 1860, and in 1865, a consortium of businessmen from Tunstall acquired the colliery and formed the Whitfield Colliery Company Limited.
Just seven years later in 1872, the managing director of the Chatterley Coal and Iron Company – C.J. Homer – acquired the site and invested heavily in railway infrastructure. This led to insolvency and the voluntary liquidation of the company by 1878. Production continued via an administrator until 1890 when the business was purchased by a newly formed Manchester-based company, the North of England Trustee Debenture and Asset Corporation, who continued to mine from the site until the coal industry was nationalised.
The colliery suffered badly during the recession of the late 1920s and early 1930s, but as the economy recovered in the years leading up to the Second World War, over £300,000 was invested in new plant, workshops, and railway equipment, and it was in 1939 that Chatterley Whitfield became the first colliery in Britain to achieve an annual output of one million tons.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the coal industry was nationalised, and the colliery saw significant modernisation. At the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, ambitious plans were developed to merge Chatterley Whitfield with the nearby Norton and Victoria collieries to create a ‘super colliery’, that – it was envisaged – would be capable of an annual production of two million tons. However, this would have required investment of over £3,000,000, and so the plans were never implemented.
Chatterley Whitfield ceased production and closed its doors to working miners on 25th March 1977, and the remaining coal seams were worked from Wolstanton colliery.
The following year, the site reopened as the Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, with access to the underground workings via the Winstanley Shaft, and it's peak, it attracted 70,000 visitors a year. However, in May 1986, Wolstanton colliery was closed, leading to fears that the Chatterley Whitfield workings would flood and there would be a build-up of gas.
As a result, the National Coal Board invested £1,000,000 in the construction of a simulated “underground experience” in former railway cuttings near to the Institute Winding House. In August 1993, the Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum was put into liquidation, and the site returned to the owner of the site’s freehold – Stoke-on-Trent City Council. In November of that year, the site was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a number of buildings on the site were listed at Grade II and Grade II*.
From 1994, work began to secure a new future for the site, and in 2000, the Chatterley Whitfield Partnership was formed (an informal arrangement between the City Council, English Heritage, and local MP Joan Walley) to deliver a new strategy for Chatterley Whitfield. In 2002, the site received a major boost through its inclusion within English Partnerships’ National Coalfield Programme.
You can find the full history here:
chatterleywhitfieldfriends.org.uk
Here are a few photos and I hope you enjoy
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The weather was not on our side and it was booting it down as we headed over to the colliery but like the intrepid explorers we are, we didn't let a little rain stop us. Boobs getting in the way of access, however, was a different issue, but after stripping down a few layers, I squished them bastards through the gap and boom I was in
There are cameras and security on-site and we weren't sure how "on top" they were so in true umbex Ninja style, we stealthed our way across the site, (also known as running in a big group and hoping for the best). Anyway, luck was on our side and we made it past the first camera without incident.
For those of you who know me, you will know I never escape an explore unscathed and this was no exception! Climbing in the first building I sliced my thumb and fingers open on a nice shard of glass and got a lovely few pieces of rusty metal stuck in the cuts. @scrappy to the rescue though supplying me with ample supplies of plasters, the rust could wait till I got home!
We had a good mooch about in the first building before heading over to the Underground Experience but I'm going to cover that in a separate report.
Then it was onto the main engine room and I was really excited about this until I saw access. I'm not telling you how we did it, suffice to say I nearly bailed several times, but @Bigjobs as ever encouraged me to face my fears and get my arse in there and how very glad I was that I did.
History (taken from chatterleywhitfieldfriends.org.uk)
The Chatterley Whitfield Colliery site was acknowledged to be the most comprehensive survival of a deep mine site in England, with a range of surviving structures and buildings unequaled in any other former or surviving coalfield site in Britain.
Chatterley Whitfield is one of the most important sites in the Potteries: it is one of the most complete former colliery sites in Europe and has been designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a host of buildings on the site have Listed Building status. In its heyday, Chatterley Whitfield was one of the most productive sites in the country, and indeed, was the first colliery in the country to achieve an annual output of one million tons. This was achieved in 1937 and again in 1939.
The colliery lies on the Potteries coalfield, the largest of the North Staffordshire coalfields. The early potters favoured the Great Row seam which outcrops quite often towards the Pennine boundary, and this helped to determine the location of the Potteries towns of Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Fenton and Longton, while the western edge of the seam runs south-west from Biddulph for some twenty miles.
It is thought that the first extraction of coal in the Chatterley Whitfield area may have occurred in the fourteenth century by the Cistercian monks of Hulton Abbey from the other side of the East Valley; there is evidence to suggest that they mined coal from bell pits in nearby Ridgway. However, the first recorded evidence of mining activity dates from 1750, when a coal merchant from Burslem worked the area.
By the mid-1800s, a colliery had started to develop, and there was an on-site engine house, wharf, carpenter’s shop, and a brickworks. During the 1850s, prominent local businessman Hugh Henshall Williamson expanded production, and after initially working footrails, he sank a number of shafts including the Bellringer, the Ten Foot, and the Engine Pit. Further expansion took place following the opening of the Biddulph Valley Railway in 1860, and in 1865, a consortium of businessmen from Tunstall acquired the colliery and formed the Whitfield Colliery Company Limited.
Just seven years later in 1872, the managing director of the Chatterley Coal and Iron Company – C.J. Homer – acquired the site and invested heavily in railway infrastructure. This led to insolvency and the voluntary liquidation of the company by 1878. Production continued via an administrator until 1890 when the business was purchased by a newly formed Manchester-based company, the North of England Trustee Debenture and Asset Corporation, who continued to mine from the site until the coal industry was nationalised.
The colliery suffered badly during the recession of the late 1920s and early 1930s, but as the economy recovered in the years leading up to the Second World War, over £300,000 was invested in new plant, workshops, and railway equipment, and it was in 1939 that Chatterley Whitfield became the first colliery in Britain to achieve an annual output of one million tons.
In the aftermath of the Second World War, the coal industry was nationalised, and the colliery saw significant modernisation. At the dawn of the Swinging Sixties, ambitious plans were developed to merge Chatterley Whitfield with the nearby Norton and Victoria collieries to create a ‘super colliery’, that – it was envisaged – would be capable of an annual production of two million tons. However, this would have required investment of over £3,000,000, and so the plans were never implemented.
Chatterley Whitfield ceased production and closed its doors to working miners on 25th March 1977, and the remaining coal seams were worked from Wolstanton colliery.
The following year, the site reopened as the Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, with access to the underground workings via the Winstanley Shaft, and it's peak, it attracted 70,000 visitors a year. However, in May 1986, Wolstanton colliery was closed, leading to fears that the Chatterley Whitfield workings would flood and there would be a build-up of gas.
As a result, the National Coal Board invested £1,000,000 in the construction of a simulated “underground experience” in former railway cuttings near to the Institute Winding House. In August 1993, the Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum was put into liquidation, and the site returned to the owner of the site’s freehold – Stoke-on-Trent City Council. In November of that year, the site was designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and a number of buildings on the site were listed at Grade II and Grade II*.
From 1994, work began to secure a new future for the site, and in 2000, the Chatterley Whitfield Partnership was formed (an informal arrangement between the City Council, English Heritage, and local MP Joan Walley) to deliver a new strategy for Chatterley Whitfield. In 2002, the site received a major boost through its inclusion within English Partnerships’ National Coalfield Programme.
You can find the full history here:
History Line - Chatterley Whitfield - Former Mine and Museum
Chatterley Whitfield was a colliery for a little more than a hundred years. The summary of Whitfield's history was put together by Jim Worgan, who wishes to record the help provided by Bill Jack. If you or you know of anybody who would be willing to add their recollections of the site, then...
chatterleywhitfieldfriends.org.uk
Here are a few photos and I hope you enjoy
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