Mining by
machine (Hem Heath Colliery, Trentham). Image
reproduced by kind permission of the British
Coal Corporation.
Wolstanton
Colliery was set up in 1916 by Wolstanton Ltd.
to provide ironstone for the local ironworks.
Later a group of local pottery companies became
involved and managed the pit until it was
nationalised in 1947.
Wolstanton pit operated until October 1985 and
was known for having the deepest mining shafts
in Western Europe. Modernisation in the early
1960s set up a preparation plant, railway
sidings and washing facilities and initially paid
off with a peak output of one million tonnes of
coal in 1963, but thereafter the rate of output
declined. In the mid 1970s the underground
workings were connected with those of Chatterley
Whitfield Colliery, but the pit eventually
closed in 1985 with the shafts being filled in
in 1986.
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