staffordshireranger
Well-known member
Now to anyone who has ever visited CHATTERLEY WHITFIELD you will know it`s a fantastic complete colliery complex and with a huge nasty spiky fence around it !, Myself i live a stones throw away so i know the site very well indeed. Here is some history..
Chatterley Whitfield colliery in North Staffordshire was the first pit in Europe to mine a million tons of coal in a year. The colliery site is full of listed buildings and the site itself is protected to the same level as Stonehenge - it's a scheduled ancient monument.
Chatterley Whitfield was one of Britain biggest collieries in its heyday. Documents I have seen give a broad brush peak employment of 4000. An accurate figure for 1947 when the mines were nationalised was 2778. In 1937 it achieved the distinction of being the first British colliery to produce a million tons of coal in a year. It opened in 1838 and finally closed down in 1977, three years after linking up underground with Wolstanton Colliery, a more modern colliery which could exploit the remaining reserves more efficiently. Two years later it was opened as an underground mining museum. However in 1986 the closure of Wolstanton whose workings and pumps had kept the mine from flooding and provided a legally required emergency exit (all the other shafts at the mine had previously been closed down) meant the museum had to close. It now stands derelict yet secure surrounded by high steel fences awaiting funds to regenerate it as a surface museum and to extend the existing small industrial estate. The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield, a group set up to promote its preservation, describe it as the most complete record of colliery buildings in England. The site is a scheduled Ancient Monument and most of its 34 buildings are Grade 2 listed. A very high chimney seen any towers above the area and can even be seen from the opposite side of the tip. This was to the boilerhouse which supplied the steam mainly for driving the shaft winding engines, one of which was still being used when the mine closed.
Chatterley Whitfield colliery in North Staffordshire was the first pit in Europe to mine a million tons of coal in a year. The colliery site is full of listed buildings and the site itself is protected to the same level as Stonehenge - it's a scheduled ancient monument.
Chatterley Whitfield was one of Britain biggest collieries in its heyday. Documents I have seen give a broad brush peak employment of 4000. An accurate figure for 1947 when the mines were nationalised was 2778. In 1937 it achieved the distinction of being the first British colliery to produce a million tons of coal in a year. It opened in 1838 and finally closed down in 1977, three years after linking up underground with Wolstanton Colliery, a more modern colliery which could exploit the remaining reserves more efficiently. Two years later it was opened as an underground mining museum. However in 1986 the closure of Wolstanton whose workings and pumps had kept the mine from flooding and provided a legally required emergency exit (all the other shafts at the mine had previously been closed down) meant the museum had to close. It now stands derelict yet secure surrounded by high steel fences awaiting funds to regenerate it as a surface museum and to extend the existing small industrial estate. The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield, a group set up to promote its preservation, describe it as the most complete record of colliery buildings in England. The site is a scheduled Ancient Monument and most of its 34 buildings are Grade 2 listed. A very high chimney seen any towers above the area and can even be seen from the opposite side of the tip. This was to the boilerhouse which supplied the steam mainly for driving the shaft winding engines, one of which was still being used when the mine closed.
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