SPEEDWELL
COPPY HALL
ALDRIDGE No1
LEIGHSWOOD
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COAL MINING IN BROWNHILLS AND WALSALL WOOD
ALDRIDGE CENSUS OF COAL MINERS
SPEEDWELL COLLIERY
The first shaft to be sunk in the Aldridge area was one just north of Red House, near Aldridge Station, in 1849. This was a trial shaft to prove there was coal east of the Clayhanger fault. The pit was sunk to a depth of 437 feet and found the first four seams of coal. There was only one shaft sunk and no coal was worked at this time. A second shaft was sunk later and the Colliery was named SPEEDWELL.
The first workings to take place at Speedwell, which was also known as Victoria Colliery, were some 20 odd years later in the early 1870’s. This is when the second shaft was sunk to a final depth of 780 feet. The shafts were sunk where the present day Greenhams Crane hire yard is situated and the second shaft on the Red House industrial estate, Middlemore Lane, Aldridge.
The Colliery only had a short life and because Leighswood only had one shaft sunk, which was not allowed because of inadequate ventilation, Speedwell was connected to Leighswood by an underground roadway and the Speedwell shaft used to ventilate Leighswood pit.
COPPY HALL COLLIERY
This pit, which was also known locally as Stubbers Green Colliery, was the first pit to work the coal seams of the Concealed coalfield. The area of the concealed coalfield got its name because of two faults (cracks) in the strata in this area. One fault was in the Brownhills/Pelsall area and was known as the Clayhanger Fault and a second between Walsall Wood and Aldridge and was known as the Vigo Fault. These faults in the earth’s surface had thrown the coal seams down some 800 yards into the surface. The coal seams were then over the years covered, or overlain, with Eturia Marls ( Red Clays). The thickness of these clays varied in depths, in the Walsall Wood Colliery area they proved to be over 300 yards thick.
Well, this is why it was called the Concealed Coalfield, the coal was hidden by the great depths of Clay.
The first person to suggest there was coal hidden between these 2 faults was the Earl of Bradford’s agent who sent a correspondence stating such in 1777.
Coppy Hall Colliery was sunk in 1857 by the Rev. Bailey William’s. The shafts were sunk to a depth of 197 yards (591 ft). This placed the pit bottom 46 feet below what was known as the, ‘Wyrley Yard Seam’. This was a 5 feet thick seam of coal which was itself, 12 feet below the seam which was called, ‘The Bottom Robbins’. This meant that a 12 feet thick roof of rock was between, the Wyrley seam, and the seam above. This intervening rock layer was very friable and caused many problems with roof falls in the Coppy Hall pit.
The coal in this pit was reached after cutting through over 200 feet of Red Clay, quite a depth of clay, but well short of the depth at Walsall Wood, ( 900 feet). One advantage of all this clay overlaying the coal pits was that water did not penetrate down into the mines in any great quantities and so these pits could be cleared of water with a barrel and therefore it was the only district in South Staffordshire that did not need a pumping engine.
The Rev. William’s was only proprietor of Coppy Hall for 5 years as he put the pit
up for sale in 1862, due it is thought to the great financial strains of opening and
equipping the mine. The mine was sold to a Edward Barnett.
Edward Barnett started the task of modernising and improving the mine. The previous owners
like so many in the West Midlands, installed only one steam engine to work both shafts,
which would have had a large drum on the outside of the engine house on which a flat chain
aprox 4 inches wide would have been wound off and on the drum to raise and lower the cages
up and down the shafts, these chains made quite a noise when they were working, and mines
that used this system were called,'Rattle Chain Pits'.
Although having one engine to work two shafts sounded a good idea, in practice it limited
the amount of coal that could be lifted per shift and often one shaft was left waiting to
raise coal while the other shaft was raising its cage.
Edward Barnett set about putting this right and installed winding engines to each shaft,
also Lancashire Steam Engines were installed to power them. Two winding wheels were put on
the downcast shaft and both shafts were ultimately sunk to a depth of 410 Yards.
The shafts were situated in Stubbers Green Road, where the
present day,' Salvason Brickyard', is situated. The Colliery had the advantage of its own
canal basin (wharf), with tram tracks running through the pit, which allowed the coal to
be transported in trucks and loaded directly into the barges in the basin and then out
onto the Rushall Branch of the Birmingham and Essington Canal systems. In 1896 the pit
employed 177 underground and 64 surface workers, Arthur Parton managed the mine and W.
Hall was the under-manager.
The Coppy Hall Colliery made the same mistake as many South Staffordshire
coalfields. It took out a lease to mine the coal from a small area around the pit head.
The owner of the land would not usually bother to have all the trouble of extracting and
selling the minerals from their land, but would lease the land and charge the lease
owner a sum for each ton of coal taken out of the mine. Coppy Hall having only taken out a
lease for a small area, and all the surrounding area being snapped up by the, 'Aldridge
Colliery Company', left Coppy Hall with nowhere to expand in it's search for coal and
eventually in 1909 the pit was forced to close due to all the coal being worked out. When
the Pit closed over 340 people were employed there and it caused great hardship in the
area.
ALDRIDGE No 2 (LEIGHSWOOD)
Leighswood Colliery also known as Aldridge No2 or (DryBones) was
situated just off the present Northgate, opposite Leighswood School.
The Colliery Company only sank one shaft, which was not allowed, because
ventilation and fresh air could not be provided down in the mine. A Down Shaft was usually
sank to provide fresh air going down into the mine, then a Up Shaft was sank to take the
stale air up and so out of the mine. Leighswood got away with only having one shaft, which
was sank in 1874, because when Speedwell went into liquidation in 1881 it was purchased by
The Aldridge Colliery Company, with a view to use the Coppy Hall shafts for ventilation.
The price paid was £5,000, (not a bad price for a pit that had cost £100,000 to sink)
Having acquired Coppy Hall Colliery, which was close by, Leighswood shaft was sunk to a
depth of 410 Yards, the same as Coppy Hall. In 1896 the mine employed nearly 312
underground workers and 61 worked on the surface. Jas. DFilkes was managing the pit at
this time and J. Martin was employed as under-manager.
Aldridge Colliery No1 (Dry Bread) took over Leighswood Colliery to combine their expertise and fully exploit the whole coal seams in the southern area of the concealed coalfield. Leighswood eventually went into liquidation at the end of 1930
ALDRIDGE No 1 (DRY BREAD)
Later named, 'Aldridge Brick Tile and Coal Company'.
The shaft at Aldridge Pit was sunk to a depth of 460 Yards in 1874. The
mine was administered by a very eminent mining engineer of the times, W.F. Clark who was
later helped by his son Bernard. They took over Leighswood Colliery and set about
extracting all the available coal in the Southern area of the Concealed Coalfield.
Two shafts were sunk very close together, one shaft had two winding wheels which operated
two cages and the second shaft had one wheel with one cage and a counter balance weight.
The mine was ventilated by a steam driven giant fan which was higher in diameter than a
two storey building. At its peak Aldridge No1 employed over 1,000 men. The men always said
the pit paid very poor wages and as a result they could only take ,'Dry Bread', to work
for their lunch, hence the pit got it's nick name. In 1893 underground workers were being
paid, 4/11d (25p) for low earners and 6/8d (33p) per day for high earners, if they worked
for 6 days they would earn the equivalent of £1-98p per week. This pit became the largest
in Aldridge in 1896 it employed 479 underground and 116 surface workers. The manager was
Chas. Lester and W. Ramsell was employed as under-manager.
The Aldridge Colliery Company faced problems at No1 pit in the long term as the coal field
was confined by the two faults of Vigo and Clayhanger. To try and prolong the life of the
mine it was realised an attempt must be made to go east of the Vigo fault and try to see
how deep the Deep Coal seams had been pushed down into the strata by the fault. A road was
driven down at an angle of 1 in 4 to prove the size of the fault and try and
find the deep coal seams beyond the Vigo fault.
The attempt to find the deep coal beyond the fault began around 1910.
The heading was driven from the deep coal at Aldridge No1, in fact two parallel headings
were driven. They started at a depth of 450 yards and went down at a 1in4 angle. Cross
cuts were cut through between the headings, which were 30 yards apart, this was to aid
ventilation to the face as they progressed forward.
The best estimate at the time was that the deep coal would have been aprox 900 yards below
the surface on the East side of the Vigo Fault. The headings were driven in for 500 yards
through rock which was known to lie over the coal seams, at 515 yards coal was met which
proved to be the Bottom Robins seam, the headings then soon came upon the Wyrley yard,
five foot and Brooch coal seams. These had been brought up by a up-throw fault. The
headings were in 860 yards when the, Yard Coal was met, at 990 yards in the, Brooch coal
and then the Bottom Robins were found.
At 1,187 yards a severe down throw fault was found which had sent the coal seams below the
depth of the headings again. Work continued and the headings advanced in to 1,230 yards
when the Brick clays were encountered, after a further 70 yards it was decided to abandon
the effort to find the deep coal. This was because it was known that the deep coal seam
was aprox 330 yards vertically below the Brick clays, which would put the deep coal 1,100
yards below the surface.
It had taken 3 years to drive the headings which eventually when
abandoned were 770 yards below the surface. During the work at various times the miners
encountered salt water, which was extremely corrosive and poisonous, it was this which
made it virtually impossible to proceed and was one of the reasons the project was
abandoned.
A vast amount of money had been spent on trying to find the deep coal to the east of the
fault, but if it had been found Aldridge No1 could have continued for more than 50 years.
It eventually ran out of coal in 1936 and the mine was abandoned.
The Company continued as, 'The Aldridge Brick Tile and Coal Company', selling coal from
other mines.
The Closure of Aldridge No1 Pit caused tremendous hardship to the locality due to many men
loosing their jobs and so income.
SEE BRICKMAKING IN ALDRIDGE
BRICK MAKING
COPPY HALL
COLLIERY
Stubbers Green, Aldridge C.1900
ALDRIDGE No 2
PIT (Leighswood)
This photo shows the trucks being loaded with
coal from the conveyors. You can see there is only one shaft by the fact that there is
only one winding gear. This was only allowed because of the underground link-up with
Speedwell Colliery.
ALDRIDGE No 1
PIT
This pit was also known as Dry Bread Pit.
It was the main employer of men and boys in the early1900's.
You can see behind the building in the foreground, the large round fan housing which was
over 20 feet diameter.
ALDRIDGE No 1
PIT
Another view of Aldridge No1. This shows
the Railway Trucks being loaded with coal.
ALDRIDGE No 1 PIT with the Birmingham Navigation Canal in the foreground.