Coal Industry
The North Staffordshire Coalfield comprises four discrete mining areas. Together the Goldsitch Moss, Shaffalong and Cheadle fields cover less than 30 square miles,while the Potteries coalfield is over three times this size and has a much greater depth of workable coal.
The expansion of the pottery industry and the poor transportation network stimulated the initial development of local coal sources. In the late 18th Century much of the coal used in Burslem’s twenty-two potteries was dug from holes on the roadside. By 1811 it was being mined to depths of 300 feet and thirty years later 960 feet had been reached.
Before 1850 the major demand for coal came from the pottery kilns and domestic hearths, but with the invention of the blast furnace the production of pig-iron soared and the iron industry rapidly increased. The great iron and steel boom of the 1870’s stimulated the mine owners into re-opening some of the abandoned pits in order to meet the total industrial and domestic demand for almost four million tons per year. Efforts became concentrated on a handful of deep pits, such as Lord Granville’s pit in Hanley, which reached 1530 feet in 1827. This depth was surpassed by a number of neighbouring shafts; Sneyd Colliery at Burslem and Florence Colliery at Longton won coal from depths of 2600 feet whilst Stafford Colliery at Fenton extracted from depths of 2700 feet - the greatest depth worked in the North Staffordshire Coalfield up to the present time.
Preparation of the coal for sale has resulted in the accumulation of dirt tips (slag heaps) around the sites of collieries. Modern mines dispose of the waste more discretely, whilst the majority of old colliery tips in the City have been reclaimed and landscaped, e.g. Central Forest Park.
