Introduction

The North Staffordshire Coalfield is an historic coalfield

Coalfield

A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological...

 in the County of Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The Coalfield emcompasses an area of nearly 100 square miles (259 km²) and that area is virtually wholly contained within the boundaries of the city of Stoke on Trent and the borough of Newcastle under Lyme. There are three other smaller coalfields which are associated with the North Staffs field and they are the tiny Shaffalong and Goldsitch Moss Coalfields near to Leek

Leek

The leek, Allium ampeloprasum var. porrum , also sometimes known as Allium porrum, is a vegetable which belongs, along with the onion and garlic, to family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae...

 and the Cheadle Coalfield

Cheadle Coalfield

The Cheadle Coalfield is a coalfield in the United Kingdom. Centred around the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire and its outlying villages it lies to the east of Stoke-on-Trent and the much larger North Staffordshire Coalfield...

.
Coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 in North Staffordshire was recorded as early as the 13th century by the monks at Hulton Abbey but the industry grew during the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

 when coal mined in North Staffordshire was used in the areas famous Pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 industry of the Potteries, and also the local Iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 industry as ironstone

Ironstone

Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical repacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron compound from which iron either can be or once was smelted commercially. This term is customarily restricted to hard coarsely...

 deposits were also found with the coal in certain areas.

The heyday of the industry was in the period before the First World War when over 20,000 men worked in the industry and over 50 pits were in operation. After Nationalisation in 1947 the industry was gradually reduced in size as the smaller pits were closed or merged with the larger, more modern mines. The industry began its final decline after the 1984-85 Miners strike and the last deep mine in the North Staffs Coalfield, Silverdale was closed on Christmas Eve 1998.

Geology

The North Staffordshire Coalfield is a compact and heavily faulted coalfield,which is triangular and troughed like a saucer in its shape. However for its relatively small size it has an amazing number and variety of workable seams;

Seams within the Middle Coal Measures

• Winghay
• Rowhurst
• Burnwood
• Moss
• Five Feet
• Yard
• Ragman
• Hams
• Bellringer
• Ten Feet
• Bowling Alley
• Holly Lane
• Hard Mine

Seams within the Lower Coal Measures

• Banbury
• Cockshead
• Bullhurst
• Winpenny
• Diamond
• Brights
• King
• Crabtree
• Two Feet

History

Coal and ironstone were being dug in the Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire area as early as 1282, and by 1467 the Great Row coal seam was being mined and used for firing pottery. The actual area within which the coal is exposed at the surface is 70 square miles (181.3 km²), which is small compared to other coalfields, but along the central part of this the thickness of the seams is much greater than that of any other English coalfield except Lancashire.

The coal industry gradually expanded due to demand from the pottery

Staffordshire Potteries

The Staffordshire Potteries is a generic term for the industrial area encompassing the six towns that now make up Stoke on Trent in Staffordshire, England....

 and iron industry

Shelton Bar

Shelton Bar was a major steelworks in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. In its heyday, Shelton Bar employed 10,000 in the steelworks, had five coal mines, a complete railway system, and a by-products processing factory.-The main site:...

. It was also due to the establishment of the new transport system, canals

Trent and Mersey Canal

The Trent and Mersey Canal is a in the East Midlands, West Midlands, and North West of England. It is a "narrow canal" for the vast majority of its length, but at the extremities—east of Burton upon Trent and west of Middlewich—it is a wide canal....

 (1777) and later railways

North Staffordshire Railway

The North Staffordshire Railway was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire....

(1837).

The coal industry went from private small owners to big group ironmaster owners, to nationalisation in 1947, until the last deep mine (Silverdale) was closed in December 1998.

External links

• http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/exhibit/coal/default.htm