The Shrewsbury Coalfield
Most people know there were mines at Snailbeach, and some can remember being able to see opencast mining taking place beside the M54 near Telford, within the last 35 years.It's not so well-known that there were at least a dozen mines in what's known as the Shrewsbury Coalfield.
The Shrewsbury Coalfield is situated to the south and south west of Shrewsbury and is small by national standards.
Online sources list mines in the Shrewsbury Coalfield from Asterley in the south west, to Bayston Hill on the east.
- Longden (the Black Lion Colliery)
- Meole Colliery
- Nobold Colliery
- Sutton Colliery
- Welbatch Colliery (between Hook-a-Gate, and Annscroft).
Plus, mines at Hanwood, and Pontesbury.
We could list many more, and people watching this may comment on many other mine locations as well.
The mines would have for many centuries supplied the domestic market of Shrewsbury, with the first being "bell pits", dug by hand where coal seams were evident from the surface.
Shrewsbury Coalfield was also important throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, to supply the nearby led mining area to the south, with coal for smelting. In the 19th century, there were 9 reasonably sized collieries and many smaller ones.
By 1921, these had all closed except for Hanwood Colliery which continued for a few years more, until its closure in 1941.
The was also a colliery at Pontesford which had a steam engine installed in 1793 for pumping out water.
In 1811 it appears that the shaft was 225ft deep, and evidence remains in the form of part of the steam pump engine-house, now converted as part of a modern home.
They are to provide visual interest, and do not depict the mines referred to.
Text sources: Shropshire History website, and the Northern Mine Research Society.
Image Attributions with Links:
This presentation contains images that were used under a Creative Commons License. Click here to see the full list of images and attributions:
https://link.attribute.to/cc/372105
Watch this on YouTube here.
