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Hamstead Colliery

I remember one day when the cable carrying the buckets had a major breakdown and the buckets crashing into each other and falling off the cables, much excitement for the neighbours in Coleraine Road
Where the cable passed over the Hamstead road they had a wooden trough that was suspended under the cableway to catch any spillage.
 
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Thanks,
I can just see the buckets - first time in 40 years!! Ahh, we all had those prams then didn't we? Proper prams, not like these nimminy pimminy buggies....
I don't remember the bucket crash either, but we were over the other side of the road. Ours was the only house with a garage on the front, because it was on the corner and there was a turn in the road there, making just enough of an angle. My brother still lives there. He must be the resident who has been there the longest - from 1952.
 
I used to drive under the cableway every day in the mid 1960's but these days could not really remember what it looked like. It was over the junction of Hamstead Rd and Old Walsall Rd and the photo below refreshes my memory.
 

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That's a great photo. Brings back lots of memories. Thanks. There was a little post office just on the right, and further towards the camera was a great toy shop where we bought our guns and caps....! Can't remember the name of it but it was our favourite shop! Then there was also a shop my mom used to call the cafe, Lord knows why as it was just a little general store where I remember the huge red bacon slicer and it was the first shop we had seen where you had a basket to put your own goods in.
 
The Post Office was run by the Billing family, a cousin of mine married one of them. By the 50's Ernie Billing had taken over from his mother.
 
Hi, I remember it was absolutely tiny, you practically had to queue up to get in! The toy shop and I think newsagents, the name Andersons came to mind yesterday, but I have no idea if it is right. I remember there were two counters as you entered, left and right and then straight on there was a step up to where the toys were kept.
 
A 1966 view on Hamstead Rd and the colliery winding wheel can be seen on the skyline to the left of the West Bromwich bus. The colliery was closed just before this date.
Hamstead Rd_1966.jpg
 
Ah yes, takes me back. My Aunt lived in Stanton (Avenue?) which was just behind the onlooker on the left.
 
Oh the number 6 West Bromwich bus. I went to Hamstead school during the war years and my mother worked so I used to catch the number 6 up to Hamstead Hill, cut across the field to my aunt in Jayshaw Avenue, have a quick lunch then catch the bus back to school.

A few years ago I went on a nostalgia trip with my sister, we took the train from town, caught a bus in Hamstead and had a ride up to the Hamstead pub for lunch. We found that there is just one of the old miners houses left, right opposite to where I was born in Old Walsall Road in my Nan's house. It was having a refurb, the brewhouse wall was still there in the little fenced in yard and there were radiators in the tiny little rooms and I remember thinking - Imagine that Nan!!
 
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How lovely Di I love going on nostalgia trips. Some times good but also can be very sad. It must have been lovely to see the old miners cottage and be able to take a look inside. My grandma's brother lived in Jayshaw Avenue but I don't remember the number. His name was Thomas Smith, about the most common name in the U.K....HA HA.
 
The Newspaper archive has recently added The Walsall Advertiser to its publications, meaning another source of information for the area is available, such as the cutting below (Walsall Advertiser 9.9.1911), which shows that it is not just today that appeal funds do not always completely reach those they were intended for.

WALSALL_ADVERTISER_9_9_1911.jpg
 
I seem to have missed out on the general conversations by some years! Anyway, I lived in Langdale Road in 1958 and my Dad worked at the pit. I have so many great memories of that time. Sliding down the slag heaps on corrugated iron sheets (how dangerous was that? Playing on the cut, and playing over on the "Mole-hole". Also going over to Big Jim's Wood. I went to Churchfields school and we had school buses that took us there. I lived with the Phillips Family at 70 Langdale Rd. Mrs Phillips,Berwin,Pamela,Irene & Gloria. I've never forgotten them and if anyone remembers them it would be great. I could go on (and on) but will stop now to draw breath!
 
A bit late to reply to your post Banjo, I have just found it, my cousin lived in Langdale Road and he was my pal when I lived in Hamstead. With his gang we used to get up to no end of mischief, the great thrill was to jump into the coal trucks that were parked near the foredraft. The 'Mole Hole' in fact was the Marl Hole, it was at the back of Old Walsall Road in the wood. The clay was used in the manufacture of porcelain. My great uncle was 'Big Jim'. In the days of the disaster he looked after the pit ponies, and it was he who received the Gold Medal.
 
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If you are interested in the early history of Hamstead Colliery you could look at Wikipedia, the HAMSTEAD MINERS MEMORIAL TRUST, or William Dargue, 2008-2016, A History of Birmingham Places & Place names, and probably many other sources.

They are very similar…”Following successful mining at nearby Sandwell Park, the Hamstead Colliery Company was formed in 1875. 200 hectares of land were leased from G C Calthorpe of Perry Hall and the following year shafts were sunk. Because of unexpected geology and problems with flooding, the first coal was not brought up commercially for another two years. Coal was mined here from the thick seams at a depth of some 600 metres, at that time the deepest coal mine in the world.”

Somehow incorrect information seems to have been perpetuated!

The Staffs Advertiser, in its Commercial summary of 6th March 1875, says this..

“The recent discovery of the 10 yard seam under Sandwell Park is bearing fruit in direction of utilising the large mineral areas stretching from Sandwell in an eastern direction, the presence of the thick coal under which is held to be proved by the result of the Sandwell experiment. In addition to new sinkings at Aldridge, and the leasing of 1,500 acres of the Perry Hall Estate belonging to the Honourable ACG Calthorpe to a private stock company for mining purposes, a new enterprise under the name of the Hamstead Colliery Company has been launched for the purchase and mineral development of the Hamstead Estate belonging to General Studd, and lying between the Sandwell and Perry Estates. (Area 520 acres, and freehold purchase of estate is approx £200 per acre.)

So the Hamstead Company bought the Hamstead estate freehold from General Studd and not Lord Calthorpe. Further evidence of this can be seen in 1882 at the 7th annual meeting where an account for purchase was due to General Studd.

Now there was, in 1876, a Perry Hall Colliery Company. A case came before magistrates, but as the Hon Calthorpe and Major Williams were sitting, they had to withdraw as they were shareholders in the Company!

On the 1886 OS Map a Perry Barr Colliery (disused) can be seen. So this raises a further question as to the claims that Hamstead Colliery was the only one within the city!

It was also much longer than 2 years before the coal was brought up!
 
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Pedrocut said:
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If you are interested in the early history of Hamstead Colliery you could look at Wikipedia, the HAMSTEAD MINERS MEMORIAL TRUST, or William Dargue, 2008-2016, A History of Birmingham Places & Place names, and probably many other sources.

They are very similar…”Following successful mining at nearby Sandwell Park, the Hamstead Colliery Company was formed in 1875. 200 hectares of land were leased from G C Calthorpe of Perry Hall and the following year shafts were sunk. Because of unexpected geology and problems with flooding, the first coal was not brought up commercially for another two years. Coal was mined here from the thick seams at a depth of some 600 metres, at that time the deepest coal mine in the world.”

Somehow incorrect information seems to have been perpetuated!

The Staffs Advertiser, in its Commercial summary of 6th March 1875, says this..

“The recent discovery of the 10 yard seam under Sandwell Park is bearing fruit in direction of utilising the large mineral areas stretching from Sandwell in an eastern direction, the presence of the thick coal under which is held to be proved by the result of the Sandwell experiment. In addition to new sinkings at Aldridge, and the leasing of 1,500 acres of the Perry Hall Estate belonging to the Honourable ACG Calthorpe to a private stock company for mining purposes, a new enterprise under the name of the Hamstead Colliery Company has been launched for the purchase and mineral development of the Hamstead Estate belonging to General Studd, and lying between the Sandwell and Perry Estates. (Area 520 acres, and freehold purchase of estate is approx £200 per acre.)

So the Hamstead Company bought the Hamstead estate freehold from General Studd and not Lord Calthorpe. Further evidence of this can be seen in 1882 at the 7th annual meeting where an account for purchase was due to General Studd.

Now there was, in 1876, a Perry Hall Colliery Company. A case came before magistrates, but as the Hon Calthorpe and Major Williams were sitting, they had to withdraw as they were shareholders in the Company!

On the 1886 OS Map a Perrybarr Colliery (disused) can be seen. So this raises a further question as to the claims that Hamstead Colliery was the only one within the city!

It was also much longer than 2 years before the coal was brought up!
Click to expand...

The Perry Hall Colliery Company mentioned above would probably be the one NE of Willenhall at Short Heath. Lord Calthorpe's involvement may have led to the name.

So who had run the disused Perrybarr Colliery?
 
Just trying to place where the Perrybarr Colliery marked on the old map was - looks like the Rocky Lane area?
 
Just to make it clear where we are talking about
 

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IMG_1031.jpg IMG_1032.jpg A map from 1938 and a present day Google Earth.
I have a feeling that it may have been a pit that predates the sinking of Hampstead (1875) by some years. Maybe an odd outcrop that appeared on the surface?

I did discover a mention around 1876 that the sinkings on the Perry Estate that Lord Calthorpe had leased had not found coal even at considerable depth, and it was thought that further sinkings would not take place. I don't suppose this bothered the good Lord too much.
 
Somewhere I have seen a map which shows Handsworth Colliery, and there is a fine line drawn between Handsworth and Perry Barr. I will try to find the map.
 
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Di.Poppitt said:
Somewhere I have seen a map which shows Handsworth Colliery, and there is a fine line drawn between Handsworth and Perry Barr. I will try to find the map.
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Taken the map from...

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/warks/vol7/pp1-3

It seems clear that at the opening of Hamstead Colliery (1875) it was not in Birmingham. It was in Staffordshire along with Handsworth and Perry Barr. There was a map somewhere on the Forum that showed the Staffs border running down Aston Lane and near Witton square was Staffordshire Pool.
 
The first image shows Hamstead Colliery and the nearby school. The 1888-1913 map shows two small reservoirs which can be seen in the first image.
HamsteadColliery.JPG
HamsteadColliery1888_1913.JPG
 
That little boy was my cousin's son. I was 16 at the time and it was very hard to come to terms with it. But he drowned in the Foredraught not the Reservoir, which was railed in. The land flooded and he slipped in and couldn't get out.

I haven't found the map that shows a colliery in Handsworth, I wrote about it once. Paul would know but he isn't on the Forum much any more.
 
Stitcher said:
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Reports of Three pit disasters.
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Anyone interested in the Pelsall Hall Colliery Disaster of 1872, may like to read an article (what) I wrote for Brownhills Bob. I had read a book by historian Annita Bates...“Pelsall's Black Gold Pelsall Hall Colliery Disaster The History, the Unsolved Mysteries and the Lasting Legacy.”

- Where’s the Mystery (BrownhillsBob’s Brownhills Blog)...

https://brownhillsbob.com/2016/04/10/pelsall-hall-colliery-disaster-wheres-the-mystery/
 
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