Victoria Colliery, Biddulph

Overview

The Bull: Robert Heath's Biddulph Valley Colliery at Black Bull, developed from 1857 around three shallow shafts on the Knypersley estate, renamed Victoria when the Magpie shaft was deepened in 1900, and the last deep mine in the Biddulph valley when it closed on 28 July 1982. Three shafts, Victoria, Havelock and Salisbury, an underground link to Brown Lees, and up to 1,580 employed in 1953.

History

In 1857 Robert Heath, who had started work at fourteen under his father at Clough Hall, leased the minerals under the Knypersley Hall estate from John Bateman, where three shallow shafts already existed, and built the Biddulph Valley Colliery and Ironworks around them. The Biddulph Valley line of the North Staffordshire Railway opened in 1860, primarily for the valley's coal and ironstone, with a station at Black Bull from 1864. Heath deepened No. 2 shaft into the Magpie and, after further deepening begun in 1898 and finished in 1900, the Victoria shaft, which gave the pit its name; the two new shafts of the Deep Pit, served by one winding engine, became the Engine and Bye pits and after deepening the Havelock. In 1887 Heath acquired Brown Lees Colliery, whose shaft was deepened between 1893 and 1895 and connected underground to Victoria while the Salisbury pumping shaft, 240 yards deep, was being sunk. For most of its life the colliery therefore had three shafts. Heath's firm, Robert Heath and Sons, owned at its peak 28 coal and iron mines, eight blast furnaces and the Biddulph Valley and Black Bull ironworks, employing about 5,000; the town council's history has the colliery employing over 1,100 in 1908. By the 1930s the pit belonged to Norton and Biddulph Collieries Ltd, with 1,150 employed in 1933 and 1,180 in 1940, and it passed to the National Coal Board in 1947 with 1,402 people and an output of 475,000 tons of gas, household and industrial coal. An internal railway carried coal to Birchenwood at Kidsgrove for gas-making until the 1960s. The Sentinel's cuttings for the NCB years show a pit that set an output record of 10,788 tons in a week in October 1947, won the North Staffordshire first-aid shield ten years running and the area rescue competition, and produced Ernie Ball, the coal-face worker who took the NCB heavyweight boxing title four years in succession. Employment peaked at 1,580 in 1953 and the NCB extended the workings in 1955; around 600 were still employed at closure. Two men, A. W. Stanway, 58, and S. Rowe, 36, were buried by a fall of coal and dirt on 20 September 1949 and found dead ten minutes later. Adverse geological conditions ended the pit: it closed on 28 July 1982 with most of the men transferred to the long-life collieries of the coalfield, and the Brown Lees shafts, kept for pumping, were filled. The site was opencasted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, uncovering the ironworks and many old shafts, and in an engine house by the old Brindley pits a very early Aveling and Porter chain engine, bought from Turnhurst in 1886.

Geology

North Staffordshire Coal Measures on the east side of the Biddulph valley, worked with ironstone for Heath's furnaces; the adverse geological conditions that closed the pit are not specified in the sources read.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Three shafts, Victoria, Havelock and Salisbury, with an underground connection to Brown Lees whose shafts served as pumping shafts; coal-cutters and conveyors by the 1950s; a pump house in the Salisbury shaft decorated from about 1950 with a pumpman's paintings.

Closure

Closed on 28 July 1982 after declining fortunes put down to adverse geological conditions; the men went to the coalfield's long-life pits. A Commons written answer that month set out the redundancy payments available to the Victoria men.

What remains

The site was opencasted in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Brown Lees site among it, and has been reclaimed; nothing of the colliery stands. The 6-foot balance-rope pulley wheel from the base of the Victoria shaft was erected outside Biddulph Town Hall and unveiled on 3 December 1983 by Harry Mountford, the oldest surviving Victoria miner; it has since been restored and raised on a plinth with a memorial wall of engraved bricks.

None on site; the balance wheel outside Biddulph Town Hall.

Redevelopment

Opencast reworking of the site in the late 1980s and early 1990s, since reclaimed.

Nearby mines

• Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — 2.3 km S
• Birchenwood Colliery — 3.5 km W
• Hollinswood Colliery — 5.1 km W
• Sneyd Colliery — 5.5 km S
• Bunker's Hill Colliery — 5.8 km W

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Robert Heath leased the Knypersley Hall minerals from John Bateman in 1857, where three shallow shafts existed, and developed the Biddulph Valley Colliery; the Magpie shaft was widened and deepened 1898–1900 and the pit renamed Victoria. ^1,2,3
• Three shafts for most of its life, Victoria, Havelock and Salisbury; Brown Lees, acquired 1887, was connected underground and its shafts kept for pumping. ^1,3
• Over 1,100 in 1908; 1,150 in 1933, 1,180 in 1940 and 1,402 in 1947 (Colliery Year Books); 1,580 in 1953; about 600 at closure. ^3,4
• Closed 28 July 1982 after declining fortunes due to adverse geological conditions, most men transferring to long-life collieries; the site was later opencasted. ^1,2,5
• A. W. Stanway, 58, and S. Rowe, 36, were killed by a fall of coal and dirt on 20 September 1949; single deaths are recorded in 1949, 1957 and 1959. ⁶
• The balance wheel from the Victoria shaft was unveiled outside Biddulph Town Hall on 3 December 1983 by Harry Mountford, the oldest surviving Victoria miner. ^2,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) A History of Victoria Colliery, by Jim Worgan — North Staffordshire Coalfield (NSMG) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group
2. (secondary) Victoria Colliery — Staffordshire Past Track — Staffordshire Past Track
3. (secondary) Town Hall Frontage — Biddulph Town Council — Biddulph Town Council
4. (secondary) Biddulph Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Victoria Colliery, Biddulph — Hansard written answer, 28 July 1982 — UK Parliament
6. (secondary) Victoria — Sentinel cuttings, North Staffordshire Coalfield (NSMG) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group
7. (secondary) Black Bull railway station — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026