Birch Coppice Colliery

Overview

A north Warwickshire colliery at Hall End, on Watling Street between Wilnecote and Dordon, known locally as Hall End pit. Its Nos. 1 and 2 shafts were sunk in 1875, and Morris and Shaw employed some 1,600 there by 1910; under the National Coal Board it was reconstructed in 1957, and it closed in 1986 when a new face ran into a fault.

History

The colliery took its name from Birch Coppice, a wood on the estate of the Earls Beauchamp of Madresfield Court, but locally it was always Hall End, after the hamlet on Watling Street between Wilnecote and Dordon. Coal was worked there from about 1850, first by Messrs Shaw and Caldicott. In 1870 Arthur Morris put capital into the venture, becoming a major shareholder, to finish the Birchmoor pit, and a brickworks was started at Hall End. In December 1873 a collier clearing a roof fall in a heading held his naked candle up into a hole and fired a small body of gas, killing Edward Thay, aged 22; the inspector thought the colliery remarkably free from gas. The Birch Coppice Nos. 1 and 2 shafts were sunk in 1875, lined with bricks made at the colliery's own brickworks.

Morris and Shaw's Hall End pits employed 923 people in 1894, 1,455 in 1905 and 1,599 in 1910. That year lightning struck the wooden headgear and set it alight, the fire fed by grease that had dripped from the bearings, and coal-drawing stopped until a steel headgear was built. A third shaft, Wood End, was sunk in 1911-14 and from 1918 served for pumping, ventilation and manriding. In 1933 Nos. 1, 2 and 3 employed 1,650 and worked the Ryder, Seven Feet and Four Feet seams for household and industrial coal; by 1940 the company, now Birch Coppice Collieries and Brickworks, listed four pits. A second headgear fire in 1947 began when a spark from a welding torch fell into a barrel of grease beside the shaft top; because it was the upcast shaft, the smoke never reached the men underground.

Under the National Coal Board the colliery was reconstructed in 1957, its shafts deepened and electric winding engines installed. A pilot plant was built there to find the cheapest way of making smokeless fuel; once a method had been proven in 1963 it was dismantled and a new plant built at Coventry Colliery. In 1982 the workings were connected to the Dexter shaft to ventilate the Bench seam and carry men. A face planned in 1983 was driven towards a fault already proven to exist, met it in 1986, and the colliery closed; one newspaper account gives 1987. The site is now Birch Coppice Business Park, and in April 2013 a miners' memorial, a ten-foot monument crowned with a replica Davy lamp inside a brick wall engraved with the names of men from Birch Coppice, Wood End and Birchmoor, was unveiled at its entrance.

Geology

Warwickshire coalfield: the Ryder, Seven Feet and Four Feet seams in the 1930s, the High Main and Thin Rider, and the Bench seam in the 1980s.

Workings

Nos. 1 and 2 shafts sunk in 1875; the Wood End shaft sunk 1911-14 for pumping, ventilation and manriding; four pits listed in 1940; shafts deepened in 1957; connected to the Dexter shaft in 1982.

Closure

Closed in 1986 after a new face met a fault (NMRS: November 1986); a 2013 newspaper report gives 1987.

What remains

The colliery site has been landscaped and built over as Birch Coppice Business Park.

Redevelopment

Birch Coppice Business Park, with a miners' memorial at its entrance unveiled in April 2013.

Related mines

• Birchmoor Colliery — Pits of the Hall End venture of Shaw and Caldicott and Arthur Morris.
• Dexter Colliery — Connected underground: Birch Coppice's workings were joined to the Dexter shaft for ventilation and manriding in 1982.

Culture

• Birch Coppice Miners Memorial (Art)
  The memorial stands at the entrance to Birch Coppice Business Park, on the site of Birch Coppice Colliery, and carries the names of the colliery's men.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Birch Coppice Colliery closed in 1987. (disputed) ⁶

Recorded claims

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

• Coal was worked at Hall End from about 1850 by Messrs Shaw and Caldicott; Arthur Morris became a major shareholder in 1870. ¹
• Birch Coppice Colliery was established in 1850. ²
• The Birch Coppice Nos. 1 and 2 shafts were sunk in 1875, lined with bricks from the colliery's own brickworks. ¹
• A small firedamp explosion on 3 December 1873, fired by a naked candle, killed Edward Thay, a collier aged 22. ³
• Morris and Shaw's Hall End pits employed 923 in 1894, 1,599 in 1910 and 1,650 in 1933. ⁴
• Lightning set fire to the wooden headgear in 1910, stopping coal-drawing until a steel headgear was built; a second headgear fire followed in 1947. ¹
• A third shaft, Wood End, was sunk in 1911-14 and used from 1918 for pumping, ventilation and manriding. ¹
• A National Coal Board pilot plant at Birch Coppice proved a method of making smokeless fuel in 1963. ¹
• Birch Coppice Colliery closed in 1986 after a new face met a geological fault. ^5,1
• Birch Coppice Colliery closed in 1987. (disputed) ⁶
• Birch Coppice's Four Feet workings were abandoned on 30 June 1958. ⁷
• A miners' memorial was unveiled in April 2013 at the entrance to Birch Coppice Business Park, on the colliery site. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Birch Coppice Colliery - Our Warwickshire — Our Warwickshire (Warwickshire County Record Office)
2. (secondary) Birch Coppice Colliery, Dorden, Warwickshire: archaeological watching brief report — Oxford Archaeological Unit
3. (primary) Birch Coppice explosion, 3 December 1873 — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Morris and Shaw Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (secondary) Miners' memorial unveiled at site of former Birch Coppice Colliery at Dordon — Coventry Telegraph
7. (primary) BGS mine plan: Birch Coppice, Four Feet, abandoned 30 June 1958 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026