Boothen Colliery

Overview

A North Staffordshire coal and ironstone colliery at Vale Place, just north of the Hanley boundary in the Potteries coalfield, worked by Fox and Ward in the 1860s, returned under Earl Granville in 1880 and by 1889 in the hands of the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company, which still had it at work at the end of the nineteenth century. Its abandonment plans record the Bassey Mine given up in 1861, the Little, Cannel Row, Bassey Mine and Spencroft seams in 1871, the Great Row in 1872 and the Gubbin ironstone in 1886. Little else about it has been found, and the record is deliberately short.

History

The Victoria County History places Boothen Colliery to the north of the Hanley boundary at Vale Place, on the road up to Cobridge, and records it worked by Fox and Ward in the 1860s. The 1880 official return lists it among Earl Granville's Hanley pits, with Bellsmill, Fargree and Foxley; the Granville family had mined at Shelton since at least 1818 and their collieries, run from 1888 by the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company, drove the expansion of the Hanley coal trade in the 1850s and 1860s. By 1889 the company had taken Boothen over and it was still in operation at the end of the century. The North Staffordshire Mining Group's index of abandoned pits gives an approximate grid reference of SJ 878 482 and the seams given up: the Bassey Mine ironstone about 1861, the Great Row coal in 1872 and the Gubbin ironstone in 1886, with a separate 'Boothen and Stackyard' Gubbin ironstone working; the national mine-plans catalogue holds eight Boothen plans dated 1871 covering the Little, Cannel Row, Bassey Mine and Spencroft seams. No account of the colliery's closure has been found.

Geology

Boothen worked the Middle Coal Measures of the Potteries coalfield, a thick sequence of sedimentary beds in which coal seams alternate with the blackband and clayband ironstones that fed the Shelton furnaces: the abandonment records name the Little, Cannel Row, Great Row and Spencroft coals and the Bassey Mine and Gubbin ironstones. Boothen Lane, the road through the district, was renamed Century Road in the later nineteenth century.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

No description of the shafts or workings has been found beyond the seams named on the abandonment plans; a search-summary figure of 390 metres' depth was not traceable to a readable source and is not used.

Closure

Still in operation at the end of the nineteenth century according to the Victoria County History; no closure date has been found.

What remains

No account of what remains has been located; the site lies within built-up Hanley.

Related mines

• Racecourse Colliery, Hanley — Both were Earl Granville pits at Hanley, returned together in 1880 and passed to the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company in 1888.

Nearby mines

• Far Green Colliery — 0.8 km E
• Racecourse Colliery, Hanley — 0.9 km SW
• Sneyd Colliery — 1.7 km N
• Wolstanton Colliery — 1.7 km W
• Fenton Park Colliery — 4.2 km SE

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.

• Boothen Colliery lay north of the Hanley boundary at Vale Place, was worked by Fox and Ward in the 1860s, had been taken over by the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company by 1889, and was still in operation at the end of the century. ¹
• The 1880 official list gives Boothen, Hanley, under Earl Granville. ²
• The NSMG index gives the Bassey Mine abandoned in 1861, the Great Row in 1872 and the Gubbin in 1886, at approximately SJ 878 482, with a separate Boothen and Stackyard Gubbin ironstone working. ³
• The mine-plans catalogue holds eight Boothen abandonment plans dated 1871 for the Little, Cannel Row, Bassey Mine and Spencroft seams. ⁴
• The Granville family were mining at Shelton by 1818 and their collieries, run by the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company from 1888, were the main feature of the Hanley coal industry's expansion in the 1850s and 1860s. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Burslem: Local government, economic history and social life (A History of the County of Stafford, vol. 8, 1963) — Victoria County History, via British History Online
2. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
3. (secondary) Mould's Pits: index of abandoned mines in the Potteries — North Staffordshire Mining Group (Apedale Heritage Centre)
4. (primary) Boothen abandonment plan, 1871: Little, Cannel Row, Bassey Mine and Spencroft seams (mine plans catalogue) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 9 September 2026