Clough Hall Colliery

Overview

The collieries of the Clough Hall estate at Kidsgrove in North Staffordshire: worked by Kinnersley and Company in the mid nineteenth century, scene of the Bullhurst explosion of 1865, and by the 1890s the Birchenwood company's Nos. 4, 6 and 18 pits, which employed 2,350 people in 1923.

History

Clough Hall, built at Kidsgrove about 1800, was the home of the Kinnersley family, bankers and iron merchants of Newcastle-under-Lyme, from 1817 to 1874, and the collieries on its land took its name. Plans of the numbered Clough Hall pits, Nos. 4 to 31, in the Little Row, Pottery, Four Feet, Seven Feet, Stoney Eight Feet, Ten Feet and ironstone seams, were deposited as abandoned in 1850, and a later group with the Nelson, Starvation, Valentine and Speedwell pits in 1883.

In 1865 Kinnersley and Company owned the Clough Hall and Brookhouse collieries. On 1 March firedamp exploded in the Bullhurst seam and killed five colliers after a shot was fired in a working where gas had been found that morning; the manager admitted the seam was fiery and had no furnace or other ventilation but brattice air. The magistrates dismissed the inspector's charge, and in September the same overman sent a man to brush gas out with his waistcoat and he too was killed (see Disasters, below). In February 1868 three men died when a rope broke as they were ascending.

By 1894 the Birchenwood Colliery Company held the Clough Hall pits Nos. 4, 6 and 18, working the Banbury, Bullhurst, Winpenny and Ten Feet seams for coking, gas and steam coal. No. 18 grew from 341 people in 1894 to 1,908 in 1910 and became the main shaft of Birchenwood Colliery; No. 4 served as a pumping station and closed in April 1906. The three pits employed 2,350 in 1923. A No. 2 pit was being worked by the Clough Hall Colliery Company in 1941.

Geology

North Staffordshire Coal Measures. The pits worked the Seven Feet and Eight Feet Banbury, Bullhurst, Winpenny, Bowling Alley, Ten Feet, Two Row, Birchenwood and Rough Seven Feet seams, and earlier the Little Row, Pottery, Four Feet, Stoney Eight Feet and ironstone measures. The Bullhurst was a fiery seam.

Workings

A group of numbered pits. In the 1890s-1920s Nos. 4, 6 and 18 were worked together, No. 18 the largest; No. 4 was a pumping station from 1896 and closed in April 1906. In 1865 the Bullhurst workings had no furnace or other means of ventilation.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Clough Hall itself was sold in 1890 and its grounds made a pleasure park; the hall was demolished about 1927.

Related mines

• Birchenwood Colliery — Clough Hall No. 18 pit became Birchenwood Colliery's main shaft; both worked by the Birchenwood Colliery Company (kept as separate records under the user's ruling of 2026-10-08).

Disasters & major incidents

• Clough Hall Colliery explosion, 1865
  1 March 1865 · Explosion · 5 fatalities
  On 1 March 1865 a shot fired in a working known to hold gas caused an explosion in the Bullhurst seam at Kinnersley and Co.'s Clough Hall Colliery, Kidsgrove, killing five. The inspector called the shot perfect madness, but magistrates dismissed the case against the manager.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1865 the Clough Hall and Brookhouse collieries were owned by Kinnersley and Company. ¹
• An explosion of firedamp in the Bullhurst seam on 1 March 1865 killed five colliers. ^1,2
• Three men were killed on 29 February 1868 when a rope broke as they were ascending. ²
• Plans of Clough Hall Nos. 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 17 and 31 pits are catalogued as abandoned in 1850. ³
• By 1894 the Birchenwood Colliery Co. Ltd owned the Clough Hall Nos. 4, 6 and 18 pits. ^2,4
• Nos. 4, 6 and 18 employed 2,350 people in 1923, 1,800 of them underground. ²
• No. 4 pit closed in April 1906. ²
• In 1941 a No. 2 pit at Clough Hall was worked by the Clough Hall Colliery Co. ⁵
• Clough Hall was the home of the Kinnersley family, bankers and iron merchants of Newcastle-under-Lyme, from 1817 to 1874. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Clough Hall Colliery Explosion - Newcastle-under-Lyme - 1865 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Clough Hall Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) CLOUGH HALL NOS 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 17, 31: mine plan catalogue entry (abandoned 1850) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (secondary) Accident record: Patrick Loydon, Clough Hall No. 18 Pit, 1901 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) Accident record: William H. Watt, Clough Hall No. 2 Pit, 1941 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (secondary) Clough Hall Park and Gardens, Kidsgrove, Staffordshire — Architects of Greater Manchester
7. (primary) CLOUGH HALL / NELSON / STARVATION / VALENTINE / SPEEDWELL: mine plan catalogue entry (abandoned 1883) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026