Conduit Colliery

Overview

A large Cannock Chase colliery at Norton Canes, near Brownhills, worked by the Conduit Colliery Company from at least 1861 and employing over 1,500 people in 1933. It came to the National Coal Board in 1947 and its last workings were abandoned in 1951.

History

Conduit Colliery lay at Norton Canes, on the northern edge of Brownhills. It had two main shafts, one beside the south side of the A5 below Norton village and the other in the east of the village, where Conduit Close now runs. Fatalities are recorded there from 1861, when a carpenter fell down the shaft. The Conduit Colliery Company returned two mines in the 1890s, No. 1 (Brownhills) and No. 3 (Norton Green). Between them they employed over 1,300 people in 1894, and both raised coal and ironstone.

From 1905 the lists of mines return Nos. 3 and 4, working the Bass, Deep, Shallow and Yard seams for household, manufacturing and steam coal. Employment at the two pits together reached 1,546 in 1933. Littleton Collieries Ltd later owned the colliery, and it passed to the National Coal Board in 1947. That year it employed 820 people and raised 220,000 tons. Plans of the Yard, Shallow, Bass, Deep and Four Feet workings were deposited as abandoned in 1951.

Geology

Cannock Chase Coal Measures: the Bass, Deep, Shallow, Yard and Four Feet seams, with ironstone also raised in the 1890s.

Workings

Two main shafts, one beside the A5 south of Norton Canes and one at the east end of the village, with the Nos. 3 and 4 pits returned separately from 1905. A Conduit No. 2 working in the Deep, Shallow, Yard and Bass was abandoned in 1879.

Closure

The plans of the last workings, in the Yard, Shallow, Bass, Deep and Four Feet seams, were deposited as abandoned in 1951. The reason for closure is unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Conduit Close in Norton Canes is built near the site of the eastern shaft.

Recorded claims

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

• Had two main shafts, one beside the south side of the A5 south of Norton Canes and one at the east end of the village near Conduit Close. ¹
• Nos. 3 and 4 pits together employed 1,546 people in 1933. ²
• Employed 820 people and raised 220,000 tons in 1947, under the National Coal Board. ²
• A carpenter was killed falling down the pit shaft in June 1861. ²
• Plans of the Yard, Shallow, Bass, Deep and Four Feet workings were deposited as abandoned in 1951. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) History — Norton Canes Parish Council
2. (primary) Conduit Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Mine plan: Conduit, Yard seam (abandoned 1951) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026