Coombs Wood Colliery

Overview

A two-shaft colliery at Halesowen on the edge of the South Staffordshire coalfield, sunk in 1908 to the Thick Coal at 290 yards; on 18 March 1929 a ventilation sheet caught fire and eight men died of carbon monoxide, and the Thick Coal workings were abandoned in 1953.

History

Coombs Wood Colliery, also spelt Combes Wood, lay at Halesowen, on the extreme southern edge of the South Staffordshire coalfield. Its two shafts, an upcast and a downcast, were both sunk in 1908 and met the Thick Coal at 290 yards. Here the Ten Yard or Thick Coal was split by a parting into a top section, worked fifteen feet at a time on a modified longwall, and a bottom section whose Slipper Coal was worked by machine on an advancing longwall, with the Benches Coal beneath where it paid. Coombs Wood Collieries Ltd raised about 3,200 tons a week on the day shift, with 380 men below ground; 438 were employed in 1923 and 290 through the 1930s.

Shortly after seven on the morning of 18 March 1929 the 'damp sheet' of brattice cloth that turned the air into the South West Bottom Coal district caught fire, probably from a candle or a cigarette. Nine men were beyond it. Jabez Edwards crawled out past the fire with his cap in his mouth; the other eight, who believed they had only to wait for rescue, died of carbon monoxide. Fog delayed the rescue brigade from Dudley by nearly two hours. The National Coal Board took over in 1947, and the Thick Coal workings were abandoned on 1 September 1953.

Geology

The South Staffordshire Thick (Ten Yard) Coal, here split by a parting of two feet to twelve yards into top and bottom sections, with the Slipper Coal and Benches Coal in the bottom section over and under a fireclay.

Workings

Two shafts sunk in 1908, a downcast for winding and an upcast for water and a second outlet; longwall faces, coal-cutting machines, endless-rope haulage and a reversible Waddle fan.

Closure

Nationalised in 1947; the Thick Coal workings were abandoned on 1 September 1953.

What remains

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Coombs Wood's two shafts were sunk in 1908 and met the Thick Coal at 290 yards. ¹
• In 1929 Coombs Wood raised about 3,200 tons a week on the day shift with 380 men below ground. ¹
• Coombs Wood Colliery employed 438 people in 1923. ²
• On 18 March 1929 a brattice 'damp sheet' caught fire at Coombs Wood and eight men died of carbon monoxide. ^2,1,3
• The Thick Coal workings at Coombs Wood were abandoned on 1 September 1953. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coombs Wood Colliery Fire, Halesowen, 1929 (NMRS accidents and disasters) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Coombs Wood Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Coombs Wood Colliery newspaper article index (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21829932: Coombs Wood, Thick, abandoned 1 September 1953 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 23 October 2026 · Last researched: 23 October 2026