Far Green Colliery

Overview

One of Lord Granville's Shelton pits in the Far Green district of Hanley, known to its men as the Big Pit, remembered almost entirely for the afternoon in November 1859 when a distracted engineman wound a cage of sixteen men and boys over the headgear pulley and ten of them died.

History

Far Green Colliery belonged to the Granville concern that worked the coal and ironstone under Hanley and Shelton for the Duchy of Lancaster, the copyhold coal of the manor having been leased to Lord Granville and worked, Simeon Shaw wrote in 1828, exclusively for the consumption of the Potteries. The pit was in working order by 1859, when the shaft accident of 5 November made it briefly notorious across North Staffordshire (see Disasters, below): the contemporary account calls it the Big Pit, Far Green, and the Inspector of Mines went out on the Monday to 'Lord Granville's works' to test the engine. Its name is otherwise unsettled in the sources. NMRS's account says it was 'also called the Deep Pit', but Geoff Mould's gazetteer of North Staffordshire pits records Hanley Deep Pit as sunk by Earl Granville & Co. in 1854 as the second deep pit for the Shelton company, five hundred yards to the Rough Seven Foot, whereas the men who fell at Far Green fell some 507 feet; the two were different shafts of the same concern, and a local memory of the Big Pit as the Deep Pit is the likeliest explanation. Mould lists Far Green under Earl Granville in 1869, and the 1880 list of coal mines still carries it, as 'Fargree', in Hanley under the Earl. By 1889 the Granville collieries had become the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company, sold to John Summers of Shotton in 1920; whether Far Green was still drawing coal by then is not recorded. An Evening Sentinel photograph of August 1952 shows 'a pit mound at Far Green' beside a spoil heap at Hanley Deep, so the site was still identifiable then.

Geology

The pit worked the Coal Measures beneath Hanley, in ground the Shelton concern had been undermining since at least the first decade of the nineteenth century, when its shaft numbering had already reached the eighties. The seam worked at the Big Pit is not recorded; the Granville pits between them worked the Moss, Ragman, Ten Foot, Holly Lane, Cockshead, Two Yard, Great Row, Cannel Row, Peacock and Spencroft seams, and Hanley Deep, a mile or so away, was sunk to the Rough Seven Foot.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A single winding shaft with a cage, about 507 feet deep in 1859, wound by a steam engine whose handle stood 63 feet from the pit mouth with the pulley axle 39 feet above the bank; the last stroke of the engine raised the cage about fifty feet. Men rode sixteen to a cage, the hooker-on signalling with three knocks before a load of men was drawn, and a fireman and banksmen worked the bank, which was paved with iron plates. Thomas Wynne, the Inspector, found the engine and its indicators 'as good as can be used' but recommended that the brake, then used only to fasten the engine, be applied as a matter of routine on every wind so that the engineman grew habituated to it.

Closure

The closure date is not known. The pit was listed in 1869 and 1880 and a pit mound at Far Green was still being photographed in 1952; what happened between is not recorded.

What remains

The site lies within the Far Green district of Hanley, east of the town centre. A pit mound survived there to be photographed in 1952; nothing says what became of it, and nothing is recorded of the site under any licence.

A pit mound was still visible in 1952; the present state of the ground is not recorded.

Related mines

• Ubberley Colliery — Neighbouring pits east of Hanley, a mile and a half apart.

Disasters & major incidents

• Far Green Colliery shaft accident, 1859
  5 November 1859 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 10 fatalities
  An ascending cage carrying sixteen men and boys overwound fifty feet past its normal stopping point and struck the headgear pulley at Far Green Colliery on 5 November 1859, after the winding engineman was briefly distracted; ten died.

What's uncertain

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

• The colliery was known to its workforce as the Big Pit, Far Green; NMRS's account calls it 'also known as the Deep Pit', but Mould's gazetteer records Hanley Deep as a separate, deeper shaft sunk in 1854, so the identification is disputed. (disputed) ^1,3,4

Recorded claims

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

• Far Green Colliery, recorded in an 1880 coal-mines list under the local spelling 'Fargree', was owned by Lord Granville and was locally known as the Deep Pit. ^1,2
• Ten men and boys died on 5 November 1859 when the ascending cage overwound past the headgear pulley after the engineman was briefly distracted. ¹
• The colliery was known to its workforce as the Big Pit, Far Green; NMRS's account calls it 'also known as the Deep Pit', but Mould's gazetteer records Hanley Deep as a separate, deeper shaft sunk in 1854, so the identification is disputed. (disputed) ^1,3,4
• The shaft was about 507 feet deep in 1859, the distance the men thrown from the cage fell. ³
• Geoff Mould's gazetteer lists Far Green under Earl Granville in 1869, and the 1880 list of coal mines records it as 'Fargree', Hanley, under the Earl. ^2,5
• An Evening Sentinel photograph of 11 August 1952 shows a pit mound at Far Green. ⁶
• The winding engine's handle was 63 feet from the pit mouth, the pulley axle 39 feet above the bank, and one stroke of the engine raised the cage about fifty feet; the Inspector found the engine and indicators in good order. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Far Green Colliery Shaft Accident - Hanley - 1859 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
3. (secondary) Over-Winding 'Big Pit' Far Green Hanley (John Lumsdon) — North Staffordshire Mining Group
4. (secondary) Mould's Pits: D (Deep Pit) — Geoff Mould's gazetteer of North Staffordshire pits — North Staffordshire Mining Group
5. (secondary) Mould's Pits — F — North Staffordshire Mining Group
6. (secondary) Hanley Deep: Evening Sentinel references (1951–52) — North Staffordshire Mining Group
7. (secondary) A History of Hanley Deep Colliery (Jim Worgan) — North Staffordshire Mining Group

Record created: 27 August 2026 · Last researched: 8 September 2026