Glasshouse Colliery

Overview

A colliery on Glasshouse Farm at Chesterton, north of Newcastle-under-Lyme, worked by pits from about 1855 and by footrails, inclined drifts, from 1867, when Robert Heath took the lease. A small company worked it from the 1930s, and it closed under the National Coal Board in December 1960.

History

The colliery took its name from Glasshouse Farm at Chesterton, which was named after an eighteenth-century glasshouse on the farm; coal and refractory seatearths may have drawn the glassmakers there. About 1850-55 William Henry Dutton and Gavin Addie leased the mining rights, and by 1865 they were trading as the Glasshouse Company, agreeing that year with the North Staffordshire Railway for access to its Chesterton branch, opened in 1866. The company lasted only about ten years. It worked the Great Row coal, 400 yards down under Roggin Row, and the Red Mine and Red Shagg ironstones, and its plans were abandoned in 1865 and 1867. A man was killed in the Glasshouse sinking in November 1865.

Robert Heath took the Glasshouse lease in October 1867 and changed the working from pits to footrails, working coal with the Blackband and Red Shagg ironstones until May 1922. A Glasshouse Colliery Company, whose directors in 1933 were J. Davies of High Carr House and G. H. Downing of Clayton Lodge, then worked the Little seam for manufacturing coal with 33 men; by 1940 it worked the Little Mine and Spencroft with 95, and at nationalisation in 1947 it employed 121. Alfred Cooper, a fireman, was caught by tubs and killed in July 1941, and another man died in 1955. The colliery closed in December 1960, and its last plans, of the Great Row, Spencroft, Peacock and Cannel Row or Little Mine seams, were abandoned on 21 July 1961. The site was opencast and is now a housing estate.

Geology

North Staffordshire coalfield: the Great Row, Spencroft, Peacock and Cannel Row or Little Mine coals, with the Red Mine, Red Shagg and Blackband ironstones.

Workings

Pits of the 1850s-60s to the Great Row; footrails (inclined drifts) from 1867 to 1922 and again until 1960.

Closure

Closed in December 1960; the final plans are dated 21 July 1961. The pits of the 1850s-60s were abandoned in 1865-67, and Heath's footrail in May 1922.

What remains

The site was opencast and built over as a housing estate.

Redevelopment

A housing estate, after opencast working.

Related mines

• Apedale Colliery — Midland Coal, Coke and Iron Co. collieries.
• Minnie Pit — Midland Coal, Coke and Iron Co. collieries.
• Victoria Colliery, Biddulph — Robert Heath and Sons collieries.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery took its name from Glasshouse Farm, named after an eighteenth-century glasshouse on the farm. ¹
• William Henry Dutton and Gavin Addie leased the mining rights about 1850-55 and traded as the Glasshouse Company by 1865. ¹
• The Glasshouse Red Mine and Red Shagg ironstone workings were abandoned in 1865. ^1,2
• Robert Heath took the lease in October 1867 and worked coal and ironstone by footrails until May 1922. ¹
• The Glasshouse Colliery Co. employed 33 in 1933, 95 in 1940 and 121 at nationalisation in 1947. ³
• Alfred Cooper, a fireman at Glasshouse Colliery, was killed by tubs in July 1941. ^4,5
• Glasshouse Colliery closed in December 1960. ⁶
• The final Glasshouse plans were abandoned on 21 July 1961. ⁷
• The site was opencast and is now a housing estate. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Mould's Pits - C: The Glasshouse Colliery — North Staffordshire Mining Group (Apedale)
2. (primary) BGS mine plan: Glasshouse, Red Mine and Red Shagg, 1865 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans
3. (primary) Glasshouse Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) 1941 Sentinel — North Staffordshire Mining Group (Apedale)
5. (secondary) Deaths in North Staffordshire Coalfield From 1693 to 2009 — North Staffordshire Mining Group (Apedale)
6. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
7. (primary) BGS mine plan: Glasshouse, Great Row, Spencroft, Peacock, Cannel Row or Little Mine, 21 July 1961 — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 5 October 2026 · Last researched: 5 October 2026