Gospel Oak Colliery

Overview

A Black Country thick-coal colliery of nine numbered pits at Gospel Oak between Tipton and Ocker Hill, worked by Grazebrook and Aston and then the Gospel Oak Colliery Company from about 1860 to 1910 for manufacturing coal, ironstone and pyrites, with never more than three hundred people. Three times two men died together there, twice from firedamp and once from an overwind, and the inspector's verdict on the 1860 explosion was want of skill 'from the beginning to the end'.

History

Gospel Oak lies on the ridge where the Thick Coal comes near the surface between Tipton and Wednesbury, beside the galvanising works that made the name famous and the Ocker Hill canal branch. The Durham Mining Museum dates the colliery 1860 to 1910, though its named deaths begin in 1858, and lists nine pits, Nos 1 to 9, six of them with grid references scattered over a few hundred yards. The owners were Grazebrook and Aston through the 1860s to the 1880s and then the Gospel Oak Colliery Company. It was returned as reopening in 1894 with nobody employed, then 227 in 1896 and 287 in 1900, raising manufacturing coal with ironstone and pyrites; in 1905 the Bye Pit had 85 on the Heathen and Thick coals and No. 6 had 44 on the Thick and Whitestone ironstone. The Black Country Archives hold plans of the Nos 7 and 8 pits of 1899, the New Mine and Lower Wood Thick Coal workings, the Bye Pit of 1910 and subsidence from the colliery in 1918.

Thirty-one deaths are named between 1858 and 1902, in the manner of the South Staffordshire thick-coal pits: pikemen killed by falls of coal while holing in the Thick, men jumping at moving cages and skips, a sinker who jumped off the cage into the shaft, a night deputy who pushed a tub into the shaft at a mid-working and followed it, and Esther Badger, a 62-year-old oiler, run over by full tubs on the surface in 1883. Three incidents killed two men each. On 12 May 1860 two men were killed by firedamp drawn out with water from a wrongly levelled gate road (see Disasters, below). On 21 March 1872 two colliers were killed by an overwind (see Disasters, below). On 31 August 1887 an explosion of firedamp killed two men (see Disasters, below). A pikeman named Tabrah was blown out of a level into the sump by an explosion of gas in 1859 and drowned.

Geology

South Staffordshire Coal Measures where the Thick Coal comes near the surface on the Tipton ridge: the Thick, Heathen, Bottom, Thin and New Mine coals with the Whitestone ironstone, the coal carrying pyrites that was sold with it.

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

Workings

Nine numbered pits worked over half a century, at least one on the rib-and-pillar system in the Thick Coal with gate roads and water levels; skips and later cages in the shafts, candles in 1860 and a Bye Pit and No. 6 as the last two working in 1905.

Closure

Recorded as closed in 1910 by the Durham Mining Museum; a plan of levelling at the Bye Pit that year and a 1918 subsidence plan are in the Black Country Archives. Nothing is recorded of the closure.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery is reported. Gospel Oak is now the site of the Tipton Sports Academy and running track, opened in 1971, and housing; no photograph of the pits was found.

None reported; the ground is built over by the sports academy and housing.

Disasters & major incidents

• Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 1860
  12 May 1860 · Explosion · 2 fatalities

  On 12 May 1860 an explosion of firedamp killed two men at Gospel Oak Colliery, in the South Staffordshire coalfield, after gas was released with water from the roof of a badly laid-out gate road and ignited at a candle.

  Thomas Cadman (44, a butty) and Joshua Owen (38, a doggy) were killed by the explosion. The Inspector, Lionel Brough, wrote that the lamp had been neglected as usual until it was too late, and that its use would have saved two valuable lives; he called the case an exhibition of want of skill and knowledge from beginning to end.

• Gospel Oak Colliery overwind, 1872
  21 March 1872 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 2 fatalities

  On 21 March 1872 two colliers were killed by an overwind at Gospel Oak Colliery, in the South Staffordshire coalfield.

  J. Gallear, aged 36, and B. Mansell, both colliers, were killed by the overwind; Mansell died the next day.

• Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 1887
  31 August 1887 · Explosion · 2 fatalities

  On 31 August 1887 an explosion of firedamp burned two men at Gospel Oak Colliery, in South Staffordshire; both died of their injuries within days.

  Thomas Bright, aged 45, a bandsman, died on 8 September, and John Dunning, aged 43, a blower, on 10 September, of burns from the explosion.

Recorded claims

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

• The Durham Mining Museum dates the colliery 1860–1910 with nine numbered pits, owners Grazebrook and Aston then the Gospel Oak Colliery Co.; deaths are named from 1858. ¹
• Reopening with none employed in 1894, 227 in 1896 and 287 in 1900 on manufacturing coal, ironstone and pyrites; in 1905 the Bye Pit had 85 on the Heathen and Thick and No. 6 had 44 on the Thick and Whitestone ironstone. ¹
• On 12 May 1860 Thomas Cadman and Joshua Owen were killed when firedamp released with water from a mis-levelled gate road fired a candle near the shaft bottom; the inspector Lionel Brough called it want of skill and knowledge from beginning to end. ^1,2
• J. Gallear and B. Mansell were killed by overwinding on 21 March 1872; Thomas Bright and John Dunning died of burns after a firedamp explosion on 31 August 1887. ^1,3,4
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Gospel Oak' (catalogue 5510, Heathen Thick (Pickings), dated 1910). ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Gospel Oak Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (primary) Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 12 May 1860 — Durham Mining Museum (1860 Inspectors' Report extract) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Gospel Oak Colliery overwinding, 21 March 1872 — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) Gospel Oak Colliery explosion, 31 August 1887 — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: GOSPEL OAK — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
6. (secondary) A Brief History of Tipton — Tipton Civic Society — Tipton Civic Society
7. (secondary) Ocker Hill — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026