Hanley Deep Pit

Overview

The Shelton company's Deep Pits at Hanley, opened in 1854, the deepest pit in the North Staffordshire coalfield, which employed some 2,000 at its 1930s peak and closed in 1962; its site is now Central Forest Park.

History

Hanley Deep Pit, the Deep Pits Colliery of the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company, lay about a mile and a half north of Stoke-on-Trent. It was opened in 1854 and became the deepest pit in the North Staffordshire coalfield, reaching some 1,500 feet. It worked many of the coalfield's seams in turn: the Ragman, Ten Feet, Bowling Alley, Holly Lane and Hard Mine in 1894, and by 1915 also the Moss, Banbury, Cockshead and Bullhurst.

The workforce grew from 603 in 1894 to 1,765 in 1910 and 2,644 in 1923. At its peak in the 1930s it employed some 2,000 men and boys and often raised 9,000 tons of coal a week. It passed to the National Coal Board in 1947, when 1,246 were employed and the year's output was 375,000 tons.

The pit closed in 1962, but much of the headgear and the spoil heaps were left standing. In the 1980s the site was cleared, landscaped and made into Central Forest Park, where a pithead wheel stands as a reminder of the colliery.

Geology

Coal Measures of the North Staffordshire coalfield: the Ragman, Ten Feet, Bowling Alley, Holly Lane, Hard Mine, Rough, Seven Feet, Moss, Banbury, Cockshead and Bullhurst seams were worked.

Workings

Deep shafts reaching about 1,500 feet, the deepest in the North Staffordshire coalfield; a shaft plan of the Hanley Deep Pits is dated 1900.

Closure

Closed in 1962; the headgear and spoil heaps stood until the site was cleared in the 1980s.

What remains

The site was landscaped in the 1980s as Central Forest Park.

A pithead winding wheel mounted on a concrete plinth in Central Forest Park.

Recorded claims

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

• Hanley Deep Pit was opened in 1854 and was the deepest pit in the North Staffordshire coalfield, at about 1,500 feet. ¹
• In the 1930s it employed some 2,000 men and boys and often raised 9,000 tons of coal a week. ¹
• The colliery employed 2,644 people in 1923 and 1,246 in 1947, when it produced 375,000 tons. ²
• It belonged to the Shelton Iron, Steel and Coal Company until nationalisation in 1947. ²
• The pit closed in 1962 and its site was landscaped in the 1980s as Central Forest Park. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Hanley (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Deep Pits Colliery (Hanley Deep) (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026