Hanwood Colliery

Overview

The colliery of the small Hanwood coalfield west of Shrewsbury, working an eighteen-inch seam from a 468-foot shaft near Cruckmeole; owned by Samuel Atherton by 1873 and from 1921 by Arthur Nicholas Fielden, who joined it to Moat Hall, it closed in 1942.

History

Hanwood Colliery was the main employer of Hanwood, about four miles west-south-west of Shrewsbury, from the nineteenth into the twentieth century, though its shaft lay just outside the parish, in Pontesbury near Cruckmeole. It was working in 1873, owned by Samuel Atherton of Cruckmeole, who also had a colliery at Shorthill. The shaft was 468 feet deep, and the coal was the Thin Coal or Half Yard, eighteen inches thick, worked as far as 900 feet underground at its furthest from the shaft, which meant a walk of about two and a half miles on a gradual slope to and from the face. The workings spread between the Shrewsbury to Yockleton road, Wood Hall, Moat Hall, Cruckton, Shorthill and Hanwood Bank. The coal ignited easily and burned hot, and fired the Atherton brickworks, whose bricks were in demand as liners.

The colliery employed between 101 and 132 from 1894 to 1910. Arthur Nicholas Fielden bought it in 1921 and linked it underground to his colliery at Moat Hall, near Annscroft; as Hanwood and Moat Hall Collieries (Salop) Ltd it employed 324 in 1923 and raised about 25,000 tons a year. A pavilion built in 1938 for the miners became the village hall, and the local football club played as Hanwood Colliery or Miners Welfare from the 1930s to 1948. The underground workforce fell from 248 in 1921 to 50 by 1941, and the colliery closed completely in 1942; the brickworks had stopped by 1945.

Geology

The Hanwood coalfield, worked in the Thin Coal or Half Yard seam, eighteen inches thick; clay from the workings fed the brickworks.

Workings

A 468-foot shaft near Cruckmeole with long, gently inclined roads to the faces, linked underground from 1921 to Moat Hall colliery near Annscroft.

Closure

The underground workforce fell to 50 by 1941 and the colliery closed completely in 1942; the Half Yard plans were abandoned in 1941.

What remains

The 1938 miners' pavilion survives as Hanwood village hall.

What's uncertain

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

• Michael Shaw's history of the Shrewsbury coalfields has Hanwood surviving until 1940. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• Hanwood Colliery was working in 1873, owned by Samuel Atherton of Cruckmeole. ¹
• Hanwood's shaft was 468 feet deep and worked an eighteen-inch seam. ¹
• Arthur Nicholas Fielden bought Hanwood Colliery in 1921 and linked it underground to Moat Hall. ^2,1
• Hanwood and Moat Hall Collieries employed 324 people in 1923. ²
• Hanwood Colliery closed completely in 1942. ¹
• Michael Shaw's history of the Shrewsbury coalfields has Hanwood surviving until 1940. (disputed) ³
• The Half Yard workings of Hanwood and Moat Hall, Cruck Meole and Shorthill were abandoned in 1941. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Hanwood (Wikipedia) — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Hanwood Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) The Mines of the Shrewsbury Coalfields, Michael Shaw (Branchstow Books description) — Branchstow Books
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21935439: Hanwood and Moat Hall, Cruck Meole, Shorthill, Half Yard, abandoned 1941 — British Geological Survey

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