Harriseahead Colliery

Overview

A small hill-top colliery at Harriseahead below Mow Cop, on the north-west rim of the North Staffordshire coalfield, with a coalmaster recorded in 1831 and a closure in July 1939. Worked by Samuel Taylor and Son of Mow Cop, George Blood and a Harriseahead Colliery Company, it never employed more than 127; its manager and a miner won Edward Medals in 1924 for wading through an inrush to bring out the one man left below.

History

White's directory of 1831 lists Joseph Hulme as coalmaster at Harriseahead, and the directories of 1851 and 1861 give colliery managers there, William Jackson and William Wooliscroft; the Durham Mining Museum dates the colliery to 1855 under Samuel Taylor and Company of Mow Cop. The village has an older mining connection: Hugh Bourne moved there in 1800 after buying an oak wood to supply pit props to Stonetrough and other local collieries, and the chapel he built in 1801 to 1802 became the seed of Primitive Methodism. Under George Blood in the 1890s the pit had only ten or eleven hands and was returned as closed in 1900. It reopened under the Harriseahead Colliery Company, employing 52 in 1905 and 60 in 1915 in the Bowling Alley, Holly Lane and Magpie seams, and 127 in 1923. In 1912 a dataller was killed by an explosion of firedamp or coal dust. In 1924 an inrush of water drove the men out with one, Booth, missing 130 yards from the pit bottom, where the water stood three parts full and rising; five volunteers reached a ventilation door and dared not open it against the water, and only the miner Harry Wilson stayed when the manager Baker Paling arrived and insisted. The two eased the door open to let the water through, waded to Booth and brought him out, and both received the Edward Medal in bronze on 10 March 1924. The abandonment catalogue records seams given up between 1876 and 1927; the 1933 list shows twelve employed under J. F. Partington, and the museum closes the colliery in July 1939.

Geology

North Staffordshire coalfield at its north-western edge. Seams in the Lists of Mines and the abandonment catalogue: Bowling Alley, Holly Lane, Magpie (Top Two Row), Seven Foot and Eight Foot Banbury, Rough Seven Foot, Four Foot, Ragman, Winpenny and Bullhurst.

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

Workings

Small shaft colliery, more than one site north of the village. Employment from the Lists of Mines: 10 in 1894, 11 in 1896, 10 in 1900 (closed), 52 in 1905, 51 in 1910, 60 in 1915, 127 in 1923, 12 in 1933. Depths are not given in the sources read.

Closure

Closed in July 1939 according to the museum, after a decade of decline from 127 employed in 1923 to twelve in 1933; the reason is not given in the sources read.

What remains

The pit sites north of the village are farmland below Mow Cop; nothing is reported to survive.

None reported in the sources read.

Related mines

• Victoria Colliery, Biddulph — Neighbouring pits on the north-west rim of the North Staffordshire coalfield, Biddulph's Victoria pit three miles east.

Nearby mines

• Victoria Colliery, Biddulph — 2.0 km E
• Birchenwood Colliery — 2.1 km SW
• Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — 3.5 km SE
• Hollinswood Colliery — 3.6 km SW
• Bunker's Hill Colliery — 4.1 km SW

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• A coalmaster is recorded at Harriseahead in 1831; the museum dates the colliery 1855 to July 1939. ^1,2
• Samuel Taylor and Son of Mow Cop, George Blood by 1896, then the Harriseahead Colliery Co. Ltd and J. F. Partington. ^1,2
• Ten or eleven in the 1890s, 52 in 1905, 127 in 1923 and twelve in 1933. ²
• Manager Baker Paling and miner Harry Wilson received the Edward Medal in bronze on 10 March 1924 for rescuing a man named Booth from an inrush of water. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Mould's Pits: Collieries of the North Staffordshire Coalfield (H) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group / Apedale Heritage Centre
2. (primary) Harriseahead Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Edward Medal awards (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
4. (secondary) Harriseahead — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

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