Haunchwood Colliery

Overview

One of the oldest workings in the Warwickshire coalfield, at Stockingford on the western edge of Nuneaton, with records of coal being produced on the site in 1729. It came to the Nowells of Wednesbury in the early 1850s, began production in its modern form in 1855, and was almost worked out by 1873. The Haunchwood Colliery Company was formed in 1881 with Sir Alfred Hickman as a leading shareholder, and sank a second and much larger pit — Tunnel Colliery, named for the railway tunnel beside it — in the early 1890s. The original pit stopped and the Tunnel carried the business on into the National Coal Board era, taking over two of Ansley Hall’s underground districts in 1964 and closing in 1967. Its pumphouse was kept running for another fifteen years to protect Newdigate Colliery next door.

History

Mining on the Haunchwood site long predates the company that made it famous: records indicate coal being produced here in 1729, and by 1801 the collection of individual pits was reckoned to be raising between 200 and 300 tons a week, hauled by horse-drawn waggons down a railroad of sorts to a wharf on the Coventry Canal. From about 1820 the coalmaster was Peter Unger Williams, a Devon-born lawyer practising in the City of London who, with his wife Caroline, was also a brick and tile maker and farmed 36 acres at Stockingford; after his death in 1837 the pit was managed by Caroline and by his son John McTaggart Williams. Ownership passed in the early 1850s to John Nowell of Wednesbury, whose own Oakwood Colliery in Staffordshire had been worked out. Nowell died suddenly of heart failure at forty-six in 1851 with the sinking still in progress, and his son William completed it, keeping the old company name John Nowell & Son. Production began in 1855, using skip winding — a dangerous practice which regularly killed the boy whose job was to push the drawbridge trolley over the open shaft and uncouple the full skips, since it required him to step over part of the shaft several times at each wind. Single-deck cage winding was adopted in 1858 and those deaths stopped. By 1873 the colliery was on the verge of exhaustion and reduced to robbing the pillars left in its earlier districts; to extend its life William Nowell designed and installed the Gillett system himself, working the coal down the dip and saving the cost of a new drainage shaft — other collieries in the field brought in the consultant engineer Gillett to do it for them. William Nowell died suddenly of heart failure at forty-seven in 1874, leaving the colliery to his eighteen-year-old son, also William. The younger Nowell went away for seven years to qualify as an engineer and returned in 1881 to find the manager, William Davis, with an investment programme neither of them could raise the capital for. Nowell put the company on the market, retaining 49 per cent of the shares; the new Haunchwood Colliery Company had Sir Alfred Hickman, the Wolverhampton coal owner and ironmaster, as a leading shareholder and managing director, and average output trebled. The company acquired the mineral rights for the whole of Galley Common. William Nowell died suddenly of heart failure at forty-nine in 1906 — the third generation in succession to do so before fifty — and Hickman died four years later, his interest passing to his three sons. The company had meanwhile sunk a second pit, Tunnel Colliery, named for its position beside the Midland Railway tunnel between Stockingford and Arley. By 1895 it employed 817 men underground and was among the largest collieries in the coalfield. The original Haunchwood pit, always an adjunct to the adjoining brickworks and largely hidden from view behind it, was worked out; its shafts were fitted with submersible pumps to keep the Tunnel’s seams free of water, and the brickworks carried on until 1970. In 1959 an underground roadway linked Haunchwood’s workings to those of Ansley Hall Colliery, and when Ansley Hall stopped producing in 1964 two of its districts were assigned to Haunchwood and drawn up the Tunnel shaft.

Geology

The Warwickshire coalfield’s Thick Coal and associated seams lie beneath Nuneaton and Bedworth, dipping east under later cover. Haunchwood mined a fine steam coal in demand from industrial users over a wide area, supplying electricity generators in Birmingham and Northampton and the Metropolitan Railway at Neasden. The seams here are close enough together and the workings close enough to each other that neighbouring collieries share their water: only about fifty feet of coal separated Haunchwood’s workings from Newdigate Colliery’s, which is why pumping continued at the Tunnel shaft for fifteen years after Haunchwood itself closed.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts a mile apart, both beside the Midland Railway’s Nuneaton to Birmingham line: the original Haunchwood or Nowell’s pit about a mile west of Nuneaton station, and Tunnel Colliery three-quarters of a mile further west. Winding at the original pit was by skips until 1858 and by single-deck cage after. From 1873 the coal was worked down the dip on the Gillett system, which avoided sinking a separate drainage shaft. The colliery had its own railway: a horse-drawn railroad to the Coventry Canal at first, then a branch to the Midland known as the Haunchwood Brick and Tile Company’s Siding, with the junction signal cabin called Nowell’s Siding, and four locomotives over its life — number three built by Hawthorn Leslie in 1901 and sold to Measham Collieries in 1925, number four, named Haunchwood, built by Andrew Barclay of Kilmarnock in 1911 and transferred to the Tunnel Pit the same year. By the turn of the century the branch through the brick stockyard was so congested with clayware traffic that a new line had to be laid outside the site.

Closure

Two closures, one for each shaft, and the dates are not agreed. The original Nowell’s pit is given as closing in 1914 by one account and as ceasing coal winding on 7 July 1925 by another; either way its shafts were then fitted with submersible pumps to keep the Tunnel Pit’s seams clear. Tunnel Colliery itself closed on 25 March 1967, although one account gives 1970. Its pumphouse was retained afterwards, because letting the workings flood would have endangered Newdigate Colliery, only fifty feet of coal away underground; pumping ceased when Newdigate closed in 1982.

What remains

Cleared. The colliery branch and the truncated remains of the Nowell’s Colliery line were lifted when the brickworks closed. Nothing identifiable as the colliery survives above ground and no dated photograph of the site as it now stands could be found that is freely licensed.

Nothing specific to the colliery has been identified. Its name survives in Haunchwood Road at Stockingford, and the Haunchwood Brick and Tile works, of which the pit was for most of its life an adjunct, outlasted it by three years.

Related mines

• Ansley Hall Colliery — An underground roadway linked the two collieries’ workings in 1959, and when Ansley Hall stopped producing two of its districts were assigned to Haunchwood and drawn up the Tunnel shaft.

Nearby mines

• Griff Colliery — 3.3 km S
• Ansley Hall Colliery — 4.3 km W
• Daw Mill Colliery — 8.3 km SW
• Baddesley Colliery — 8.5 km NW
• Coventry Colliery — 8.9 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.

• Haunchwood was one of the oldest pit workings in Warwickshire, with records indicating it was producing coal in 1729 and a collection of individual pits raising between 200 and 300 tons a week by 1801. ¹
• John Nowell of Wednesbury began sinking the modern colliery and died of heart failure at 46 in 1851; his son William completed it and died of heart failure at 47 in 1874; that William’s son, also William, died of heart failure at 49 in 1906. ^2,1
• Production began in 1855 using skip winding, which regularly killed the boy employed to uncouple the full skips over the open shaft; single-deck cage winding was adopted in 1858 and those accidents ceased. ²
• By 1873 the colliery was on the verge of exhaustion and reduced to extracting old pillars; William Nowell designed and installed the Gillett system himself to work the coal down the dip and save the expense of a new drainage shaft, where other collieries in the field brought in the consultant engineer Gillett to do it. ²
• The Haunchwood Colliery Company was formed in 1881, with Sir Alfred Hickman as a leading shareholder and managing director; average output trebled as a result of the investment that followed. ^2,1
• The sinking date of Tunnel Colliery is given variously as 1891 by Keith Turton, 1892 by Our Warwickshire and 1894 by Warwickshire Railways. By 1895 it employed 817 men underground. (disputed) ^2,1
• The original Nowell’s pit is recorded as closing in 1914 by one contributor to Warwickshire Railways and as ceasing coal winding on 7 July 1925 by another on the same page; both agree that submersible pumps were then fitted in its shafts to keep the Tunnel Pit’s seams free of water. (disputed) ¹
• Tunnel Colliery closed on 25 March 1967 according to Warwickshire Railways and Our Warwickshire; Keith Turton, on the same Warwickshire Railways page, gives 1970. (disputed) ^2,1
• An underground roadway linked Haunchwood’s workings to Ansley Hall Colliery in 1959, and two of Ansley Hall’s districts were assigned to Haunchwood when it stopped producing in 1964; Haunchwood’s pumphouse was kept working after closure because only 50 ft of coal separated its workings from Newdigate Colliery’s, and pumping ceased only when Newdigate closed in 1982. ²
• The Haunchwood collieries mined a fine steam coal in demand from industrial users over a wide area, and supplied electricity generators in Birmingham and Northampton and the Metropolitan Railway at Neasden. ¹
• The official list of collieries at work in 1880 returns the pit as "Haunch Wood, Nuneaton, William Nowell", spelling the name as two words. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Haunchwood Collieries — Warwickshire Railways
2. (secondary) Haunchwood Colliery — Our Warwickshire, Warwickshire County Council
3. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 6 September 2026