Norton Cannock Colliery

Overview

A Cannock Chase colliery between Bloxwich and Great Wyrley, worked from 1875 by the Norton Cannock Colliery Company from two sites, its No. 2 known as the Fair Oak; it employed over 500 at its height and closed as unprofitable in May 1910.

History

Norton Cannock Colliery was worked by the Norton Cannock Colliery Company from 1875 between Bloxwich and Great Wyrley, in the Cannock Chase coalfield. The company had two collieries. No. 2, known locally as the Fair Oak, lay north-west of the junction of the Walsall to Stafford road and Long Lane; three shafts were sunk there to about 190 yards. A Manning Wardle saddle-tank locomotive took the coal to exchange sidings on the London and North Western Railway's Cannock branch.

The colliery raised household, manufacturing and steam coal from the Cinder, Deep, Heathen and Shallow seams, and later the Five Feet and Yard, and employed 356 in 1894, 518 in 1896 and 493 in 1900; in its later years there were 405 men underground and 113 on the surface across both sites. Twenty deaths are recorded, all single. Its plans, with those of Cannock Lodge, were closed in 1910, and the colliery shut in May of that year as unprofitable. A mobile home park now stands on the Fair Oak site.

Geology

Cannock Chase coal measures, worked in the Cinder, Deep, Heathen, Shallow, Five Feet and Yard seams.

Workings

Two sites: No. 1 Pit and No. 2, the Fair Oak, with three shafts to about 190 yards; a locomotive-worked line to exchange sidings on the LNWR Cannock branch.

Closure

Closed in May 1910 as unprofitable; its plans and those of Cannock Lodge were abandoned that year.

What remains

A mobile home park occupies the site of the Fair Oak pit.

Recorded claims

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

• Norton Cannock Colliery was opened in 1875 and closed in May 1910. ^1,2
• The company's No. 2 colliery, known locally as the Fair Oak, had three shafts sunk to about 190 yards. ²
• Norton Cannock Colliery employed 518 people in 1896. ¹
• Norton Cannock closed in May 1910 as unprofitable. ²
• The plans of Norton Cannock and Cannock Lodge were abandoned in 1910. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Norton Cannock Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Colliery Picture Donation: Norton Cannock Colliery No. 2 (Chasewater Railway Museum blog) — Chasewater Railway Museum
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan 21915330: Norton Cannock and Cannock Lodge, abandoned 1910 — British Geological Survey

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