Sandwell Park Colliery

Overview

The most notable Black Country colliery venture of its period, and the first to work the concealed part of the South Staffordshire coalfield — the coal buried east of the boundary fault rather than outcropping to the west. The first shaft was sunk east of Roebuck Lane, just on the Smethwick side of the borough boundary, in 1870, and reached the Thick Coal at 418 yards. Its success led directly to the formation of the Hamstead Colliery Co. From 1897 the company sank a new colliery a mile and a half north in Sandwell Valley — the Jubilee Pit — and it was there that production finally ceased in 1960.

History

Sandwell Park was the most notable Black Country mining venture of its period and the one that opened the concealed coalfield: the ground east of the Eastern Boundary Fault where the Coal Measures lie buried under younger rocks, rather than the exposed field to the west that the Black Country had worked for centuries. The first shaft was sunk east of Roebuck Lane, just on the Smethwick side of the borough boundary, in 1870, the year the Sandwell Park Colliery Company was formed. The site was chosen for its position beside a railway junction with lines to Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Stourbridge, and close to the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line. The shaft went 418 yards to the famous Thick Coal, found here six yards two feet thick. The pit’s peak year was 1899, when it raised 314,988 tons. The company’s success led directly to the formation of the Hamstead Colliery Co., which began sinking at Hamstead in 1875 and reached coal in 1880 at 1,845 feet. With the original workings expected to run out by about 1915, the company began a new colliery to the north in 1897, sinking the Jubilee Pit at Warstone Fields in West Bromwich, in what is now Sandwell Valley Country Park. The Thick Coal was reached there in 1901 and a second pit, the Primrose, was being sunk by 1903; coal was found at 2,070 ft and production ran from 1910. In 1935 the Warwickshire Coal Company, which operated Coventry Colliery at Keresley, arranged to acquire Sandwell Park — a pit then more than sixty years old and once a very prosperous concern whose share capital had been largely held in West Bromwich. Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery ceased production in 1960. Of the 160 men still working there when it closed on Friday 16 September, 94 were transferred to Hamstead — the colliery its own success had brought into being.

Geology

The concealed part of the South Staffordshire coalfield. West of the Eastern Boundary Fault the Coal Measures come to the surface and had been worked from the Middle Ages; east of it they are buried beneath younger rocks, and it took the deep sinkings of the later nineteenth century to reach them. Sandwell Park was the venture that proved it could be done. The prize was the South Staffordshire Thick Coal — here six yards two feet thick at 418 yards, and found again at the Jubilee Pit at 2,070 ft.

Workings

A first shaft of 1870 east of Roebuck Lane, 418 yards to the Thick Coal, beside a railway junction and close to the Birmingham Canal Navigations main line. From 1897 the Jubilee Pit was sunk a mile and a half north at Warstone Fields, reaching the Thick Coal in 1901, with the Primrose Pit following from 1903 and coal at 2,070 ft; production from the new colliery ran from 1910 to 1960.

Closure

Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery ceased production in 1960, its coal reserves exhausted. It closed on Friday 16 September; of the 160 men left, 94 transferred to Hamstead Colliery.

What remains

The Jubilee Pit site lies within Sandwell Valley Country Park, where a colliery trail now interprets what stood there. Nothing of the original Roebuck Lane pit is identifiable in the built-up ground on the West Bromwich and Smethwick boundary.

None identified; the Jubilee site is interpreted by a trail within the country park.

Related mines

• Hamstead Colliery — The success of the Sandwell Park Colliery Co. led directly to the formation of the Hamstead Colliery Co., which began sinking in 1875; and when Sandwell Park closed in September 1960, 94 of the 160 men left there transferred to Hamstead.

Nearby mines

• Hamstead Colliery — 4.2 km NE
• Wren's Nest Limestone Mines — 7.8 km W
• New Hawne Colliery — 8.1 km SW
• Foxyards Colliery — 8.7 km W
• Beech Tree Colliery — 9.1 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.

• Sandwell Park Colliery was the most notable venture of its period and worked the concealed part of the coalfield; the first shaft was sunk east of Roebuck Lane, just on the Smethwick side of the borough boundary, in 1870. ¹
• In 1897 the company began a new colliery to tap an area to the north, sinking the first pit — the Jubilee Pit — at Warstone Fields in West Bromwich; the Thick Coal was reached in 1901 and a second pit, Primrose, was being sunk by 1903. ¹
• The success of the Sandwell Park Colliery Co. led to the formation of the Hamstead Colliery Co., which began sinking at Hamstead in 1875 and reached coal in 1880 at a depth of 1,845 feet. ¹
• The Sandwell Park Colliery Co. was formed in 1870; in 1935 the Warwickshire Coal Co., which operated Coventry Colliery at Keresley, made arrangements to acquire the colliery, then more than sixty years old and once a very prosperous concern whose share capital was largely held in West Bromwich. ²
• Sandwell Park (Jubilee) Colliery ceased production in 1960. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) West Bromwich: economic history — A History of the County of Stafford, Volume 17 — Victoria County History, via British History Online
2. (secondary) Sandwell Park Colliery — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History
3. (observational) Sandwell Park Colliery Trail — industrialtour.co.uk

Record created: 7 September 2026 · Last researched: 7 September 2026