Stafford Colliery

Overview

The Stafford Coal and Iron Company's colliery and ironworks at Great Fenton in the Potteries, opened in the 1870s with pits named after its founders (the Duke of Sutherland, Pender, Charles Homer and John Bourne) and worked until January 1969. Its Sutherland Pit was said around 1960 to be the deepest in the country, and a blown-out shot killed seven men and boys in the Knowles seam in 1885.

History

Stafford Colliery was opened at Great Fenton, in open country near Sideway on the south-western edge of Fenton, by the Great Fenton Iron and Coal Company, later the Stafford Coal and Iron Company, which began work in 1873 to win the blackstone ironstone and the coal of the upper seams. The company was largely the creation of the Duke of Sutherland and three partners, Pender, Charles Homer and John Bourne, and its pits were named after all four; the Homer and Sutherland pits were sunk around 1876 by C. J. Homer, who had left the Chatterley Iron Company to work for the Duke, and both were given ornate engine houses of brick and stone with matching square chimneys. In 1878 the Duke also leased the neighbouring Great Fenton House estate for mining, and the company bought it outright in 1913. The colliery smelted as well as mined from the start: three pits were at work and two blast furnaces in blast by 1884, a fourth pit was then being sunk, and there were five pits by 1891. On 8 April 1885 a blown-out shot in the Knowles seam of the Homer Pit caused an explosion that killed seven men and boys and injured five; the coroner's jury recommended that mines be worked without shot-firing as far as possible. In 1894 the Bourne, Homer, Pender and Sutherland pits employed 1,004 people, and in 1923 the company's Fenton pits, its Kemball pit included, employed 2,203, working ironstone beside the blast furnaces, by-product works and brickworks. In 1957 three pits were in operation with 1,210 men, and the Sutherland Pit, at 3,318 feet, was said to be the deepest in the country. The colliery closed in January 1969.

Geology

Coal and ironstone of the North Staffordshire coalfield: the Knowles, Rag and Twist seams, the blackstone ironstone of the upper measures and the Little Mine ironstone.

Workings

Four named pits (Bourne, Homer, Pender and Sutherland), sunk from the mid-1870s, working several seams including the Knowles (nearly 9 feet thick at the Homer Pit in 1885), the Rag, the Twist and the Little Mine ironstone. In 1885 the colliery was ventilated by a Waddle fan 45 feet across delivering 120,000 cubic feet of air a minute. The Homer pit was listed as abandoned and the Bourne as not working by 1923, when the Pender and Sutherland pits carried the colliery.

Closure

Closed in January 1969, six years after the company's Kemball pit.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Related mines

• Hem Heath Colliery — Hem Heath was sunk by the same Stafford Coal and Iron Company from 1924.
• Kemball Colliery — Kemball was one of the Stafford Coal and Iron Company's Fenton pits, returned with Bourne, Homer, Pender and Sutherland in the company's lists and on the same abandonment plans.

People

• John Bourne · founder, from 1873 — One of the four founders commemorated in the pit names.
• Charles Homer · founder, from 1873 — One of the four founders commemorated in the pit names; sank the Homer and Sutherland pits for the Duke of Sutherland around 1876 (as C. J. Homer).
• William D. Robson · manager, 1885–1894 — Certificated manager at the 1885 explosion and in 1894.
• John Watts · manager, 1905–1923 — Manager of the company's pits in 1905, 1910 and 1923.

Recorded claims

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

• The Stafford Colliery and Ironworks was opened about the mid-1870s by the Great Fenton Iron and Coal Company, later the Stafford Coal and Iron Company, largely the creation of the Duke of Sutherland and Messrs Pender, Charles Homer and John Bourne, all four of whom were commemorated in the names of its pits. ¹
• The company started in 1873 to obtain the blackstone ironstone and the coal of the upper seams; the Homer and Sutherland pits were sunk by C. J. Homer for the Duke of Sutherland around 1876 and given ornate brick and stone engine houses with matching square chimneys. ²
• On 8 April 1885 an explosion in the Knowles seam, caused by a blown-out shot, killed seven and injured five; the colliery was then owned by the Stafford Coal and Iron Company with William Robson as certificated manager. ³
• In 1894 the Great Fenton pits (Bourne, Homer, Pender and Sutherland) employed 774 underground and 230 on the surface; in 1923 the company's Fenton pits, Kemball included, employed 1,837 underground and 366 on the surface. ⁴
• Three pits were working by 1884 with a fourth being sunk, and five by 1891; by 1902 they employed 1,383 men underground and 309 above. In 1957 three pits employed 900 underground and 310 above, and the Sutherland Pit, at 3,318 feet, was said to be the deepest in the country. ¹
• Great Fenton colliery is listed as opened in 1873 and closed in January 1969. ^2,5
• Abandonment plans survive for 'Stafford (formerly Fenton Great) Homer Sutherland', for the Little Mine ironstone abandoned in December 1910, and for the Twist seam across the Stafford Nos 1 and 2, Bourne, Homer, Kemball, Pender and Sutherland pits, abandoned in 1929. ^6,7

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Fenton: economic history — A History of the County of Stafford, Volume 8 — Victoria County History, via British History Online
2. (secondary) Stafford (Great Fenton) Colliery — Staffordshire Past Track
3. (secondary) Great Fenton Colliery Explosion - Great Fenton - 1885 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Durham Mining Museum - Stafford Coal and Iron Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Stoke on Trent Area (colliery opening and closure list) — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) Stafford (formerly Fenton Great) Homer Sutherland (Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan OM5570, via BGS catalogue item 21860870) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (primary) Stafford No 1 2 Bourne Homer Kemball Pender Sutherland (abandonment plan 9870, via BGS catalogue item 21908386) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 18 September 2026