Ubberley Colliery

Overview

A Bucknall colliery east of Hanley, paying church rates by 1836 and owned in the 1850s by the potter John Ridgway of Cauldon Place, whose Sampson pits lost seven men to a firedamp explosion in August 1851. Rebuilt as New Ubberley under the Chatterley Iron Company and worked by Chatterley Whitfield Collieries from 1891, it employed nearly five hundred in 1894 and was abandoned by September 1904.

History

Ubberley colliery was paying church rates to Bucknall in 1836, and the 1851 directories list it under John Ridgway, the Hanley china manufacturer, with John Staley as mine agent; a New Ubberley colliery under John King Knight appears as early as 1834. On Monday 18 August 1851 seven men and boys were killed by an explosion of firedamp in the South Ten Feet workings of the Sampson pits, the colliery's principal shafts, a few days after the butty in charge had handed in his party's safety lamps as unnecessary. The coroner used the inquest to attack the new Inspection Act, under which no inspector had ever visited the district. Deaths recorded by the Durham Mining Museum continued through the 1850s and 1860s, including further firedamp explosions in 1852, 1861, 1863 and 1869. The North Staffordshire Mining Group's notes have the pit passing to C. J. Homer, who installed a vertical winding engine before he broke with the Chatterley Iron Company in 1875, and the refurbished pit becoming known as New Ubberley; the museum's 1880 list has it under the Chatterley Iron Company, and from 1891 it belonged to Chatterley Whitfield Collieries Ltd. In 1894 it employed 491, 374 of them underground, under Matthew Thompson; by 1896 Joseph Wain was manager with Edward Phelps under him and 311 employed, working the Ragman and Ten Feet seams, and in 1900 the Bowling Alley, Holly Lane and Moss. The fireman Peter Leadbeater was suffocated in April 1900 walking into an accumulation of gas without a lamp, and Phelps himself died in 1905 of an injury from a tub the year before. The abandonment catalogue lists the Ubberley seams as given up between 1874 and 1904, the whole prior to 7 September 1904; the museum closes the pit at 1900.

Geology

North Staffordshire coalfield, Middle Coal Measures. Seams in the abandonment catalogue: Flatts, Birches (1874), Wall and Benches (1875), Yard (1876), Hardmine (1894), Banbury (1895), Ragman (1897), Ten Feet (1898), Holly Lane (1901), Cockshead (1903), Moss and Bowling Alley (1904); the 1851 explosion was in the Ten Feet.

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

Workings

Shaft colliery; the Sampson pits were the principal shafts in 1851, worked by an engine shaft with skips or wagons, and a vertical winding engine was installed before 1875. Employment from the Lists of Mines: 491 in 1894, 311 in 1896, 364 in 1900. Endless-rope haulage dips and an engine dip are named in the 1890s and 1901 accident entries. Depths are not recorded.

Closure

Closed about 1900 to 1904: the museum's last entry is the 1900 list, the Mining Group gives 'closed 1904?', and the abandonment catalogue records all seams abandoned prior to 7 September 1904.

What remains

Built over by the Bentilee and Ubberley housing estates of Stoke-on-Trent; a Geograph contributor in 2020 placed the pit near the disused Longton, Adderley Green and Bucknall mineral railway in Eaton Park.

None reported; the trackbed of the mineral railway that served the district's five collieries survives as a path.

Related mines

• Chatterley Whitfield Colliery — Both Chatterley Whitfield Collieries Ltd pits; Ubberley was the company's Bucknall colliery in the 1890s.

Disasters & major incidents

• Ubberley Colliery explosion, 1851
  18 August 1851 · Explosion · 7 fatalities
  Early on Monday morning seven men and boys walked into the south level of the Sampson pits at Ubberley behind the butty Ralph Hancock, who carried the only safety lamp; the rest had candles. Three hundred yards in, the firedamp fired and all seven died. Hancock had handed in his party's lamps the Friday before, satisfied the pit was clear. Six men on the north side, who had shut the doors behind them, survived. The coroner told the jury that no inspector had ever visited the district and called the new Act, with its four inspectors for the whole kingdom, ridiculous.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The museum gives 1855 to 1900; the pit was paying church rates in 1836 and the abandonment catalogue has all seams abandoned prior to 7 September 1904. (disputed) ^1,2
• C. J. Homer installed a vertical winding engine before 1875 and the refurbished pit became known as New Ubberley. (uncertain) ²
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ubberley' (catalogue 13538, Banbury Cockshead Sparrow Butts, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁶

Recorded claims

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

• The museum gives 1855 to 1900; the pit was paying church rates in 1836 and the abandonment catalogue has all seams abandoned prior to 7 September 1904. (disputed) ^1,2
• John Ridgway in 1851; the Chatterley Iron Company and then, from 1891, Chatterley Whitfield Collieries Ltd, which held it in the 1894, 1896 and 1900 lists. ^1,3,2,4
• 491 employed in 1894 under Matthew Thompson, 311 in 1896 under Joseph Wain, 364 in 1900. ^1,4
• Seven killed by an explosion of firedamp in the Sampson pits on 18 August 1851. ^3,5
• C. J. Homer installed a vertical winding engine before 1875 and the refurbished pit became known as New Ubberley. (uncertain) ²
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Ubberley' (catalogue 13538, Banbury Cockshead Sparrow Butts, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Ubberley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Mould's Pits, U: Ubberley — North Staffordshire Mining Group — North Staffordshire Mining Group
3. (primary) Ubberley Colliery 1851, page 1 — Healey Hero (John Lumsdon) — Healey Hero
4. (primary) Chatterley Whitfield Collieries Ltd — Durham Mining Museum company page — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Ubberley explosion, 18 August 1851 — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: UBBERLEY — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (primary) Ubberley Colliery 1851, the inquest — Healey Hero (John Lumsdon) — Healey Hero

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