Wimblebury Colliery

Overview

Wimblebury, a mile east-south-east of Hednesford on Cannock Chase, worked coal and ironstone for the Cannock and Rugeley Colliery Company through the Deep, Shallow and Six Feet seams. The village that grew with it had so many churches and chapels for its seven hundred people that it was called the Holy City; by the 1950s mining subsidence had made much of it unsafe and it was cleared.

History

Wimblebury takes its name from a local farm and means Wimbald's fort, the place-name possibly Saxon. The village developed as a mining community in the middle of the nineteenth century and had a population of some seven hundred by 1871, with such numbers of churches and chapels that it was known locally as the Holy City. St Paul's church was built in 1889-90. The colliery is returned to the Mines Inspectors under the Cannock and Rugeley Colliery Co. and then its limited form, with the National Coal Board from 1947. It sent out household, manufacturing and steam coal together with ironstone, which is returned in 1894, 1896 and 1915 but not in 1910. The employment figures jump about: 384 in 1894, then 1,057 in 1896, 664 in 1905, 828 in 1910 and 771 in 1915, rising again to 963 in 1923 and holding at 1,129 through 1933, 1937 and 1940, then 813 at nationalisation. The seams worked were the Deep, the Shallow and the Six Feet. The Old Park working was abandoned in June 1915 and its plan sent to the Home Office in February 1916. By the 1950s subsidence had made many of the village buildings unsafe and the area was cleared and redeveloped with modern housing.

Geology

Wimblebury worked the Cannock Chase coalfield, the eastern part of the ancient parish of Cannock lying on Coal Measures where the ground west of it is Bunter sandstone, the soil light over a subsoil of gravel and clay. The seams returned from this colliery are the Deep, the Shallow and the Six Feet, with ironstone raised alongside the coal.

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

Workings

The returns name an Old Park working, abandoned in June 1915 with its plan sent to the Home Office on 21 February 1916. Shaft depths and the number of pits have not been found in the sources read for this record.

Closure

No closure date has been established from sources that could be read. The colliery was still returning 813 people at nationalisation in 1947.

What remains

No account of the colliery site as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record. The village beside it was largely cleared in the 1950s because mining subsidence had made the buildings unsafe, and rebuilt with modern housing.

Related mines

• Brereton Colliery — Cannock Chase pits on the Rugeley side, worked in the same coalfield.
• East Cannock Colliery — Neighbouring Cannock Chase pits east of Hednesford.

Nearby mines

• Cannock Old Coppice Colliery — 0.6 km SE
• East Cannock Colliery — 1.0 km NE
• Cannock Chase No. 8 Colliery — 1.9 km SE
• West Cannock Colliery — 2.2 km NE
• Cannock and Leacroft Colliery — 2.7 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.

• Wimblebury had a population of some seven hundred by 1871 and apparently so many churches and chapels that it was called the Holy City. St Paul's church was built in 1889-90. ¹
• By the 1950s mining subsidence had made many of the village buildings unsafe, and the area was cleared and redeveloped with modern housing. ¹
• The Old Park working was abandoned in June 1915 and its plan sent to the Home Office on 21 February 1916. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Wimblebury — Burntwood Family History Group
2. (secondary) Wimblebury Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Cannock: manors and economic history — Victoria County History, A History of the County of Stafford, Volume 5 (1959)

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026