Colliery has Longer History

From The Sentinel - 9 April 2007:

Sir, - After reading your recent articles I would like to inform your readers that there is a long history to Whitfield Colliery before 1872. The Whitfield estate was vast, extending from Ball Green to Brindley Ford. Its tenant farmers were once the Baddeleys and Billinges, living there around 1800.The estate's proprietors during 1756-1824 ranged from old Josiah Clowes, through to his nephew young Josiah Clowes, in turn to the latter's nephew, William Clowes of Whitfield, Longport and Porthill.

The same family had farmed the land between Norton Lane and the River Trent between 1600 and 1700. William Clowes was succeeded by sons-in-law William Harrison, of Manchester, and Hugh Henshall Williamson, of Longport and Greenway Bank. William's uncle, young Josiah Clowes, was the main contractor for James Brindley in cutting the first Harecastle Tunnel.

In 1770, the main Whitfield shaft was located at the junction of Wilding and Whitfield Roads, Ball Green, and in about 1830 was managed by Elias Brindley. By 1830, another shaft which became known as the Albert Pit, was a major producer, probably managed by Hugh Billinge for William Harrison. A new steam winding engine was installed there.

By 1863, managed by John Butterfield of Tunstall for Hugh Henshall Williamson, the first major shaft was sunk on the present-day colliery site and coal was taken by horse-drawn rail wagons to the Brookhouse sidings of the Biddulph Valley Line. Unfortunately, because of the prolonged 1865 strike by Tunstall's coal and ironstone miners, Hugh Henshall Williamson faced a cash crisis and sold the estate to what became the Whitfield Colliery Company, 1866-1872.

The new company was headed by Thomas Llewellyn, a prominent Tunstall solicitor who resided first in Chell then at Cauldon Place, where he died in 1872. His death allowed Charles Homer, managing director of Chatterley Ironworks, to purchase the bulk of the estate. Thus, the prefix of Chatterley was eventually added to Whitfield Colliery after 1872. Steam locomotives then started to replace the horse on the internal mineral line to the Brookhouse sidings on the far side of the main road from Biddulph to Tunstall.