Sadie Bryson

• Committee Member of the Friends of Chatterley Whitfield
• Member of Chatterley Whitfield Community Group.

Sadie and her husband Matthew were born in Scotland and Matthew started to work as a miner shortly after he left school. Sadie’s in-laws, along with a number of other local families befriended a group of soldiers from North Staffordshire who were stationed in Kilsyth (between Falkirk and Glasgow). One of the soldiers came from Tunstall and they kept in touch long after the war ended.

With the rundown of the mining industry in Scotland in the early 1960’s, the National Coal Board was offering transfers to “long term” areas such as North Staffordshire. After visiting Tunstall in 1962 Sadie and Matthew decided to transfer to North Staffordshire, along with hundreds of other miners from in particular Durham, Northumberland and South Wales.

They soon settled in Chell Heath and Matthew was employed at Chatterley Whitfield colliery as a face worker. In 1977, with the closure of Chatterley Whitfield, he transferred to Wolstanton colliery where he remained as a face worker until he retired on the day before the miners strike started in March 1984. Matthew enjoyed a long retirement and died at the end of January 2000.

Sadie remains an active member of both committees and was member of the Chell Heath Estate Management board, being Chair for many years.