North Staffordshire Coalfield Through Time

The North Staffordshire Coalfield is concentrated around the Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-Under-Lyme areas, with a small outlying area around Leek and Cheadle. During the Industrial Revolution coal from the area fired the Potteries ceramics and iron industries. At its peak, 50 pits were working in the area but as the coal industry declined nationally, pits gradually merged or closed in the postwar years. Closures accelerated following the Miners’ Strike in the 1980s and the last deep mine, Silverdale, closed in 1998. Today, most of the sites have been reclaimed, including a nature reserve at Chatterley Whifield.
This fascinating selection of old and new images of the North Staffordshire Coalfield will be essential reading for all those who know the area or have family members who worked in the local coal mining industry.

Mervyn Edwards is the author of many published books on North Staffordshire history and is a weekly columnist for the Sentinel’s The Way We Were nostalgia magazine. He has appeared on BBC TV’s The One Show and Twenty Four Hours in the Past, and is a familiar voice on Radio Stoke. He was a local history tutor for the Workers’ Educational Association for eight years and helped to develop the education department at the now-defunct Chatterley Whitfield Mining Museum, where he often acted in period drama for school groups. Mervyn runs an annual history program in North Staffordshire. He is also MC of Burslem History Club and a member of the Potteries branch of the Campaign For Real Ale (CAMRA).