Tag: colliery

#365daysofbiking Telford – a paradoxical historic new town

February 12th – Telford is a new town that’s about 50 years old: Yet it’s also a place of great history, considered by many to be the birthplace of the industrial revolution. Today, I discovered that even under the ‘new’ Telford there is a big, big past.

Riding up the cycleway to Hortonwood, I go towards Stafford Park then turn over the pedestrian bridge and go through Priorslee. At the Stafford Park/Priorslee crossroads, there is a mess of old signposts, their boards removed when the local cycle routes were redesignated. On the orphaned posts, as well as the usual mess of Sustrans guff were new stickers for The Miner’s Walk.

Intrigued, I looked up the website mentioned on the sticker, and found that it’s a local history project with a five and a half mile walk through industrially significant spots in North Telford.

There is a great website here. – go check it out. It’s superb.

I found out that only a few hundred yards from this spot, up until about 1910, there was a mine called Dark Lane Colliery. In 1862, it was host to the worst loss of life in Shropshire mining history when 9 men and 3 boys crashed to their deaths when a cage rope came free.

I had of course heard of the Dawley pits, and those of Coalbrokedale, but had no idea the history was so complex and far north.

So those little stickers led to me learning something new today. Wonderful.

I shall be investigating this further.

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March 16th – The old Effluent Disposal/Leigh Environmental/Sarp/Veolia site in Walsall Wood, itself formerly the Walsall Wood Colliery remains empty, but secure. This once controversial plant, where huge quantities of industrial waste were poured into a former mineshaft deep under Walsall Wood, was often the seen of protest and trouble, then when dumping stopped here, it was laboratories and main offices. The plant flipped between a few companies over the years, and the last one – Veolia – moved to larger, new build premises a few years ago in Cannock.

The site is very secure, with caretakers living on site, and seems to be just quietly decaying.

There was talk of a food company buying these premises and moving production here, but I think they must have realised the former use probably wasn’t conducive to good customer feeling, and the place is still like a set from Day of the Triffids.

I would imagine this plant will be quite hard to sell.

November 7th – Hard to imagine that this industrial yard was once the top yard of Walsall Wood Colliery. Brownhills Business Park is now an industrial estate, host to lots of small companies in it’s cheap units, mostlyd converted from the old pit buildings. A hive of industry in the daytime, it looks quite deserted in the evening. Recently, this site was saved from clearance for housing. The importance of such sites to the local economy is huge and should not be underestimated.

I often try and imagine the place, busy with miners, coal-trucks and clanking wagons. It’s impossible, now, but the ghosts linger, I’m sure.