(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)

Leycett Colliery circa 1950.
This front view photo was taken from the head of the driveway into the colliery.
Although the colliery seems quite small from this picture it was in actual fact extremely large.
When the colliery opened it was named the Harrison & Woodburn Pit, and managed by
Mr G P Hyslop. One of the pit shafts that were dug at Leycett had the most pretty name a shaft
could have- Fair Lady, this was the main shaft and was situated on the left, on the opposite side
the right pit shaft was named Bangup .As far as my knowledge goes there is no documented
evidence as to why the pit shaft could have been given the name Fair Lady. There were several
other pits/shafts at Leycett colliery, which were named after relevant events of that time.
Leycett colliery was no exception where explosions were concerned and it had its fair share.
The first explosion was on 3/1/1871 and claimed the lives of 44 men and boys, the second
explosion occurred in 8/9/1879 and claimed the lives of 41 men and boys, the explosion of
Fair Lady on 21st October 1883 took the lives of 6 men and injured another 3 very badly, but the
largest and most tragic of the explosions was to claim the lives of 62 men and boys, this explosion
was n 21/1/1880,there were only 15 survivors on that shift. All these explosions were caused by
either methane gas or firedamp – each as deadly as the other. As far as my research tells me all
bodies were recovered. The coal, once extracted had to be carried away from the pit for
resale etc…When the pit first opened in 1801 there were no railway lines in place to transport the
coal from the mine so tramways were built that ran from Scot Hay to Madeley and from
Leycett to Madeley Heath via Waltons Wood. It wasn’t until 1837 when the Grand Junction railway
opened in Madeley that a private mineral line was built to transport coal trucks from Leycett colliery.
And then on June 28th 1880 a full service railway station opened,which was served by North
Staffordshire Railway.
In 1896 the Colliery was taken over by The Madeley Coal & Iron Co Ltd.The manager was
William Meadows. At that time the colliery employed 339 underground workers and 71 surface
workers. Lord Crewe, as the landowner, received 6d for every ton of coal, iron ore or brick clay won
from his land. He also had free coal for his home - which required 2 cwt each morning to feed the fires.
It was during this period of ownership that in 1934 the Pit-head Baths are opened at Leycett Colliery.
During 1947 the Colliery was taken over by The National Coal Board, and then known as
Madeley Colliery, until its sad closure in 1957.Altough the Colliery had closed it was not yet
redundant, it was continued as a ‘foot rill' or ‘foot rail’ until the late 1960’s.


(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)
This is the Colliery entrance as it is now - a little different don’t you think?

Below is a photo of Charlie & Reg Jackson circa 1925 at the colliery in their family run firms
new lorry which the purchased from Peppers Garage.History tells that previous to this lorry they
employed an old cart which was too slow and could not make the same amount of deliveries a
day as other companies were doing who had what Charlie described as "newfangled lorries".
Once they had the new lorry they were able to make lots more deliveries ,but they however
experience more than their fare share of punctures and eventualy had to replace the rear tyres
with solid ones to prevent future punctures accuring.

(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)


Very first photos of Fair Lady & Bang Up just as they were sunk.(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)



Fair Lady winding gear - below(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)


(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)



These are the men who worked on the sinking of the Fair Lady & Bang
Up,the man on the far left is my gt uncle Sam Tomkinson.
(Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)



Colliery Memorial Wheel (Photo - © Kathryn J Ing)