2003 QUARTERLY MEMBERS MEETING

The First Quarterly Meeting (March)

The First Quarterly meeting of the members of the CCMHS was held at the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford (the site of the old Valley Colliery) at 3.00pm

Mr Jack Sunley the Chairman of the CCMHS introduced the speaker Mr Jack Evans a gentleman well known throughout this area by almost everyone who has ever had any contact with the mining industry. Mr Evans gave a riveting account of his working life within the Cannock Chase Coalfield. He told of being a Birmingham doctors son who wanted to be a coal mining engineer. How he entered into university and after a short while realised his course was engineering, he asked when they would get to the mining side and was promptly sent to Hilton Main to gain experience. From here he worked his way through the ranks was noticed and promoted to Colliery Manager at the Fair Lady. He was then given Lea Hall colliery and managed it from its opening to it first million tons, promotion followed promotion until he eventually reached the position of Area Director of the BC Central Area. Despite all this Jack Evans has never lost his roots or where he came from throughout all his career. He told it as it was the good, the bad and the ugly bits. The membership present thoroughly enjoyed this our first speaker although it must be said that the attendance was shall we say a little disappointing. The chairman thanked Mr Evans for giving his time for the Society and the members and guests showed their appreciation in the usual way

The Second Quarterly Meeting ( June)

The Third Quarterly Meeting

The 3rd Quarterly meeting of the members of the CCMHS was again held at the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford (the site of the old Valley Colliery) at 3.00pm on Wednesday 17th September 2003. The guest speaker was Mr Brian Worthington of Joy Mining Machinery Manufactures Pinxton Works in Nottinghamshire.

Mr Len Fletcher a former British Coal Group Mechanical Engineer for the area welcomed Mr Worthington (himself an ex-British Coal employee) to  the Society  and introduced him to the members and guest. He told the audience a little about Mr Worthington having known him for the last 15 - 20 years. He then handed over to Mr Worthington who with the add of a slide show presentation began his talk on  the latest Modern Heavy Duty Mining Machinery used  in coal and various other mines. The audience sat memorised as Mr Worthington told of the early beginnings of the Joy mining company started by Joseph Francis Joy who was born in 1883  He work in the mines and held every conceivable job from pumper to superintendent and in 1916 his first Joy Loader was delivered and used in Pittsburgh. He then mapped the progress through to modern times and showed slides and videos of old and new machinery in the development stages, on test and in use in various mining applications. He went into some detail of the testing and monitoring at all stages that takes place within Joy and also when the machinery be it coal cutting equipment, roof supporters or face coal clearance systems was installed at the mines.

The  figures he produced on tonnages from the worlds coal fields were staggering  and in particular one district in outer Mongolia China called Shenfu-Dongsheng it was astounding to the people in the room were a million tons per year was the magic figure.. Annual production from Shendong’s mining operations reached 37 million tonnes (40.7 million tons) in 2001 and is planned at 50 million tonnes (55 million tons) this year this from 2 mines. It must be added that these tonnages are achieved from 5 - 6 metre coal seams  retreating 38 metres per shift, were British mines worked mainly 2.8 - 4 metre seams and a retreat of 5 - 6 metres was an achievement.

The size of the equipment was colossal compared with the  equipment in use when we finished production in 1993 on Cannock Chase at Littleton Colliery.

Fourth and Final Quarterly meeting 2003

The LAST quarterly meeting OF THE CANNOCK CHASE MINING HISTORICAL SOCIETY FOR THIS YEAR 2003 with A guest speaker   took place at: -The Museum of Cannock Chase  (the old Valley Pit), Valley Road, Hednesford on Wednesday 26th November 2003.  The subject was The Roll of Her Majesties Inspectorate in Mining and the talk was given by Mr Gary Goodlad Her Majesties Chief Inspector of mines. Mr Len Fletcher introduced Mr Goodlad to the floor with a brief out line of his qualifications and career to date and most impressive it was. The attendance was very good with 26 members attending out of the membership of 35 present. Mr Goodlad with the aid of computer graphics talked for just over an hour on the re-structuring and work of HM Inspectorates present roll in coal and other mining including opencast mining. At the conclusion of the talk questions were taken from the floor and Mr Brian Rollins retired Chief Area Surveyor thanked Mr Goodlad for giving up his most valuable time to talk to us.

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The CCMHS first AGM

As advertised the Society held its first annual general meeting at the Museum of Cannock Chase on the afternoon of Monday 23rd December 2004. A total 14 members attended the meeting at which the previous 12 months accounts were submitted and received and the previous 12 months business of the Society was reported on. Also at the meeting two founder members of the CCMHS announced that they would be standing down from the posts that they currently held. These were Mr Jack Sunley the Chairman who had been a driving force along side Mick Drury in the initial formation of the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society and the writing of the book on the Cannock Chase Coalfield and Mr Maurice Davies the Treasurer who is also the author for the Rescue section of the book. Both gentlemen stated that now that the project was well underway, they wished to retire from office and and at their time of life take a back seat. The Society thanked them for all their hard work and wished them well and hoped that they would continue to support the CCMHS.  The chairman then  informed the members that committee recommend that the Chairman's vacancy be filled by Mr Brian Rollins (himself a founder member and committee member and author), this was proposed, seconded and carried by the members present. It was also recommended to the members that Mr Arthur Renhard be accepted to the post of Treasurer this was also proposed, seconded and carried by the members present. In any other business Mr Alan Dean put it to the floor that Mr Jack Sunley the outgoing Chairman be offered the position of Life President of the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society, the members accepted that this was an excellent gesture and it was proposed, seconded from the floor and passed by the membership present at the meeting.  Mr Sunley said he felt very honoured and would gladly accept the position. With no further business arising the chairman closed the meeting and wished the members a safe journey home.

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First quarterly meeting of 2004

The first quarterly meeting with a guest speaker was held at The Museum of Cannock Chase  (the old Valley Pit), Valley Road, Hednesford. The meetings advertised guest speaker MR PETER HETHERINGTON  Head Engineer for UK Coal was unable to attend due to other commitments within UK Coal but in his place he sent  Mr Kevin Sabin, Operational Support Manager UK Coal Plc, Mr Wyn Griffiths, Coal Face Design Engineer UK Coal Plc and Mr Neil Clempson, Managing Director Control Systems Ltd. The meeting was opened by the incoming  Chairman Mr Brian Rollins, he handed over to Mr Len Fletcher who introduce the speakers to the meeting. Kevin Sabin with the aid of computer graphics then talked the group through the short history of UK Coal from its beginning as R J B Mining to its present  level of production as UK Coal. His talk covered a wide spectrum of subjects all of which have affected and changed the way that coal has been produced  over the last 10 years and will be produced in the future. These include costs, structuring  manpower, industrial relations, technological advances and closures of collieries. The content was such that there was far to much information to retell on these pages. The two main factors which seem to have awed the audience was the cut in manpower to to run the pits a total of 450 men per unit and the advances in size and and technology of the equipment. Kevin then handed over to Wyn Griffiths who showed the members slides and 3d computer drawings of the past and present coal getting equipment. Finally Kevin Sabin with the aid of Mr Neil Clempson made a live computer link form Hednesford via the telephone system to Daw Mill Collieries control monitoring system. This provide the members with a live ON SCREEN second by second blow of what was happening with the underground equipment and also the surface coal clearance scheme. Showing the journey of the coal from face to stock pile in this fully COMPUTER controlled mine. Daw Mill is the largest single production unit within UK Coal Plc and started life as a single ventilation shaft for the then Dexter Colliery. Coal was first brought up the shaft in 1965 and in 1968 a second shaft was sunk, in 1982 a surface drift was added. The Warwickshire Thick seam (this seam is the only seam mined at Daw Mill) is estimated to contain 39.3 million tons of coal reserves, with a further 43.1 lying outside the existing southern boundary at a depth of over 1000m and thickness of 4.0m. This year Daw Mil will make history by working the longest longwall face ever worked by the colliery with a seam extraction of 5m the largest ever taken in the UK.  The members then fired the usual round of questions at the speakers and Mr Mick Drury thanked the visitors for an excellent and interesting presentation he pointed out the vast differences of coal extraction as he knew it in 1993 at the closure of Littleton Colliery, to the present state of the industry today. The chairman closed the meeting and wished all a safe journey home.

 The second quarterly meeting was held at The Museum of Cannock Chase  (the old Valley Pit), Valley Road, Hednesford, on the evening of the 21st June the meeting. The meeting commenced at 7.00pm with the talk beginning at 7.30pm. The guest speaker on this occasion was the CCMHS Chairman MR BRAIN ROLLINS, his talk entitled The Effluent Disposal Scheme at Walsall Wood Colliery after it's closure or as Brian puts it "Coal to Crap" was a very interesting and informative talk. It was also a bit of an eye opener with quite a few facts being revealed about the lack of real control that was exerted by the local authorities on the actual type of  effluent being deposited down the Walsall Wood shaft. Brian was at that period of his career Chief Area Surveyor for the NCB Western Area based at Staffordshire House Stoke on Trent and this dropped him right in the deep end, he know the underground workings of Walsall Wood Colliery well as he had been head surveyor there before his move to Headquarters.  He was made representative for British Coal who although they had shut and disposed of the Colliery many years earlier were still responsible for it. This meant that Brian was first in line for the Crap in  he title. He dispelled the myth about the first explosion after the dumping of the effluent began, it was in fact an implosion down into the mine which took the conservatory type bubble building (constructed at the shaft top to stop the awful stench that was emerging out of the workings) down the mine. He also related how the only  explosion in the shaft was caused by two workmen on duty at the shaft top lowering an extension light down the shaft to see if they could found out why the effluent was not seeping away into the workings. The extension lamp of at least 100 yards long was lowered down the shaft with the light switched off when the men though they were far enough down the shaft the lamp was switched on, it was concluded the bulb smashed and the resulting shorting, caused gasses in the shaft to explode blowing the pit top cover of tin and asbestos sheet over most of Brownhills and Clayhanger. It was good to be told that no heavy materials were ever dumped at Walsall Wood but it is also quite disconcerting to also be told that nobody really knows what actually was dumped. The talk was in the eyes of the CCMHS a success although the attendance was down (as on the evening of this quarterly meeting England played their final game in the Euro 2004 competition) we managed to wrestle 12 people away from ITV & BBC television quite a coupe we thought for our miniscule event. The CCMHS would like to thank Mr Brian Rollins for a very interesting and informative evening.

The 3rd quarterly meeting Monday the 20th September featuring the talk by Ken Edwards on the Cannock and Rugeley Colliery Company Ltd was the best attended yet with 32 members and guests present, out of a membership of 44. Ken who had not attempted this paper before gave an excellent account of himself and the talk was most interesting. It was packed with facts and figures, slides and of course the history of the Cannock and Rugeley Company. Ken who is the author of this chapter and also the  Fair Oaks and Brereton chapters of the society book, kept it interesting without giving to much away and so revealing the complete story of the Company, as they say he wet their appetites. There was plenty of questions and a few recollections from the people in the room all in all a very well presented talk. If you want to know more about the Cannock and Rugeley Company or any other Colliery Company, then buy the Book ! Its out in September 2005 you can pre-order without obligation to buy, as the price of a book has not yet been agreed upon.

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Quarterly meetings of 2005

The First Quarterly meeting was in January and a slide show was given by David Battersby on the old colliery's of the Cannock Chase Coalfield and excellent attendance and a superb evening Mr Battersby has been asked to give another such show.

Second Annual General Meeting

The 2nd Annual General Meeting of the Society held in February was attended by 12 members, the reports of the individual officers of the Society were read and accepted by those present. No new nominations for the committee were received from the floor therefore the officers of the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society will remain in place until the next general Annual General Meeting in February 2006.

The second quarterly meeting The March quarterly meeting was a resounding success it was attended by 37 members (well done). Dennis Jackson gave an excellent history of the Coppice Colliery (Fairlady) Heath Hayes with many facts that were unknown to even people like myself who were born by it. Mr Joe Lander 96 years young was also in the audience  he had worked there and changed the headgear in the 1950s for one from Norton Green. Dennis got so carried away with the occasion, that he had to cut short the history of Leacroft Colliery but all in all he gave a good account of its life story.

The  quarterly meeting  held on June 20th 2005  at the usual venue the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford, Staffordshire was a great success and was again very well attended with an audience of 34 members and guests. The speaker Mr Ken Edwards gave a very interesting account of the history of the Brereton Colliery Company, Ken having started his working life at Brereton  researched the Company for the book and was obviously very well informed on all aspects of its history.

2006 Q Meetings

The 3rd Annual General Meeting of the Society held in February was attended by 18 members, the reports of the individual officers of the Society were read and accepted by those present. New  nominations for the committee were received from the floor as some officers were retiring and did not wish re-election  the nominations were excepted and the new officers of the Cannock Chase Mining Historical Society will remain in place until the next general Annual General Meeting in February 2006.

The  first quarterly meeting  of 2006 was held on March 20th  at the usual venue the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford, Staffordshire the usual format  applied the group met at 2.30pm and the talk  began at 3.00pm sharp. The speaker on this occasion was Mr Alan Dean who gave an account of the history of the East Cannock Colliery Company Ltd. Alan went straight from school into the mining industry as a mechanical apprentice, spending 21 years at West Cannock No.5 Colliery were he reached the position of assistant mechanical engineer then the final 9 years of his career at Littleton Colliery specialising in shafts and winding. The talk lasted 1 hour 20 minutes and was delivered with the aid of excellent computer generated presentation on a projector kindly loaned by St Peters School Church Hill. The collieries history was told by Alan in some detail, starting in 1870 and ending in 1957 when it closed. It must be said that Alan coped very well at this his first public speaking event since leaving college in 1984. With such a large audience some 55 people, the largest yet at a Society talk it must have been quite daunting with many of the men present having worked at East Cannock, even these learned many facts that they never knew about their old pit.

The 2nd Quarterly meeting was held on Thursday June 15th   at the usual venue the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford, Staffordshire. The meeting started at 6.30pm and the talk  began at 7.00pm sharp. The speaker  MR PETER BARKER told the story of The Cannock Chase Colliery Company Ltd. Peter started work as an apprentice mechanic at Cannock Chase 3s and so had personal experience of the company and with the aid of a pictorial presentation gave a fascinating account of the way in which the company evolved, progressed and ended he also showed how contrary to belief some colliery companies really cared for the communities they spawned. He told how like many they provided places of worship but also this company provided leisure facilities and electricity to the district around its pits. The meeting was attended by 35 members and guests and we would like to congratulate Peter on providing a most successful evening.

The 3rd Quarterly meeting of 2006 will be held on Wednesday 6th September  at the usual venue the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford, Staffordshire. The meeting will start at 6.30pm with the talk  beginning at 7.00pm sharp. The speaker on this occasion will be Mr TREVOR MATTHEWS telling the story of The HOLLY BANK & HILTON MAIN COLLIERIES. Trevor started work at Hilton Main in 1951 after graduating with a B.Eng (mining) from Sheffield University, he gained his Managers Certificate in 1958 after which his career took him to Mid Cannock, West Cannock No.5 and finally Littleton from were he retired as Assistant Manager. This talk promises to be a most interesting experience full of fascinating facts  and anecdotes from Trevor's most varied experiences in the mining industry. Please make the effort to attend and make this talk as successful as the previous talks.

Remember our meetings are open meetings for members and guests in fact anyone interested in our mining heritage and local history, all are welcome to come along. ENTRANCE IS FREE.

FINAL QUARTERLY MEETING 2006

The final quarterly meeting of 2006 is on Tuesday 12th December, it  will take the form of an informal coffee morning with mince pies and a film on coal mining at Hilton Main Colliery in 1950. The venue is as usual the Museum of Cannock Chase Valley Rd, Hednesford, Staffordshire the meeting will start 11.00am prompt, hope we see you all there (refreshments are free).

2007

The third quarterly meeting of the society takes place on Tuesday 3rd July at Keys Park Hednesford (home of Hednesford town football club) see map below. The meeting will begin at 6.30pm and the talk  "An Explosive Experience" will given by Mr Malcolm Ingry commencing at 7.00pm sharp.

Please make a note that all our meetings this year will take place at the above venue due to the extensive building work being carried out at the Museum of Cannock Chase.

Map of location & approaches to Keys Park (click on map to enlarge)

The third quarterly meeting of the society took place on Tuesday 3rd July at Keys Park Hednesford (home of Hednesford town football club) see map below. The meeting began at 6.30pm and the talk which started at 7.00pm was given by  Malcolm Ingry.  The talk was about Malcolm's experience dealing with explosives of which he has 40 years, dating from his time as a shotfirer/deputy down the pit to his work with the film industry. He took a packed house through a guided tour of all types of explosives and with the aid of a multi media presentation he showed the effects of each one on various materials. He then went onto explain how explosives are used to create the special effects we all love to see in the movies we watch the audience were enthralled with the effects Malcolm had created in 4 James Bond movies and in the Film Johnny English starring Rowan Atkinson. Then he explained how he had made the special effects in TV adverts, the one most people were conversant with was the "Sony Bravia" (click link to view) one with the paint exploding around the block of flats. He also showed the demolition that everyone loves to watch the blowing up of tower blocks and explained the ins and outs of the procedures to a total focused room of people. This was one of the societies most explosive evenings and the audience hung on Malcolm's every word. We thank Malcolm Ingry for his excellent talk and also the people who attended, 55 in all matching the attendance of the talk by Alan Dean, Malcolm has agreed to come back at a future date to give us another evening of explosions

The fourth and last quarterly meeting for 2007 of this society takes place on Monday 29th October 2007 at Keys Park Hednesford (home of Hednesford town football club) for directions to the venue see the map below.

The meeting will begin at 2.30pm and the talk will commence at 3.00pm sharp. The theme of the talk is "After the mines are gone"  and it will given by Simon Reed head of the Coal Authorities Mining Hazards department.

The final quarterly meeting of 2007, was held on Monday 29th October 2007 and was attended by 36 members & non members.

The talk was very well received by those present as Simon Reed explained with the aid of a multi media presentation how the Coal Authority was still dealing with our mining legacy from the 19th & 20th century in all the old mining areas around the UK.

The extent of this mining subsidence is really quite alarming when you are shown the holes that have appeared in various residential sites around the country, in places such as front & rear gardens, playing fields, main roads and even beneath the fireplace in a house. It appears all the mines have not gone as the title of the talk suggested but are still causing the government head aches.

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