Tag Archives: Wyrley common

90 years ago today: The Grove Pit Disaster

Ninety years ago today, the 1st October 1930, an underground blast killed 14 men working in a coal mine, The Grove Colliery, underneath Brownhills Common. Ten of those lost souls are buried in the Churchyard of St James, Brownhills, in … Continue reading

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Living next door to the Grove – what do you know?

Last year I featured a very popular set of images from a place I genuinely didn’t realise still existed: The Grove Colliery, the remnants of which – the house and offices situated just off Lime Lane, between Pelsall, Brownhills, Norton and Great Wyrley – were documented by old pal of the blog Simon Swain and drone wizard Steve Martin also captured the site from the air.

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The Grove Colliery – remembering a lost pit

Last year I featured a very popular set of images from a place I genuinely didn’t realise still existed: The Grove Colliery, the remnants of which – the house and offices situated just off Lime Lane, between Pelsall, Brownhills, Norton and Great Wyrley – were documented by old pal off the blog Simon Swain and posted here as a gallery I include below.

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Was the investigation into the Grove Pit Disaster a whitewash?

The 1st October 2016 was the 86th anniversary of the worst modern-day pit disaster in our area, the Grove Pit Disaster, in which fourteen miners perished following an explosion a mile and a half below Brownhills Common, beneath the Ring Sun Inn.

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All that remains of the last one standing

Following my feature yesterday on perhaps the last passenger train to ever traverse the line from Aldridge to the Conduit Colliery in Norton Canes, Simon Swain has sent me a great gallery of images of the Grove Colliery site as it is today.
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One of the last standing

Here’s the final blast of pictures from the mystery archive found by local historian Clive Roberts back at the beginning of November – these images are remarkable as the show the Grove Colliery on the Cannock Extension Canal at Lime Lane in 1958 and 1959, and I know of few extant images of the time – perhaps the only good representation being in the 1963 cinefilm of Brownhills, donated by Brian Stringer.
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Private investigations

David Evans has had access in recent weeks to lots of material from the Norton Canes Historical Society – one of the things he found was a wonderful 1975 report into the Grove Pit Disaster.
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After the gold rush

I thought that today, I’d dig some interesting mapping out of the archive. In the light of Gerald Reece’s talk on Brownhills and it’s colliery history, I thought this 1884 1:2,500 scale plan of Wyrley Common was due an outing. It shows – in some clarity – the extent of mining in the Engine Lane area at the height of the Victorian period.
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Underground investigations – The Grove Pit Disaster remembered

The 1st October 2012 – a couple of hours away from when I post this – will mark 82 years since the Grove Pit Disaster that killed fourteen local men in the mine that stood just off Lime Lane, on … Continue reading

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The men below

Eighty years ago today, on the 1st October, 1930, fourteen men died underground, as a result of a gas explosion at the Grove, or Brownhills Colliery. It is thought that the men perished when a naked light was struck in … Continue reading

Posted in Brownhills stuff, Churches, Environment, Events, Followups, It makes me mad!, Local History, Local media, Reader enquiries, Shared media, Shared memories, Walsall Wood stuff | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments