Warwickshire Coalfield (inc. pit accidents)

Hi Foxcote, Hi all Thank you for your sensitivity shown in your last post. Most of our members use good judgement when making a post which involves a tragedy, hurt or injury, or even emotional pain, for which I and I am sure all of our readers are grateful. History is history, just as some bad news is bad news. We like to know what has happened & told in the right way, I am sure makes all of the difference. Whenever I travel to London by train, every time we travel pass Harrow station, I am gripping the arms of the seat with such force as to imprint the arm shape in my hand, without realising it. A member of my dad's family died in that tragedy & somehow it must still be inside of me, even though it was sixty years ago. Thank you Foxcote.

Thank you Philip, sensitivity must prevail. I love to search the census and birth, marriage and death records through the ages. 1700-1890's is a bit more removed but any records creeping into the 1900's are especially sensitive to others and I try to maintain the dignity of any details that I find.

Thank you Foxcote, also Philip, MidlandRed, Norman K and Les also for the photo Heritage and info, and all your replies. I was thinking on how many miners had been injured or killed in Coventry and surrounding areas, like my dad who was buried alive for a few days which broke his pelvis at 17. He started when he was 13 years old, doctors said he would never walk again but he made sure he did, he was a miner in Wales, I recall him saying he had to walk 7 miles to the pit, then another 7 miles underground doing a 12 hour shift, then died at 59 of coal dust of the lungs which miners also get who survive. Yes MidlandRed, bravery I would agree nowadays, but in those days I would say necessity to survive to live, the only work available for most areas then. Compensation for his injuries was 1 shilling and sixpence. The coal boards were ruthless towards them as any old miner would tell you. Sorry Philip to hear about your friend. I don't think a lot of people realise without the miners there wouldn't have been many businesses at the time would have survived without the men, women and children and pit ponies that worked down the pits.

Hands up all those who remember the Binley pit's slag heap at night? The sight of the conveyor of red hot coals being tipped at the top of the heap gave it an almost surealisttic vision of Coventry's only volcano. I well remember the outcry at the start of the war over it being used as a marker for raiding aircraft. Then after it was all over it still had its mark when some of the new houses being built had the ash as a foundation, with the afterhappening of it swelling due to it being hydroscopic. So there you are. Another blast from the past. Ain't memory a fine thing?

You are right about the ash swelling berjay, the company I worked for had the job of breaking the floors out and digging all the ash out around Willenhall, it had pushed the floors up and cracked them, it was certainly the wrong use for this material, and hard graft getting rid of it.

Hi NormK, I was just wondering if you did our house on the new estate of the Ansty Rd, nearly opposite Caludon Castle. We had to spend some time in the upper floor, only coming down to walk over planks to get to the kitchen, Happy days !!!

Yes berjay we probably did, we moved around quite a bit. Do you remember the long conveyor that ran from the pit across Willenhall Lane to take the slag-heap away? If so have you any idea where it went to? It was there for ages.

We had the same ash foundation problem on the Stoke Aldermoor estate (started in 1953). Luckily in our house the only floor that had to be replaced was that of the shed/coal house/toilet block, but other neighbours had to have their living room floors dug up.

Hello again Normk. No I didn't remember the conveyor across the Willenhall Lane. I had no reason for going in that direction, until much later when I used the lane to get to the London Rd then onto the bypass and so on to Allesley to Browns Lane. I had one of those 2 stroke outboard motors that had a rubber-coated wheel which was lowered by an arm onto the rear wheel. Oh the joys of being able to go "long" distances!!! They were the days before the Mini, of much loved acclaim.

Hi, I wonder if anyone reading this can help me obtain a Binley pit brass tally / token. I'm an ex-Coventry Colliery miner. Regards, Steve Chaplin

There is film of the last day of Binley pit (1963) on the Mace archive site. Unfortunately is down at present

Welcom to the forum Steve There was a Binley pit brass token sold on eBay in May this year for £19. Might be worth keeping an eye on future auctions on there.

I've just been reading this topic and would like to add my twopennorth. In the early 70s I worked for G W Deeley who were building a large factory on what is now Binley Industrial Estate. Before work could commence they had to move a very large pile of some sort of shale, not slag, several thousand tons I would imagine. It was used during the construction of the M69. Fast forward now to 1981 to 1993 when I worked for a plant hire firm on the same estate. The yard was over an acre and was only half tarmaced, the remainder being the same previously mentioned shale. One day after a few days of rain I looked out of the window to see the water lying on the shale was actually steaming, it seems that there was sufficient heat from the pit below us to do this.

Thaks for that matchle55. The heap started off as 'slag' or colliery waste and after years of spontaneous combustion the material was burned down into shale and had a pink colour to it. That heap was a favourite place for kids to play, my younger brother was lucky to escape with only burns to his foot after his leg dropped into a hot cavity. Yes a very dodgy place for kids.

The red shale from Binley Colliery was used as the track surface at Brandon Speedway for many years, and also at several of the cycle speedway tracks around Coventry and nearby.