Welcome to the Museum of Cannock Chase – one of the five Cannock Chase visitor centres,
and the hub of the Cannock Chase Heritage Trail.
The Museum
By 1982, most of the local pits had closed and the
Training Centre had closed, too. The site was taken
over by the Council and in 1989 the Valley Heritage
Centre was opened. Renamed the Museum of
Cannock Chase in the mid 1990s, it tells the story of
local coal mining and illustrates the social, industrial
and domestic history of the Cannock Chase area.
The top of the museum site leads to Hednesford
Hills. You can find out more about the hills inside the
Museum and along the Cannock Chase Heritage Trail.
Valley Colliery
Valley Colliery
The museum and its outbuildings are on the site of the
former Valley Colliery.
The colliery opened in 1874 and was originally called
the Pool Pit, after the pool that once covered nearby
Hednesford Park. In 1887 the mine was connected to
Wimblebury Colliery. Coal was brought to the surface
there, but the miners still descended from here.
In 1940 pithead baths were opened. Miners paid 5d per
week to use them. The building later became the Mines
Rescue Station, which stood at the top of Valley Road
where the houses are today.
A postcard of Valley Colliery
Valley Colliery in the late 1950s
|
The Mining Training Centre
The Coal Mining Training Centre for the Cannock
Chase, Shropshire and South Staffordshire coalfields
was here at the Valley Colliery site. It opened in
1946, just before new legislation was introduced
that meant miners had to receive training before
going underground.
The colliery corn store (now the museum’s main
building) was converted for training. New recruits
were also trained in five Nissen huts from World
War Two, which stood beside the museum. Near to
what is now our main car park, surface training
facilities that replicated underground conditions
were built. By the 1960s, they were being used to train 15 year old boys who had just left school.
Because the boys weren’t permitted to start work
underground until the age of 16, these surface
training galleries provided the only opportunity for
them to learn the necessary mining techniques.
Over 17,000 trainee miners passed through the
Mining Training Centre, many of whom have
revisited the site since it became a museum.
When coal extraction from Wimblebury Colliery
ended in 1962 the colliery buildings were used only
for training.
The Mines Rescue Station
The Mines Rescue Station was originally
based in nearby Victoria Street but
moved here in 1972, where it remained
until the service was relocated out of
the district in 1991. In 1997 the building
became a public house, but was later
pulled down after most of it was
destroyed in a fire started by vandals.
John Scott holding a canary cage used in mines rescue training.
He was Station Officer at the Rescue Station here
Image reproduced by kind permission of Mr Ivan Ellis
The Mines Rescue Station
The Mines Rescue Station was originally
based in nearby Victoria Street but
moved here in 1972, where it remained
until the service was relocated out of
the district in 1991. In 1997 the building
became a public house, but was later
pulled down after most of it was
destroyed in a fire started by vandals.
The Winding Wheel and Mine Car
The winding wheel outside the museum is from
Lea Hall Colliery in Rugeley, which closed in 1990.
When at the colliery, the wheel was unused and
was left in place to give the headframe a balanced
appearance. It is one of three remaining winding wheels from the Cannock Chase coalfield.
The mine car at the front of the Museum is from
Littleton Colliery, in Huntington. It was used to
transport coal from underground to the pit surface,
where it was emptied onto conveyor belts.
|
