Littleton Colliery 1991
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Sinking the No 1 shaft at Littleton Colliery was started in 1877 by the Cannock and Huntingdon Colliery Co, but by 1880 having got to a depth of 438ft water broke in and flooded the shaft; the company was wound up in 1884.
In 1897 the landowner, Lord Hatherton, organised the sinking of the No 2 Shaft and this reached a depth of 1,644ft on 17th Feb 1899. Work to recover the No 1 shaft was abandoned on 3rd May 1900 and a new shaft was sunk; this was completed to a depth of 1,662ft on 22 Nov 1902.
This pit became one of the largest in the Midlands and the last colliery remaining on Cannock Chase. It was extensively modernised by the National Coal Board and in 1982 employed 1,900 miners, mining nearly a million tonnes of coal.
At the end of 1992, Littleton Colliery was designated as a “core” pit by the Conservative government of the time, sparing the site from the fate of hundreds of other doomed mines across the country.
A year later, in December 1993, Littleton was closed, and 800 workers lost their jobs.
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