The Highley Mining Company

A short history of the Highley Mining Company with supporting documents

The Highley Mining Company

Mines in the Highley Area [+]
This map shows mines in the vicinity of Highley. It also marks local roads and railways; the thick black lines mark the boundaries of the Wyre Forest Coalfield

The Highley Mining Company was formed in 1877 to mine coal at Highley. It was founded by a group of north Staffordshire mine owners. They began to sink their main shaft at Highley in 1878 and the broach coal was found a little over a year later, at 300 yards depth. Mining conditions were good. The colliery was soon connected to the Severn Valley Railway at Highley Station and quickly became very profitable. At the start of the 1890s, the company began prospecting for coal in the neighbouring parish of Kinlet and this was struck in 1894. A new railway was built to connect the mine to the Severn Valley. Whilst underground conditions at Kinlet proved much harder than at Highley, both mines were large and successful; in 1914, 391 men worked at Highley and 306 at Kinlet. In 1915 the company took over Billingsley Colliery, adding another 202 individuals to their workforce. The village of Highley expanded 4-fold from 1875 to 1915, to accommodate the miners and developed the amenities of a small town.

After the First World war came a time of national economic depression, exasperated by labour troubles. In 1921 there was a long national strike and in September of that year, Billingsley was closed. In 1926 there was another particularly long and bitter strike, but the Highley and Kinlet miners played little part in this and quickly returned to work. Although underground conditions at Kinlet remained poor, Highley Colliery received regular investment and remained very profitable. Its workings had now passed east below the River Severn to enter the parish of Alveley and the faces were a long way from the shafts back in Highley. Accordingly the company decided to sink a new mine in Alveley, to allow easier access to their coal. Work on the new mine began in 1935. A bridge was built over the River Severn to take the coal from the mine to the Severn Valley Railway. An underground connection was retained with the Highley shafts to allow for ventilation and emergency exit and entrance to the workings. Whilst Alveley was developing, Kinlet was closed in 1937.

Alveley became fully operational in 1939 and all coal winding at Highley ceased in 1940. The mine was a great success. Coal production increased from about 200,000 tons pa from both Kinlet and Highley in 1935 to almost 250,000 tons at Alveley alone in 1945 with a slight reduction in workforce. Alveley was laid out as a state-of-the-art colliery, fully mechanised and using electric power throughout. The surface buildings were carefully laid out and the mine had its own gardener.

In 1947 the coal industry was nationalised and Alveley became the property of the National Coal Board. The NCB continued the path of the Highley Mining Company by investing in the mine. Production peaked in 1957 at over 300,000 tons pa, at which point the mine was employing over 1000 men. At this time the NCB launched a fresh round of investment to access a predicted 50 years worth of reserves to the east of the Romsley Fault. As a result of this, the colliery was extensively reconstructed underground to allow the introduction of horizon mining and there was also surface redevelopment. Unfortunately, in the early 1960s the country’s appetite for coal began to slacken and the NCB found itself with too many pits. In 1967, attempts to introduce the latest face machinery, the power-loaders, proved difficult and the board decided to close the pit. Although it was granted a stay of execution, closure finally came in January 1969.

These are notes taken from documents held at the National Archives. They deal with the compensation paid to the Highley Mining Company at Nationalisation. The company owned both mines (Highley and Alveley) and houses, either at Garden Village (inherited from the Billingsley Colliery Company) or in the village centre (via a subsidiary, the Highley Land and Building Company). The COAL 34 files deal with the valuation of these assets via a case for compensation made by the owners and an estimate of their worth by the NCB. An independent assessor then arrived at the final figure. It is interesting to see that the NCB considered the houses at Garden Village to be a liability!

In COAL 38, an inventory was prepared of all the assets of the Highley Mining Company to assist with valuation.

COAL 12 deals with an earlier phase of government intervention in the mining industry, in the 1930s when encouragement was given for colliery amalgamations and a central selling scheme was set up. In the event, no amalgamations took place in Shropshire.

COAL 34/404 Valuation of Highley Land & Building Company
Company owned freehold on 91 houses in Barke St, Coronation St & Orchard Street let to Highley Mining Co on a monthly tenancy at a rent of £1145-5s-0d p.a. Present rent amounted to £2014-4s-10d. Highley Mining Co claimed £24000 compensation at Nationalisation. N.C.B. offered £11150, settled at £15500

COAL 34/405 Valuation of High Mining Co
Co had reserves of brooch, 21,677,600 tons; new mine 14,036,000 tons and Flying Reed 52,089,800 tons. Between 1941&46, 201.12492 acres of brooch had been worked yielding 1,130,508 tons. Reserves of brooch estimated at 69 years.
Underground colliery conditions were excellent - endless-rope haulage with steel arched roads with 11’ & 10’ rings. Excellent ventilation, single and double conveyor faces. Brooch seams worked under ideal conditions. Surface plant compares favourably with any colliery in the country. Shaft was 340 yds deep, 15’ diam electric winder, double decked cages with simultaneous decking, 4 tubs/wind, 75 winds/hour llcwt/tub = 1155 tons per day (Actual max = 1182 tons/day). Haulage capacity 1200 tons/shift. Main screens: 800 tons/shift (2 Barker dry cleaning plants for large & small nuts). Landsale screens: 400 tons/shift: large, cobbles, nuts,3/4 slack, with loading belts to road transport & bunkers.
Highley - upcast shafts 2 x 9’ diam shafts 20’ apart, 295 yds deep, steam winding, Walker fan. In 1946 two shafts were linked & new fan, drift & engine house constructed & axial flow fan, electrically driven installed.
Maximum performance: 11th May 1946; 5790 tons per week in 5&3/4 shifts: 25127 tons in the entire month. Report proposed fewer loading points. Highley to be electrified, removing 3 Lancashire boilers, reducing number of men at Highley from 7 to 3. Proposed 2 x 150hp endless rope haulage (one on order); cost £7000 for 2 & 2 x 26” trunk conveyors.
Output Highley Kinlet Alveley Days worked Output/Man/Shift
1935 148699 51424 — ND 16
1936 160330 46944 — 288½ 17.5
1937 155926 26636 — 296 17.0
1938 164975 — 17878 287 18.0
1939 103769 — 96093 286 18.4
1940 — — 200897 298 19.0
1941 — — 215674 297 23.3
1942 — — 219762 288 23.0
1943 — — 217715 286 22.9
1944 — — 224862 288 23.2
1945 — — 224698 282(VE/VJDays) 22.8
1946 — — 247382 285 24.8

1940—1946 Company profit £425,894
Undertaking commenced at Highley in 1870. Severn Valley fault pierced in 1930’s & workable reserves found to the east. Company advised by G P Hislop, engineer, to sink new shaft. Jan 1940 all winding transferred to Alveley
1877 £7000 capital: additional capital subscribed £32,600.
Undistributed profit capitalised and distributed to shareholders
November 1918 £38,100. Ditto Nov 1939 £77,700 — Total capital £155,400
Dividends 1909—18 24%. 1919—32 11%, 1933—35 9% 1936—38 10% 1939— 46 10½% £189000 spent at Alveley 1935-46. Company owned 126 houses in old village & 100 in Garden Village. Canteen erected in the war. Alveley planned for output of 1000 tons/day
Output: 1938 1946
Domestic 46% 37.6%
Electricity 17.5% 37.6%
Industry 36% 24.8%
Coal supplied to Buildwas Power Station app. 21,000 tons Stourport Power Station. app. 40,000 tons also toWorcester power station.
Housing Valuation: Company claimed £33,605, NCB offered £4770, Settlement £20,000. Main discrepancy due to Garden Village, assessed at £5000 by Highley Mining Company but at -£12200 by NCB (made annual loss of £887-10/- ). Colliery owned Emberton House, Rose Cottage & Clee View. Compensation for entire colliery eventually settled at £359,642-7s-1d

COAL 38/376. Inventory of Highley Mining Company.
Alveley Colliery: 15’dia shaft, 340yds to brooch, 356 yds to bottom of sump. 575hp electric winder (Metro-Vickers Robey) one 30hp electric haulage engine, six l0hp electric haulage engines, 3 air compressors driven by l5hp electric motors, one Suma submersible pump with electric motor, Westinghouse automatic docking plant & eqpt, tramway and creepers, clothes drying ovens, 12 ponies (10 u/ground & 2 on surface), oxygen reviving apparatus, stretchers, canaries, 972 steel tubs, 137 wooden tubs, 149 timber, dirt and water tubs, 2 underground electric substations, 12 face conveyors, 8 gate-end conveyors, 9 coal cutters, 3 mobile compressors, 12 drilling machines, 22 shot firing batteries (all electric) 50 prop withdrawers, 8 compressed air picks, 4 compressed air drills, 301 hand electric lamps, 2 inbye electric fans, 2 compressed air fans, 1 steel arch straightening machine, 4 steel bar straightening machines, 1 electric sump pump, 1 Duplex pump driven by l0hp electric motor.
Office eqpt: 4 typewriters, 1 electric calculator, 3 hand calculators, 3 adding machines, 1 cash sorting machine, 2 Gledhill time recording clocks.
Other surface eqpt: Workshop tools and fittings (oxyacetylene burners, lifting gear, etc). 1 Morris 25hp motor ambulance, 1 Morris 2½ ton tipper, 1 Fordson 2 ton tipper, 1 Bedford l0hp van, 1 MG 18.3hp saloon.
Railway wagons: Internal: one 8 tons, three 10 tonns, seven12 tons.
Main line: 45 x 8 tonns, 137 x10 tons, 43 x 12 tons. 2 wagon weighing machines, 2 petrol driven concrete mixers, 2 cross-cut petrol saws, 1 petrol road roller, 1 petrol lawn mower.
Highley Colliery: No.1 & 2 shafts 9’ diam, 292 yds to brooch, 305 yds to bottom of sump. 1 steam winder, 22” diam cylinders, stroke 4’5”. Stand-by steam engine, 12” dia cylinder, 24” stroke. 2 Lancashire Boilers 28’ x 7’5”, 1 boiler 28’ x 8’ dia. 1 Tangye Duplex steam pump in the shaft at Highley. 1 Pulsometer electric sump pump underground. 13 throw ram pump driven by l5hp electric motor in the pump house.
Other property:
Emberton House for Manager built 1939. Rose Cottage Alveley, 1-35 Clee View (from Billingsley Col. Co) Old sewage works at New England. Property repair workshop in Coronation St. Woodhill (Leased by Welsh Garden Cities to Woodhill Garden Village Ltd for 999 years from 24/6/1913, conveyed to Highley Mining Co by Welsh Garden Cities on 11/1/1923. Ground rents payable to Highley Mining Co by Woodhill Garden Village Co of £125p.a. W.G.V.Co owed part of loan to Public Trustees) Highley Land & Building Company-owned land behind Methodist Chapel.

COAL 12/49 Shropshire Colliery Amalgamations.
Output of Highley in 1931 was 194,367 tons. It was suggested by Lilleshall Mining Co that it would be best if they amalgamated with Highley & Madeley Wood, and closed down Madeley. Their own colliery, Granville, was breaking even, Madeley was losing money but Highley was making a profit.