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Welcome to the Hamstead Colliery website, originally produced in association with the Hamstead Miners Memorial Trust. This site is an update of the original site which was hosted as miners.b43.co.uk and provides a better experience for mobile devices.

The objective of ths site is to provide a history of the colliery and a resource that remembers the mine that made such an impact on the Hamstead area. Special consideration is made of the 1908 disaster where 25 miners and a member of the rescue team died.

The Hamstead Colliery Company was formed in April 1875. It acquired land in an area of Staffordshire, on what is now the north west border of Birmingham, from G.C. Calthorpe of nearby Perry Hall, and in 1876 sank shafts.

The first coal was not extracted until after 1878 due to unexpected geological problems and water ingress. The coal was at a very deep level of almost 2000 feet. It closed in 1898 due to a fire in the workings, throwing 800 men out of work. With the Midlands facing an acute coal shortage it reopened on 8 January 1900.

In 1928, due to boundary changes, the mine head area became part of West Bromwich.Shortly afterwards, the mine was acquired by the Hamstead Colliery (1930) Ltd.

After nationalisation on the first day of 1947, when it became part of the National Coal Board, it continued to produce coal profitably until 1965 when the mine closed and housing was built on the site of the pithead.

Much housing was built for miners, including the Durham estate, which housed  miners who move to Hamstead following the closure of mines in Durham.

The pithead baths building, opened in 1937, was redeveloped as a nightclub called Kings. It has since been demolished, and as of 2023, the site is occupied by a petrol station.

There is nothing left of the colliery now, although a memorial featuring a mine tub and recird of thise who died in1908 stands on the corner of Hamstead Road and the Old Walsall Road. The Tanhouse Centre on Hamstead Road has a display of mining artefacts and information.