Editing Stoke-on-Trent (section)

==== Coal mining ====
[[File:Film Photo Whitfield Colliery.jpg|thumb|Chatterley Whitfield Colliery]]
North Staffordshire was a centre for coal mining. The first reports of coal mining in the area come from the 13th century.<ref name=staffspasttrack/> The Potteries Coalfield (part of the North Staffordshire Coalfield) covers {{convert|100|sqmi|km2|-2}}.<ref name=staffspasttrack>{{cite web |url=http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/exhibit/coal/historical%20overview/historicaloverview.htm |title=Coal Mining in North Staffordshire |publisher=Staffordshire County Council, Keele University, Staffordshire Learning Net |work=Staffordshire Past Track |access-date=20 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070531060704/http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/exhibit/coal/historical%20overview/historicaloverview.htm |archive-date=31 May 2007 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Striking coal miners in the [[Hanley, Staffordshire|Hanley]] and [[Longton, Staffordshire|Longton]] area ignited the nationwide [[1842 general strike]] and its associated [[1842 Pottery Riots|Pottery Riots]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Fyson |first=R |editor1-first=Epstein |editor1-last=J |editor2-last=Thompson |editor2-first=D |title=The Chartist Experience: Studies in Working-Class Radicalism and Culture, 1830–1860 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |year=1982 |chapter=The Crisis of 1842: Chartism, the Colliers' Strike and the Outbreak in the Potteries |pages=[https://archive.org/details/chartistexperien0000unse/page/194 194–195, 214–216] |isbn=978-0-333-32972-6 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/chartistexperien0000unse/page/194 }}</ref>

When coal mining was [[National Coal Board|nationalised]] in 1947, about 20,000 men worked in the industry in Stoke-on-Trent. Notable collieries included Hanley Deep Pit, Trentham Superpit (formerly Hem Heath, Stafford and Florence Collieries), Fenton Glebe, [[Silverdale, Staffordshire#Silverdale Colliery|Silverdale]], Victoria, Mossfield, Parkhall, Norton, [[Chatterley Whitfield]] and [[Wolstanton]].<ref name=staffspasttrack/> The industry developed greatly, and new investments in mining projects were planned within the City boundaries as recently as the 1990s.<ref>[http://www.stokecoll.ac.uk/NSCFWEB/Sentinel/1991.htm stokecoll.ac.uk] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229144432/http://www.stokecoll.ac.uk/NSCFWeb/Sentinel/1991.htm |date=29 December 2008 }} Evening Sentinel (28 March 1991) Page 22 Co.</ref> However, 1994 saw the last pit to close as the Trentham Superpit was shut.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.urbed.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?org_code=fffgggretyuiopef57&option=article&doc_id=44 |title=Trentham Lakes – Successful URBED strategy |access-date=20 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928060150/http://www.urbed.com/cgi-bin/main.cgi?org_code=fffgggretyuiopef57&option=article&doc_id=44 |archive-date=28 September 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The Stoke mining industry set several national and international records. [[Wolstanton]] Colliery, when modernised, had the deepest mining shafts in Europe at 3,197&nbsp;ft.<ref>{{ISBN|978-0-19-955129-3}} The Riches Beneath our Feet: How Mining Shaped Britain by Geoff Coyle (2010)</ref> In 1933, Chatterley Whitfield Colliery became the first Colliery in the country to mine one million tons of coal. In the 1980s Florence Colliery in [[Longton, Staffordshire|Longton]] repeatedly set regional and national production records; in 1992 the combined Trentham Superpit (Hem Heath and Florence) was the first mine in Europe to produce 2.5&nbsp;million saleable tonnes of coal.

Today the mines are all closed, though the scars of mining remain on the landscape. Slag heaps are still visible on the skyline, now covered with flora and fauna. The [[Chatterley Whitfield]] site reopened as a museum two years after its closure in 1976. The museum closed in 1991 and the site became a [[Local Nature Reserve]]. It was declared a [[scheduled monument]] by [[English Heritage]] in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_details.asp?C=0&N=&ID=508 |title=Local Nature Reserves – Whitfield Valley<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=20 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020222247/http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_details.asp?C=0&N=&ID=508 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chatwhitfriends.org.uk/ |title=The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield<!-- Bot generated title --> |access-date=20 December 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216080920/http://www.chatwhitfriends.org.uk/ |archive-date=16 February 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The abandoned subterranean mines are inaccessible, though they still add complications to many building projects and occasionally cause minor tremors, detectable only by specialised equipment.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/8486316.stm|title=Mine works cause tremors in Stoke-on-Trent |date=28 January 2010|work=BBC News |access-date=29 January 2010}}</ref>