Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands County and Worcestershire to the south and Shropshire to the west.
The Wyrley and Essington Canal, known locally as "the Curly Wyrley", is a canal in the English Midlands. As built it ran from Wolverhampton to Huddlesford Junction near Lichfield, with a number of branches: some parts are currently derelict. Pending planned restoration to Huddlesford, the navigable mainline now terminates at Ogley Junction near Brownhills. In 2008 it was designated a Local Nature Reserve.
Cannock Chase, often referred to locally as The Chase, is a mixed area of countryside in the county of Staffordshire, England. The area has been designated as the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is managed by Forestry England. The Chase gives its name to the Cannock Chase local government district. It is a former Royal forest.
Cannock is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverhampton are also nearby.
Rugeley is a market town and civil parish in the Cannock Chase District in Staffordshire, England. It lies on the north-eastern edge of Cannock Chase next to the River Trent; it is situated 8 miles (13 km) north of Lichfield, 10 miles (16 km) south-east of Stafford, 5 miles (8.0 km) north-east of Hednesford and 11 miles (18 km) south-west of Uttoxeter. At the 2021 Census, the population was 24,386.
Burntwood is a former mining town and civil parish in the Lichfield District in Staffordshire, England, approximately 4 miles (6 km) west of Lichfield and north east of Brownhills. The town had a population of 26,049 and forms part of Lichfield district. The town forms one of the largest urbanised parishes in England. Samuel Johnson opened an academy in nearby Edial in 1736. The town is home to the smallest park in the UK, Prince's Park, which is located next to Christ Church on the junction of Farewell Lane and Church Road. The town expanded in the nineteenth century around the coal mining industry.
The Hatherton Canal is a derelict branch of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal in south Staffordshire, England. It was constructed in two phases, the first section opening in 1841 and connecting the main line to Churchbridge, from where a tramway connected to the Great Wyrley coal mines. The second section was a joint venture with the Birmingham Canal Navigations, and linked Churchbridge to the Cannock Extension Canal by a flight of 13 locks, which were opened with the Extension Canal in 1863. The coal traffic was very profitable, and the canal remained in use until 1949. It was formally abandoned in 1955, after which the Churchbridge flight and much of the Extension Canal were destroyed by open cast mining.
The Chase Line is a suburban railway line in the West Midlands region of England. It runs from its southern terminus, Birmingham New Street, to Walsall, and then Rugeley in Staffordshire, where it joins the Trent Valley Line. The name of the line refers to Cannock Chase which it runs through at its northern end.
Huntington is a civil parish and former mining village in Staffordshire, on the outskirts of Cannock Chase. It lies on the A34 road just north of Cannock and is surrounded by woodland. The village had an estimated population of 3,720 in 2004, increasing to 4,536 at the 2011 Census. The population in Huntington on the 2021 census was 4,715, a 3.94% increase from the decade before.
Hednesford railway station serves the town of Hednesford in Staffordshire, England. The station, and all trains serving it, are operated by West Midlands Railway.
Norton Canes is an industrial village, civil parish and ward of Cannock Chase District, in Staffordshire, England.
The Cheadle Coalfield is a coalfield in the United Kingdom. Centred on the town of Cheadle, Staffordshire and its outlying villages it lies to the east of Stoke-on-Trent and the much larger North Staffordshire Coalfield. The area has been mined for many years, with documentary evidence from Croxden Abbey citing coal mining in the 13th century.
The Rugeley power stations were a series of two coal-fired power stations located on the River Trent at Rugeley in Staffordshire. The first power station on the site, Rugeley A power station was opened in 1961, but has since been closed and demolished. Rugeley B power station was commissioned in 1970, and closed on 8 June 2016. The cooling towers of which were demolished on 6 June 2021. It had an output of 1,000 megawatts (MW) and had a 400 kilovolt (kV) connection to the national grid. The B station provided enough electricity to power roughly half a million homes.
South Africa produces in excess of 255 million tonnes of coal and consumes almost three-quarters of that domestically. As of 2018, South Africa was the seventh largest producer and consumer of coal in the world. This large industry, means that as of 2015 about 80,000 workers, or .5% of total employment, was from the coal industry, down from a peak in 1981 of 135,000 workers. The coal industry is South Africa's largest contribution to the greenhouse gases that cause climate change.
Coal mining in the United Kingdom dates back to Roman times and occurred in many different parts of the country. Britain's coalfields are associated with Northumberland and Durham, North and South Wales, Yorkshire, the Scottish Central Belt, Lancashire, Cumbria, the East and West Midlands and Kent. After 1972, coal mining quickly collapsed and had practically disappeared by the 21st century. The consumption of coal – mostly for electricity – fell from 157 million tonnes in 1970 to 18 million tonnes in 2016, of which 77% was imported from Colombia, Russia, and the United States. Employment in coal mines fell from a peak of 1,191,000 in 1920 to 695,000 in 1956, 247,000 in 1976, 44,000 in 1993, and to 2,000 in 2015.
The South Staffordshire coalfield is one of several coalfields in the English Midlands. It stretches for 25 miles / 40 km from the Lickey Hills in the south to Rugeley in the north. The coalfield is around 10 miles (16 km) wide; its eastern and western margins are fault-bounded. Numerous coal seams are recognised within the coalfield - the following coal seams are recognised within the Cannock section of the coalfield - an area sometimes separately referred to as the Cannock Coalfield:
Bradford Colliery was a coal mine in Bradford, Manchester, England. Although part of the Manchester Coalfield, the seams of the Bradford Coalfield correspond more closely to those of the Oldham Coalfield. The Bradford Coalfield is crossed by a number of fault lines, principally the Bradford Fault, which was reactivated by mining activity in the mid-1960s.
Valley coal mine, commonly known as Valley Colliery, was a coal mine located in Hednesford, Staffordshire, UK on which today is the site of the Museum of Cannock Chase. The currently standing museum is housed in some of the buildings remaining from the Valley Colliery. Valley coal mine was a popular coal mine and a training centre until the 1950s..
Chadsmoor is an urban settlement within Cannock Chase District in the County of Staffordshire, England and lies between the wards of Cannock and Hednesford in South Staffordshire.
The Cannock Chase Railways were mineral lines which served the collieries and many parts of Staffordshire. The branch lines and sidings branched off the local mainlines including the Grand Junction Railway, Chase Line, South Staffordshire Line and Rugby–Birmingham–Stafford line. The main junction on the railways was Norton Junction. This junction connected the lines from Walsall and Hednesford to Wolverhampton and Rugeley Trent Valley for the local collieries and the mines in the towns of Brownhills, Burntwood, Chasetown, Penkridge and Cannock.
