Hamstead Colliery

[5][6] When the fire broke out there were 31 miners in the pit, 6 escaped before poisonous fumes built up in the roadways.

Rescue teams from Hamstead, Tankersley and Altofts in Yorkshire, made many attempts to reach the entombed men.

A memorial was created at Hamstead village in 2008 and there is a small museum display at the local library in the Tanhouse Centre, Great Barr.

In 1923, the mine's annual output was stated by the Colliery Year Book and Coal Trades Directory as being 165,000 tons.

The Hamstead Miners Memorial Trust, a registered charity (number 1098711) exists to record and commemorate the mine and those who worked there.

Erected in 2008, on the centenary of the disaster, it comprises a derailed tramway wagon full of coal, with a buffer-stop, and commemorative plaques.