The Racecourse Colliery

The Black Country Living Museum has more than 40 old mine shafts on its site,[1] which have largely been lost, in-filled, collapsed, stabilised or capped.

The colliery was re-created following exactly the same sequence as the creation of an actual working Black Country pit.

Moulds from this shaft were used to create the 'coal' for the museum's underground drift mine experience, 'Into the Thick'.

[3] The buildings and other features of the Racecourse Colliery are either replicas of known mining landmarks, or have been devised on the basis of photographs and existing knowledge of old Black Country pits.

The exception to this is the Weighbridge House which is a historic building, relocated from Rolfe Street in Smethwick, where it stood in the Birmingham Canal Navigation's wharf yard.

Every morning before the start of the shift the butty would go down with his safety lamp and check the workings for gases and to see if any more pit props were required.

[4] The winding house at the museum is a replica based on the one that used to stand at Amblecote Colliery No.2 Pit.

At the back of the building is the large drum which holds the wire rope that runs over the wheel at the top of the head frame and lifts the cage.

After 1864 all coal miners had to have two head frames and two shafts to provide an extra way out of the workings in an emergency.

At the bottom of the shaft was the on-setter, the man whose job it was to load the coal tubs into the cages.

At the top the banks man would take the truck from the cage, push it along the rails to the land sale wharf.

A fire was kept lit in the hovel and wet clothes left hanging in there overnight were usually dry again by morning.

The men could also brew a hot drink in the hovel, eat their 'snap'(lunch usually in a tin[6] or cloth covered bowl) or fry bacon and egg on a shovel over the fire.