| Code | GB/187/N0015 |
| Dates | 1872-1914 |
| Person Name | Hockley Hall and Whateley Collieries; 1872-1914 |
| Corporate Name | Hockley Hall and Whateley Collieries |
| NonPreferredTerm | Hockley Hall Colliery Co. Ltd.; Hockley Hall and Whateley Collieries and Brickworks Ltd.; Kingsbury Collieries Ltd. |
| DatesAndPlaces | Dosthill |
| Activity | Coal mining |
| Nationality | Hockley Hall Colliery was sunk in 1867, and the name Hockley Hall Colliery Co. Ltd. was officially registered in 1872. The first owner, J. Swindale, leased the land and mineral rights from the estate of Sir Robert Peel. Two coal seams were worked at Hockley Hall Colliery, the Four Feet and the Seven Feet. The coal extracted from the Four Feet Seam was of a superior quality to be used in houses, whereas the coal from the Seven Feet Seam was a good steam coal largely sent to supply the London and other markets.
A sister colliery, Whateley, was opened half a mile south of Hockley Hall, beginning production in 1873. The company subsequently began trading as the Hockley Hall & Whateley Colliery and Brickworks Ltd. By 1892 Whateley Colliery's output had reached 500 tons per nine-hour shift surpassing the 400 tons raised at Hockley Hall.
The brickworks at Whateley Colliery manufactured 250,000 machine-pressed bricks per week, consisting of both blue bricks and brindle bricks. The colliery also had a coke making plant that produced domestic gas and coke, which was used for iron making in Staffordshire.
Two of the shafts at Hockley Hall Colliery had been sunk to extract ironstone. These pits made use of the pillar and stall method of extraction, whereas the Colliery had used the safer longwall method in the coal pits. The ironstone workings were abandoned in 1891 after encountering a series of large geological faults. Coal ceased to be extracted at Hockley Hall in 1904, possibly due to the deteriation of the quality of the coal due to its proximity to the igneous rock at Dosthill.
The shafts at Whateley Colliery were certified as abandoned by the Inspector of Mines on 6 October 1914 after the exhaustion of the Four Foot Seam. By this time the colliery was part of the larger Kingsbury Colliery, which had been sunk in 1894. |
| Source | Fretwell, L. (2005) 'Hockley Hall Colliery', The Warwickshire Coalfield, Vol. 1, pp. 16-20.
Fretwell, L. (2005) 'Whateley Colliery', The Warwickshire Coalfield, Vol. 1, pp. 10-13. |
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