Geograph - photograph every grid square

Unveiled 8th June 1996, Sculptors Steven Whyte and Michael Talbot

The Plaque reads :-

Despite efforts to develop the remaining seams
Coal was mined for the last time
in Silverdale on the 24th December, 1998.

Gerald D'Arcy, son of a Silverdale Mining family,
worked to establish the tribute from his original idea
through research and fundraising to realisation.

1830 First Commercial mining of coal
1851 Francis Stanier
1900 "Nabs" and "Sheriff" become "The Big Pit"
1923 Kent's Lane becomes Silverdale Colliery
1946 Nationalisation
1969 Retreat Workings
1970 British production record
1971 European production record
1975 Drift access
1985 Silverdale New Mine
87/88/89 1 Million tonnes each year
1994 Coal investments plc
1996 A new beginning

The main employer in Silverdale for well over 100 years was Silverdale Colliery, also known locally as Kent's Lane. The first shafts were sunk in the 1830s and the colliery initially mined ironstone as well as coal. The main user of both the minerals was the nearby Silverdale Forge.

The colliery was completely rebuilt during the 1970s when three new drifts were sunk to exploit new reserves in the Keele area. Production increased and the pit mined over one million tonnes annually but was closed in 1998, the last deep mine in North Staffordshire to close.