They can reclaim the landscape, but they can’t remove the memories.
For generations boys and men went underground to bring out the coal under Cannock area. Now, all finished, all gone. Mining wasn’t just a job, a dirty, hazardous job at that. It was a community, a mesh between people and families, creating bonds and understandings. Mining towns were proud towns. Pit mounds and pit heads were beacons in the landscape of a way of life which spanned the ages.
The closure of Littleton Colliery in 1993 brought down the final curtain in the Cannock district. But we can still remember this aspect of the area’s heritage with a selection of pictures from our archives. Of course, they only scratch the surface of the local mining tradition, but they do help us celebrate and honour a proud, disappeared industry, and those who devoted their lives - and in some cases gave their lives - to it.
- Take a trip back to Wolverhampton in 1969 with 61 nostalgic pictures sure to bring back memories - view them here.
- You can enjoy this and more with our weekly FREE Nostalgia Newsletter - with scores of archive pictures and exclusive features on the history of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire and the Black Country - all sent to your inbox every week. Sign up here.
21. We're on strike!
Pickets gather around braziers to keep warm outside the entrance to West Cannock No. 5 Pit, Hednesford, during the miners’ strike on February 11, 1974. | Express & Star archive