Reunion to mark 100th anniversary of colliery

Memories of a former colliery that employed thousands of men from the Black Country and Staffordshire will be brought back to mark its 100th birthday.

A cafe owner at a beauty spot on the land where the Baggeridge pit used to stand is inviting former miners to a reunion to mark the centenary of their old colliery swinging into full-time production.

The mine, near Sedgley, opened in 1912 and closed down 56 years later in 1968. It was later turned into the Baggeridge Country Park attraction.

Now David Daly, who owns the Baggeridge Tea Shop, is organising a special event on May 26 to commemorate the old pit and the people who worked there.

He is inviting ex-employees of the colliery, their families and tea shop regulars and is putting on a free buffet for them from midday to 2pm.

There will also be live music played by regulars at the cafe. Mr Daly is also urging anyone with old photographs of the mine or its workers to contact him about possibly putting them on display for the event.

"It was 1,700ft deep – the deepest coal mine in the world," said Mr Daly, aged 40, who has run the tea shop at Baggeridge Country Park with his wife, Julie, for the last 14 years.

"The colliery employed 3,000 men, even employing 14-year-old boys, who were paid the equivalent of just 62.5p a week.

"We sometimes have customers calling in who worked here in the 1940s, 50s or 60s or their uncles or fathers did and we have a display about the colliery here."

After the pit, which opened in 1912, closed the land was purchased by South Staffordshire District Council and the site was officially opened as a 150-acre country park by Princess Anne in 1983.

Anybody who may have old photographs or stories from the Baggeridge Colliery days is invited to telephone 01902 673465.