Description:This photograph shows the main entrance to Hem Heath Colliery off Trentham Road.
The first shaft at Hem Heath was started in 1924 for the Stafford Coal and Iron Company with the second started after nationalisation in 1950. The second shaft had the distinctive A frame headstock and the square concrete tower replaced the original steam engine and winding gear on shaft 1. Number 2 shaft, over 3300 feet deep (third deepest in the UK), became the main winding shaft in 1956. In 1990 the colliery merged with the neighbouring Florence Colliery to become "Trentham superpit" but coal production ceased in 1993. The winding gear was demolished in 1997 and the colliery site became part of Trentham Lakes Business Park. Hem Heath colliery employed over 1700 in the 1970s, producing over 1 million tonnes of coal a year.