The Colonel… now that’s a fine name for a loco!
If you have visited my blog in recent days, you’ll be aware of my two posts… Tracks into the past and Part 2 of the same title. Today, I received a very kind gesture from the OakParkRunner… Godfrey, which filled me with joy and happiness to see a photograph of a steam loco called The Colonel (See below image.) This aptly named Loco worked tirelessly at The Grove Colliery, which was located just the other side of Lime Lane from where the photo’s were taken in my Tracks into the past article.
Godfrey’s Grandfather, Grandmother and Uncle Bill with “The Colonel” at the Grove Pit, Brownhills. ”The Colonel” Steam Locomotive – Image courtesy of Godfrey the OakParkRunner.
The loco was named after Colonel William Harrison, Chairman of Harrison’s Grove Colliery. William Harrison was also Chairman of Cannock & Rugeley Colliery. The loco is believed to have been purchased as new from the Hudswell Clarke and Co. Ltd in 1914 all the way up in Leeds.
After a spell at Area Central Workshops – May 1960 to June 1961, the loco went back to Grove then to Coppice Colliery at Heath Hayes for a few months in 1963 before transfer to Granville Colliery in November 1963. Unfortunately the Loco was scrapped sometime after Granville Colliery closed in November 1979. I was under the belief that the loco was being restored to its former glory at Chasewater Railway Yard but that sadly is not the case as the original is long gone.
There are some more images of a loco at Chasewater that has been named as “The Colonel” along with their recent original Worksplate acquisition from the original Colonel, by Chasewater Railway Museum that can be found here…. Click here!
On June 21st 1935 when crossing Lime Lane, The Colonel was in collision with a Tarmac lorry. Image courtesy of Godfrey the OakParkRunner.
The other resident Locomotive at the Grove was a Pecket which carried the name of No 3. Image courtesy of Godfrey the OakParkRunner.
Many thanks to Godfrey and for his stupendous photograph’s of “The Colonel” !
Until next time…
Barry.
Well done on finding the Grove Pit disaster on Wikipedia.
Sad you regurgitated the error in the article. Particularly when there’s so much accurate info available elsewhere.
Fourteen men were not buried at St. James Cemetery, as you’d know if you’d been to look instead of lazily lifting material from elsewhere. John Bernard Whittaker, for instance, is buried at Walsall Wood Cemetery, in Brookland Road.
The information, and the picture of the memorial was not actually taken not from Burntwood Family History Group, but from Webster’s Genealogy and Brownhills History Site, which is linked via the Wayback Machine and held as part of the internet archive project. BFHG offer this as a link from their site.
Again, you’ve clearly lifted material without asking.
http://web.archive.org/web/20070818233119/http://www.bhills-history.fsnet.co.uk/coal_mining.htm
You’re dealing with real, historical events here. You owe it to the memory of those that died to get it right.
Bob
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nothing seems to have happened on this blog for quite a few weeks now. Is it still operating? or has it finished already? Cheers.
Peter,
Barry is back!
Cheers,
Barry.