IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Barleyford Drive, STOKE-ON-TRENT, ST3 5TF

Location: Berryhill fields - top of pathway at entrance to park nearest to Hall Hill Drive Installed: 2000 Inscription: (concrete circle - surrounded by cobblestones) "THERE'S BLACK ASH BENEATH THE GREEN GOB FIRES BURNING UNDER GAS HILL AND BENEATH IT ALL BONES OF MINERS BURIED STILL" Description: Four pithead winding wheels, half set into the ground. Pointing in four different direction. The wheels are painted black and have nameplates which depict the local seams mined and some of the collieries in the area. The wheels are set on the levelled off spoil heap of Mossfield Colliery. The inscription commemorates a fatal accident at Mossfield colliery in 1889. The Cockshead seam (which was mined at Mossfield) was subject to gob fires (an area that has been left void after the coal has been extracted and fires are caused by spontaneous combustion). A series of explosions began on the 12th September , probably due to the access of air to the gob fire and the crushing of the extremely thin pillars of coal separating the two workings. On October 16th 1889 there was a massive explosion, resulting in the death of 64 miners at Mossfield Colliery.