Scheduled Monument steel tandem headgear from an 1864 colliery, the last deep coal mine site in Shropshire, now within a naturist club and grounds at Priorslee.
Grange Colliery at Priorslee in Shropshire has origins in 1764 as part of Earl Gower and Company's estates. The Lilleshall Company, formed in 1809, took over the site and developed it as one of four collieries known as the Deepside Mines. The first shaft for deep mining was sunk in 1864, when the colliery was known as the Albert and Alexander.
By 1896 it employed 239 men underground. The colliery continued in production until 1951, when underground works were connected to the adjacent Granville Colliery, after which Grange served primarily as a pumping and ventilation station. Both collieries finally closed in 1979, marking the end of all deep coal mining in Shropshire.
The large steel tandem headgear, dominating the site, was built around 1870 replacing an earlier wooden structure. It survives in situ as a scheduled monument. New colliery buildings constructed in the 1950s are also present.
The site is now occupied by Telford Naturist Club, which maintains a small museum dedicated to the miners who worked here. The pithead winding house has been converted for use as club facilities.
The earliest known date for coal mining at the Grange site is 1764, when it formed part of the estates of Earl Gower and Company. The industrial development of the broader area accelerated when Sir John Leveson became Earl Gower in 1746 and his son Granville Leveson Gower became the second Earl in 1754; the family owned limestone quarries and coal mines across the Shropshire estates of Lilleshall, Donnington Wood, St Georges, Priorslee and neighbouring areas. The Lilleshall Company was formed in 1809 and took over Grange Colliery, which became one of four collieries the company operated as the Deepside Mines, the others being Granville, Woodhouse, and Stafford.
The colliery was originally known as the Albert and Alexander. The first shaft for deep mining at Grange was sunk in 1864. The large steel tandem headgear, a twin-wheeled structure with one wheel behind the other, was built around 1870, replacing an earlier wooden headgear. The tandem headgear's twin towers of braced girder construction support a two-storied structure of around 20 metres in height, with a single winding wheel at each end; floor plates and ladders remain intact. By 1896 the colliery is recorded as employing 239 men underground.
From the late nineteenth century coal mining in the area gradually declined. The Waxhill Barracks Colliery ceased production in 1900, Muxton Bridge soon after, and the Freehold Colliery closed in 1928. Only Grange and Granville collieries survived to nationalisation in 1947. New colliery buildings were constructed at Grange in the 1950s; these remain present on the site but were not included in the scheduling of the headgear because of their subsequent alteration and disturbance.
The colliery continued in active coal production until 1951. In that year the underground workings of Grange were connected with those of the nearby Granville Colliery by an underground road. From 1952 Grange Colliery served mainly to ventilate Granville's workings. The Grange left-hand shaft had always been used as the downcast shaft for man-riding, coal, and materials; after the underground link with Granville was established, it became the upcast for Granville's ventilation. The combined colliery system finally closed in 1979, ending all deep coal mining in Shropshire; Granville Colliery, which employed 560 men in its final years, was producing 1,000 tons of coal per week in its last year of operation.
Following closure, the site was taken over by Telford Naturist Club. The pithead winding house, known on the site as The Windings, has been converted to provide club shower and changing facilities. A small museum, the Grange Museum, dedicated to the miners who worked the site from 1764 until 1979, is maintained on the premises. The tandem headgear was designated as a scheduled monument. The monument includes the standing and buried remains of the colliery winding headgear at the former Grange Colliery; the headgear is believed to date to around 1870 and is noted in the Historic England records.