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Minnie Pit Disaster
The Minnie Pit disaster was a coal mining accident that took place on 12 January 1918 in Halmer End, Staffordshire, in which 155 men and boys died. The disaster, which was caused by an explosion due to firedamp, is the worst ever recorded in the North Staffordshire Coalfield. An official investigation never established what caused the ignition of flammable gases in the pit.
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Halmerend railway station
Halmerend railway station (sometimes referred to as Halmer End) is a disused railway station in Staffordshire, England.
The station was situated on the North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) Audley branch line. The Audley line ran from a junction on the Stoke to Crewe line near Alsager to a junction between Keele and Madeley Road on the Stoke to Market Drayton Line Like many of the lines opened by the NSR the Audley line was built primarily to carry mineral traffic. The line opened in 1870 but passenger services were not introduced until 1880, partially a wait caused by the need to build a junction from the Audley line that would allow trains to run directly towards Stoke rather than having to reverse at the junction which was how the line was originally constructed.
The decision to introduce passenger trains over the line led to the opening of a station to serve the mining village of Halmer End in June 1880. By 1923 the station had a good passenger service, for a small country station, with six services a day in each direction from Stoke on Trent, three terminating at Halmerend and the others continuing to Harecastle.
Good as the passenger service was the rise in bus services led to a decline in the revenue raised from passengers and in 1931 the London, Midland and Scottish Railway withdrew all passenger services on the Audley line from 27 April 1931.
Freight traffic too had been diminished by the economic depression towards the end of the 1920s and many of the local collieries closed as they became worked out or uneconomic to maintain and the line was reduced to a single line in 1933 although freight services continued until complete closure of the line through Halmerend in June 1962.
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Sir Thomas Boughey Academy
Sir Thomas Boughey Academy (formerly Sir Thomas Boughey High School) is a co-educational secondary school located in Halmer End (near Newcastle-under-Lyme) in Staffordshire, England.
The school is named after Sir Thomas Boughey of the Boughey baronets who donated land for the establishment of the school. The school can trace its origins to 1849.
Today it is an academy administered by the Windsor Academy Trust. The school offers GCSEs as programmes of study for pupils. The school was rated GOOD in the 2022 OFSTED inspection
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Halmer End
Halmer End is a small village in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, neighbouring the small hamlet of Alsagers Bank and the larger village of Audley.
Population details as taken in the 2011 census can be found under Audley Rural. The village is on the B5367.
Historically, the village was dominated by the Coal Mining Industry, and several large coal mines were in operation in the vicinity of the village in the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, the village is remembered as being the site of the worst mining disaster in the history of the North Staffordshire Coalfield when, in 1918, 156 men and boys were killed in the Minnie Pit Disaster.
Nowadays, the village remains semi-rural and residential with a school, convenience store and a Chinese takeaway.
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Audley Rural
Audley Rural is a parish of Staffordshire, England, located four miles to the north-west of the town of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is predominantly a rural area, of which Audley is the centre. Other settlements are Alsagers Bank, Bignall End, Halmer End, Miles Green, Scot Hay and Wood Lane, and the outlying hamlets of Dunkirk, Mill End, Shraley Brook, Eardley End, Coopers Green, Butters Green and Crackley Gates. The population of this parish at the 2011 census was 8,437.
The parish elects councillors to Newcastle Borough Council for the Audley and Bignall End ward, and, with Betley and Balterley parishes, for the Halmerend ward.
The parish was created in 1932 by a split of the previous Audley parish, much of which went to form the Talke parish.
Nearby landmark Bignall Hill provides views south to Cannock Chase and the city of Stoke-on-Trent; north across the Cheshire Plains to Jodrell Bank radio telescope; east to Mow Cop Castle and the Peak District; and west to the mountains of North Wales and Snowdonia.