Description:Two men looking at a tachograph in the winding engine house. On the left is George Ponder, Chief Electrical Engineer who lived at Brereton. He was promoted and left to work in Warwickshire in 1964 and was replaced by Ken Edwards.
Lea Hall was the first colliery planned and sunk by the National Coal Board with preliminary application for the sinking in February 1951. The two shafts were started in 1954 and sunk to a depth of 1300ft (396m). The first coal was produced in 1960, and the colliery's costs to this date were approximately £14,000,000. The shafts passed through 11 seams of Cannock Chase coal with a total thickness of 51ft (15.5m). It produced in excess of 1,500,000 tons every year from 1963 onwards except during the national strike. It employed over 200 men but was closed on economical grounds in 1990.