Hednesford

Hednesford was a coal mining community for over a century. This is commemorated in the town centre, where a large model of a Davy lamp has been erected, surrounded by a wall with individual bricks giving the names of former miners.[2]

Between 1914 and 1918 two army training camps were built in the area,[3] and over half a million British and Commonwealth troops passed through destined for the Western Front.[4] In 1939, a Royal Air Force training camp was opened to train technicians in the maintenance and repair of airframes and engines. No. 6 School of Technical Training became better known as RAF Hednesford. The camp was later used for the resettlement of Hungarian refugees fleeing from the Russian invasion of Budapest in 1956. The site is now a part of the Cannock Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).[5]

The urban area of Hednesford now spreads across a swathe of the northern fringe of Cannock, from Pye Green across to Heath Hayes, and is the southern gateway to the Cannock Chase AONB.[6] Economically, Hednesford has experienced widespread changes since the 1980s due to the decline of mining and manufacturing jobs in the region. However, Cannock Chase district has seen prolonged job growth in recent years.[7]

A £50 million regeneration of the town centre has taken place, with an 80,000sqft Tesco store being the centrepiece. Also, a new drill hall for the local Army Cadet Force Detachment, shops and bingo hall were constructed in 2012.[8] The Tesco site is known as Victoria Shopping Park and the Bingo/Aldi site as Chase Gateway. The town was, also in 2012, awarded a £2.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to refurbish Hednesford Park, including the construction of a new skatepark[9] and play area.[10] Work was completed in 2019.[11]

Hednesford railway station re-opened in April 1989 by British Rail. It is on the Chase Line with routes run by West Midlands Railway between Rugeley Trent Valley and Birmingham International railway stations.[29]

Hednesford is served by a number of bus routes operated by Chaserider and Select Bus Services, which run through the town centre on Victoria Street. The routes are the following:

• 23 (Select), running from Hednesford southeast through Heath Hayes into Wimblebury and then west into Cannock town centre[30]
• 25/26 (Chaserider), a pair of circular services. The 25 runs from Cannock north to Pye Green, east to Hednesford, and then southwest back to Cannock through Chadsmoor, and the 26 runs in the reverse direction[31]
• 62 (Chaserider), which runs from Cannock town centre to Hednesford, continues east through Hazelslade to Cannock Wood, south through Chase Terrace, and then east through Burntwood to Lichfield[32]
• 63 (Chaserider), running from Cannock northeast through Hednesford to Rugeley[33]
• 817 (Select), which runs north from Rodbaston College to Penkridge, east through Huntington to Hednesford, and then northeast to Rugeley, Armitage, and Hill Ridware[34]
• 817A (Select), running a similar route to the 817, only running through Cannock after Huntington and Stafford after Rugeley[35]

Hednesford's original bus station, which was located off Victoria Street, closed in 2012 so the site could be used for the construction of the Victoria Shopping Park.[36][37]

Kingsmead School, previously known as Kingsmead Technology College, and Staffordshire University Academy, previously known as Blake High School and Blake Valley Technology College, are both secondary schools for pupils aged 11–18 that serve the area. Both schools have academy status.[38][39] Hednesford Valley High School is a school for children with special educational needs, which services the local and wider areas.[40]

Hednesford also contains many primary schools, including:

• West Hill Primary School[41]
• Pye Green Academy[42]
• Hazel Slade Primary Academy[43]
• Gorsemoor Primary School[44]
• Heath Hayes Academy[45]
• St Peter's CE Primary Academy[46]
• St Joseph's Catholic Primary School[47]

The town is located near Hednesford Hills Raceway, a stock car track built on the site of a disused reservoir. The track was built in the 1950s.

The town's semi-professional football team, Hednesford Town F.C., nicknamed "the Pitmen", currently play in the Southern League Premier Division Central and won the FA Trophy in 2004.

The town's most prominent sportsperson is former footballer Brian Horton, who played for the Pitmen in the late sixties and early seventies. After a long professional career, he went on to manage Manchester City, Macclesfield Town and Port Vale amongst others.

• Lynda Grier, CBE (1880–1967), educational administrator, policy advisor, and principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford[48]
• George Henry Jones (1884–1956), trade unionist and local politician[49]
• Thomas Hughes (1885-1942), World War I Irish Victoria Cross recipient[50]
• Lieutenant-General Sir Alan Reay, KBE, FRCP, CStJ (1925–2012), senior British Army officer, Director General Army Medical Services 1981–1984[51]
• Phil Ford (born 1960), screenwriter[52]
• David Picken (born 1963), Anglican priest, Archdeacon of Lancaster since 2020[53]
• Kate Walsh (born 1982), business woman, runner-up in BBC's The Apprentice in 2009[54]

Sport

Leslie Talbot, 1968

• Jack Miller (1875–1949), footballer with over 300 caps for the Wolverhampton Wanderers and Stoke City
• Tom Lyons (1885–1938), footballer with 289 caps, and cricketer for Staffordshire
• Harry Rogers (1889–1956), cricketer who played for Worcestershire
• Joe Birch (1904–1980), professional footballer with more than 200 appearances
• Rob Finch (1908-2000), association football player with 216 senior appearances for West Bromwich Albion
• Harry Lane (1909–1977), professional footballer who scored 74 goals in 271 appearances
• Les Talbot (1910–1983), professional footballer with over 200 appearances
• Tom Galley (1915–2000), international footballer with over 200 caps, mainly for the Wolverhampton Wanderers
• Brian Horton (born 1949), former footballer, with over 600 appearances
• Mark Smith (born c.1965), British auto racing driver

• Listed buildings in Hednesford

• Hednesford Town Council