Minnie Pit, which is named after Minnie Craig, the daughter of one of the owners, W.Y. Craig, was opened in 1881 in the small village of Halmer End, Newcastle-under-Lyme. At deep, it had been one of the most profitable pits in the North Staffordshire coalfields because it mined five thick seams of good quality coal. It was the downcast shaft for the Podmore Hall Colliery, part of a wider industrial business that mined coal at the Burley Pit – the principal winding pit – on the Podmore Hall site, near Apedale. The business also included an ironworks, forge and coking ovens at Apedale. In 1890, the entire combine was formed into the Midland Coal, Coke and Iron Company Ltd. and apart from mining and iron making, the combine company had its own mineral railway, the Apedale and Podmore Hall Railway.
