The 1865 Ordnance Survey map of this site shows Mickley Colliery. Mickley Moor Colliery was won in November 1765 (ie the coal was reached in the drift) and the colliery opened in May 1766. The first pit was called Bella. The colliery was linked to staiths at Stella by a waggonway. A later 18th century plan of the colliery shows workings extending over a distance of some 11 miles east-west, with probably 16 working pits and some 20 which were then disused. Steam came to the colliery in 1774, when an old engine was bought to be set up at Spindle Bush. The colliery seems to have continued to work up to 1781.