Norton Canes is an industrial village,

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authorit ...

and ward of

Cannock Chase District Cannock Chase is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. Its council is based in the town of Cannock; other notable towns are Rugeley, Bridgtown and Hednesford. The district covers a large part of the Cannock Chase Area of Outs ...

, in

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

, England. It is situated out of the centre of

Cannock Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverh ...

. At the 2001 census it had a population of 6,394, and an area of of which 86% is green open space. The population had increased to 7,470 at the 2011 Census. Areas of the village include

Little Norton Norton-sub-Hamdon is a village and civil parish in the South Somerset district of the English county of Somerset, situated five miles west of Yeovil. The village has a population of 743. The village of Chiselborough is to the south, and the v ...

Little Wyrley Little Wyrley is an English hamlet in the county of Staffordshire, that forms part of Norton Canes civil parish and the Cannock Chase district. In 1870-72 it had a population of 61 as recorded in the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales. ...

, and North Lanes (Lime Lane). The Cannock Chase Coalfield once had 45

collieries Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...

within of Norton Canes, employing over 5,800 men, as well as 2 large surface mines; the last pit in the area closed in 1993. Grove Pit was one of these pits, and on 1 October 1930 was the scene of a major tragedy when 14 miners were killed in an explosion there. Another local colliery was owned by the Jerome family, hence Jerome Road now on the site of the pit. This was the family of the author Jerome K. Jerome. Norton Canes borders

Chasewater Chasewater is a reservoir located in the parish of Burntwood and the district of Lichfield in Staffordshire, England. Originally known as Norton Pool and Cannock Chase Reservoir, it was created as a canal feeder reservoir in 1797. The reservoi ...

- a collection of man-made lakes formed through old mining pits and a reservoir that feeds the canal system of West Midlands. Chasewater is a popular leisure destination offering facilities for water-skiing and yachting, mountain biking, jogging, walking and bird watching. Norton Canes straddles the UK's first and only Toll Motorway, the

M6 Toll The M6 Toll, referred to on signs as the Midland Expressway (originally named the Birmingham Northern Relief Road or BNRR), and stylised as M6toll, connects M6 Junction 3a at the Coleshill Interchange to M6 Junction 11A at Wolverhampton with ...

which has its northern Toll Plaza and

Norton Canes Services Norton Canes Services is a Motorway Service Station on the M6 Toll, in the village of Norton Canes near the towns of Brownhills, Cannock, and Walsall, in Staffordshire, England. It is operated by Roadchef, which has a 25-year lease on the si ...

is the only services for that motorway. Norton Canes was home to Europe's first drive-through chemist. This is now closed as the chemist has moved into the local health centre located in Brownhills Road.

Schools

There are two primary schools in Norton Canes: Jerome Primary School and Norton Canes Primary Academy. There is one high school: Norton Canes High School. The Jerome Primary School was named to reflect the association with the Jerome family who owned the pit referred to above.

Railway

Norton Canes never had been served by a railway station with the nearest being

but there were mineral and colliery lines which served Norton Junction which was a major junction for traffic to and from

Aldridge Aldridge is an industrial town in the Walsall borough, West Midlands, England. It is historically a village that was part of Staffordshire until 1974. The town is from Brownhills, from Walsall, from Sutton Coldfield and from Lichfield. ...

Walsall Wood Walsall Wood is a suburb split between both Brownhills and Aldridge in the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, West Midlands, England. History In the late-18th century and early-19th century, the workers of Walsall Wood were primarily involved in ...

Hednesford Hednesford (pronounced ) is a historic market town in the Cannock Chase district of Staffordshire, England. Cannock Chase is to the north, the town of Cannock to the south and Rugeley to the southwest.The population at the 2011 census was 1 ...

and

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

via

. The junction closed to all traffic in the 1980s. The site is now a public park with all the lines being now houses and roads. Only a slight remnant of the former Pelsall - Norton Junction line remains; as a public right of way between the former Ryders Crossing and where the M6 pedestrian overpass is.

Notable residents

* James Adams (1908 in Norton Canes – 1983) a footballer who played 103 games for West Bromwich Albion *Paul Dadge (born 1976), pictured iconically during

7 July 2005 London bombings The 7 July 2005 London bombings, often referred to as 7/7, were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamic terrorists in London that targeted commuters travelling on the city's public transport system during the mo ...

assisting a casualty. * Ryan Woods (born Norton Canes 1993), Championship footballer playing for

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

, over 120 games

References

External links

https://web.archive.org/web/20071212170543/http://www.churches.lichfield.anglican.org/rugeley/norton/ St. James the Great Church in Norton Canes

http://www.nortoncaneshighschool.Co.uk Norton Canes High School

Norton Canes
{{authority control Cannock Chase District Villages in Staffordshire Civil parishes in Staffordshire