Situated at Chatterley Whitfield coal mine near Stoke-on-Trent, Archiving the Ruin explores how we can work with a historically significant post-industrial site now in extensive disrepair.

Much of the existing fabric is lost, unsalvageable, or in need of costly, extensive repair. The site is of vital significance to local residents, ex-miners, and the country. Chatterley Whitfield was once the largest mine in the North Staffordshire Coalfield and is widely considered the most comprehensive surviving example of a colliery in England.

Years of neglect mean Chatterley Whitfield is rapidly falling into ruination. Entropy is irrepressible, finances limited, preservation of what can be salvaged the priority. The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield recognise not everything can be saved; parts of the site will be let go in a process of ‘graceful decay’. How can landscape receive the memory of these buildings as interiors become exteriors, as elevations collapse into plan?

This project asks how we can archive a place as it falls apart, as architecture becomes landscape. Hedges echo buildings long gone, walkways weave through overgrown ruins, paths wind through an unfolding ruin forest.