 Mining was to remain the principal industry of Brownhills until the last pit closed in the 1950s . During the 18th and 19th centuries the area known as Coppice Side was the hub of the mining industry , and the census of 1841 showed that over 80 % of the population of the area which makes up modern Brownhills lived and worked there , with up to ten pits active in the area at any one time . As in other mining areas , several men lost their lives in the Brownhills pits . Seven miners , including a boy aged 11 , died in an accident in 1861 , and in October 1930 an explosion at the Grove Colliery killed fourteen miners , ten of them from Brownhills . 
