Highley, United Kingdom

The trail is a series of seven bronze plaques depicting Highley's past and incorporates the designs of West Midlands artist Saranjit Birdi. He included many miner's nicknames into the artwork, gleaned from archive information and research within the local community. Nicknames of the miners, such as Dick the Devil, Joyful Clappers, Cider Biscuit, Flaming Heck and others, are incorporated into the work. Birdi calls it "a seam through time", echoing the skilfully mined coal seams being laid down and later extracted over time. One plaque, Plough and Lady, depicts Lady Godiva, who owned Highley Manor in the 11th century. Birdi is also responsible for another sculpture, A Song of Steam, at Highley station.

In 2000, the bridge was declared unsafe and a new footbridge constructed (completed 2006).

Highley was the village where 17-year-old murder victim Lesley Whittle lived, and from which she was abducted by Donald Neilson, the Black Panther, in 1975. Lesley, the daughter of coach firm owner George Whittle (1905–1970), was taken from her home on 13 January 1975 and found dead on an underground ledge beneath Bathpool Park near Kidsgrove, Staffordshire, on 7 March that year. Neilson was found guilty of murdering Lesley Whittle and three other people (as well as wounding a Dudley security guard, who later died having never fully recovered from his injuries) at his trial in the summer of 1976, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Lesley Whittle's funeral took place at Highley Parish Church. A memorial plaque to Lesley and her father is in the porch of the church.