The Pits of Pall Mall: A Brief History of Coal Mining in Chorley
It is a cliché – but a true one – that the British industrial revolution was built on coal. The energy derived from coal, so much more plentiful and efficient than wood, enabled British industry to dominate the world in the 19th century, as Britain had more extensive coalfields and exploited them more effectively than other nations. Everywhere in Britain that there were coal deposits, there were collieries, and over a million people worked in the coal industry at its peak.
The cotton-based industrial revolution in south-east Lancashire was built on coal in a literal sense. The Lancashire coalfield lay underneath the main cotton textile-manufacturing area, and the cotton industry became the leading user of Lancashire coal. The ancient market town of Chorley is sited on the northern edge of the Wigan coalfield, and even its rather skimpy seams were exploited, with mining taking place within the modern borough for over two hundred years. In this article, I will consider the centrality of coal during the industrial revolution, and the contribution that Chorley borough’s collieries made to coal production in Lancashire.
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| A capped mine shaft from Drybones pit, Burgh colliery, in Yarrow Valley park. To the right a plinth on which the winding gear may have stood |
King Coal
Coal has been mined in Britain for centuries, but was not exploited in a major way until the beginnings of industrialisation in the 18th century. Prior to this, wood was the main fuel for both domestic and industrial uses. The development of a technique to produce pig iron from coke (by Abraham Darby in 1709), and the invention of the first steam engine, as a tool for pumping water out of mines (by Thomas Newcomen in 1712), highlighted the potential value of coal for mass industrialisation, and also eventually made it easier to extract.
Coal has a somewhat higher calorific value than wood, meaning that weight for weight it produces more energy. But the real advantages of coal lay elsewhere. Being underground, it took up less space than wood, which had to be grown in extensive plantations that competed with both agricultural and living space. And while coal was a finite resource, it was much more plentiful than wood – the energy needs of the industrial revolution would have far outstripped the ability of Britain’s woodlands to produce enough fuel. Finally, as coal was much denser than wood, it was easier to transport, store and use in large quantities.
Coal fuelled the industrial revolution in several ways. It allowed for massively increased production of iron and steel, enabling the construction of machines, large buildings, means of transport…you name it. It provided an efficient domestic energy source for heating and cooking, thereby facilitating the growth of towns and cities. Finally, coal was of course the fuel for the steam engines that powered the factories and the railways – and enabled the extraction of ever larger amounts of coal.
Early coal production was limited by the difficulties of extracting a heavy and volatile mineral from deep underground. Shafts were limited in depth by having to winch coal up (and men down) by water or horse powered gins; by the need for fresh air to allow the miners to work; by the necessity to pump water out to prevent flooding, and by the need to transport the coal to its destination. The introduction of efficient steam engines allowed all these tasks to be fulfilled with ever greater efficiency. By the end of the eighteenth century, pumping and winding were being done using steam power, and early in the nineteenth century, steam locomotives were being employed on colliery railways. Later in the century, steam powered fans improved the ventilation of mines, and steam driven compressors allowed the use underground of machine tools powered by compressed air. The ‘virtuous circle’ facilitated by the use of coal-fired machinery in mining led to massively increased coal production, which in turn enabled the construction of more and bigger factories and greater production of goods.
There were, of course, downsides to coal. It was a dirty fuel and nineteenth century towns and cities became choked with smoke and grime, with dire consequences for the health of their residents. Coal mining was dangerous, and many thousands of men (and boys, women and girls) lost their lives through explosions, roof falls, flooding and other accidents. The long-term effects of coal burning for climate change were not known about in the nineteenth century, but one doubts that it would have made much difference if they were – coal was just too valuable a resource.
By the 1870s, around one third of the coal produced in the Lancashire and Cheshire coalfield was being directly used by the cotton industry. Theo Balderston has shown that all of the major Lancashire cotton towns – bar two – were sited within two miles of coal deposits. The two exceptions were Manchester, which may have led to it becoming more of a commercial centre than a manufacturing town, and Preston, which relied on the collieries of the Chorley area for fuel, the coal being transported by the Lancaster canal, and later by rail. The status of Preston as a leading manufacturing town was therefore dependent on its smaller neighbour, and we will move on to examine the history of coal mining in Chorley, concentrating on its heyday in the nineteenth century. For clarity, we will confine our discussion to the modern Chorley borough area. We will also follow the Lancashire practice of referring to a coal mining concern as a ‘colliery’, and individual shafts as ‘mines’ or ‘pits’.
Coal Mining in Chorley
The Wigan coalfield extends into the modern borough of Chorley, reaching as far north as the town centre. Mining therefore took place in the southern half of the borough. Coal is known to have been mined in Chorley in the eighteenth century, and probably earlier. In 1795, John Aiken described Chorley as, “A small, neat market town [with] several mills, engines and machines for carding and spinning of cotton…on the banks of the Yarrow many bleaching and printing grounds with cotton factories intermixed…plenty of coal and cannel are produced about Chorley”. Jim Heyes, in his History of Chorley, provides an overview of eighteenth century mining. Most of the borough’s collieries were in rural areas, but coal was no respecter of persons, and mines were found in Chorley town centre. Not just coal was mined; a couple of shafts were sunk in the Gillibrand estate on Chorley Moor to extract copper.
The earliest surviving mining remains in our vicinity are,
perhaps surprisingly, on Winter Hill, to the south-east of Rivington Pike. Here
can be found traces of bell pits, early mines that comprised a simple shallow
shaft, with underground extensions dug into the coal as far as the roof would
hold. Mining was carried out on a small scale on Winter Hill well into the
twentieth century, but as the collieries were just out of our area in Horwich
borough, we will not consider them further. However, old maps suggest that there were also bell pits in the hills around Withnell.
Tracing the history of Chorley’s collieries (as with collieries elsewhere) is complicated. Early records are incomplete, with opening and closing dates often unclear. Mining is by its nature ephemeral; collieries came and went as deposits were discovered or worked out, some leaving few if any records of their existence, and no physical evidence in the landscape. Collieries changed hands frequently, with a kaleidoscope of ownership across pits, and were also liable to change their names. Finally, the first-edition ordnance survey map of the Chorley area confusingly refers to individual pits as ‘collieries’, regardless of ownership patterns. The following map and list must therefore be regarded as incomplete at best.
| Collieries operating in the modern Borough of Chorley in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The river Yarrow is highlighted in blue. |
Collieries in Chorley from the Early Nineteenth Century (in Alphabetical Order)
Birkacre Colliery Founded in 1880 by John Thom, owner of Birkacre Bleaching, Dyeing and Printing works. Originally provided coal for the works, but also sold more widely. By 1923 there were 264 underground workers. It merged with Blainscough colliery (q.v.) in the 1930s, but closed in 1939.
Blainscough Colliery Founded in 1865 by James Darlington as Blainscough Hall colliery, sharing that name with another Darlington colliery a few miles to the west, which later became Welch Whittle colliery. Had its own branch line from the West Coast main line. Employed 210 workers underground in 1931. In 1934 was merged with Birkacre colliery, but closed along with Birkacre in 1939.
Burgh Colliery In
operation by the 1820s. In the 1830s owned by Heaton & Hilton. Several
shafts in the hillside to the east of Birkacre. Had its own tramway to
transport coal to a depot on Pall Mall in Chorley. Firm declared bankrupt in
1841 and colliery taken over by John Hargreaves. Eight men and women killed in
an explosion in 1846.
Charnock Colliery (inc Railway Colliery) Owned by the Darlington family, a number of pits are shown on the 1840s first edition ordnance survey map to the east of Charnock Green, linked by tramways and bisected by the West Coast main line. All had closed by 1869.
Chisnall Hall Colliery Owned by the well-established Warrington firm of Pearson & Knowles Coal and Iron Co, this colliery was the last to be sunk in Chorley borough, opening in 1891. It had a branch line from the West Coast main line. In 1954 it employed 1054 men underground. It was the last surviving pit in the Wigan coal field, closing in 1967.
Chorley Colliery The most northerly colliery in the Wigan coal field, it extended into Chorley town centre, with a number of pits scattered around the centre and south of the town. Pits also extended down Weldbank Lane to Duxbury. In the 1830s it was owned by the firm of Whittle and Lightoller, then by the Wigan firm of Jonathan Blundell & Co until the 1860s, when it came into the possession of Thomas Whittle. In 1920 over 300 men were employed underground. The colliery had closed by1940.
Coppull Colliery A successor to Burgh colliery, to the west of the river Yarrow, it was owned by John Hargreaves. Had a branch line from the West Coast main line. It worked the gassy Arley seam and was the site of several fatal explosions, including Chorley’s worst disaster in 1852, when 36 men were killed. The locomotive Sans Pareil, which took part in the 1829 Rainhill trials won by George Stephenson's Rocket spent some years as a stationary boiler at Coppull colliery, and following the colliery's closure in 1862 was displayed for many years as the Science Museum, London.
Duxbury Park Colliery Opened 1876 as Farnworth House colliery, owned by Thomas Whittle. Renamed Duxbury Park colliery 1883. Shared a branch line from the Chorley-Bolton line with Ellerbeck colliery. Had 253 men underground in 1896. Closed in 1917 and was acquired by Ellerbeck colliery as a pumping pit. The evocative ‘True Storyof a Lancashire Pit Brow Lass’ was told by Mrs P. Holden, who worked at Duxbury Park in the early 1900s.
Ellerbeck Colliery Just to the south of Duxbury Park colliery, it opened in 1875, originally owned by the same firm that owned Hic-Bibi colliery (q.v.). Branch line from the Chorley-Bolton line. 216 underground workers in 1954. Closed 1965.
Heath Charnock Colliery Appears on the first edition ordnance survey map as a scatter of shafts in the east of Heath Charnock township, near to Rivington reservoir. Owned in the 1860s by a local man, John Rosbottom, who employed 55 men and 2 boys. Apparently later owned by Thomas Heaton, it had closed by 1880.
Heskin Hall Colliery The most westerly colliery in the Chorley area. Owned in 1880 by Rev. William Mitchell, it closed in 1891.
Hic-Bibi Colliery Originally known as Coppull Hall colliery, it was founded by Thomas Bourne in 1860. It went through a number of owners in its short life, before closing in 1887. It was adjacent to the West Coast main line and was the furthest south of Chorley’s collieries. A brick works attached to the colliery continued to work until 1959.
Pemberton House Colliery Situated between Heskin and Charnock Richard, this colliery was owned by the firm of James Barker and Co. In 1896 it employed 84 men underground. It was one of the last collieries in the country to bring coal to the surface in baskets rather than metal tubs. It had closed by 1928.
Welch Whittle Colliery Founded by James Darlington in 1855 as Blainscough Hall colliery, it was the elder sibling of Blainscough colliery (see above). It had its own (separate) branch line from the West Coast main line. It had been renamed Welch Whittle colliery by 1928. In 1954 it employed 354 men underground. It closed in 1960.
The Development of Mining in Chorley in the Nineteenth Century
The collieries that were active in the first half of the nineteenth century (such as Burgh, Charnock, Heath Charnock and Chorley) tended to comprise several individual pits, often scattered around a fairly wide area and sometimes interconnected underground. They were probably fairly shallow, reflecting the limitations of winding and ventilation equipment. Prior to the1840s they will have been worked by women and children as well as men. The Mines and Collieries Act of 1842 prohibited the employment of women and girls underground, and of boys under the age of ten, though as we will see, the law was sometimes ignored. Collieries that opened in the second half of the century (like Duxbury Park, Ellerbeck, Welch Whittle and Chisnall Hall) tended to be larger concerns but had fewer shafts (though always at least two) and were more self-contained. They mined deeper seams that were not accessible to earlier prospectors, stretched for longer distances underground and most had their own branch lines connecting to either the west coast main line or the line from Chorley through Bolton to Manchester.
Patterns of ownership varied. A colliery like Heath Charnock was effectively a small business, owned in the 1860s by a local man, John Rosbottom, who was undoubtedly ‘hands on’, and possibly a former miner. When the mine became exhausted in the 1860s, Rosbottom turned to brick-making from fireclay, originally the soil in which the plants that became coal had grown (some other mine shafts were dug to extract fireclay in the borough, including one as far north as Whittle-le-Woods). John Thom, who founded Birkacre colliery in 1880, and lived in Burgh Hall, was the owner of the nearby bleaching, dying and print works, and also set up a small works to extract oil from shale – an early form of fracking. Another owner who had interests in other fields was John Hargreaves, who bought Burgh colliery in 1841 and later founded Coppull colliery. His main business was as a ‘carrier’ – effectively a nineteenth century haulage contractor, and owned canal boats and railway goods wagons.
Other owners had interests in several collieries. A leading mining family were the Darlingtons, father John and son James, and James’s brother-in-law Alfred Hewlett, who lived at The Grange, south of Coppull. The family owned Charnock colliery and later Blainscough and Welch Whittle collieries, among others, and were philanthropic benefactors of Coppull parish church and local schools. Thomas Whittle, son of a mine owner, owned Chorley colliery from the 1860s until his death in 1890, established Duxbury Park colliery (as Farnworth House colliery), and also owned a colliery in Blackrod. He lived in Primrose cottage, a modest house at the bottom of Market Street in Chorley. Later in the century, individual owners gave way to companies, such as the large Warrington-based firm of Pearson and Knowles, which established Chorley’s last colliery at Chisnall Hall.
None of Chorley’s collieries were large concerns and mining lagged behind the cotton industry as a source of employment in the area. In 1861, some 668 miners were listed in the census returns for Chorley, and the number of underground workers at the time ranged from 50 or so up to around 200 per colliery. A.M. Warnes traced where Chorley’s miners lived at that time, finding a small ‘colony’ on Moor Road, near Tootell Street, close to Chorley Colliery’s Moor pit. There were fewer miners' houses outside the town centre, so many colliers had to walk some miles to pits in rural areas. The collieries founded later in the century were somewhat larger, with Ellerbeck employing 460 men underground in 1896. Chisnall Hall became by far the area’s largest colliery, with 1097 workers underground by 1954.
The Pits of Pall Mall – Chorley’s Urban Colliery
As stated earlier, all of Chorley’s collieries were in rural areas, with the exception of Chorley colliery itself, which reached into the heart of the (modern) town centre. It was established by the early 1830s, owned by the firm of Whittle and Lightoller. It was acquired in 1836 by the long-established firm of Jonathon Blundell & Co., which had extensive mining interests in the Wigan area. In 1853 the colliery was sold again, to James Darlington of Coppull, and was then acquired by Thomas Whittle of Primrose Cottage, Chorley, son of its former owner John Whittle. He remained its proprietor (along with other collieries) until his death in 1890. Ownership then passed to the Chorley Colliery Co. Ltd.
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| Richard Blundell of Jonahon Blundell & Co., owner of Chorley colliery 1836 - 1853 |
Like other early nineteenth century collieries, Chorley colliery comprised a number of small, well scattered pits. Some were out of town and were short-lived, such as Carr and Yarrow pits, near Duxbury, which were probably only worked from 1835 to 1843. Nearby Duxbury pit continued until 1889, when it was flooded and abandoned, making 180 men redundant. A pit on Weldbank lane was discontinued by 1896.
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| Pits in Chorley town centre and Duxbury in the mid-nineteenth century. The dots represent miners' dwellings in the town. From Warnes (1969) |
Of particular interest are the pits in the vicinity of the town centre. Town planning was virtually non-existent in the nineteenth century, and industrial towns developed in a piecemeal fashion, with residential and shopping streets next door to factories and, in some places, coal mines. To be fair, when the pits in Chorley were established in the early nineteenth century, the town was much smaller than it became later, and the shafts were sunk into green fields, but they became surrounded by housing and factories. Station pit, as the name suggests, was just to the east of Chorley railway station. Millstone pit (named after a contemporary inn) was on the site of present day Cunliffe Street and another pit was sited to the west of Pall Mall, near Devonshire Road. All were worked out by the 1880s, but Ranglett pit, near Chorley football club’s ground at Victory Park, operated up to the 1890s. In 1891 it was reported that a new shaft would be sunk near Brook Street, “to the great benefit of the town”, but nothing appears to have come of this. Black pit, west of Pall Mall and north of Tootell street appeared to be the colliery’s early ‘headquarters’, but was replaced by the 1880s by Chorley Moor pit, beneath modern Grizedale Place, and this pit became the focus of the colliery until it was wound up in the late 1930s. A newspaper article in 1935 talked of the old coal shafts that could then be seen around Chorley, at Wallets Wood, Letchworth Drive, Colliery Street and near the Sebastopol Inn.
An early plan shows the underground mine workings of the Millstone pit, extending south under Standish Street. It can be seen that the pit was worked using the ‘pillar and stall’ arrangement, whereby horizontal tunnels were dug into the coal in a lattice pattern, with pillars of coal in between to support the roof. When the end of the seam was reached, the miners would then in turn dig out the pillars, allowing the roof to collapse behind them.
“Accidental Death” in Chorley’s Collieries
We have noted above that mining in the nineteenth century was a dangerous occupation, and Chorley’s collieries had their share of accidents and fatalities during the century. The most common causes of death were explosions of ‘firedamp’ – methane – accidentally ignited by the candles that miners used for lighting (Davy's safety lamp was not widely used until later in the century); roof falls and shaft incidents, though other mishaps also occurred. A fatality led to an inquest, usually held soon after the incident at a local inn and the verdict was almost invariably ‘accidental death’, with the unfortunate victim generally being blamed for causing the accident. Managers and working practices were occasionally mildly admonished, but few accidents led to measures to improve safety – and similar incidents often occurred again, sometimes at the same pit.
Few major disasters happened in Chorley’s pits, probably reflecting their relatively small size (or sheer luck). but a regular toll of fatalities built up over the century. The following is not a comprehensive list. In 1837, Thomas Bolton was killed by a roof fall at Burgh colliery and in 1847 a roof fall at Charnock colliery claimed four lives. Another roof fall at Heath Charnock colliery in 1863 left three men dead and a man was killed in a Heskin Hall roof collapse in 1887.
In 1893 John Harrison was killed at Birkacre colliery by falling down a shaft, and in 1900 the same fate befell James Halliwell, manager of Duxbury Park colliery. In 1864 James Blackledge was crushed between two wagons at Chorley Colliery.
In 1908, John Ince was killed at Chorley colliery, “the first fatality at the colliery for twelve years”. It was not the last, however: in the same year Robert Platt died in a shaft incident, and the next year William Tootell was killed in a rock fall.
Two men were killed by an explosion at Duxbury pit (part of Chorley colliery) in 1875 and three explosions at Duxbury Park colliery in 1905 led to serious injuries. The Chorley area’s worst accidents were caused by explosions in two pits working the notoriously “gassy” Arley seam, coincidentally (or perhaps not) both owned by John Hargreaves. In 1846 an explosion at Burgh colliery killed eight people. The investigation (inevitably) concluded that the incident was the fault of the miners concerned, concluding that they had gone into the mine with lighted candles before the fireman (responsible for safety) had checked it for firedamp. The incident was notable in that three of those killed were women, including twelve year old Mary Booth, despite the 1842 Act forbidding women and girls from working underground. The owner John Hargreaves was arraigned under the Act but argued that he had no knowledge that women were being allowed in the pit. The manager, Joseph Ellis, similarly tried to blame the workers for letting women join them underground (one of the dead, Jane Halliwell, was the daughter of another miner killed in the explosion, Thomas Halliwell), but was reprimanded and fined £20.
Another rare occasion when a colliery’s owner and manager were censured for safety breaches occurred at Chorley colliery in 1884, when a mine inspection found that Duxbury pit was not adequately ventilated, leading to a build-up of ‘black damp’, a gas that could cause suffocation. The owner, Thomas Whittle and his manager, the splendidly named Peter Grime, were brought before Chorley petty sessions and Whittle was fined £20.
The Chorley area’s worst disaster happened at another Hargreaves pit, Coppull colliery on 20th May 1852. Firedamp had built up in the mine following a rock fall, and the fireman told the morning shift not to enter the workings, however a miner named Thomas Gregson did so with a lighted candle and an explosion occurred that killed 36 men.
If an industrial accident happened today in the UK with a
similar death toll, it would be front page news in all the papers, and a public
inquiry would be held. But the Coppull explosion was not even the worst loss of
life in a mining explosion in the month of May 1852. The Star of Freedom newspaper awarded the Coppull incident a few column
inches, sandwiched between a similarly brief account of an explosion in
Hepburn, County Durham that killed 22 men, and a report of an explosion in
Aberdare, South Wales, which killed 64 miners. As late as the 1870s, around
1,000 miners lost their lives each year in the UK, and major disasters
continued to occur well into the twentieth century. To underline the lack of learning that ensued from such incidents, two more men were killed in an explosion at Coppull colliery three years later, in 1855.
To conclude this grim account, an unusual incident happened in Moor pit, Chorley colliery, in 1851. Nineteen-year-old Henry Gillibrand Hawarden Fazackerley had just inherited Gilliband Hall, on whose land Chorley colliery was situated. With a friend, eighteen-year-old Tempest Green, he asked to be shown around the mine. An underlooker, James Billinge and a miner, William Taylor accompanied them down the shaft, all with lighted candles. What happened next was never fully established, but an explosion occurred and all four were killed. The inquest speculated that the young gentlemen may have been too enthusiastic and did not pay enough heed to the dangers of being undeground.
Mining in Chorley in the Twentieth Century
No new mines were sunk in the Chorley area in the twentieth century, and the pattern was one of gradual decline as the coal seams underlying the borough were worked out. A feature of the early years of the century was industrial unrest, with national miners’ strikes occurring in 1893, 1912, 1920 and 1926. Chorley's miners took part in each of these strikes. Chorley was however spared the devastating confrontation between the National Union of Miners and the Thatcher government in 1984, as by then its collieries were long gone.
Duxbury Park colliery closed in 1917 and was bought up by its neighbour Ellerbeck colliery as a pumping pit. Chorley, Birkacre and Blainscough collieries closed in the late 1930s. Pemberton House colliery, which maintained the quaint practice of hauling coal to the surface in baskets rather than metal tubs, had closed by 1928. Three collieries lasted long enough to be nationalised in 1947: Welch Whittle, which closed in 1960; Ellerbeck, which closed in 1965 and finally Chisnall Hall, which was the last surviving mine in the Wigan coalfield, closing in 1967. There are today few traces of the coal industry left. Slag heaps have been levelled; shafts filled in; buildings demolished, and in Chorley town centre, the former sites have been built over. A handful of capped shafts from Birkacre and Burgh collieries can be seen in Yarrow Valley park, and a few ruins elsewhere.
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| Remains of Birkacre colliery in Yarrow Valley park |
Coal is today deeply unfashionable, its dire consequences for pollution and climate change indisputably proven. In August 2020, it wasreported that the annual consumption of coal in Britain had plunged to itslowest level in 250 years. Coal mining is not going to experience a revival in the UK any time soon. But in Chorley, as elsewhere, deep underground tunnels remain; dark and silent testimonies to hundreds of years of effort – and memorials to the thousands of lives lost to sate the nation’s erstwhile hunger for coal.
Sources Used
Historic Ordnance Survey maps available at MARIO and Old Maps
