Ellesmere Colliery was a coal mine in

Walkden Walkden is a town in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England, northwest of Salford, and of Manchester. Historically in the township of Worsley in Lancashire, Walkden was a centre for coal mining and textile manufacture. In 20 ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, England. The pit was located on Manchester Road, a short distance south of Walkden town centre. There were three shafts on the colliery site, with a fourth upcast shaft located a distance to the NNW. No. 1 shaft was sunk to the Five Quarters mine at a depth of . The deep No. 2 shaft and No. 3 shaft were located on either side of the engine house. The 1866 engine house contained a central ventilator and the

winding engine A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...

was from local iron founder's Nasmyth Wilson, which powered a 30-inch by 54-inch winder. It wound one cage in each shaft and the winding drum had a stepped and diameter to cater for the differing depths. The 1800s wooden headgear was replaced with metal structures in the 20th century, with one surviving until 1955. At least one of the shafts intersected the underground canal of the

Worsley Navigable Levels The Worsley Navigable Levels are an extensive series of coal mines in Worsley in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. They were worked largely by the use of underground canals (the navigable levels) and boats called starvationers ...

, and although coal winding ceased in 1921 it was retained for water pumping and ventilation. The colliery was served by the

Bridgewater Collieries Bridgewater Collieries originated from the coal mines on the Manchester Coalfield in Worsley in the historic county of Lancashire owned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater in the second half of the 18th century. After the Duke's death in ...

Railway, which connected other lines such as the

LNWR The London and North Western Railway (LNWR, L&NWR) was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century, the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom. In 1923, it became a constituent of the L ...

and also to the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Wor ...

. The Walkden Yard maintenance depot was later constructed on the western side of the pit. The Walkden offices of the company were also located to the southwest of the site. Bridgewater merged with others to form

Manchester Collieries Manchester Collieries was a coal mining company with headquarters in Walkden formed from a group of independent companies operating on the Manchester Coalfield in 1929. The Mining Industry Act of 1926 attempted to stem the post-war decline in coal ...

in 1929. The electrification of Ellesmere engine plant in 1936 led to the closure of the nearby Roughfield Colliery. Pumping continued until 1968 and after the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

demolished the buildings at both sites and the shafts were filled-in. Sometime later a violent explosion occurred in a house in Walkden caused by

firedamp Firedamp is any flammable gas found in coal mines, typically coalbed methane. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous. The gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata and when they are penetrated the releas ...

accumulating underground and eventually forcing its way to the surface. To prevent a recurrence a borehole was drilled down No.1 shaft and a

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Ea ...

extraction plant built at the top.

References

Further reading