Nelson Pit was a

coal mine Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

operating on the

Manchester Coalfield The Manchester Coalfield is part of the South Lancashire Coalfield, the coal seams of which were laid down in the Carboniferous Period. Some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages, and extensively from the begi ...

from the 1830s or 1840s in

Shakerley Shakerley is a suburb of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It was anciently a hamlet in the northwest of the township of Tyldesley cum Shakerley, in the ancient parish of Leigh. The boundary between ...

Tyldesley Tyldesley () is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, southeast of Wigan ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, then in the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. Originally named Shakerley Colliery, the pit was sunk on land leased from Ellis Fletcher and worked by Nathan Eckersley in 1851. In 1861 the colliery passed to William Ramsden who owned Messhing Trees Colliery half a mile to the south. A shaft was sunk to 840 feet and the pit produced house coal from the

Trencherbone mine The Manchester Coalfield is part of the South Lancashire Coalfield, the coal seams of which were laid down in the Carboniferous Period. Some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages, and extensively from the begin ...

. The colliery was renamed after 1880. The shaft was deepened to the

Arley mine The Manchester Coalfield is part of the South Lancashire Coalfield, the coal seams of which were laid down in the Carboniferous Period. Some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages, and extensively from the begin ...

at 1486 feet. Nelson Pit closed in 1938. Shakerley Colliery and Messhing Trees were owned by William Ramsden's

Shakerley Collieries Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries was a coal mining company operating the Nelson and Wellington Pits from the mid 19th century in Shakerley, Tyldesley in the historic county of Lancashire, England. History Coal had been dug in Shakerley since the ...

. The colliery was isolated from the main roads and railway and access to it was via a

toll road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

, Shakerley Lane, connecting it to the

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staf ...

turnpike Turnpike often refers to: * A type of gate, another word for a turnstile * In the United States, a toll road Turnpike may also refer to: Roads United Kingdom * A turnpike road, a principal road maintained by a turnpike trust, a body with powers ...

which continued to charge tolls until 1948. After the opening of the

Tyldesley Loopline The Tyldesley Loopline was part of the London and North Western Railway's Manchester and Wigan Railway line from Eccles to the junction west of Tyldesley station and its continuance south west via Bedford Leigh to Kenyon Junction on the Liver ...

in 1864, William Ramsden built a mineral railway to link his collieries to the main line east of the

Tyldesley Coal Company Tyldesley Coal Company was a coal mining company formed in 1870 in Tyldesley, on the Manchester Coalfield in the historic county of Lancashire, England that had its origins in Yew Tree Colliery, the location for a mining disaster that killed 25 ...

's sidings. The colliery was the scene of a disaster on 2 October 1883; six men died when the cage rope broke. The colliery was sold to

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 1935 and abandoned in October 1938.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * {{coord, 53.5223, -2.4643, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Coal mines in Lancashire Mining in Lancashire

See also

References

Citations

Bibliography