Pendleton Colliery
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Pendleton Colliery 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 after the late 1820s on Whit Lane in Pendleton,
Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, 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 Lancash ...
, England.


John Fitzgerald era

John Purcell Fitzgerald,
Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
and estate owner, started to sink shafts to the Three Foot and Worsley Four Foot mines at Whit Lane, Pendleton on his estate in the late 1820s. The shafts were on the west side of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal.
George Stephenson George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was a British civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians In the history of the United Kingdom and the ...
's brother, Robert (1788–1837), supervised operations as manager and engineer until his death in 1837. In 1832 he was able to report to Fitzgerald that the four foot seam had been reached. The original shaft was sunk to a depth of around 650 feet and in the first six months of 1832 the colliery produced nearly 27,000 tons of coal. The shaft was closed after flooding in 1834. In 1835, Fitzgerald formed the Pendleton Colliery Company, with George Stephenson as a director, and leased nearby land from the
Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is the private estate of the British sovereign as Duke of Lancaster. The principal purpose of the estate is to provide a source of independent income to the sovereign. The estate consists of a portfolio of lands, properti ...
for new mining works. In 1836, the colliery supplied at least 215,000 tons of coal to Manchester by road, 24 per cent of the city's total demand. Robert Stephenson supervised the sinking of two eight-feet diameter shafts to deeper, drier seams below the Worsley Four Foot in 1836–37 and a steam engine of around 40
horsepower Horsepower (hp) is a unit of measurement of power, or the rate at which work is done, usually in reference to the output of engines or motors. There are many different standards and types of horsepower. Two common definitions used today are t ...
was installed. The new shaft was on the east bank of the canal where a short branch terminated in the pit yard. In 1840 the shaft reached coal at a depth of 1,392 feet. The new workings undertaken by the company were expected to generate profits of £14,000 per annum but the colliery suffered from problems relating to water ingress throughout its existence. By 1840 the coal faces of the Albert and Crombourke mines were 1,400 feet below the surface. More flooding in 1843 caused the pit to close when it employed nearly 1,000 people and produced 1,000 tons of coal per day. The lower sections of the new shafts, which were around 1,590 feet deep, were lined with
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impur ...
tubbing in an attempt to restrain water ingress. A design flaw was being rectified at the time of the flooding, which newspapers attributed to the closure of two nearby collieries that had shut down due to flooding and the absence of their pumping mechanisms had increased the volume of water present. Newspapers reported that Fitzgerald's losses as a result of the ingress — which was initially termed a "destruction" by the ''
Morning Post ''The Morning Post'' was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by ''The Daily Telegraph''. History The paper was founded by John Bell. According to historian Robert Darnton, ''The Morning Po ...
'' — were at least £50,000. By the end of 1843 a beam engine with a 75-inch stroke had been installed to clear the water. The colliery was still closed in June 1846, by which time more than 157 million gallons of water had been pumped out and the coal lay 100 yards below the water level. Mining operations recommenced in January 1847 and were marked with a celebratory procession through the streets of Manchester and Salford but the disaster had ruined some of the company's directors and in 1848 Fitzgerald filed for bankruptcy. His son noted in 1843 that Jack Nadin says that the colliery was closed in 1848 but D. R. Fisher says Fitzgerald continued mining somewhere and there are numerous newspaper advertisements after 1848 that list the address of Fitzgerald's agent, Hugh Higson, as being that of the colliery. Under the provisions of bankruptcy, the lease was offered for sale in 1852, which was the year that Fitzgerald died. The lease covered approximately 280 acres of land, the associated mineral rights and plant and machinery. At that time, the seams being worked were the Albert mine, the Binn mine, the New Six Foot and the Seven Foot.


Andrew Knowles and Sons

Andrew Knowles and Sons bought the underlease in 1852. The company developed the colliery by sinking new shafts on the east side of the canal in 1857 to access the
Rams 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 begi ...
at 1,545 feet and the shafts on the west side of the canal were abandoned. As the coal was worked from coal seams that dipped at 1-in-3, Pendleton became the deepest coal mine in the country when the workings reached 3,600 feet where the temperature at the coal face reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Andrew Knowles and Sons relined the upcast shaft in 1872 reducing its diameter to 7 feet 2 inches, giving Pendleton the record for the narrowest shaft. In 1891 the company decided to modernise the colliery by sinking two 16 feet-diameter shafts but water from old workings broke through causing flooding and subsidence and the shafts were abandoned. A screening plant and wagon loading facility were built on the canal's west bank alongside the
Manchester and Bolton Railway The Manchester and Bolton Railway was a railway in the historic county of Lancashire, England, connecting Salford to Bolton. It was built by the proprietors of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Navigation and Railway Company who had in 1 ...
line linked to the pit by a bridge built in 1894. A small engine shed and sidings were built to connect with the railway by January 1895. A saddletank locomotive supplied by
Manning Wardle Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Precursor companies The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially s ...
in 1901 was named ''Knowles''. In 1896 Pendleton Nos. 1 & 2 pits employed 441 underground and 126 surface workers and in 1933 employed 272 underground and 117 on the surface. Ground upheaval in the Rams mine caused five deaths in 1925. The colliery became part of
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 by which time the Albert and Crombouke mines were exhausted. The new owners fitted new headgear to No. 1 shaft in 1931. The colliery closed in 1939 when coal in the Rams mine was exhausted. The colliery site was subsequently used by the Manchester Oxide Company to process spent iron oxide.


See also

*
List of mining disasters in Lancashire This is a list of mining accidents in the historic county of Lancashire at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across the Lancashire Coalfield. The earliest deaths were recorded in par ...


References

Notes Citations Bibliography * * * *


External links


Newsreel of the 1925 accident
by British Pathé
Pendleton Colliery
at the
Paleobiology Database The Paleobiology Database is an online resource for information on the distribution and classification of fossil animals, plants, and microorganisms. History The Paleobiology Database (PBDB) originated in the NCEAS-funded Phanerozoic Marine Pale ...
{{coord, 53.506, -2.293, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Coal mines in Lancashire Underground mines in England