Cleworth Hall Colliery on the Lancashire CoalfieldThe Lancashire and Cheshire Coalfield in North West England was one of the most important British coalfields. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period more than 300 million years ago. operated between 1880 and 1963 in Tyldesley, Lancashire, England.[1] The colliery was sunk north of Manchester Road under the Cleworth Hall estate, to the east of Yew Tree CollieryFormer coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1845 in Tyldesley, which was then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. .

Geology


The colliery accessed the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester CoalfieldPart of the Lancashire Coalfield. Some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages, and extensively from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution until the last quarter of the 20th century., which were laid down in the Carboniferous period; coal was mined from seams between the Worsley Four Foot and Arley mines.[a]in this part of Lancashire a coal seam is referred to as a mine and the coal mine as a colliery or pit The seams generally dip towards the south and west and are affected by small faults. The Upper Coal Measures are not worked in this part of the coalfield.

History


In 1880 the Tyldesley Coal CompanyCoal company was formed in 1870 in Tyldesley on the Manchester Coalfield, in the historic county of Lancashire, England. sank two shafts, both 13 feet (4 m) in diameter near Cleworth Hall, one to the Rams mine (or Six Feet) at 115 yards (105 m) and another to the Black & White mine (or Seven Feet) at 220 yards (201 m), they intersected the Crumbouke mine at 71 yards (65 m). The Crumbouke coal was mostly exhausted by 1890 by which time the Rams also had little coal left. To access deeper seams the No. 2 upcast shaft was deepened and a 14 feet (4 m) diameter shaft, No. 3, was sunk between 1890 and 1892 to access three more coal seams. The deepest, the Trencherbone mine was reached at 394 yards (360 m) , the Doe mine was intersected at 307 yards (281 m) and the Five Quarters at 331 yards (303 m). In 1896 the colliery employed 304 men underground and 46 surface workers.[2] Gas coal, household and manufacturing coal were mined from the Black and White, Six-Foot and Trencherbone, mines. Before 1910, No. 3 pit was deepened to the Arley mine at 633 yards (579 m) and steel headgear made by the Lilleshall Company was erected.[3]

No. 1 pit had a 20 in x 48 in twin-cylinder horizontal winding engine with slide valves. Its winding drum was stepped, one side 12 feet in diameter wound from the Seven Feet and the other 8 ft 4 in wound the Rams. Two single-deck cages each carried two tubs of six-and-a- half hundredweight capacity. The steel wire winding ropes were fitted with OrmerodEnglish mining engineer and inventor who worked at Gibfield Colliery in Atherton, Lancashire where he devised and tested his safety device, the Ormerod safety link or detaching hook. detaching hooks.[3] The pit was originally ventilated by furnace in the No. 2 upcast shaft.[4] Although not usually used for winding, it had a single-cylinder horizontal winding engine. No. 3 pit had iron headgear and coal was wound using single deck cages carrying two tubs. It had a 26 in x 60 in twin cylinder horizontal winding engine with slide valves and a 14 ft 10 in diameter winding drum.[3]

Four 7 ft x 30 ft Lancashire boilers provided steam to power the surface plant. Compressed-air operated haulage engines were used underground, two in the Rams, two in the Seven Feet and one in the Trencherbone. The coal preparation plant had two sets of rocking bar screens over which the coal passed before being discharged on to wire picking belts.[3]

At nationalisation in 1947 the colliery employed 222 surface and 705 underground workers producing coal for gas, house and steam coals from the Three Foot, Four Foot, Arley, Plodder and New Yard mines.[2] The National Coal BoardStatutory corporation created to run the coal mining industry in the United Kingdom under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946. mechanised the Plodder mine using cutter-loader machines on armoured scraper chain conveyers. The colliery was the last on the coalfield to have pit-head baths, which were not built until the mid-1950s. It closed in 1963. The colliery’s large spoil tip caught fire as a result of spontaneous combustion, and burnt for years.[3]

Notes

Notes
a in this part of Lancashire a coal seam is referred to as a mine and the coal mine as a colliery or pit

References



Bibliography


Coalmining History Research Centre. North Western Division Map 86. http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/maps/lnw_map1.html.
Hayes, Geoffrey. Collieries and Their Railways in the Manchester Coalfields. Landmark, 2004.
Tyldesley Coal Company. Durham Mining Museum. http://www.dmm.org.uk/company/t1002.htm.