Nook Colliery

Nook Colliery or Nook Pit was a coal mine on 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. sunk in 1866 near Gin PitColliery that operated on the Lancashire Coalfield from the 1840s in Tyldesley Lancashire, England. in Tyldesley, Lancashire, England.^[1]

The colliery’s first shaft was sunk to the Rams mine at 455 yards (416 m) in 1866 by the Astley and Tyldesley Coal and Salt CompanyColliery company formed in 1900, became part of Manchester Collieries in 1929, and some of its collieries were nationalised in 1947. to exploit the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester Coalfield. The colliery expanded and eventually had five shafts and became one of the largest pits on the coalfield.^[2] No.2 upcast shaft was sunk in 1873 and deepened to the Arley mine, a hot mine where working temperatures reached 100 ºF (38 ºC), at 935 yards (855 m). No.3 shaft was sunk to 707 yards (646 m) to the Trencherbone mine through water-bearing rock in 1899.^[3] No.4 shaft, sunk in 1913, intersected every workable coal seam in the coalfield.^[4] The colliery had two horizontal winding engines.^[5]

The colliery became part of Manchester CollieriesCoal mining company with headquarters in Walkden, Lancashire, formed in 1929 by the merger of a group of independent companies operating on the Manchester Coalfield. in 1929 and the National Coal BoardStatutory corporation created to run the coal mining industry in the United Kingdom under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946. in 1947. In 1954, 1000 men were employed producing 440,000 tons of coal per annum. After closure most colliery buildings were demolished and the site landscaped. The pithead bath house built by the Miner’s Welfare Committee in the 1930s survived and was converted to other uses.^[5] The pit was the subject of a painting by local artist, Roger HampsonPainter, printmaker, teacher and a member of the group of post-war northern artists who developed the realist tradition established by L S Lowry and Harry Rutherford. .^[6]