Yew Tree Colliery was a coal mine operating 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. after 1845 in Tyldesley, which was then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
In 1845 George Green of Wharton Hall, Little Hulton and his brother leased land at Yew Tree Farm to prospect for coal at what became Yew Tree Colliery. By 1858 the shaft was 250 feet (76 m) feet deep, and the workings extended under the parish churchWaterloo church dedicated to St George, completed in 1825 to serve the growing township of Tyldesley cum Shakerley..[1] The colliery had two shafts, one for ventilation was sunk to the Rams mine at 600 feet (183 m). They were deepened in the early 1890s to access the Black and White mine.[2]
Before 1851 Green built a tramroad to link the colliery to the Bridgewater Canal east of Astley Green. At the Tyldesley end, the tramway was worked by cable down the steep slope of the Tyldesley Banks and horse-drawn wagons completed the journey. In 1860 John Holland, a railway contractor from Ireland, joined Green and they formed the Tyldesley Coal CompanyCoal company was formed in 1870 in Tyldesley on the Manchester Coalfield, in the historic county of Lancashire, England. in 1870.[3][4]
Disaster
On 11 December 1858 an explosion of firedampDamps is a collective name given to all gases other than air found in coal mines in Great Britain. The chief pollutants are carbon dioxide and methane, known as blackdamp and firedamp respectively. , probably ignited by a safety lamp, cost the lives of twenty-five men and boys, the worst mining disasterMining disasters in Lancashire in which five or more people were killed occurred most frequently in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. to occur in Tyldesley.[1][5]