Abandoned Coal Mine near Bolton

 
 

 


Red Rose Club trip on Saturday May 17th.

Club members: Andy Hall, Steve Gray, Pete & Julie Mohr, Tom Duckett, Julian & Sam Carradice. Ex member Boyd Harris and our three local guides.

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Bolton and Horwich were towns in the north of England that thrived on developments during the industrial revolution of the late 1700s and 1800s. Probably the textile industry was the most visible and some former mill buildings still exist around these towns. To power the various industries Horwich also mined much of its own coal but all of the collieries have now been demolished. All that can be seen are the occasional surface markers that indicate mines below. However, most of the underground workings are still there.

I recently got in contact with Boyd Harris, an old Red Rose member from the 1980’s and found he had a contact that had access to the mines. I eventually got in contact with them and after proving that I was a genuine enthusiast we organised a trip. There is an issue of confidentially here as if the Coal Authorities knew of the access to the mine it would be immediately blocked up. This is why I am unable to name our guides or give the location of the coal mine.

The trip was advertised as follows….”Easy going, no cave type flat out crawls, some lesser crawling, other areas you can stand up. No gas, air perfect in all areas, ideal for photography.  It’s also 99.9% dry, dry suits not needed, kneepads yes. It’s not cold in there either. We could take a maximum of about 10 of you in at once,” This proved to be correct and most of us just wore a boiler suit with light clothing underneath. Kneepads were very useful.

We met up at a convenient road junction, somewhere in Lancashire at an early start for the Red Rose of 10 am. And then moved on to a closer car park. After a short walk through woodland we reached the entrance, located close to a path so we needed to be careful that nobody saw us enter. The vertical entrance dropped down 3-metre ladder into the first level, which was hands and knees to a junction, where we could clearly see the coal seam. This was only about 40cm thick. A few metres further on a pit in the floor dropped below this level to lower workings. This was our way on. The lower level had been broken into by the main level we were in when it was dug in late 19th Century.

The lower workings were cut before women and children were excluded from coal mines so would have been worked the 1840s. The Mines Act of 1842 was introduced by Parliament to prohibit all females and boys under ten years old from working underground in coalmines.  It seems fairly certain that children worked them, as most of these workings are hands and knees crawls with only a thin coal seam. This is a good area to see fossil plants including lepidodendron (known as scale trees) is an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, plant related to the lycopsids (club mosses). They were part of the coal forest flora. They reached heights of over 30 metres and the trunks were often over 1 m in diameter, and thrived during the Carboniferous Period (about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya (million years ago) to about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya) In fact these can be seen throughout the mine as trunks, tree roots and leaves, especially in the roof just above the worked out coal seam.

 

The end of these lower workings was marked by an obvious fault and from here we returned towards the main workings and through a breakdown area with plenty of hanging death, Care was needed here! This lead to a section of larger passages of the late 19th Century date beyond this section the mine has larger passage leading to a much larger brick lined arched roadway, with a good draft. This was perhaps the best area for photographs and some time was spent here. The way on beyond and out to the surface is blocked by a collapse and concrete cap.

             We then returned through the breakdown area to a junction and turned off to the lowest section of the mine with a passage containing running water. The water sinks through boulders at the far end and runs into the drainage sough that keeps the mine clear of floodwater. On the walls here are early 20th Century inscriptions written by the mines safety engineer with dates. From here we returned to the entrance via another route, which was mainly hands and knees with a couple of flat out bits leading back to the top of the first junction to the lower level near the entrance. I found the trip really interesting as contains many aspects of coalmines with some significant geological and archaeological features. A return to mines in the area is planned.

Text Box:

The lower workings were cut before women and children were excluded from coal mines so would have been worked the 1840s. The Mines Act of 1842 was introduced by Parliament to prohibit all females and boys under ten years old from working underground in coalmines.  It seems fairly certain that children worked them, as most of these workings are hands and knees crawls with only a thin coal seam. This is a good area to see fossil plants including lepidodendron (known as scale trees) is an extinct genus of primitive, vascular, plant related to the lycopsids (club mosses). They were part of the coal forest flora. They reached heights of over 30 metres and the trunks were often over 1 m in diameter, and thrived during the Carboniferous Period (about 359.2 ± 2.5 Mya (million years ago) to about 299.0 ± 0.8 Mya) In fact these can be seen throughout the mine as  trunks, tree roots and leaves, especially in the roof just above the worked out coal seam.

 

The end of these lower workings was marked by an obvious fault and from here we returned towards the main workings and through a breakdown area with plenty of hanging death, Care was needed here! This lead to a section of larger passages of the late 19th Century date beyond this section the mine has larger passage leading to a much larger brick lined arched roadway, with a good draft. This was perhaps the best area for photographs and some time was spent here. The way on beyond and out to the surface is blocked by a collapse and concrete cap.

We then returned through the breakdown area to a junction and turned off to the lowest section of the mine with a passage containing running water. The water sinks through boulders at the far end and runs into the drainage sough that keeps the mine clear of floodwater. On the walls here are early 20th Century inscriptions written by the mines safety engineer with dates. From here we returned to the entrance via another route, which was mainly hands and knees with a couple of flat out bits leading back to the top of the first junction to the lower level near the entrance. I found the trip really interesting as contains many aspects of coalmines with some significant geological and archaeological features. A return to mines in the area is planned.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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