Parsonage 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

Lancashire Coalfield The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago. The Romans may have been the f ...

Leigh Leigh may refer to: Places In England Pronounced : * Leigh, Greater Manchester, Borough of Wigan ** Leigh (UK Parliament constituency) * Leigh-on-Sea, Essex Pronounced : * Leigh, Dorset * Leigh, Gloucestershire * Leigh, Kent * Leigh, Staff ...

, 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 Lancas ...

, England. The colliery, close to the centre of Leigh and the

Bolton and Leigh Railway The Bolton and Leigh Railway (B&LR) was the first public railway in Lancashire, it opened for goods on 1 August 1828 preceding the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (L&MR) by two years. Passengers were carried from 1831. The railway operated inde ...

was sunk between 1913 and 1920 by the

Wigan Coal and Iron Company The Wigan Coal and Iron Company was formed when collieries on the Lancashire Coalfield owned by John Lancaster were acquired by Lord Lindsay, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, owner of the Haigh Colliery in 1865. The company owned collieries ...

and the first coal was wound to the surface in 1921. For many years its shafts to the

Arley 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 beg ...

were the deepest in the country. The pit was close to the town centre and large pillars of coal were left under the

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...

and the town's large

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Although some were driven b ...

History

Parsonage's two shafts were sunk to the Arley mine at and the depth including the sump was yards. They were in diameter and lined with brick. Sinking began in 1913 but was halted for two years in early 1914 because of the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

. The colliery's winding houses were made of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion ...

and its

headgear Headgear, headwear, or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on one's head, including hats, helmets, turbans and many other types. Headgear is worn for many purposes, including protection against the elements, ...

was tall with diameter pulley wheels. Markhams of Chesterfield supplied a

winding engine A winding engine is a stationary engine used to control a cable, for example to power a mining hoist at a pit head. Electric hoist controllers have replaced proper winding engines in modern mining, but use electric motors that are also tradit ...

with 40 inch diameter cylinders for the downcast shaft and

W & J Galloway & Sons W & J Galloway and Sons was a British manufacturer of steam engines and boilers based in Manchester, England. The firm was established in 1835 as a partnership of two brothers, William and John Galloway. The partnership expanded to encompass th ...

supplied the engine for the upcast shaft. Steam power was supplied by 12

Lancashire boiler A shell or flued boiler is an early and relatively simple form of boiler used to make steam, usually for the purpose of driving a steam engine. The design marked a transitional stage in boiler development, between the early haystack boilers and t ...

s. Walkers of Wigan supplied the diameter ventilation fan and engine. Ventilation was important; the temperature where the workings reached was . In 1923 Parsonage Nos. 1 & 2 pits employed 85 underground and 75 surface workers. but by 1933 this had risen to 1,261 underground and 287 on the surface. From 1,044 tons of coal in 1921, output increased to 252,188 tons in 1925. The General Strike of 1926 closed the pit for 31 weeks and 172,787 tons were produced and by 1930 output was 325,000 tons. The coal was produced from four seams providing best quality house coal. It was sorted at the pithead at three sets of screens, one set long by wide could process 1,250 tons in seven hours. The colliery became part of the

National Coal Board The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the United Kingdom's collieries on "ve ...

in 1947 and subsequently it was linked underground to Golborne and Bickershaw collieries. It closed in early 1992 and the shaft was filled in with limestone mined in Carnforth, Lancashire then capped with a thick concrete plug. A supermarket was built on the site shortly after. In 2012 the first phase of the Parsonage Retail Park was opened on the site.

References

Notes Bibliography * *

External links

National Coal Board, Parsonage Colliery Clifton St. Wigan Road, West Leigh, Lancashire. 1981, Frank Wightman. Manchester Archives+
{{Buildings and structures in Wigan Borough Coal mines in Lancashire Underground mines in England Buildings and structures in Leigh, Greater Manchester Demolished buildings and structures in Greater Manchester