Chanters 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 fro ...

which was part of the

Fletcher, Burrows and Company Fletcher, Burrows and Company was a coal mining company that owned collieries and cotton mills in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Gibfield, Howe Bridge and Chanters collieries exploited the coal mines (seams) of the middle coal measures i ...

's collieries at

Hindsford Hindsford is a suburb of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated to the west of the Hindsford Brook, an ancient boundary between the townships of Atherton and Tyldesley cum Shakerley, and east ...

Atherton, Greater Manchester Atherton () is a town in Greater Manchester, England and historically a part of Lancashire. The town, including Hindsford, Howe Bridge and Hag Fold, is south of Bolton, east of Wigan, and northwest of Manchester. From the 17th century, fo ...

, then in the historic county of

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

, England.

Geology

Chanters Colliery exploited the Middle Coal Measures which were laid down in the Carboniferous period and where coal is mined from more than a dozen coal seams. Chanters accessed 12 seams between the Crumbouke and

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 begi ...

s. 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

Manchester Coalfield 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 ...

History

Chanters Colliery in Hindsford was sunk in 1854 by John Fletcher in an area where coal had been mined for centuries from small shallow pits. One of these pits, the ''Gold Pit'', so named from 17th-century coins and the plates they were stamped from found at the bottom of the shaft, was working before 1800. In 1854

John Musgrave & Sons John Musgrave & Sons was a company that manufactured stationary steam engines. It was founded in 1839 by John Musgrave and his son, Joseph, at the Globe Ironworks, in Bolton, historically in Lancashire, England. In 1854 the company supplied a tw ...

supplied a twin cylinder horizontal

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 ...

, and in 1861 a single cylinder pumping engine. Steam was supplied by three

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 ...

s and the boilerhouse had a 122 foot tall chimney. The colliery was modernised and developed after 1891 when two shafts were sunk first to the

Trencherbone 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 begi ...

at 1121 feet and deepened to the

at 1832 feet in 1896. These shafts accessed 12 coal seams. The boilers and winding engine were replaced in 1904. Coal screens and a washery were built, and steel headgear and a new winding engine installed by 1904. The colliery was continually developed and modernised and lasted until 1966. In 1926 the wooden headgear of No. 2 pit was replaced by Naylors of Golborne. The colliery's training gallery was used by recruits from most of

Manchester Collieries Manchester Collieries was a coal mining company with headquarters in Walkden formed from a group of independent companies operating on the Manchester Coalfield in 1929. The Mining Industry Act of 1926 attempted to stem the post-war decline in coal ...

pits and 132

Bevin boy Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in coal mines between December 1943 and March 1948, to increase the rate of coal production, which had declined through the early years of World War II. The programme was named after Erne ...

s were trained here in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

References

Notes Footnotes Bibliography * * * {{coord, 53.5188, -2.4708, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Coal mines in Lancashire Mining in Lancashire Underground mines in England Atherton, Greater Manchester

Geology

History

See also

References