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Gibfield Colliery was a
Gibfield Colliery was a coal mine
Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...
owned by Fletcher, Burrows and Company in Atherton, then in the historic county of Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...
, England.
A shaft was sunk at Gibfield to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 by John Fletcher next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway line which opened in 1830. The colliery was served by sidings near Bag Lane Station.
On 11 February 1850, workers descended the pit and discovered the presence of gas which they tried to disperse with their jackets. The gas fired at the flame of a lighted candle causing an explosion which killed five men and burned several others.
In 1872 the colliery was expanded when a second shaft was sunk to access the Arley mine at 1233 feet. A third shaft was sunk after 1904 accessing nine workable coal seams between the Arley and the Victoria or Hell Hole mines and the original Gibfield shaft was used for ventilation.
In common with many collieries on the Lancashire Coalfield
The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British Coalfield#Great Britain, coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
The Rom ...
, women, known as '' Pit brow lasses'' were employed on the surface to sort coal on the screens at the pit head. The first pit-head baths in the country were built at Gibfield in 1913. Gibfield closed in 1963 and the site was cleared.
See also
*Glossary of coal mining terminology
This is a partial glossary of coal mining terminology commonly used in the coalfields of the United Kingdom. Some words were in use throughout the coalfields, some are historic and some are local to the different British coalfields.
A
Adit
:An ...
*List of mining disasters in Lancashire
This is a list of mining accidents in the historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire at which five or more people were killed. Mining deaths have occurred wherever coal has been mined across the Lancashire Coalfield. The earlies ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
* * {{coord, 53.5286, -2.5048, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Coal mines in Lancashire Mining in Lancashire Underground mines in England Atherton, Greater Manchester