Nelson Pit 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 ...
operating on 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 begi ...
from the 1830s or 1840s in
Shakerley
Shakerley is a suburb of Tyldesley in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England.
It was anciently a hamlet in the northwest of the township of Tyldesley cum Shakerley, in the ancient parish of
Leigh.
The boundary between S ...
,
Tyldesley
Tyldesley () is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Lancashire, it is north of Chat Moss near the foothills of the Wes ...
,
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...
, 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.
Originally named Shakerley Colliery, the pit was sunk on land leased from Ellis Fletcher and worked by Nathan Eckersley in 1851. In 1861 the colliery passed to William Ramsden who owned Messhing Trees Colliery half a mile to the south. A shaft was sunk to 840 feet and the pit produced house coal from the
Trencherbone mine.
The colliery was renamed after 1880. The shaft was deepened to the
Arley mine at 1486 feet. Nelson Pit closed in 1938. Shakerley Colliery and Messhing Trees were owned by William Ramsden's
Shakerley Collieries
Ramsden's Shakerley Collieries was a coal mining company operating the Nelson and Wellington Pits from the mid 19th century in Shakerley, Tyldesley in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
History
Coal had been dug in Shakerley since the ...
.
The colliery was isolated from the main roads and railway and access to it was via a
toll road
A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road for which a fee (or ''Toll (fee), toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented to help recoup the costs of road construction and ...
, Shakerley Lane, connecting it to the
Bolton
Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...
to
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, Staffor ...
turnpike which continued to charge tolls until 1948. After the opening of the
Tyldesley Loopline
The Tyldesley Loopline was part of the London and North Western Railway's Manchester and Wigan Railway line from Eccles to the junction west of Tyldesley station and its continuance south west via Bedford Leigh to Kenyon Junction on the Liver ...
in 1864, William Ramsden built a mineral railway to link his collieries to the main line east of the
Tyldesley Coal Company
Tyldesley Coal Company was a coal mining company formed in 1870 in Tyldesley, on the Manchester Coalfield in the historic county of Lancashire, England that had its origins in Yew Tree Colliery, the location for a mining disaster that killed 25 m ...
's sidings.
The colliery was the scene of a disaster on 2 October 1883; six men died when the cage rope broke.
The colliery was sold to
Manchester Collieries in 1935 and abandoned in October 1938.
See also
*
List of collieries in Astley and Tyldesley
*
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 ...
*
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 ...
References
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
*
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Coal mines in Lancashire
Mining in Lancashire