Anson Colliery

Overview

Anson was one of the Poynton collieries, the largest in Cheshire, worked by the Lords Vernon themselves from 1832. It took the Accommodation, Gees, Reform and Red-acre seams, and its Accommodation coal was coming to an end as early as 1892. Electrification of the pits in 1926 was paid for by closing Anson, where the coal was almost exhausted. The site is now the Anson Engine Museum.

History

The Poynton collieries belonged to the Lords Vernon from 1832, when the fourth Lord Vernon decided to manage the mines himself rather than lease them, until their closure in 1935. They were the largest in Cheshire. Anson was one of five pits producing coal by 1907, alongside Lawrance, Park Oval, Lady and Quarry. In 1891 Anson raised 72,140 tons against Lawrance's 105,283 and Park Oval's 73,120, and two incidents that year at the Oval Pit — two tubs falling out of the cage into the sump in February, and a cage coming off its guides in December — sent the Oval men up at Anson instead. Lady Pit was brought back into production in 1892 working the Accommodation seam to make up for Anson's falling output. The agent G. C. Greenwell junior noted that March that working costs had risen because more coal was being taken at Anson and Park Oval from expensive seams and less from cheap ones: 'The Accommodation seam at both these pits is coming very nearly to an end and we are obliged to make up the quantity in the Gees and Three Feet or Reform seams both of which are thinner and more expensive to work.' By 1897, the last year for which the company's reports survive, Anson raised 54,302 tons; the price of coal had fallen from 7s 10⅜d a ton in 1890 to 5s 9¼d. The Mines Inspectors' returns give the colliery 227 people in 1896, 187 in 1900, 168 in 1905, 202 in 1910, 174 in 1915 and 201 in 1923, working household, manufacturing and steam coal. Lord Vernon gave up complete control of the pits and Poynton Collieries Ltd was formed in 1921, with George Harold Greenwell, son of the agent, in the post his father had held. Compressed-air coal cutting machinery went into all three remaining pits. The last modernisation, in 1926, was the electrification of much of the collieries including most of the pumping, and the price of it was the closure of Anson, where the coal was almost exhausted. Park Oval followed in 1928, leaving only Lawrance until the last mines closed on 30 August 1935.

Geology

Anson worked the small Cheshire coalfield at Poynton. The seams returned from it are the Accommodation, the Gees, the Reform or Three Feet and the Red-acre. The Accommodation was the best of them and was nearly worked out here by 1892, after which the company had to fall back on the Gees and Reform, both thinner and more expensive to work.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

One of the five Poynton pits. Shaft depths have not been found in the sources read for this record, though the nearby Quarry Pit worked the Two Foot seam at only about forty yards. When the Oval Pit's cage came off its guides in December 1891 the men there came up at Anson, so the two were connected underground.

Closure

Anson was closed in 1926 as the price of electrifying the rest of the Poynton collieries, the coal there being almost exhausted. The Durham Mining Museum gives the closure as 1926 and the colliery still returning 201 people in 1923.

What remains

The colliery site is now the Anson Engine Museum. The hill beside the museum's open-air storage is the colliery spoil heap. All the other Poynton shafts have been capped.

The spoil heap survives as a hill on the museum ground.

Redevelopment

The Anson Engine Museum occupies the former colliery site at Higher Poynton.

Nearby mines

• Poynton Collieries — 1.0 km W
• Hough Hole Colliery — 7.2 km S
• Alderley Edge Mines — 10.0 km SW
• Hyde Colliery — 11.6 km N, Greater Manchester

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The final attempt at modernisation in 1926 took the form of electrifying much of the Poynton collieries including most of the pumping, and the price of it was the closure of the Anson Pit, where the coal was almost exhausted. ¹
• The agent G. C. Greenwell junior recorded in March 1892 that working costs at Anson and Park Oval had risen because the Accommodation seam at both was coming very nearly to an end, obliging the company to make up the quantity in the Gees and Three Feet or Reform seams, both thinner and more expensive to work. ¹
• Anson raised 72,140 tons in 1891 and 54,302 tons in 1897, the last year for which the company's annual reports survive. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Poynton Collieries: 1890–1935, the final years — David Kitching
2. (observational) Anson Engine Museum, Higher Poynton — Wikimedia Commons, David Dixon
3. (secondary) Anson Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026