MineArchiveAshtons Green Colliery
| Also known as | Ashton's Green Colliery |
|---|---|
| Location | Between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road, Parr, St Helens, Merseyside — 53.4484, -2.6978 (exact) |
| Commodity | Coal |
| Type | Coal |
| Worked | By the 1780s–1931 |
| Maximum depth | Unknown. |
| Operators | Bromilow, Foster and Co. Ltd (?–1931) |
Overview
A long-lived St Helens colliery between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road, working by the 1780s, linked to the Sankey Canal by an 1828 tramway, and run by Bromilow, Foster and Company until it closed in 1931 with over a thousand men.
History
Ashtons Green Colliery lay between Fleet Lane and Derbyshire Hill Road at Parr, St Helens. It was already a colliery in the 1780s, when a Mr Blackburn of Liverpool bought it for £5,500. Early in the nineteenth century James Orrell and Thomas Claughton worked it successfully, and a tramway opened in 1828 carried its coal to the Sankey Canal at Haydock Wood. John Shaw Leigh and his family then ran it for several decades, raising about 20,000 tons a year; around 1845 women were still employed underground as drawers. Bromilow, Foster and Company took the colliery over and worked Nos. 2, 3 and 5 pits, which together employed 780 men in 1894 and over 2,000 in 1910, producing gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. Roof falls killed two colliers on a haulage brow in September 1896 and two repairers in December 1909 (see Disasters, below). The colliery closed in 1931, when it still employed 1,126 men.
Geology
Lancashire Coal Measures of the St Helens district.
Workings
Several numbered pits; Nos. 2, 3 and 5 were working from the 1890s, and Nos. 1 and 2, 3 and 4, and 5 are listed in the 1910s and 1920s.
Closure
Closed in 1931, employing 1,126 men.
What remains
Remains of the 1828 tramway to the Sankey Canal survive.
Redevelopment
Unknown.
Nearby mines
- Parr Colliery — 1.0 miles (1.6 km) N, Lancashire
- Blackbrook Colliery — 1.1 miles (1.7 km) N
- Bold Colliery — 1.0 miles (1.7 km) SE
- Collins Green Colliery — 1.2 miles (1.9 km) E
- Sherdley Colliery — 1.3 miles (2.1 km) SW
Straight-line distance, within 9 miles (15 km). Show on the map.
Disasters & major incidents
-
Ashton's Green Colliery roof fall, 1896
25 September 1896 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
Two colliers walking down the haulage downbrow to their work at Ashton's Green Colliery, St Helens, were buried on 25 September 1896 when the roof gave way at an untimbered joint. -
Ashton's Green Colliery roof fall, 1909
18 December 1909 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities
Two men repairing a roadway at Bromilow, Foster and Company's Ashton's Green Colliery, St Helens, were killed on 18 December 1909 when the roof fell up to the seam above, eight yards overhead.
Recorded claims
Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.
- In the 1780s the colliery was bought for £5,500 by a Mr Blackburn of Liverpool. 1
- A tramway opened in 1828 linked it to the Sankey Canal at Haydock Wood. 1
- It was worked by Bromilow, Foster and Company. 1,2
- In 1910 Nos. 2, 3 and 5 pits employed 636, 781 and 607 men. 2
- Roof falls killed two colliers walking down a haulage brow on 25 September 1896 and two repairers on 18 December 1909. 2
- The colliery closed in 1931, employing 1,126 men. 1
Sources
- (secondary) Ashtons Green Colliery 1780-1931 — Northern Mine Research Society
- (primary) Ashton's Green Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum
Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026