Aspull Pumping Pit

Overview

A Wigan Coal & Iron Company shaft at Aspull, sunk from 1871 to the King mine at 180 yards to drain the Cannel and King workings of the district. Its steam pumping engines ran until 1932, and its closure flooded neighbouring collieries.

History

Aspull Pumping Pit lay north of Dicconson Lane, Aspull. The Wigan Coal & Iron Company began it in 1871 to drain the Cannel and King mines and to take over from several smaller pumping stations. The shaft was 21 feet across and went down to the King at 180 yards. A wagon road ran to it from the sidings at No. 5 Moor Pit, and a waterway was driven through the King seam from Scot Lane, past Wood's No. 4 Cannel Pit, to new pump lodges at the pumping pit. The water proved heavier than expected, and by December 1876 the engine houses, winding and capstan engines, headframe and boilers were finished.

Three Bull-type engines worked 20-inch ram pumps. No. 1, reputedly built by J. Musgrave of Bolton about 1840, came second-hand from another of the Earl of Crawford's pits, No. 2 was added in 1874 and No. 3, from Gorse's Pit, in 1875. The water first went 123 yards up to the Great Haigh Sough. After subsidence damaged the sough it was all lifted 180 yards to the surface, and the clean Cannel water fed the boilers and locomotives. A Wilkinson cross-compound underground engine followed in 1894, and electric pumps powered from Kirkless Ironworks in 1908. From 1886 Park Hall Colliery at Blackrod served as an extra pumping pit until roadways could carry its water to Aspull. The pumps stopped in 1932, and the flooding that followed closed the Scot Lane collieries and those of the Westhoughton Coal & Cannel Company.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures: the Cannel mine and the King mine below it, at 180 yards.

Workings

One 21-foot shaft with three surface Bull-type pumping engines on 20-inch ram pumps, a Wilkinson cross-compound underground pumping engine of 1894 and three electric ram pumps of 1908; five Lancashire boilers; a single-cylinder geared winder under a wooden headgear; underground lodges in the King fed by a waterway from Scot Lane.

Closure

Pumping stopped in 1932; the rising water closed the Scot Lane collieries and the Westhoughton Coal & Cannel Company's pits. The chimney was demolished about 1955.

What remains

The engine house stands as a ruin, and a steel plate covers the shaft beneath it.

Ruined walls of the pumping engine house over the capped shaft.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Crawford Colliery — Both Wigan Coal & Iron workings on Aspull Moor; the pumping pit drained the Cannel and King mines of the district.
• Great Haigh Sough — Aspull Pumping Pit first delivered its water into the Great Haigh Sough, until subsidence damaged the sough.

Recorded claims

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

• Begun in 1871 by the Wigan Coal & Iron Company; the shaft, 21 feet across, reached the King at 180 yards. ^1,2
• Three Bull-type engines worked 20-inch ram pumps, No. 1 reputedly built by J. Musgrave of Bolton about 1840. ^1,2
• The engine houses, winding, headframe and boiler plant were complete by December 1876. ^2,3
• Pumping ceased in 1932, flooding and closing the Scot Lane and Westhoughton Coal & Cannel collieries. ^1,2
• The engine house is a ruin, with a steel plate over the shaft beneath it. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Aspull Pumping Pit — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (observational) Aspull Pumping Pit - Aspull, Wigan - September 2021 — 28DaysLater
3. (observational) Aspull Pumping Pit, Aspull, Sep 2010 — Derelict Places

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026