Bamfurlong Colliery

Overview

Bamfurlong was a four-pit colliery south-east of Wigan, between the Leigh arm of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the Warrington to Wigan railway, worked by Cross, Tetley and Company from 1861. Its two old five-foot shafts were bored out to twelve feet and sunk to 220 yards; the Nos. 3 and 4 pits begun about 1873 were far bigger, tubbed with cast iron against quicksand and driven to the Wigan Nine Feet with the Arley below. At its height around 1910 it employed nearly 1,800 people. In 1892 a fire in an engine house filled the workings with smoke and sixteen men and boys suffocated. Cross, Tetley went into receivership in 1931 and the Wigan Coal Corporation worked the shaft pillars out until closure in 1936.

History

Cross, Tetley and Company worked Bamfurlong from 1861 on ground immediately south of the Leigh arm of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and west of the London and North Western Warrington to Wigan line. The Nos. 1 and 2 pits were old shafts of five feet diameter which the company enlarged to twelve feet and sank to 220 yards, No. 2 serving as upcast. The Nos. 3 and 4 pits were begun about 1873 on a different scale — 15 and 16 feet across, meant to finish at 18 feet, with four rings of cast-iron tubbing put in to hold back quicksand — and were sunk first to the Wigan Nine Feet with the Arley Mine in view below. The colliery grew steadily. In 1900 the four pits together employed about 1,350 people; by 1910 the figure was nearly 1,800, with the No. 3 pit alone at 947. Coal was raised for gas, household, manufacturing and steam use from the Pemberton Two and Four Feet, the Ince Four and Seven Feet, the Wigan Four, Five and Nine Feet, the Cannel and the Arley. The plant described in 1896 is a good picture of a large Lancashire pit of the period: twin-cylinder horizontal winders with Cornish valves and Ormerod detaching hooks, six underground haulage engines, compressed-air pumps sending water to the No. 3 pit to be wound in tanks at night, a small electric lighting set at the Nos. 3 and 4 pit bottoms, and ventilation by furnaces at the No. 2 and No. 4 pits until a Walker Brothers 'Indestructible' fan was installed in 1908. In 1892 a fire in an engine house drove smoke into the workings. Many of the men got out through the air doors into the clean return airway, but sixteen did not and suffocated. The fire began with a paraffin lamp: the lad who normally minded the engine was ill that day and two boys aged thirteen and fifteen had been sent to take his place (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Bamfurlong worked a deep sequence of Lancashire Coal Measures seams — the Pemberton Two and Four Feet, the Ince Four and Seven Feet, the Wigan Four, Five and Nine Feet, the Cannel, the King and the Arley. The ground gave trouble near the surface rather than at depth: the Nos. 3 and 4 shafts had to be lined with four rings of cast-iron tubbing to withstand the pressure of quicksand as they were sunk.

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

Workings

Four pits. Nos. 1 and 2 were old five-foot shafts enlarged to twelve feet and sunk to 220 yards, No. 2 the upcast, used latterly for ventilation and emergency exit only. Nos. 3 and 4, begun about 1873, were 15 and 16 feet across. The No. 3 winder was a Robert Daglish twin cylinder of 1881, 32 by 72 inches, raising four tubs a cage; the No. 4 winder was larger still at 36 by 72 inches with a 21-foot conical drum lagged in seven inches of oak, raising six tubs of eight and a half hundredweight. Headgears stood 60 and 61 feet high. Six underground haulage engines ran direct-rope, main-and-tail and endless-rope roads.

Closure

Cross, Tetley and Company Ltd held the colliery from 1861 until receivers took over in 1931. The Wigan Coal Corporation took it on in 1934 and worked the shaft pillars until it closed in 1936, after which the value of the colliery to the company lay in its output quota being transferred to other pits.

What remains

The colliery has gone. Its ground lies between the Leeds and Liverpool Canal and the West Coast Main Line at Bamfurlong; the subsidence flashes of Ince Moss and the Wigan Flashes nearby are the district's most visible legacy of coal working.

Nearby mines

• Maypole Colliery — 1.0 km E, Lancashire
• Golborne Colliery — 4.3 km S
• Parsonage Colliery — 6.0 km E, Lancashire
• Bickershaw Colliery — 6.1 km SE
• Haydock Colliery — 7.1 km S, Lancashire

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.

• Cross, Tetley & Co. Ltd held Bamfurlong from 1861 to 1931, receivers ran it from 1931 to 1934, and the Wigan Coal Corporation from 1934 to closure in 1936. ¹
• The Nos. 1 and 2 pits were old five-foot shafts enlarged by Cross, Tetley to twelve feet and sunk to 220 yards; the Nos. 3 and 4 pits, begun about 1873, were 15 and 16 feet across and had four rings of cast-iron tubbing inserted to withstand pressure from quicksand. ¹
• The fire that suffocated sixteen men and boys is dated 14 January 1892 by the Northern Mine Research Society and 14 December 1892 by the Durham Mining Museum. (disputed) ^1,2
• A fire in the engine house caused smoke to enter the workings; many escaped through the air doors into the clean return airway but sixteen did not and suffocated. The fire was caused by an accident with a paraffin lamp, the lad in charge of the engine being ill that day and a thirteen- and a fifteen-year-old sent to take his place. ¹
• Employment across the four pits reached about 1,780 in 1910, the No. 3 pit alone accounting for 947. ²
• The colliery was ventilated by furnaces — one at the No. 2 pit giving 120,000 cubic feet a minute and two at the No. 4 giving 250,000 — until a Walker Brothers 'Indestructible' fan was installed in 1908. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Bamfurlong Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society, G. Hayes Collection (read via a 2023 Wayback Machine capture)
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Bamfurlong Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Mines Inspectors Reports and the Lists of Mines
3. (observational) Ince Moss (photographed 2016) — Geograph Britain and Ireland
4. (secondary) Cross, Tetley and Co — Grace's Guide to British Industrial History

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026