Bardsley Colliery

Overview

Jonah Harrop's colliery at Bardsley, between Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne: two pits, Victoria and Diamond, working two thin and fiery seams at up to 470 yards. An explosion in the Diamond Pit killed fifty-three on 2 February 1858.

History

Bardsley Colliery stood on the west side of the Oldham to Ashton road at Bardsley, south of Holy Trinity Church, between Knott Lane and the turnpike. It belonged to Jonah Harrop of Bardsley House, owner of the Bardsley estate, who traded as the Bardsley Colliery Company and also worked Copperas House Colliery to the north and a second, smaller Bardsley concern, the Bardsley Coal and Cannel Company, at the Bridge Chain Pit and the Old Cannel Pit by the Medlock. Harrop helped to pay for Holy Trinity, consecrated in 1844, and was made a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire in 1852.

The colliery had two pits a hundred yards apart on a north-south line, Victoria to the north and Diamond to the south, less than seventy yards from the road. Diamond Pit was 453 yards deep to the Two-Foot mine and 470 to the Peacock, the Upper and Lower Bent, seven yards apart and neither much over two feet thick. The workings covered some 720 yards by 540, mostly west of the road, and were known as very fiery. Besides the local cart trade the pit's waggons went down a jig-brow to a canal wharf at Valley Dale, where there was a dry dock for building and repairing the boats.

On 2 February 1858 firedamp, lit by a shot, exploded in the Diamond Pit and ran through both pits, killing fifty-three. The inspector blamed the cost of getting such thin seams at such a depth, which had led the managers to open more working places than there was air to ventilate. A monument to the dead was put up in the Primitive Methodist chapel in Keb Lane, where the mining families worshipped, and the disaster moved Samuel Oldham to give £10,000 to found Ashton Infirmary in 1861.

George Wild, a collier since childhood, became manager in 1863 at the age of 36. The colliery was still returned at work in 1880.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Oldham coalfield. The Two-Foot and Peacock mines, also called the Upper and Lower Bent, lay seven yards apart at 453 and 470 yards, the upper 18 to 27 inches thick and the lower about 28 inches; both gave off firedamp freely.

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

Workings

Two shafts, Victoria Pit and Diamond Pit, 100 yards apart on a north-south line. Workings about 720 yards north to south by 540 east to west, mostly west of the Oldham road. Coal went by pit waggon down a jig-brow to a wharf and dry dock on the canal at Valley Dale.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Bardsley Colliery explosion, 1858
  2 February 1858 · Explosion · 53 fatalities
  On 2 February 1858 firedamp exploded through both working seams of the Victoria and Diamond pits at the Bardsley Colliery Company's colliery near Ashton-under-Lyne, killing 53. The inspector, Joseph Dickinson, had warned in writing of the exact faults that caused it, and there was no viewer.

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was worked by Jonah Harrop of Bardsley House, proprietor of the Bardsley Colliery Co. ^1,2,3
• The colliery had two pits, Victoria to the north and Diamond to the south, 100 yards apart on the west side of the Oldham road. ^2,3
• Diamond Pit was 453 yards deep to the Two-Foot mine and 470 yards to the Peacock. ^1,2
• The pits sent coal down a jig-brow to a canal wharf at Valley Dale, where there was a dry dock. ²
• An explosion of firedamp in the Diamond Pit on 2 February 1858, lit by a shot, killed fifty-three. ^1,3
• A monument to the dead stood in the Primitive Methodist chapel in Keb Lane, and the disaster prompted Samuel Oldham's gift of £10,000 to found Ashton Infirmary in 1861. ³
• George Wild became manager of Bardsley Colliery in 1863, aged 36. ²
• Bardsley Colliery was returned at work in the 1880 list of mines. ⁴
• Plans titled Woodpark, Bardsley (Deep or Diamond, Old Victoria), Bridge and Dock record the Black mine as abandoned in 1864. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Bardsley Colliery Explosion - Ashton-under-Lyne - 1858 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Locating Oldham Coalpits (G. Fanning, British Mining No. 73, 2003) — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Diamond Pit Disaster, Bardsley Colliery Co — pittdixon.go-plus.net
4. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
5. (primary) Mine plan: WOODPARK BARDSLEY (DEEP OR DIAMOND, OLD VICTORIA), BRIDGE, DOCK, Black seam, abandoned 1864 (feature 21870680) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026