Bent Grange Colliery

Overview

A small colliery in the centre of Oldham, called Marlfield in 1841 and worked by Thomas Butterworth, where explosions in the Royley mine killed at least sixteen in October 1850 and twenty in July 1853. It was abandoned in the 1860s.

History

Bent Grange Colliery stood in the middle of Oldham, about where the Grange Arts Centre now is, with another pit close by towards Rochdale Road. In 1841 it was called Marlfield, owned by John and Ashton Clegg and worked by Thomas and Robert Butterworth; by 1845 it was listed as Bent Grange, still the Cleggs' and worked by Thomas Butterworth alone, getting the Neddy mine at 84 yards. It was a small concern, rated at less than £70 a year, one of five collieries left in the town centre by 1850.

It made its name by two explosions. On 9 October 1850, with about twenty-five colliers at work in the Royley mine below a single bratticed shaft, a fall of roof broke the gauze of a Davy lamp; sixteen, seventeen or nineteen died, by different accounts, and ten were hurt. A second shaft was sunk and finished by February 1851, to be the downcast, the old shaft becoming the upcast with steam jets 35 feet down fed from boilers at the surface. The inspector nonetheless told Butterworth that the ventilation was defective, and on 1 July 1853 gas fired in the west level, 300 yards from the shaft, where labourers had been widening the road overnight. Twenty men and boys died, thirteen suffocated and seven burnt. One man was said to have taken the top off his lamp and stood it on a waggon; the men smoked below as they pleased.

The Royley workings are recorded as abandoned in 1860, and the colliery had gone by 1869.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Oldham coalfield. The colliery worked the Neddy mine at 84 yards in 1845 and the Royley mine, known elsewhere in Lancashire as the Arley, in which both explosions happened.

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

Workings

One bratticed shaft until 1851, when a second was finished as the downcast and the old shaft made the upcast, ventilated by steam jets 35 feet below the surface. A west level ran at least 300 yards from the shaft in 1853.

Closure

The Royley (Arley) workings are recorded as abandoned in 1860, and the colliery was gone by 1869.

What remains

The site is occupied by the Grange Arts Centre in Oldham.

Disasters & major incidents

• Bent Grange Colliery explosion, 1850
  October 1850 · Explosion · 16 fatalities
  In October 1850 a fall of roof broke the gauze of a Davy lamp in the Riley Mine at Mr Butterworth's Bent Grange Colliery, Oldham, and the gas exploded, killing sixteen of about twenty-five colliers at work. The colliery had a single bratticed shaft.
• Bent Grange Colliery explosion, 1853
  1 July 1853 · Explosion · 20 fatalities
  On 1 July 1853 firedamp exploded in the west level of Thomas Butterworth's Bent Grange Colliery, Oldham, killing twenty men and boys, thirteen suffocated and seven burnt. The inspector had already told the owner the ventilation was defective, and it was the pit's second disaster in three years.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Nineteen lost their lives in the explosion of 9 October 1850. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• In 1841 the colliery was called Marlfield, owned by John and Ashton Clegg and worked by Thomas and Robert Butterworth. ¹
• In 1845 Bent Grange was worked by Thomas Butterworth alone, in the Neddy mine at 84 yards, with a rateable value under £70. ¹
• An explosion in the Royley mine on 9 October 1850, after a fall of roof broke the gauze of a Davy lamp, killed sixteen. ²
• Nineteen lost their lives in the explosion of 9 October 1850. (disputed) ³
• A second shaft was completed by February 1851 as the downcast, the old shaft becoming the upcast with steam jets. ³
• An explosion on 1 July 1853 killed twenty men and boys, thirteen by suffocation and seven by burning. ³
• The Royley (Arley) seam at Bent Grange was abandoned in 1860. ⁴
• Bent Grange had been abandoned by 1869. ¹
• The colliery stood approximately on the site of the Grange Arts Centre, Oldham. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Locating Oldham Coalpits (G. Fanning, British Mining No. 73, 2003) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Bent Grange Colliery Explosion - Oldham - 1850 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Bent Grange Colliery Explosion - Oldham - 1853 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Mine plan: BENT GRANGE (BENT HALL), Royley (Arley) seam, abandoned 1860 (feature 21870327) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue

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