Blackbrook Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Blackbrook, St Helens, worked by the estate owner James Orrell in the 1790s and by the Bromilow family from the 1840s, raising 30,000 tons a year by 1860 from its Rushy Park mine and Chain Pit before closing about 1863.

History

Blackbrook Colliery stood at what is now the corner of Blackbrook Road, Chain Lane and Link Avenue, on the edge of St Helens. In the 1790s it was being worked by James Orrell, owner of the estate, who had been in coal mining for some years, and it had been at work a long time when the Inspectors of Mines first reported on it in 1850. By then it belonged to David Bromilow; in 1843 two men there were said to earn thirty-four shillings a fortnight. As Bromilow, Brother and Sothern's colliery it lost men steadily through the 1850s to roof falls, runaway wagons on its brows and inclines, and a broken hook on the downbrow in 1851 (see Disasters, below). Its coal was very dry. In October 1853 a sixteen-year-old was killed by falling materials while men were fighting a fire in the seam, and on 11 October 1856 an explosion and fire in the Rushy Park mine killed three men (see Disasters, below). In 1858 a hundred men were underground in the Rushy Park mine when a collier was caught taking the top off his lamp to light his pipe, and was fined twenty shillings. A second working, the Chain Pit, appears in the accident record from 1858. In 1860 the colliery, owned by Bromilow and Southern, raised 30,000 tons a year. It closed about 1863, although a man was reported killed at Bromilow's colliery in Blackbrook in 1866.

Geology

Coal Measures of the St Helens district of the South Lancashire Coalfield, including the Rushy Park mine (seam), dry and liable to fire.

Workings

Pits at Blackbrook working the Rushy Park mine, with the Chain Pit; brows and inclined planes carried the coal, with an endless chain and a jig brow at the Chain Pit.

Closure

Closed about 1863.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Blackbrook Colliery downbrow accident, 1851
  13 January 1851 · Haulage / Transport · 2 fatalities
  Two men were killed at Blackbrook Colliery, St Helens, on 13 January 1851 when a hook broke on the downbrow.
• Blackbrook Colliery explosion and fire, 1856
  11 October 1856 · Explosion · 3 fatalities
  Firedamp in the goaf of the Rushy Park mine at Blackbrook Colliery, St Helens, was fired by a collier working with a naked light in October 1856; the dry coal caught fire and three men were suffocated by the smoke.

Recorded claims

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

• In the 1790s the colliery was being worked by James Orrell, the owner of the estate. ¹
• When the Inspectors of Mines first reported in 1850 the colliery was owned by David Bromilow. ¹
• On 11 October 1856 an explosion of firedamp in the Rushy Park mine set the coal on fire and three men were killed; the owners were Bromilow, Brother and Sothern. ^2,3
• In 1860 the colliery, owned by Bromilow and Southern, was raising 30,000 tons of coal a year. ¹
• The colliery closed about 1863. ¹
• In March 1858 a collier was fined twenty shillings for taking the top off his lamp to smoke in the Rushy Park mine, where a hundred men were at work. ³

Sources

1. (secondary) Blackbrook Colliery 1790-1863 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) 1850s B: Ian Winstanley's alphabetical list of mining victims — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's list of mining victims)
3. (secondary) Blackbrook Colliery Accidents — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Mining deaths 1850-1859, surnames D (Ian Winstanley) — Healey Hero (Ian Winstanley's mining deaths lists)

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026