Blackleyhurst Colliery

Overview

Samuel Stock's colliery at Blackley Hurst, between Billinge and Ashton-in-Makerfield, worked from the 1850s through a group of numbered pits in the Little Delf, Rushy Park and other seams. Six were killed in a cage collision in 1864, and two boiler explosions struck within a fortnight in 1865. It closed in December 1935.

History

Blackleyhurst Colliery lay between Billinge and Ashton-in-Makerfield, about four and a half miles south-west of Wigan. The museum dates its opening to 1855, though deaths there are recorded from December 1852, and its owner through the nineteenth century was Samuel Stock. Plans of the Blackley Hurst pits, Nos. 1 to 23 with the Ash Grove and Wood pits, cover the Six Feet, Nine Feet, Sir John, Rushy Park and Little Delf seams, and the names of the Senela Green pit and the Little Delph No. 2 pit appear in accident records.

It was a dangerous place. Four died in an explosion of firedamp in August 1855, and on 1 July 1864 six men and boys were killed when the cages collided in the shaft (see Disasters, below). In the spring of 1865 one of three long boilers burst, injuring six and bringing down the chimney, and on 24 April a second burst and killed the 19-year-old engineer, Richard Mather, who was thought to have let it run short of water while he watched the new chimney going up. With the winding engine wrecked and fifty or sixty men and boys underground, they were drawn up the shaft by a locomotive on the colliery railway. Eleven days later three men were killed when an arch near the pit eye fell as they rebuilt it.

By the 1930s the Blackley Hurst Colliery Company worked a much smaller pit, employing 37 people in 1933, 25 of them underground. It closed in December 1935.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures. The pits worked the Six Feet (Wigan Four Feet), Nine Feet (Wigan Six Feet), Sir John, Rushy Park, King and Little Delf (Arley) seams.

Workings

A group of numbered pits, Nos. 1 to 23 with the Ash Grove and Wood pits, and the Senela Green and Little Delph No. 2 pits. In 1865 one large winding engine and two smaller engines for pumping were fed by three long boilers about 30 feet by 5.

Closure

Closed in December 1935.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Blackleyhurst Colliery cage accident, 1864
  1 July 1864 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 6 fatalities
  Six men and boys, four of them drawers aged twelve to fifteen, died at Samuel Stock's Blackleyhurst Colliery on 1 July 1864 when the cages collided in the shaft after one had slipped out of its guide rods.

What's uncertain

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

• The colliery opened in 1855. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery opened in 1855. (disputed) ¹
• Deaths at the colliery are recorded from December 1852. ¹
• The colliery was owned by Samuel Stock. ^1,2
• In 1865 a boiler explosion injured six and blew down the chimney, and about a fortnight later another killed the engineer, Richard Mather, aged 19. ^1,2
• With the winding engine out of use after the 1865 explosion, the 50 to 60 men and boys underground were drawn up by a locomotive running on the railway. ²
• Plans of Blackley Hurst Nos. 1 to 23 pits cover the Six Feet, Nine Feet, Sir John, Rushy Park and Little Delf seams. ³
• In 1933 the Blackley Hurst Colliery Co. employed 37 people, 25 below ground and 12 on the surface. ¹
• The colliery closed in December 1935. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Blackleyhurst Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Boiler explosion, Blackleyhurst Colliery, Billinge, 1865 (Liverpool Mercury, 29 April 1865) — Old Mersey Times
3. (primary) BLACKLEY HURST NOS. 1-23, ASH GROVE, WOOD: Six Feet, Nine Feet, Sir John, Rushy Park, Little Delf: mine plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (primary) BLACKLEY HURST, Little Delf (Arley): mine plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026