Blaguegate Colliery

Overview

A Skelmersdale colliery of the Lords Skelmersdale, later Earls of Lathom, worked from about 1850 and taken over by John Griffiths & Son about 1923. It employed 667 in 1931, closed in February 1933 and was abandoned in November 1934.

History

Blaguegate Colliery lay about three-quarters of a mile north-east of Skelmersdale station, which was itself called Blague Gate until 1874. The colliery is already shown on the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1845-46, just west of the Skelmersdale boundary. Lord Skelmersdale, later the Earl of Lathom, worked it from about 1850 to about 1923, and John Griffiths & Son Ltd then took it over. It had two shafts with horizontal winding engines and wooden headgears. A furnace ventilated it until 1900, when Walker Brothers supplied the Earl with an Indestructible fan driven by a pair of horizontal engines.

In 1894 the Park pit employed 221 and the White Moss pit 140. By 1915 the Arley and Day Eye pits employed 298 between them, working the Arley and Rushy Park for household and steam coal. By 1931 the seams were the King Park, Rushy Park, Yard and Earthy, worked by steam and compressed air, with 550 underground and 117 on the surface. Employment had fallen to 153 by 1933. The colliery closed in February 1933 and was abandoned in November 1934. Its site later became a brickworks, beside an old spoil heap.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures: the Park, Rushy Park, King Park, Arley, Yard and Earthy seams.

Workings

Two shafts with horizontal winding engines and wooden headgears; furnace ventilation until a Walker Indestructible fan of 1900; steam and compressed-air power by 1931. Pits named in the returns include Park, White Moss, Arley and Day Eye.

Closure

Closed in February 1933 and abandoned in November 1934.

What remains

The colliery site is occupied by a brickworks behind the Stanley Industrial Estate, with the colliery's old spoil heap beside it.

The spoil heap beside the brickworks.

Redevelopment

The site became Lathom brickworks.

Recorded claims

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

• Worked by Lord Skelmersdale/the Earl of Lathom from about 1850 to about 1923, then by John Griffiths & Son Ltd. ^1,2
• The colliery appears on the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1845-46. ³
• In 1931 it worked the King Park, Rushy Park, Yard and Earthy with 550 underground and 117 on the surface. ¹
• Closed in February 1933 and abandoned in November 1934. ¹
• The site is now a brickworks, with the colliery's spoil heap beside it. ³
• Its Rushy Park workings, planned as Blaguegate (Lathom Park), are dated 1930. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Blaguegate Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Blaguegate Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Coal Mines in Skelmersdale — Skelmersdale Heritage
4. (primary) Mine plan: Blaguegate (Lathom Park), Rushy Park — British Geological Survey

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026