Boyles Hall Colliery

Overview

A North Staffordshire colliery worked from a farm tenancy at the end of the eighteenth century, later the landowner's and then Robert Rigby's, whose disused workings gave the survivors of the Diglake inundation of 1895 their way out.

History

Boyles Hall Colliery was probably first sunk near the farm of that name at Bignall End, where dirt tips and engine pools were shown and the pit was drained by a gutter to Townfields. At the close of the eighteenth century Boyles Hall Farm was tenanted by Samuel Burgess, who worked the colliery as well as the land, and by about 1814 he was in partnership with Thomas Madew. The slump at the end of the French wars bankrupted them both, and in 1816 the colliery was taken over by the landowner, Thomas Fletcher Boughey, who put in a manager, Robert Rigby. Rigby drove a new gutter and sank new pits a little to the north-west. Sir Thomas Fletcher Boughey died in 1823 and some time afterwards Rigby leased the colliery himself, working it until about 1850. Rigby's pits were Boyles Hall No. 1, beside the North Staffordshire Railway line, and No. 2, the Derby shaft, with its chimney on the rise towards Boon Hill. The family still held the colliery in 1896, when William Rigby and Company had it standing; later that year it was reopened and connected with the Rigbys' own Diglake Colliery. That connection mattered: when the Diglake was inundated, men who got out did so through a shaft that cut into the disused Boyles Hall workings.

Geology

The North Staffordshire Coal Measures of the Audley district, the same seams worked at the neighbouring Diglake and Bignall Hill collieries.

Workings

Boyles Hall No. 1 stood beside the railway line on the corner of the dirt ruck, with the screens by the railway; No. 2, the Derby shaft, lay on the rise towards Boon Hill with a chimney. A third shaft is said locally to have been covered with an iron plate in the railway cutting. Earlier pits of about 1816 lay a few hundred metres to the north-west of the first workings, drained by a gutter Robert Rigby drove.

Closure

The colliery was standing in 1896 in the hands of William Rigby and Company, and was reopened later that year with a connection into the Rigbys' Diglake Colliery.

What remains

Dirt tips and engine pools were the marks of the earliest workings near the farm.

Related mines

• Diglake Colliery — Connected underground with Boyles Hall in 1896; the disused Boyles Hall workings were the escape route from the Diglake inundation.
• Rookery Colliery — Another Bignall Hill pit whose flooded workings and Diglake's fate are part of the same story.

Nearby mines

• Diglake Colliery — 0.9 km E
• Rookery Colliery — 1.5 km NE
• Jamage Colliery — 2.0 km E
• Minnie Pit — 2.2 km SW
• Apedale Colliery — 3.7 km SE

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• At the close of the eighteenth century Boyles Hall Farm was tenanted by Samuel Burgess, who also worked the colliery, and by about 1814 he was in partnership with Thomas Madew. ¹
• The slump at the end of the war bankrupted the partners, and in 1816 the landowner Thomas Fletcher Boughey took the colliery over and appointed Robert Rigby as manager. ¹
• Boughey died in 1823 and Robert Rigby afterwards leased the colliery, working it until about 1850. ¹
• Rigby's pits were Boyles Hall No. 1, beside the North Staffordshire Railway line, and No. 2, the Derby shaft, on the rise towards Boon Hill. ¹
• William Rigby and Company held the colliery standing in 1896, and later that year it was reopened and connected with the Rigbys' Diglake Colliery. ¹
• Men who survived the Diglake inundation escaped through a shaft that cut into the disused Boyles Hall Colliery. ^2,1

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Mould's Pits: Collieries of the North Staffordshire Coalfield (B) — North Staffordshire Miners' Group / Apedale Heritage Centre
2. (secondary) Diglake Colliery Disaster — Wikipedia

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026