Broomstair Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Haughton, Denton, on Hyde Road near Broomstair Bridge over the Tame, offered for sale as early as 1809. It was flooded and reported abandoned in 1889, but the Dukinfield Coal and Cannel Company recovered it and employed more than 360 men there before closing it in 1898.

History

Broomstair Colliery lay on the south side of Hyde Road in Haughton, now part of Denton, close to Broomstair Bridge over the River Tame. In January 1809 Clarke's Broom Stair Colliery was offered for sale, working the Great and Roger mines, six feet and three and a half feet thick. A pit is shown on the 1848 Ordnance Survey map, but the name enters the List of Mines only in the late 1850s. From 1859 to about 1878 it was worked by Silas Leigh and John Bradbury, who also ran Clayton Colliery in Manchester, and then by the Hyde and Haughton Coal Company of the brothers Joseph Watson Sidebotham, later an MP, and James Nasmyth Sidebotham, who also worked the nearby Hyde Colliery. Its office was Broomstair House, where the manager, Joseph Goodwin, lived from 1881 to 1896.

On 1 January 1889 the horse-keeper, James Richardson, and his two sons went down the shaft and found nine feet of water at the bottom; they signalled and were wound up safely. Water broke in again soon afterwards and the pit was reported abandoned. Some of its men went to Hyde Colliery, and one, Thomas Shaw, died in the explosion there seventeen days later. Broomstair did not close for good: about 1890 it passed to the Dukinfield Coal and Cannel Company, floated that year, which recovered it. In 1896 it employed 298 men underground and 65 at the surface on the Great and Roger mines, under Richard Clay. During the 1893 strikes townsfolk scavenged for coal on its spoil heaps. The Dukinfield (New) Coal and Cannel Company abandoned it in the second half of 1898; the site of Broomstair House is now a supermarket.

Geology

The Great (Ashton) mine, about 6 feet thick, and the Roger mine, about 3.5 feet, with the Jet and Amber on the abandonment plan.

Workings

A shaft by Hyde Road with a coal staithe beside the road and an office at Broomstair House; flooded in 1889 and pumped out by the Dukinfield company.

Closure

Flooded and reported abandoned in January 1889 but recovered; finally abandoned by the Dukinfield (New) Coal and Cannel Company between June and the end of 1898.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

The site of Broomstair House, the colliery office, is occupied by a supermarket.

Related mines

• Hyde Colliery — Both worked by the Sidebotham brothers' Hyde and Haughton company; men from flooded Broomstair moved to Hyde in 1889.

Recorded claims

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

• Clarke's Broom Stair Colliery was offered for sale in January 1809. ^1,2
• Silas Leigh and John Bradbury worked it from 1859. ^1,2
• On 1 January 1889 the horse-keeper and his two sons found nine feet of water at the shaft bottom and were wound up safely; water broke in again soon after. ^1,2
• The Dukinfield Coal and Cannel Company recovered the colliery after the flood. ^1,3
• In 1896 it employed 298 men underground and 65 at the surface. ^1,2
• It was abandoned in 1898. ^1,3,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Broomstair Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Denton and Haughton mines (pittdixon.co.uk) — pittdixon.co.uk
3. (secondary) Broomstair, Haughton, Denton (pittdixon.co.uk) — pittdixon.co.uk
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: BROOMSTAIR (Jet, Amber, Great (Ashton) and Roger, abandoned 1898) — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) Broomstair House, Haughton (pittdixon.co.uk) — pittdixon.co.uk

Record created: 11 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026