Chamber Colliery

Overview

The Oldham colliery that gave its name to one of the coalfield's largest firms. Four pits were at work under Chamber Hall by 1845; the estate refused to renew the lease in 1884 after disputes over coal left unworked, and the last two shafts on Chamber Road survived until 1928.

History

Chamber Colliery stood on Chamber Road in Werneth, Oldham, and its story is really the story of a lease. In January 1834 Messrs Hopwood, Starkey and Heron granted a fifty-year lease of the coal under the Chamber Hall and Yew Tree estates, running from 1 December 1834, to a partnership of nine men - Joseph Jones, William Jones, John Lees, Edward Brown, John Worthington, Roger Marsland, Joseph Marsland, John Ogden and William Booth. They traded as the Chamber Colliery Company and worked Chamber Lane Colliery and the nearby Chamber Dam Colliery. The firm's roots ran back further, to about 1750, when James Lees first sank pit shafts in the Oldham coalfield. Its history is tangled: by 1848 it traded as William Jones & Co and Joseph Jones Jr & Co, both partnerships being dissolved on 1 June that year; William Jones & Co was itself dissolved in January 1857 and Jones died later the same year, leaving John, James and Joseph Lees as sole partners under the style John Lees & Brothers. The records are hard to follow because there were two William Joneses and two Joseph Joneses. In 1877 the family reformed the business as the Chamber Colliery Company Limited, with its registered office at Hollinwood. A valuation list of 1845 shows four shafts at work: No. 1 in the Coney Mine, No. 2 in the Black Mine, a seam 1.1 metres thick, and Nos. 3 and 4 in the Little Mine. Later the Lower Bent Mine was worked at 175 metres and the Royley Mine at 384 metres, with the Twos Mine a little above the Royley. The lease ended badly. In 1884 the estate refused to renew it, a consequence of a series of disputes about areas of coal being left unworked and of other bad management. Chamber colliery was then worked by Hopwood, Heron and others from 1885 until 1909, and that concern restructured itself as Hopwood Colliery Ltd in 1910. The company that took its name from the pit went on without it, holding seven pits across Chadderton, Oldham and Middleton - Stockeld, Denton Lane, Oak at Hollinwood, Wood Park, Fairbottom and Glodwick among them. Chamber Nos. 3 and 4, on Chamber Road opposite Werneth Cricket Club, survived until 1928, and the company itself was dissolved in 1951, four years after nationalisation.

Geology

Worked the coal seams of the Oldham coalfield, locally called mines: the Coney, the Black at 1.1 metres thick, the Little, the Lower Bent at 175 metres, the Royley at 384 metres and the Twos a little above the Royley.

Workings

Four shafts were at work by 1845, one each in the Coney and Black Mines and two in the Little Mine, the colliery later going deeper to the Lower Bent at 175 metres and the Royley at 384 metres. Chamber Lane Colliery and the nearby Chamber Dam Colliery were worked together under the same lease.

Closure

The Chamber Hall estate refused to renew the fifty-year lease in 1884 after disputes about coal being left unworked and other bad management. The colliery was worked by Hopwood, Heron and others from 1885 to 1909 and then by Hopwood Colliery Ltd; Nos. 3 and 4 shafts on Chamber Road survived until 1928.

What remains

Built over. The colliery ground on Chamber Road in Werneth is now part of suburban Oldham.

Related mines

• Fairbottom Colliery — Both were pits of the Chamber Colliery Company, which held seven collieries across Chadderton, Oldham and Middleton.
• Oak Colliery, Hollinwood — Both were worked by the Chamber Colliery Company; Oak at Hollinwood outlasted the Chamber Road pit by nearly thirty years and both were cut by the Chamber fault.

Nearby mines

• Oak Colliery, Hollinwood — 1.7 km SW
• Fairbottom Colliery — 3.0 km SE
• Bradford Colliery — 7.4 km SW
• Hyde Colliery — 9.6 km S
• Pendleton Colliery — 11.1 km SW

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.

• In January 1834 Messrs Hopwood, Starkey and Heron granted a fifty-year lease of the coal under the Chamber Hall and Yew Tree estates, from 1 December 1834, to a partnership of nine men trading as the Chamber Colliery Company, which worked Chamber Lane Colliery and the nearby Chamber Dam Colliery. ¹
• A valuation list of 1845 shows four shafts at work: No. 1 in the Coney Mine, No. 2 in the Black Mine at 1.1 metres thick, and Nos. 3 and 4 in the Little Mine. The Lower Bent Mine was later worked at 175 metres and the Royley Mine at 384 metres, with the Twos Mine a little above. ¹
• The estate refused to renew the lease in 1884, a consequence of a series of disputes about areas of coal being left unworked and other bad management. Chamber colliery was afterwards worked by Hopwood, Heron and others from 1885 until 1909, the concern restructuring itself as Hopwood Colliery Ltd in 1910. ¹
• The Chamber Colliery Company's origins go back to about 1750, when James Lees first sank pit shafts in the Oldham coalfield. After a series of dissolutions the Lees family were left as sole partners, trading as John Lees & Brothers, and in 1877 they reformed the business as the Chamber Colliery Company Limited with its registered office at Hollinwood. ²
• Chamber Nos. 3 and 4, on Chamber Road opposite Werneth Cricket Club, survived until 1928. The company was dissolved in 1951, following nationalisation. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Chamber Colliery (1784-1928) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Chamber Colliery Company — Pitt Dixon, Ashton-under-Lyne and district
3. (secondary) Oldham Coalfield — Wikipedia
4. (primary) Chamber Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 21 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026