Cleworth Hall Colliery

Overview

The largest and longest lasting of the Tyldesley Coal Company’s pits, sunk in 1874 under the Cleworth Hall estate east of Yew Tree Colliery. Its two original shafts went to the Rams and the Black and White mines; the Crombouke was worked out by 1890, No. 2 shaft was deepened to the Trencherbone and a third shaft added in the early 1890s. It employed 304 men underground and 46 on the surface in 1896, selling gas, household and manufacturing coal, and was modernised before 1914 with steel headgear on the Arley shaft and a washery and coal preparation plant at the pit head.

History

Cleworth Hall was sunk in 1874 under the Cleworth Hall estate at Tyldesley, east of the company’s Yew Tree Colliery, and became the largest and longest lasting of the Tyldesley Coal Company’s collieries. The two original shafts were put down to the Rams and the Black and White mines. The Crombouke mine, at a depth of 71 yards, was worked until its coal was exhausted in 1890; No. 2 shaft was then deepened to the Trencherbone and a third shaft sunk in the early 1890s. Ventilation was originally by furnace at No. 2 shaft, the older arrangement that the deeper twentieth-century pits replaced with fans. In 1896 the colliery employed 304 men underground and 46 on the surface, raising gas, household and manufacturing coal from the Black and White, Six-Foot and Trencherbone mines. It was modernised before 1914: the shaft to the Arley mine was equipped with steel headgear, and a washery and coal preparation plant were built near the pit head — the kind of investment that separated the pits with a future from those without one.

Geology

Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire coalfield, laid down in the Carboniferous, with coal worked from the seams between the Worsley Four Foot and the Arley mines. The seams generally dip south and west and are cut by small faults; the Upper Coal Measures are not worked in this part of the field. In this part of Lancashire a seam is called a mine and the mine itself a colliery or pit — hence the Rams, Crombouke, Black and White, Six-Foot, Trencherbone and Arley mines all being worked from the one colliery.

Workings

Two shafts of 1874 to the Rams and the Black and White mines, with a third added in the early 1890s and No. 2 deepened to the Trencherbone once the Crombouke was exhausted. Ventilation was by furnace at No. 2 shaft in the early years. The Arley shaft was fitted with steel headgear before 1914 and a washery and coal preparation plant built beside the pit head.

Closure

No closure date has been established from the sources reached. The colliery is described as the longest lasting of the Tyldesley Coal Company’s pits, and was still being invested in shortly before the First World War.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery is identifiable. Cleworth Hall Farm and Cleworth Hall Lane survive at Tyldesley, carrying the name of the estate the pit was sunk under, and a footpath in the district follows an old colliery railway route.

None identified.

Nearby mines

• Combermere Colliery — 0.1 km NW
• Peelwood Colliery — 0.5 km NW
• Yew Tree Colliery — 0.7 km E, Lancashire
• Nook Colliery — 0.9 km W
• New Lester Colliery — 1.0 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.

• Cleworth Hall, the largest and longest lasting of the collieries owned by the Tyldesley Coal Company, was sunk under the Cleworth Hall estate east of Yew Tree Colliery in 1874, its two original shafts going to the Rams and the Black and White mines. ^1,2
• The Crombouke mine, at a depth of 71 yards, was worked until 1890 when its coal was exhausted; No. 2 shaft was then deepened to the Trencherbone mine and a third shaft sunk in the early 1890s. ²
• In 1896 Cleworth Hall employed 304 men underground and 46 surface workers, raising gas, household and manufacturing coal from the Black and White, Six-Foot and Trencherbone mines. ²
• The colliery was modernised before 1914, the shaft to the Arley mine being equipped with steel headgear and a washery and coal preparation plant built near the pit head; the pits had originally been ventilated by furnace at No. 2 shaft. ²
• The colliery exploited the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire coalfield, working seams between the Worsley Four Foot and Arley mines; the seams generally dip towards the south and west and are affected by small faults, and the Upper Coal Measures are not worked in this part of the coalfield. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) List of collieries in Lancashire since 1854 — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Cleworth Hall Colliery — Wikipedia

Record created: 6 September 2026 · Last researched: 6 September 2026