Deane Colliery

Also known as	Victoria Colliery, Three Pigeons Pit
Location	Wigan Road, Deane, west of Bolton town centre, Greater Manchester
Commodity	Coal
Type	Coal
Worked	1868–October 1960
Maximum depth	75 yards (Arley seam)

Overview

A small Bolton pit on Wigan Road at Deane, also called Victoria Colliery or the Three Pigeons Pit after a nearby pub. Sunk in 1868 to the Arley seam, it employed about 65 men for many years and closed in October 1960, when 134 lost their jobs; a garden centre now covers the site.

History

Deane Colliery stood on Wigan Road, west of Bolton town centre, in the Deane and Rumworth district. It was also known as Victoria Colliery, the name under which it appears on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map, and as the Three Pigeons Pit, after a public house nearby.

The pit was sunk in 1868, 75 yards to the Arley seam, which was 4 feet 2 inches thick there. Its manpower averaged about 65 for many years. Its old wooden headgear was replaced with a rolled steel girder frame in the early 1920s, and the colliery headgear stands in the background of a photograph of a Bolton Corporation tram stuck in the snow on Wigan Road in January 1940, a scene the Bolton artist Ernie Holden also painted.

The colliery closed in October 1960 with the loss of 134 jobs; its Arley workings were abandoned in 1961. The site later became a garden centre, with a café built on a mining theme.

Geology

The Arley seam, 4 feet 2 inches thick, at 75 yards.

Workings

A shaft of 75 yards to the Arley seam, wound first by a wooden headgear and from the early 1920s by a rolled steel girder headgear.

Closure

Closed in October 1960, when 134 men lost their jobs; the Arley workings were abandoned in 1961.

What remains

The site is a garden centre with a mining-themed café; no colliery structures are recorded as surviving.

Redevelopment

A garden centre.

Recorded claims

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

Deane Colliery was also known as Victoria Colliery and the Three Pigeons Pit, after a nearby pub. ^1,2,3
It was sunk in 1868, 75 yards to the Arley seam. ^1,4
It closed in October 1960 with the loss of 134 jobs. ¹
The site on Wigan Road is now a garden centre. ^1,2
Victoria Colliery is shown on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map of Rumworth and Daubhill. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Pitheadgear: Deane Colliery in the 1920s (photographs)

A photograph of the old wooden headgear, with a short history of the pit.

View source

Bolton Revisited: Ernie Holden's pit paintings (reference)

Paintings of Bolton pits, including Victoria Colliery (Three Pigeons) with a snowbound tram in 1940.

View source

Sources

(secondary) Pitheadgear (Flickr): Deane Colliery, Bolton, also known as Victoria Colliery or Three Pigeons Pit, 1920s — Flickr (Pitheadgear)
(secondary) Virtual Globetrotting: Last Colliery in Bolton — Virtual Globetrotting
(secondary) Bolton Revisited: Ernie Holden's pit paintings — Bolton Revisited
(primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Deane (Victoria), Arley seam, abandoned 1961 — British Geological Survey
(secondary) Alan Godfrey Maps: Lancashire sheet 94.04, Bolton (Rumworth and Daubhill) 1907 — Alan Godfrey Maps

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 11 October 2026