Garswood Park Colliery

Overview

David Bromilow and Company's colliery at Garswood, between St Helens and Ashton-in-Makerfield, where two explosions a year apart in 1866 and 1867 killed thirty men and boys, many of them from the same few streets of Parr.

History

Garswood Park Colliery, near Ashton-in-Makerfield on the St Helens side of the Lancashire coalfield, was owned in the 1860s by David Bromilow and Company. It worked several seams, including the St Sebastian, the Rushy Park and the Little Delf, whose coal was wound up the 400-yard upcast shaft; by 1867 four seams were being worked, the deepest the Little Delf, about three feet thick at 440 yards and extending 1,000 yards from the pit eye. Samuel Mather was underlooker and Thomas Molyneux underground manager.

On 4 May 1866, with between 120 and 180 people underground, an explosion in the Little Delf workings, believed to have been set off by a shot fired in Richard Swift's place, killed twelve outright; four more died of their injuries, bringing the toll to sixteen, among them Richard and Peter Swift. On 20 August 1867 the colliery exploded again. Powder was by then allowed only after the fireman had examined each place with a safety lamp, but about midday, minutes after the experienced fireman Joseph Topping was seen going to fire a shot for Henry Winstanley in the rise workings, firedamp was ignited by a blown-out shot and fourteen were killed (see Disasters, below). Seams were still being abandoned into the 20th century: plans record the Little Delf abandoned at Garswood Park and Stanley in 1881, the Four Feet in 1883 and the Sebastian in 1904.

Geology

The St Sebastian (Bastian), Rushy Park, Four Feet (Higher Ravenhead Delf) and Little Delf seams; the Little Delf was about three feet thick.

Workings

The Little Delf coal was wound up an upcast shaft about 400 yards deep; its workings ran 1,000 yards from the pit eye. In 1867 powder was used under a rule that no shot be fired until the fireman had examined the place with a safety lamp.

Closure

The closure date is not known; the national catalogue records seams abandoned in 1881, 1883 and 1904.

Disasters & major incidents

• Garswood Park Colliery explosion, 1866
  4 May 1866 · Explosion · 16 fatalities
  A shot fired in Richard Swift's working place in the Little Delf mine at David Bromilow's Garswood Park Colliery, Ashton-in-Makerfield, ignited firedamp on 4 May 1866. Between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and eighty people were underground; twelve were killed at once and four of those brought out alive died afterwards. Richard Swift himself, his brothers Peter and William, and John Swift are all on the roll of the dead; so are a boy of eleven and two of twelve.
• Garswood Park Colliery explosion, 1867
  20 August 1867 · Explosion · 14 fatalities
  Fifteen months after the first explosion, the Little Delf mine at Garswood Park blew again about noon on 20 August 1867, killing fourteen — everyone at work in the top level. Among them was Joseph Topping, the sixty-four-year-old fireman who had survived 1866 and who had been seen a few minutes before going to fire a shot for the collier Henry Winstanley. Peter Higson's own test in the workings afterwards showed the place foul within ten minutes of the brattice coming down.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1866 David Bromilow and Company owned the colliery, working the St Sebastian, Rushy Park and Little Delf seams, the Little Delf drawn up a 400-yard upcast shaft. ¹
• NMRS says twelve were killed on 4 May 1866 and four more died later, sixteen in all; DMM gives 16 lives lost. ^2,1
• On 20 August 1867 an explosion in the Little Delf, 440 yards deep, occurred about midday as fireman Joseph Topping went to fire a shot; DMM gives 14 lives lost, from firedamp ignited by a blown-out shot. ^2,3
• Plans record the Little Delf abandoned at Garswood Park and Stanley in 1881, the Four Feet in 1883 and the Bastian (Sebastian) seam in 1904. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Garswood Park Colliery Explosion – Ashton-in-Makerfield – 1866 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Garswood Park Colliery (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Garswood Park Colliery Explosion – Ashton-in-Makerfield – 1867 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Garswood Park (Bastian, 1904) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 17 September 2026