Gibfield Colliery

Overview

A Fletcher, Burrows and Company colliery at Atherton, sunk in 1829 by John Fletcher himself, where the country's first purpose-built colliery pithead baths were erected in 1913 — the building still stands today, now a car repair garage.

History

Gibfield Colliery's first shaft was sunk in 1829 by John Fletcher, next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway line that opened the following year, reaching the Trencherbone seam — known locally as the Five Foot mine — some 300 feet down. In 1872 the colliery was expanded with a new shaft reaching the Arley seam at 1,233 feet. Fletcher, Burrows and Company had already trialled an adapted bathing building at their nearby Howe Bridge Colliery, and in 1913 built on that experience to erect Britain's first purpose-built colliery pithead baths at Gibfield — a genuine national first in mining welfare provision. The colliery closed in 1963 and the site was largely cleared, but the 1913 baths building survives, now used as a car repair and maintenance garage.

Geology

Coal of the Lancashire field: the Trencherbone (Five Foot) seam at around 300 feet from the 1829 shaft, and the Arley seam at 1,233 feet from 1872.

Workings

Two shafts: the original 1829 shaft to the Trencherbone (Five Foot) seam at around 300 feet, and a second sunk in 1872 to the Arley seam at 1,233 feet.

Closure

Closed in 1963, with the site largely cleared afterward.

What remains

The 1913 pithead baths building — Britain's first purpose-built colliery baths — survives on the site, now used as a car repair and maintenance garage.

Related mines

• Chanters Colliery — Both sunk and worked by John Fletcher's firm, later Fletcher, Burrows and Co., until 1929.
• Lovers Lane Colliery — Both Fletcher pits at Atherton; in 1872 one of Lovers Lane's two shafts was at Gibfield, and their plans are filed together.

Disasters & major incidents

• Gibfield Colliery explosion, 1850
  1850 · Explosion · 5 fatalities
  On 11 February 1850 colliers at Fletcher's Gib Field Pit, Atherton, found gas in one of the bays and tried to sweep it out with their jackets. It fired at a candle that had been left burning, killing five and burning others.

Culture

• Atherton Collieries A.F.C. (Sports)
  One of the Atherton pits working when miners from the town's six pits founded the club in 1916 (inferred: the sources do not name the six).

Recorded claims

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

• John Fletcher sank Gibfield's first shaft in 1829, next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway (opened 1830), reaching the Trencherbone (Five Foot) seam some 300 feet down; a second shaft to the Arley seam at 1,233 feet followed in 1872. ¹
• Fletcher, Burrows and Company built Britain's first purpose-built colliery pithead baths at Gibfield in 1913, following an earlier trial of an adapted building at their Howe Bridge Colliery. ¹
• The colliery closed in 1963; the 1913 baths building survives on the site today, now used as a car repair and maintenance garage. ²
• Located at about 53.529 N, 2.505 W. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Gibfield Colliery — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project — Atherton Pits — Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project

Record created: 2 September 2026 · Last researched: 2 September 2026