Gin Pit Colliery

Overview

A single-shaft colliery near Astley whose name recalls an even older, horse-powered winding gear on the same site — the small mining settlement it gave rise to still stands, and is now home to a memorial pit wheel salvaged from a Nottinghamshire colliery.

History

Gin Pit Colliery took its name from the horse-driven winding gear, a 'gin', that had worked an older colliery on the same site; its own early history is poorly documented, but significant investment during the 1860s made it one of the most productive pits in the Atherton and Tyldesley district. The colliery, completed around 1872, comprised a single shaft sunk to the Six Foot, or Rams, mine at 375 yards, linked for upcast ventilation to St George's Colliery around half a mile to the north. In the twentieth century the Astley & Tyldesley Collieries Company added an important complex of workshops to the site, providing repair and engineering facilities for several of its collieries. Sources give slightly different closure dates, either 1955 or 1958; afterward the buildings were taken over by William Hare and used as a foundry and steel-fabrication plant. The small settlement of Gin Pit Village, built to house the colliery's workers, remains inhabited today, and its miners' welfare club is still open; in 2013 a pit wheel salvaged from Clipstone Colliery in Nottinghamshire was installed on the village green as a memorial to the area's mining heritage generally, rather than as a relic of Gin Pit's own original winding gear.

Workings

A single shaft sunk to the Six Foot (Rams) mine at 375 yards, linked for upcast ventilation to St George's Colliery around half a mile to the north.

Closure

Closed in either 1955 or 1958, sources disagree; the buildings were subsequently used by William Hare as a foundry and steel-fabrication plant.

What remains

Gin Pit Village, the small settlement built to house the colliery's workers, remains inhabited, and its miners' welfare club is still open; a pit wheel from Clipstone Colliery, Nottinghamshire, was installed on the village green in 2013 as a general mining-heritage memorial.

Recorded claims

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

• Gin Pit took its name from the horse-driven winding gear ('gin') of an older colliery on the same site; the colliery itself was completed around 1872 with a single shaft to the Six Foot (Rams) mine at 375 yards. ¹
• Sources disagree on the closure date, giving either 1955 or 1958; the buildings were subsequently used by William Hare as a foundry and steel-fabrication plant. (disputed) ¹
• Gin Pit Village, built to house the colliery's workers, remains inhabited with its miners' welfare club still open; a pit wheel salvaged from Clipstone Colliery, Nottinghamshire, was installed on the village green in 2013 as a general mining-heritage memorial. ²

Photographs & further reading

Images

Sources

1. (secondary) Gin Pit Colliery — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Gin Pit: The Archaeology of an Historic Coal-Mining Settlement — ResearchGate

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