Great Haigh Sough

Overview

A drainage tunnel driven under Sir Roger Bradshaigh's Haigh estate between 1653 and 1670 to unwater his coal and cannel pits — 1,120 yards of it, cut with picks and wedges and no explosives, at an average of sixty-six yards a year. Seven of its ten ventilation shafts were worked as small collieries in their own right, and its portal still discharges into the Yellow Brook.

History

Cannel coal had been dug from bell pits on the Bradshaigh estate since the 14th century, where the seam lay very close to the surface. The pits produced both coal and cannel — a hard, lustrous coal that could be carved into medallions, bowls and even portrait busts — but their shallow workings flooded, and winding the water out by the means then available was slower and dearer than driving a sough. Sir Roger Bradshaigh began the tunnel in 1653 and finished it in 1670, and recorded a detailed survey of its construction and shafts with instructions for maintenance so that, as he put it, 'the benefit of my 16 years labour, charge and patience (which it pleased God to crown with success for me and my posterity) may not be lost by neglect'. The mine it drained was extended and improved in the 19th century, and the underground drainage system runs back east for 936 m to Parr Pit.

Geology

Between its outfall and Park Pit the sough passes through several layers of hard sandstone and mudstone and through the Cannel and King Coal seams of the Lancashire coalfield.

Workings

The tunnel is 1,120 yards long, up to six feet wide and four feet high, driven from Bottling Wood to Park Pit. Ten ventilation shafts, each up to three yards across and as much as forty-nine yards deep, were sunk along it and used to bring out the rock as the miners advanced; seven of them, roughly on the line of the main drive to Haigh Hall, were afterwards worked as small collieries and the rest filled in. The miners used picks, hammers, wedges and spades, meeting blackdamp that put their candles out as a warning, and finished the work without explosives, though fires may have been lit against the rock at the end of a shift to help break it; progress averaged sixty-six yards a year, about four feet a week. The scheduled portal is a brick arch springing from a level floor five metres wide and standing 0.7 m high, framed by two brick pillars carrying a concrete slab, with the brook's north bank revetted in rough stone on either side.

Closure

The pits the sough was built to drain have long gone, but the tunnel itself has never stopped working: it still discharges water from the old workings into the Yellow Brook, and is scheduled as a monument in use.

What remains

The portal and the first two metres of the brick-arched drain are a scheduled monument in Bottling Wood, where the sough discharges into the Yellow Brook; a steel grille has been fitted across the entrance. The rest of the tunnel is not scheduled.

The brick and stone portal with its pillars and concrete slab, the revetted banks of the brook either side, and the filled or built-over heads of the ventilation shafts along the line to Haigh Hall.

Redevelopment

The estate the sough drained is now Haigh Woodland Park; the pits it served have gone.

Nearby mines

• Rose Bridge Colliery — 1.7 km SE
• Meadow Colliery, Haigh — 2.9 km NE
• Blackrod Colliery — 4.6 km NE
• Bamfurlong Colliery — 5.1 km S
• Maypole Colliery — 5.6 km S, Lancashire

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.

• The sough is 1,120 yards long, up to six feet wide and four feet high, with ten ventilation shafts up to three yards across and forty-nine yards deep. ¹
• Work on the sough started in 1653 and finished in 1670, progress averaging sixty-six yards a year, and it was completed without the use of explosives. ¹
• Cannel coal had been dug from bell pits on the Bradshaigh estate since the 14th century, where the seam lay very close to the surface. ¹
• The underground drainage system extends east for 936 m to Parr Pit; only the portal and two metres of the brick arch are scheduled. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Great Haigh Sough — Wikipedia
2. (primary) Haigh Sough mine drainage portal, 310m west of Park House (List entry 1017064) — Historic England

Record created: 22 September 2026 · Last researched: 22 September 2026