Great Lever Colliery

Overview

The Earl of Bradford's colliery at Great Lever, south of Bolton, worked from 1855 to 1920 in the Cannel, Doe, Five Quarters, Gingham and Yard seams, which grew from 183 men in 1894 to 437 in 1910 and sold gas, household and manufacturing coal.

History

Great Lever Colliery stood at Great Lever, two and a half miles south of Bolton towards Farnworth, on the estate of the Earl of Bradford, who owned the pit throughout its life. The Durham Mining Museum's lists give its working life as 1855 to 1920. The early deaths show the seams first worked: an underground engineman crushed on the engine brow of the Lower Three-yard Mine in 1859, a roadman killed by a broken hemp rope on the engine plane in the Six Feet Mine in 1863, and falls of roof coal in the Six Feet in 1864 and the Three Yards in 1885. A new shaft was being sunk in 1891, when a sinker died after a hoppet fell forty feet with the contractor in it.

From the 1890s the lists name the Cannel, Doe and Five Quarters seams, the Yard from 1896 and the Gingham from 1900, and the output was sold as gas, household and manufacturing coal. Employment rose from 183 in 1894, 146 of them below ground, to 218 in 1896, 416 in 1900 and 437 in 1910, then fell to 310 in 1915. Haulage ropes, tubs and cages took most of the lives recorded, among them a fifteen-year-old haulage hand carried through a deflecting pulley in 1908, a fireman left halfway down the shaft by a confusion of signals the same year, a shaftsman crushed by the cage at the Four Feet mouthing in 1911 and a screener crushed by a locomotive in 1910. The colliery closed in 1920.

Geology

Lancashire Coalfield seams south of Bolton: the Cannel, Doe, Five Quarters, Gingham and Yard, with the Three Yards, Lower Three-yard, Six Feet and Four Feet named in the early accident reports; the abandonment plan covers the Yard.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

Shafts with an upcast and a Four Feet mouthing, engine brows and planes with rope haulage, and a new shaft sunk in 1891; a locomotive worked the screens by 1910.

Closure

Closed in 1920; no reason is recorded in the sources.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Recorded claims

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

• Great Lever Colliery opened in 1855 and closed in 1920. ¹
• The colliery was owned by the Earl of Bradford. ^1,2,3
• Employment was 183 in 1894, 218 in 1896, 416 in 1900, 435 in 1905, 437 in 1910 and 310 in 1915. ¹
• The colliery worked the Cannel, Doe and Five Quarters seams in 1894, with the Yard from 1896 and the Gingham from 1900. ¹
• Its coal was sold for gas, household and manufacturing use from 1894 to 1915. ¹
• A new shaft was being sunk in September 1891, when the sinker Thomas Crompton died after a hoppet carrying the contractor Thomas Atherton fell about forty feet. ¹
• The Lower Three-yard Mine was worked by 1859 and the Six Feet Mine by 1863. ¹
• James Robert Briggs, a haulage hand aged fifteen, was killed on 1 September 1908 when he was carried between the haulage rope and a deflecting pulley at a curve. ^1,3
• The abandonment plan of Great Lever covers the Yard seam at a scale of 1 to 1,056. ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Great Lever Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) NMRS deaths database: John Crook, Great Lever, 1906 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) NMRS deaths database: James Robert Briggs, Great Lever, 1908 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: Great Lever, Yard seam — British Geological Survey

Record created: 19 October 2026 · Last researched: 21 October 2026