Grimebridge Colliery

Overview

A Rossendale colliery at Lumb, north of Bacup, whose shaft and first drift were driven into the Lower Mountain mine in 1851. George Hargreaves and Co.'s largest pit in the valley, it was closed by the Coal Board in November 1963, then reopened by two of its own colliers and worked on a small scale until 1996.

History

Coal at Grimebridge was first got where the seams came to the surface, and then from shallow bell pits. In 1851 the Grimebridge Shaft, 96 feet deep, was sunk and a surface drift driven at 1 in 5 into the Lower Mountain mine, a seam 2 ft 10 in thick with a black shale roof and fireclay floor. The coal was particularly hard and much used in the local mills. Roads from the pit bottom ran south-west until they cut the fault separating Grimebridge from Fox Hill Colliery and made a connection to Stacksteads Colliery, while the first districts were worked towards the abandoned Dean Pit.

Grimebridge became George Hargreaves and Co.'s largest colliery in Rossendale. Its three-man cage wound over a thousand tubs a day, one at a time, and their coal, with that from the drift, went over the moors to the old Fox Hill Colliery by endless chain, then down a self-acting incline to the staith at Whitewell Bottom; traces of the chain tramway, known locally as the ginny, survive.

Under the National Coal Board an average of 52 men worked underground and 15 on the surface. The pit's remoteness made modernisation difficult, and it closed in November 1963 (1962 by another account). Bill Clayton, a Grimebridge collier, set out to reopen it; fourteen years later he and his partner Rodney Mitchell, another Grimebridge man, had it working again, employing 31 men in the early 1980s. The Claytons kept part of the workings going on and off until 1996, and in 1997 Bill Clayton took the licence of Hill Top Colliery.

Geology

Lancashire coalfield, Rossendale: the Lower Mountain mine, 2 ft 10 in thick, with a black shale roof and fireclay floor.

Workings

Grimebridge Shaft (1851, 96 ft, three-man cage) and a surface drift at 1 in 5; endless-chain haulage over the moor to Fox Hill and a self-acting incline to Whitewell Bottom.

Closure

Closed by the NCB in November 1963 (1962 by another account); part of the workings were reopened by the Clayton family and worked on a small scale until 1996.

What remains

Traces of the chain-haulage tramway survive.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Hill Top Colliery — Worked by the Grimebridge Colliery Co., Bill Clayton's firm, which reopened Grimebridge and took Hill Top's licence in 1997.
• Huncoat Colliery — George Hargreaves and Co. collieries.
• Scaitcliffe Colliery — George Hargreaves and Co. collieries.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• The colliery's official closure is dated 1962. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Grimebridge Shaft, 96 feet deep, was sunk in 1851 and a surface drift driven into the Lower Mountain mine. ^1,2
• Grimebridge became George Hargreaves and Co.'s largest colliery in Rossendale. ¹
• Grimebridge coal was particularly hard and much used in local mills; it went to the valley by a chain tramway known as the ginny. ²
• Under the NCB an average of 52 men worked underground and 15 on the surface; it closed in November 1963. ^3,1
• The colliery's official closure is dated 1962. (disputed) ²
• Bill Clayton and Rodney Mitchell reopened Grimebridge, employing 31 men in the early 1980s; the Clayton family worked it on and off until 1996. ^2,4
• BGS holds Lower Mountain abandonment plans for Grimebridge. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Grime Bridge Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Grimebridge Colliery — Subterranea Britannica
3. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Rossendale Family History Society Newsletter, October 2005 — Rossendale Family History Society
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Grimebridge, Lower Mountain — BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 4 October 2026