Habergham Colliery

Overview

The Hargreaves family's colliery on the Burnley to Padiham turnpike near Gawthorpe Hall, west of Burnley: shafts sunk to the Arley at 218 metres for the Executors of John Hargreaves, in production by 1870, linked underground to Gannow and by tramroad to a coal yard at Padiham, employing up to 600 with Gannow, and closed for want of men in 1941.

History

Habergham stood on the turnpike from Burnley to Padiham in Habergham Eaves, near Gawthorpe Hall and close to the earlier Gawthorpe and Dugdale collieries. The colliery is dated from 1854, and its earliest named deaths, in the Barclay Hills and Small Shaw pits in the 1850s, belong to the Hargreaves' older workings on the same ground; the deep colliery was begun for the Executors of John Hargreaves and was producing from the Arley mine at 218 metres in 1870 after two years' development. The deaths bear that out: sinkers were killed there in 1871 and, in December 1872, three men bricking the shaft, when the banksman pushed a tub of bricks down on them (see Disasters, below).

The colliery was linked underground to Gannow, the Hargreaves' pit begun in 1856 on Gannow Lane, and on the surface to the older tramroad from Cornfield through East Pit to a coal yard in Padiham; a surface drift was driven to the Top Bed. It returned coking, gas, household and manufacturing coal from the Arley, and from 1905 the Blindstone. Employment was 357 in 1894, 597 with Gannow in 1905 and 598 in 1910, 527 in 1915, 455 with Gannow and Higham in 1923, 273 in 1933 and 345 in 1940. The owners were the Executors of John Hargreaves, then the Executors of Colonel Hargreaves, and from the 1933 amalgamation Hargreaves Collieries Ltd of Bank Parade, Burnley, which took over the Executors' pits, George Hargreaves and Co. and the Altham Colliery Company. Gannow wound Habergham's coal until both closed in 1941, the shortage of manpower in wartime finishing them.

Thirty-two deaths are named between 1853 and 1927. Besides the sinking-shaft deaths of 1872, two waggoners were killed together by a fall of roof on an endless-chain road in 1884 (see Disasters, below); a ginney tenter was crushed between tubs in 1890; and a fire-beater was scalded in an underground boiler in 1907.

Geology

Lower Coal Measures of the Burnley Coalfield: the Arley mine at 218 m, the Blindstone and the Top Bed.

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

Workings

Shafts to the Arley with a surface drift to the Top Bed, an underground connection to Gannow, endless-chain haulage on the roads by 1884, a ginney (self-acting incline) and an underground boiler; longwall with prop-drawing by Sylvester by 1914.

Closure

Closed in 1941 with Gannow, which wound its coal, because of a shortage of manpower in wartime.

What remains

Nothing standing is reported. A 2024 Geograph photograph records the route of the former tramway towards the colliery site from Tipping Hill Plantation; the ground west of Burnley was extensively opencasted after the 1950s, including Gawthorpe Hall and Tipping Hill.

The line of the tramway; the pit site itself is not recorded.

Related mines

• Bee Hole Colliery — Shared owner: both were worked by the executors of John Hargreaves.
• Gannow Colliery — Linked underground; Gannow's shaft wound Habergham's coal from the 1870s to 1941 and the two were returned together.

Disasters & major incidents

• Habergham Colliery sinking-shaft fall, 1872
  9 December 1872 · Winding / Shaft Accident · 3 fatalities

  On 9 December 1872 three men bricking a sinking shaft at Habergham Colliery, near Burnley in Lancashire, were killed when a tub of bricks was pushed down the shaft onto them.

  George Cronkshaw, aged 48, the banksman, John Salkeld, aged 32, and Richard Starkie, aged 39, both sinkers, were killed. Not noticing that the lurry was off the shaft, Cronkshaw pushed in a tub of bricks and fell down with it among five men who were bricking the sinking shaft.

• Habergham Colliery roof fall, 1884
  25 March 1884 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 2 fatalities

  On 25 March 1884 two waggoners were killed by a fall of roof on an endless-chain road at Habergham Colliery, near Burnley in Lancashire.

  Robert Ashworth, aged 25, and Holden Holden, aged 24, both waggoners, were killed by a fall of roof on an endless-chain road at the colliery, then held by the executors of Colonel Hargreaves.

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 museum dates the colliery 1854–1941; the Burnley Coalfield account has production from the Arley at 218 m beginning in 1870 after two years' development, and closure in 1941 through a shortage of manpower. (disputed) ^1,2
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Habergham' (catalogue 12613, Arley Yard, Blindstone, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Recorded claims

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

• The museum dates the colliery 1854–1941; the Burnley Coalfield account has production from the Arley at 218 m beginning in 1870 after two years' development, and closure in 1941 through a shortage of manpower. (disputed) ^1,2
• Linked underground to Gannow, which wound its coal until 1941, and on the surface to the tramroad from Cornfield via East Pit to a coal yard in Padiham, with a surface drift to the Top Bed. ²
• Executors of John Hargreaves, Executors of Colonel Hargreaves and Hargreaves Collieries Ltd; 357 employed in 1894, 597 in 1905 and 598 in 1910 with Gannow, 273 in 1933 and 345 in 1940. ^1,3
• Thirty-two named deaths 1853–1927, including three sinkers killed on 9 December 1872 when a tub of bricks was pushed down the shaft and two waggoners killed by a roof fall on an endless-chain road on 25 March 1884. ¹
• The BGS mine-plans catalogue holds a Mining Remediation Authority abandonment plan titled 'Habergham' (catalogue 12613, Arley Yard, Blindstone, undated in the catalogue); the catalogue gives no location and the plan's details do not clearly tie it to this working, so it may belong to another of the same name. (uncertain) ⁴

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Habergham Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Burnley Coalfield — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Hargreaves Collieries Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans: HABERGHAM — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (observational) Route of former tramway (Geograph photo 7727370, 2024) — Geograph

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026