High Brooks Colliery

Overview

Mercer and Evans's two-shaft colliery at Park Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, working the faulted Orrell Four Feet and Five Feet seams at up to 290 yards. Explosions killed thirty in January 1866 and thirty-seven in April 1869; the Four Feet was abandoned in 1898.

History

High Brooks Colliery stood at Park Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, about a mile from the Wigan to Ashton road, to which a colliery railway of that length ran from the offices. It was the property of Messrs Mercer and Evans; the report of the first explosion calls the owners Turner and Evans. Its two shafts, an upcast and a downcast forty yards apart, were sunk to 280 yards for the Orrell Four Feet, the Arley mine of other districts, and worked the Orrell Five Feet at 290 yards. In the downcast the sinkers struck a fault that had thrown the Four Feet sixty yards up, above the Five Feet instead of below it. Two downbrows ran from the pit-eye to a further run of faults, through which a rising tunnel was driven to find the seam again.

The Four Feet had been worked for about two years, by nearly forty men and boys, when it fired on 23 January 1866 and thirty were killed. The seam was known to be fiery, though little gas had been seen, and places in it were sought after; Mr Mercer said every man there was fit to be a fireman or underlooker. On 1 April 1869 a second explosion killed thirty-seven. Both inquests sat at the Park Lane Hotel beside the pit.

The colliery worked on after its second disaster. A plan of the Orrell Four Feet workings records their abandonment in 1898.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Wigan coalfield, much faulted: a fault in the downcast shaft threw the Orrell Four Feet (Arley) sixty yards up, above the Five Feet, and a second series of faults cut the downbrows. The Four Feet was a fiery seam.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts forty yards apart, sunk to 280 yards, working the Orrell Five Feet at 290 yards and the Four Feet. Two downbrows from the pit-eye to the faults, with a rising cross-tunnel as the return airway over an arched intake. A railway about a mile long joined the pit to its offices on the Wigan road.

Closure

The Orrell Four Feet workings were abandoned in 1898.

What remains

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• High Brooks Colliery explosion, 1866
  23 January 1866 · Explosion · 30 fatalities
  Early on 23 January 1866 firedamp exploded in the Four Foot seam at Turner and Evans's High Brooks Colliery, Park Lane, Ashton-in-Makerfield, killing thirty men and boys. The fireman had just finished his rounds and found everything 'clear as a bell'.
• High Brooks Colliery explosion, 1869
  1 April 1869 · Explosion · 37 fatalities
  At about seven in the morning of 1 April 1869, a making-up day with the whole workforce below, a blown-out shot fired gas in the Orrell Four Feet mine at Mercer and Evans's High Brooks Colliery, Park Lane, killing 37. It was the pit's second disaster in three years.

What's uncertain

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

• In 1866 the two pits were the property of Messrs Turner and Evans. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The colliery was owned by Messrs Mercer and Evans. ¹
• In 1866 the two pits were the property of Messrs Turner and Evans. (disputed) ²
• Two shafts, forty yards apart and sunk to 280 yards, worked the Orrell Five Feet at 290 yards and the Orrell Four Feet. ^2,1
• A fault met in the downcast shaft threw the Orrell Four Feet sixty yards up, above the Five Feet. ^2,1
• An explosion in the Four Feet on 23 January 1866 killed thirty men and boys. ²
• An explosion on 1 April 1869 killed thirty-seven. ¹
• A railway about a mile long ran from the colliery offices near the Wigan to Ashton road to the pit. ¹
• The Orrell Four Feet seam at High Brooks was abandoned in 1898. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) High Brooks Colliery Explosion - Ashton-in-Makerfield - 1869 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) High Brooks Colliery Explosion - Ashton-in-Makerfield - 1866 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) Mine plan: HIGH BROOKS, Orrell Four Feet seam, abandoned 1898 (feature 21933999) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue

Record created: 3 October 2026 · Last researched: 3 October 2026