Hoddlesden Colliery

Overview

Joseph Place & Sons' coal and fireclay pits at Hoddlesden, east of Darwen, worked from about 1860 to 1938, and their No. 12 Pit on Hoddlesden Moss, developed in 1932-34 and closed in September 1961. The clay fed the firm's pipe works.

History

The first Hoddlesden pit, No. 1 near Vale Rock Mill, was probably sunk before 1860 by J. & J. Place. Between 1860 and 1864 new shafts went down 360 feet to the Lower Mountain, there only 1 foot 4 inches thick, and the Upper Mountain, a stoneware bed and a fireclay seam were worked too. No. 2, the main shaft, stood near Holker House, and No. 3, the pumping pit, east of Langshaw. Two 25-horsepower engines pumped and wound. A tramway of 1861 ran to Roman Road at Old Sett End, re-routed about 1872 to a new staithe at New Sett End. Employment rose from 40 in 1861 to 110 a year later. Brickmaking had begun by 1863, and by the mid-1870s Joseph Place & Sons were making sanitary pipes, firebricks, chimney pots and tiles from the mine's clay. The pits employed 212 in 1894 and 202 in 1923.

The old pits' seams were exhausted in 1938. The firm had already developed No. 12 Pit in 1932-34 on the edge of Hoddlesden Moss, a pumping shaft and an intake drift with a jig road to the pipe works. The National Coal Board drove a 1 in 3 drift from the surface to the Upper and Lower Mountain and the Stoneware under Orrell Moss. It averaged 94 men underground and 29 on the surface, working board and pillar and then taking out the pillars from the late 1950s. No. 12 closed on 29 September 1961. On 11 October 1872 two miners were killed when the winding drum came loose as they were going down the shaft.

Geology

Lower Coal Measures: the Lower Mountain at 360 feet (1 ft 4 in), the Upper Mountain, a stoneware bed and fireclay; the Yard and Half Yard in the 1890s-1910s.

Workings

Nos. 1, 2 (main) and 3 (pumping) Pits, a tramway to Sett End from 1861, and from 1932-34 No. 12 Pit with a pumping shaft, an intake drift, a 1 in 3 surface drift and a jig road to the pipe works; board-and-pillar working with pillar robbing at the end.

Closure

The old pits closed in 1938 when their seams were exhausted; No. 12 closed on 29 September 1961.

What remains

The tramroad's Z-shaped embankment survives at Old Sett End, a tunnel lintel below Albert Street, and the No. 12 tramroad bed and an embankment across Hoddlesden Moss near Holker House.

Tramroad embankments and track bed, and the stone lintel of a short tunnel at New Sett End.

Redevelopment

The pipe works it supplied closed in 1957 and was demolished in 1959-60.

Recorded claims

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

• Between 1860 and 1864 new shafts reached the Lower Mountain at 360 feet. ¹
• By the mid-1870s Joseph Place & Sons were making pipes and firebricks from the mine's fireclay. ¹
• Mining at the old Hoddlesden pits ended in 1938; their Lower Mountain plans are dated 1938. ^1,2
• No. 12 Pit was sunk on the edge of Hoddlesden Moss by Joseph Place & Sons Ltd in 1932-34. ^3,1
• Employed 212 in 1894 and 202 in 1923; No. 12 employed 155 in 1940. ⁴
• No. 12 closed on 29 September 1961. ^3,5

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Coal Mining in the area — Cotton Town (Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council)
2. (primary) Mine plan: Hoddlesden Nos. 2, 3, Lower Mountain — British Geological Survey
3. (secondary) Hoddlesden Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) Hoddlesden Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
5. (primary) Mine plan: Hoddlesden No. 12, Lower Mountain and Fireclay/Stoneware — British Geological Survey

Record created: 2 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026