Jubilee Colliery

Overview

One of the larger collieries of the Rochdale-Oldham coalfield, sunk about 1845 beside the Oldham-Rochdale railway at Crompton and later worked by the Oldham textile-machinery makers Platt Brothers, whose coke ovens it fed; it closed in 1932.

History

Evans, Barker and Company sank Jubilee alongside the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Oldham and Rochdale branch at Crompton around 1845. It first worked the Mountain Mine at 96 metres, probably the Upper Mountain, and later the Lower Mountain at 296 metres, and in time it had long banks of coke ovens. The Oldham, Middleton and Rochdale Colliery Company took it over in 1865 and by 1866 had linked it with Park Colliery at Crompton Fold, which closed soon after. By 1883 it was worked by Platt Brothers and Company, the Oldham iron founders and textile-machinery makers, who between 1895 and 1930 employed on average 176 men underground and 42 on the surface, raising coking, household and manufacturing coal from the Mountain Mine. In the early 1920s Platts joined Jubilee underground to their Butterworth Hall Colliery at Milnrow, presumably to bring its coal out at Jubilee. Butterworth Hall closed in April 1928 and Jubilee in 1932.

Geology

Lower Coal Measures of the Rochdale-Oldham field: the Upper Mountain Mine at 96 metres and the Lower Mountain at 296 metres.

Workings

Shafts to the Mountain Mines, with coke ovens on the surface; linked underground to Park Colliery in the 1860s and to Butterworth Hall Colliery in the 1920s.

Closure

Closed in 1932, four years after Butterworth Hall.

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.

• Evans, Barker and Company sank Jubilee beside the Oldham and Rochdale branch around 1845, first working the Mountain Mine at 96 metres. ¹
• The Oldham, Middleton and Rochdale Colliery Company took it over in 1865. ¹
• Platt Brothers and Company were working Jubilee by 1883. ^1,2
• It employed 309 men in 1900 and 218 in 1923. ²
• It worked the Mountain Mine throughout 1894-1915, producing coking, household and manufacturing coal. ²
• Jubilee closed in 1932. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Jubilee Colliery (1845-1933) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Jubilee Colliery (UK) — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026