Kirkless Hall Colliery

Overview

John Lancaster's colliery on the Kirkless Hall estate between Aspull and Ince, begun in 1845 with shafts to the Arley and Haigh Yard, whose slack fed the Kirkless ironworks and which became the centre of the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. An explosion at its Higher Patricroft pit killed thirteen in 1847 (see Disasters, below).

History

The Kirkless Hall estate, in Aspull and running into Ince and Wigan, had been worked for cannel since the eighteenth century: John Kendrick sank pits there and put up a pumping engine in 1773, its cylinder cast by John Wilkinson of Bersham. Expansion came when John Lancaster took a lease in 1845 and sank two new shafts at Kirkless, one to the Arley and one to the Haigh Yard, trading with his partners as the Kirkless Hall Coal and Cannel Company.

An explosion at the Higher Patricroft colliery on the canal killed thirteen in June 1847 (see Disasters, below). The Arley and Haigh Yard slack proved good for metallurgical coke, and from 1858 the Kirkless ironworks used it, the concern becoming the Kirkless Hall Coal and Iron Company. In 1865 it merged into the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, with Kirkless as its centre of operations.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures of the Wigan field: the Cannel, Arley and Haigh Yard mines.

Workings

Two shafts sunk from 1845, to the Arley and the Haigh Yard; the Higher Patricroft pit on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal; slack coked for the Kirkless ironworks from 1858.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• California Pit, Aspull — Both worked by the Kirkless Hall Coal and Iron Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Kirkless Hall Colliery explosion, 1847
  28 June 1847 · Explosion · 13 fatalities
  About one o'clock on 28 June 1847, at the Higher Patricroft or Kirkless Hall Colliery on the canal between Ince and Aspull, a fire started by a miner's shot in the coal led to an explosion of firedamp. Thirteen died and about thirty were injured.

Recorded claims

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

• John Lancaster started the Kirkless Hall Colliery, Aspull, in 1845. ^1,2
• Two new shafts were sunk at Kirkless, one to the Arley and one to the Haigh Yard. ¹
• On 28 June 1847 a shot fired the coal at the Higher Patricroft colliery and an explosion killed thirteen. ³
• From 1858 the Arley and Haigh Yard slack was coked for the Kirkless ironworks. ^1,2
• In 1865 the concern merged into the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, with Kirkless its centre of operations. ^1,2

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Kirkless Hall — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) John Lancaster (1815-1884) — Grace's Guide
3. (secondary) Kirkless Hall Colliery Explosion - Wigan - 1847 — Northern Mine Research Society

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