Ladies Lane Colliery

Overview

A Hindley colliery of several pits, opened in 1859 by Thomas Gidlow and later worked by the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, whose water was drawn by the Pennygate pumping pit; it employed over three hundred in the 1890s and closed in 1908 or 1910.

History

Ladies Lane Colliery lay at Hindley, two and a half miles east of Wigan, on the south side of the Bolton-Wigan railway west of Hindley station. The Durham Mining Museum dates it from 1859 and names Thomas Gidlow as its first owner; it then passed to the Wigan Coal and Iron Company.

It was a group of pits, numbered at least to No. 4. In 1894 they employed 344 people, 299 of them below ground, and in 1896 282 underground and 40 on the surface. By 1905 the Yard and King coals were worked and employment had fallen to 118. Plans of the Arley and Cannel seams under Ladies Lane, Dove Lane, Hindley Deep, Pennygate and Trafford were abandoned in 1889.

Water was the group's burden. The Pennygate pumping pit served both the Hindley Deep pits to the north of the railway and the Ladies Lane pits to the south, helped by smaller underground pumps at Ladies Lane Nos. 1 and 4, with water also wound at No. 2. No. 4's Yard seam workings were abandoned in 1908, the year the Northern Mine Research Society gives for closure; the Durham Mining Museum returns the colliery to 1910.

Geology

Lancashire coal measures: the Arley and Cannel seams (abandoned 1889), and the King and Yard coals worked in 1905; the Yard alone by 1910.

Workings

A group of pits, Nos. 1, 2 and 4 among them, drained with the Hindley Deep pits by the Pennygate pumping pit and by underground pumps at Nos. 1 and 4; water was also wound at No. 2.

Closure

No. 4's Yard seam workings were abandoned in 1908; the Durham Mining Museum returns the colliery to 1910.

What remains

Unknown.

What's uncertain

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

• Ladies Lane ceased operations in 1908, when No. 4's Yard seam workings were abandoned. (disputed) ^3,4
• The colliery closed in 1910. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Ladies Lane Colliery was opened in 1859; its owners were Thomas Gidlow and then the Wigan Coal and Iron Company. ¹
• In 1896 the colliery employed 282 people underground and 40 on the surface. ^1,2
• The Pennygate pumping pit drained the Ladies Lane pits with the Hindley Deep pits, helped by underground pumps at Ladies Lane Nos. 1 and 4. ³
• Ladies Lane ceased operations in 1908, when No. 4's Yard seam workings were abandoned. (disputed) ^3,4
• The colliery closed in 1910. (disputed) ¹
• In 1905 the colliery worked the King and Yard coals. ¹
• Arley and Cannel seam workings under Ladies Lane, Dove Lane, Hindley Deep, Pennygate and Trafford were abandoned in 1889. ⁵

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Ladies Lane Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Hindley, Greater Manchester — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Pennygate Pumping Pit (NMRS) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: LADIES LANE NO.4, Yard seam, abandoned 1908 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
5. (primary) BGS mine plan: Ladies Lane, Dove Lane, Hindley Deep, Pennygate, Trafford, Arley seam, abandoned 1889 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026