Lovers Lane Colliery

Overview

The Fletcher family's pit at Atherton near Chowbent station, built up before 1832 and one of the largest of their early collieries, where a shot that blew out its stemming killed 27 in 1872; it was abandoned in 1898.

History

Lovers' Lane Colliery at Atherton was among the Fletcher family's pits in the Manchester coalfield. By 1832, when Ralph Fletcher died, his son John had built up the Lovers' Lane pit, and the family business in Atherton traded as 'John Fletcher and Others' until Abraham Burrows became a partner in 1872 and it became Fletcher, Burrows and Company. Lovers' Lane and the Eckersley Fold pits were the largest of the early Fletcher pits that grew into the Howe Bridge Collieries. In 1872 the colliery stood about 200 yards from Chowbent station, two miles from Leigh. Its mine was 300 yards deep to the Gibfield coal, which had been worked for about 27 years, with workings stretching towards Tyldesley and Hindley, and it had two shafts, one at Gibfield and one to the west. On 28 March 1872 an explosion in the Five Feet mine, 400 yards from the pit eye, where upwards of a hundred men and boys worked, killed 27 (see Disasters, below). The inquest at Atherton Town Hall found that Joseph Halliday and 26 others died by the ignition of gas caused by a shot in John Lee's place that had blown out its stemming. The colliery lasted until 1898, the year its plans for the Four Feet and Five Feet seams, filed with those of Gibfield and the Howe Bridge pits, record it as abandoned.

Geology

The Gibfield coal and the Five Feet and Four Feet mines of the Manchester coalfield, recorded on the abandonment plans as probably the Wigan Six Feet and Wigan Four Feet.

Workings

Two shafts in 1872, one at Gibfield and one to the west, with workings extending towards Tyldesley and Hindley; shots were fired in the coal.

Closure

Abandoned in 1898.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Related mines

• Gibfield Colliery — Both Fletcher pits at Atherton; in 1872 one of Lovers Lane's two shafts was at Gibfield, and their plans are filed together.
• Howe Bridge Colliery — Lovers' Lane was one of the early Fletcher pits that grew into the Howe Bridge Collieries, and their plans are filed together.

People

• John Fletcher · owner, to 1832 — Son of Ralph Fletcher of the Haulgh, Bolton; had built up the Lovers' Lane pit by 1832.
• Joseph Halliday · victim, 1872 — Named first in the jury's verdict on the 27 killed in 1872.

Recorded claims

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

• In 1872 the colliery was the property of 'John Fletcher and Others', the family firm that became Fletcher, Burrows and Company when Abraham Burrows became a partner that year. ^1,2
• John Fletcher had built up the Lovers' Lane pit by 1832; with the Eckersley Fold pits it was the largest of the early Fletcher pits that became the Howe Bridge Collieries. ¹
• The mine was 300 yards deep to the Gibfield coal, worked for about 27 years, with one shaft at Gibfield and one to the west. ²
• On 28 March 1872 an explosion in the Five Feet mine killed 27; the jury found gas was ignited by a shot in John Lee's place that blew out its stemming. ²
• Lovers' Lane Colliery lasted until 1898; the Four Feet and Five Feet plans filed with Gibfield, Puffer, Victoria and Volunteer are dated 1898. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Fletcher, Burrows and Company — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Lovers Lane Colliery Explosion – Atherton – 1872 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Lovers Lane, Gibfield, Puffer, Victoria, Volunteer (Four Feet and Five Feet, abandoned 1898) — British Geological Survey

Record created: 17 September 2026 · Last researched: 17 September 2026