Low Hall Colliery

Overview

The Moss Hall Coal Company's colliery at Platt Bridge near Wigan, the first large pit there, begun in 1860 and eventually eight shafts, where a blown-out shot fired gas and coal in the Six Feet seam in 1869, killing 27 and forcing the flooding of the pit.

History

Low Hall was the first large colliery at Platt Bridge, between Wigan and Hindley. It was begun in 1860 by the Moss Hall Coal Company, which later became a subsidiary of the Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company, and eventually eight shafts were sunk. Like the neighbouring Wigan Junction and Maypole collieries, it worked under the threat of inundation from the many old and abandoned workings in the Ince area. Its No. 5 pit stood in Hindley, about 150 yards from Platt Bridge station on the Eccles, Tyldesley and Wigan Railway, with the No. 6 shaft close by as the downcast to three seams: the Wigan Five Feet, the Wigan Four Feet and the Six or Nine Feet, 275 yards down. These pits had opened only two years before, and the engines at No. 6 were unfinished, so all winding was done at the upcast. On 15 November 1869 a blown-out shot in No. 5 level ignited gas in the Six Feet seam; the explosion killed 27 (see Disasters, below) and set the colliery on fire. There was too little water nearby to flood the pit, so the shafts were filled to starve the fire of air, and with permission a water company main was tapped; winding the water out again took months. The inquest could not conclude until March 1870. The jury recommended that no shot should be fired in the Six Feet seam unless charged by, or in the presence of, the fireman or shotlighter.

Geology

The Wigan Five Feet, Wigan Four Feet and Six (or Nine) Feet seams, later the Pemberton Four Feet and Pemberton Two Feet, in ground riddled with old and abandoned workings around Ince.

Workings

Eventually eight shafts; in 1869 the No. 5 upcast, used for all winding, and the No. 6 downcast. The Six Feet seam was worked by straight work within 350 yards of the pit eye, with shots fired in the coal.

Closure

No closure date has been found.

What remains

Unknown.

Unknown.

Related mines

• Maypole Colliery — Both sunk by the Moss Hall Coal Company at Platt Bridge and Abram, and both threatened by old workings around Ince.

People

• John Ormsher · victim, 1869 — Named first in the jury's verdict on the dead of the 1869 explosion.

What's uncertain

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

• NMRS says the explosion caused 27 deaths, but quotes the verdict as 'John Ormsher and the twenty-seven others'. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Low Hall was the first large colliery at Platt Bridge, begun in 1860 by the Moss Hall Coal Company; eight shafts were eventually sunk. ¹
• On 15 November 1869 an explosion in the Six Feet seam, 275 yards down, caused by a blown-out shot in No. 5 level, killed 27 and set the colliery on fire. ²
• NMRS says the explosion caused 27 deaths, but quotes the verdict as 'John Ormsher and the twenty-seven others'. (disputed) ²
• The shafts were filled to starve the fire of air and a water company main was tapped with permission; getting the water out delayed the inquest until March 1870. ²
• The national catalogue holds a Low Hall plan for the Pemberton Four Feet and Pemberton Two Feet seams. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Platt Bridge, Abram & Bickershaw (NMRS Wigan coalfield companies) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Low Hall Colliery Explosion – Wigan – 1869 — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue: Low Hall (Pemberton Four Feet, Pemberton Two Feet) — British Geological Survey

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