Meadow Colliery, Haigh

Overview

The Wigan Coal and Iron Company's Meadow Pit at Haigh, north of Wigan, on the Earl of Crawford's cannel ground: returned from 1880 by the museum, one of the company's five Haigh pits in 1896, working the Arley, King and Yard coals with up to 633 people in 1923 before closing in 1925 or 1927. Meadow Pit Lane keeps its name.

History

Haigh's coal had been the Bradshaighs' and then the Earls of Crawford's since John Leland recorded Sir Roger Bradshaigh's cannel seam in 1540, and in 1865 the Earl combined his Haigh collieries with John Lancaster's to form the Wigan Coal and Iron Company, the biggest owner on the Lancashire coalfield, with its furnaces at Kirkless and its central workshops on the canal bank at Haigh. Meadow was one of its pits: the Durham Mining Museum dates it from 1880, and Wikipedia lists it in 1896 with the Alexandra, Bawkhouse and Bridge pits at Haigh. It returned 242 employed in 1894, only 36 in 1896, 234 in 1900, 347 in 1905 on the Arley, King and Yard, 263 in 1910 and 350 in 1915 on the King, and 633 in 1923. The museum records closure in 1925; the Wigan Coal and Iron Company's collieries passed to the Wigan Coal Corporation in 1930. Thirteen deaths are named between 1866 and 1927, most of them falls while timbering: a fireman buried in 1891 when seven or eight yards of bars fell bodily as he took them out, a dataller killed in 1883 renewing bars at a junction, a contractor's man in 1924 setting centre props that the roof displaced, and a drawer of eighteen killed in 1894 by a shot fired in a rising tunnel through a misunderstanding. A lane off Riley Lane is still Meadow Pit Lane.

Geology

Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire coalfield at Haigh: the Arley, King and Yard coals, with the Haigh cannel famous since the sixteenth century.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (historical documentary reference)

Workings

A shaft colliery with bar-and-prop timbering on its roads, rising tunnels driven by shot, and the company's rail connection to Kirkless; nothing more specific has been found.

Closure

Recorded as closed in 1925 by the Durham Mining Museum, with 633 employed at the 1923 return; a search snippet gives 1927 for Meadow and William pits together but the page could not be read.

What remains

Not established from the sources read beyond the survival of Meadow Pit Lane at Little Scotland, Haigh. No photograph of the pit was found.

Meadow Pit Lane; nothing else reported.

Nearby mines

• Blackrod Colliery — 1.8 km NE
• Rose Bridge Colliery — 4.1 km S
• Chisnall Hall Colliery — 6.3 km NW, Lancashire
• Ellerbeck Colliery — 6.4 km N, Lancashire
• Bamfurlong Colliery — 7.6 km S

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

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

• The Wigan Coal and Iron Co. Ltd's Meadow Pit at Haigh, one of its four Haigh pits in 1896; the museum dates it 1880–1925. ^1,2
• 242 employed in 1894, 234 in 1900, 347 in 1905, 263 in 1910, 350 in 1915 and 633 in 1923, on the Arley, King and Yard coals. ¹
• Thirteen named deaths 1866–1927, all single, most of them falls during timbering. ¹
• The company was formed in 1865 from the Earl of Crawford's Haigh collieries and John Lancaster's, was the biggest owner on the Lancashire coalfield, and merged its pits into the Wigan Coal Corporation in 1930. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Meadow Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Wigan Coal and Iron Company — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
3. (observational) Direction Sign, Meadow Pit Lane (Geograph photo 6098635, 2012) — Geograph
4. (secondary) Haigh, Greater Manchester — Wikipedia — Wikipedia

Record created: 12 September 2026 · Last researched: 12 September 2026