Middle Patricroft Pit

Overview

An Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company pit between Wigan and Hindley, working the Five Foot and Four Foot seams from two shafts, where an explosion killed twelve in March 1849.

History

The Middle Patricroft Pit belonged to the Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company, one of whose partners was James Lancaster. It stood a short way from Gidlow's cotton mill on the road from Wigan to Hindley, about a mile and a half from each, and in 1849 about twenty-six men and boys worked below.

It had two shafts twenty to thirty yards apart, each serving one seam: the Five Foot, at 190 to 200 yards, and the Four Foot, about twenty yards deeper. The two were connected underground for ventilation. The Four Foot shaft was the downcast; the Five Foot shaft was the upcast, drawn by a furnace at its foot, and it was the one the men rode. The underlooker was a man named Ellison. Workings in the Five Foot ran some 300 yards from the shaft.

On 6 March 1849 an explosion of firedamp in the Five Foot killed twelve men and boys (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Lancashire coalfield, Wigan area: the Five Foot seam at 190 to 200 yards and the Four Foot about twenty yards below it.

Workings

Two shafts twenty to thirty yards apart, one to each seam, connected for ventilation: the Four Foot shaft the downcast, the Five Foot shaft the upcast with a furnace at its foot.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Ince Hall Arley Pit — Both pits of the Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company.

Disasters & major incidents

• Middle Patricroft Pit explosion, 1849
  6 March 1849 · Explosion · 12 fatalities
  Soon after six on the morning of 6 March 1849 an explosion in the Five Foot seam of the Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company's Middle Patricroft Pit, between Wigan and Hindley, killed twelve of the twenty-six below, among them a father and his three sons.

Recorded claims

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

• Belonged in 1849 to the Ince Hall Coal and Cannel Company. ^1,2,3
• Stood a short distance from Gidlow's cotton mill on the road from Wigan to Hindley, about a mile and a half from each. ^1,3
• Worked the Five Foot seam at 190 to 200 yards and the Four Foot about twenty yards deeper, from two shafts each serving one seam. ^1,3
• The Four Foot shaft was the downcast and the Five Foot shaft the upcast, with a furnace at its foot. ^1,3
• About twenty-six men and boys worked below in 1849. ^1,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Ince Hall Colliery Middle Patricroft Pit Explosion - Hindley - 1849 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Colliery Disaster: Middle Patricroft, Ince Hall, 6 March 1849 — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Colliery explosion, at Ince 1849 (Liverpool Mercury, 9 March 1849; Liverpool Journal, 10 March 1849) — Old Mersey Times

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 7 October 2026