Nabb Colliery

Overview

A George Hargreaves drift in the Lower Mountain Mine above Dean, Waterfoot, in Rossendale, which employed around fifty men for half a century, was the only Hargreaves pit to get pithead baths, and was the first local pit the Coal Board closed, in March 1954.

History

Nabb was a drift worked by George Hargreaves and Company in the Lower Mountain Mine at Dean Lane, Water, near Waterfoot in Rossendale, about 1.2 km north of Grime Bridge. Its workings joined those of Grimebridge and Old Clough, both Hargreaves pits in the same seam. From the 1890s to the First World War it employed around 47 to 53 men, about 41 of them underground, raising household and manufacturing coal. Under Hargreaves Collieries Limited, formed in 1933, it employed 71 men that year and 56 in 1940. Before nationalisation Nabb was seen as a long-life pit, and it was the only one in which Hargreaves invested, building pithead baths for the men. The National Coal Board took it over in 1947, when it raised 14,000 tons of coking, household and industrial coal with 60 men. It was nonetheless the first of the local pits to be closed by the Board, in March 1954, with only 17 men left.

Geology

Coal Measures of Rossendale: the Lower Mountain Mine.

Workings

A drift in the Lower Mountain Mine, its workings connected with Grimebridge and Old Clough; pithead baths built by Hargreaves.

Closure

Closed by the National Coal Board in March 1954; the Lower Mountain plan is dated 1954.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Grimebridge Colliery — Nabb and Grimebridge were George Hargreaves drifts in the same Lower Mountain Mine, their workings connected (NMRS).
• Old Clough Colliery — Old Clough's workings eventually connected with Grimebridge and Nabb (NMRS).

Recorded claims

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

• Nabb was a George Hargreaves and Company drift working the Lower Mountain Mine about 1.2 km north of Grime Bridge. ^1,2
• Before nationalisation Nabb was the only Hargreaves pit in which the company invested, building pithead baths for the men. ³
• In 1947 the National Coal Board's Nabb Colliery raised 14,000 tons with 60 men. ²
• Nabb closed in March 1954, the first local pit to be closed by the National Coal Board. ^3,1,4
• Under the company Nabb averaged 47 men underground and 8 at the surface; under the NCB, 42 and 7. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Nabb Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Nabb Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) Old Clough Colliery 1834-1935 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (primary) BGS mine plans: Nabb, Lower Mountain seam, abandoned 1954 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026