New Boston Colliery

Overview

One of Richard Evans and Company's Haydock pits, sunk about 1854 south of Church Road opposite the Ram's Head, known locally as the Ram Pit, and worked into the Ravenhead and Main Delf seams until 1907 or 1910. It employed 270 in the 1890s, and on a Sunday in July 1905 a fall on a brow under repair killed the under-manager, his brother and three datallers.

History

New Boston was sunk about 1854 by Richard Evans and Company, the Haydock coalowners whose group of collieries grew from the Legh estate pits into one of Lancashire's largest concerns, and it lay south of Church Road opposite the Ram's Head Hotel, which gave it the local name of the Ram Pit, though the company's official Ram Pit was a later sinking of 1901 behind the hotel that never produced coal. The Durham Mining Museum dates it from 1880 and lists Richard Evans and Co. Ltd as owner; the Lists return 271 employed in 1894, 269 in 1896, 179 in 1900 and 120 in 1905, on the Higher and Main Delf, Nine Feet and Ravenhead seams, and two people pumping in 1910. Wikipedia's account of the Haydock Collieries has it lasting until 1910, and the Northern Mine Research Society says it closed in 1907. Thirty-eight deaths are named between 1862 and 1905, the inspectors' notes on them a catalogue of Lancashire pit deaths: a taker-off of eleven injured by trams in 1871, a furnaceman killed by a rope slipping on the drum in 1872, men drawing chocks under falling roof, a bricksetter subject to fits who fell from the cage. The worst day was Sunday 16 July 1905, when fifteen men went down with the under-manager Samuel Cook to secure a falling brow in the Ravenhead Higher Delf and a second fall knocked out six bars and buried five of them (see Disasters, below).

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures at Haydock: the Higher and Main Delf, Nine Feet and Ravenhead (Wigan Five Foot) seams.

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

Workings

A shaft colliery with jig brows and engine-plane haulage, longwall with chocks by the 1880s, and old workings from which water found its way to weaken the roof of the main brow in 1905.

Closure

The Northern Mine Research Society gives closure in 1907, Wikipedia 1910; the 1910 List returns two people pumping. The reason is not stated in the sources read.

What remains

Not established from the sources read. The former Ram's Head at the corner of Church Road and Kenyon's Lane still stands; no photograph of the pit site was found.

Not established from the sources read.

Related mines

• Haydock Colliery — New Boston was one of Richard Evans and Company's Haydock Collieries, the group the archive's Haydock record describes; same owner and same connected coalfield.

Nearby mines

• Haydock Colliery — 1.6 km S, Lancashire
• Collins Green Colliery — 2.7 km SW
• Sutton Manor Colliery — 3.6 km SW
• Golborne Colliery — 3.8 km E, Greater Manchester
• Parkside Colliery — 3.9 km SE, Lancashire

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

Disasters & major incidents

• New Boston Colliery roof fall, 1905
  16 July 1905 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 5 fatalities
  On Sunday 16 July 1905 the under-manager Samuel Cook took fifteen men down New Boston Colliery to secure the main brow in the Ravenhead Higher Delf, which had been falling for a week where water from old workings had weakened the roof. As they put up a great baulk to finish the timbering a second fall knocked out six bars and buried the party: Cook, his brother James, and the datallers Daniel Baines, Thomas Woolam and Thomas Waterworth were killed, and two more were dug out alive after twelve hours. The inquest at the Waggon and Horses found accidental death.

Recorded claims

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

• Sunk about 1854 and lasting until 1910 (Wikipedia and Engole); the museum dates it 1880–1910 with two people pumping in 1910; the NMRS gives closure in 1907. (disputed) ^1,2,3
• 271 employed in 1894, 269 in 1896, 179 in 1900 and 120 in 1905 on the Higher and Main Delf, Nine Feet and Ravenhead seams; gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. ²
• Richard Evans and Co. Ltd throughout, one of the Haydock Collieries group; Samuel Cook was under-manager for eight years to 1905. ^2,3,4
• Thirty-eight named deaths 1862–1905, five of them on 16 July 1905 when a fall on the main brow in the Ravenhead Higher Delf buried the repair party. ^2,3

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Haydock Collieries — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) New Boston Colliery — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
3. (secondary) New Boston Colliery Roof-fall, Haydock, 1905 — Northern Mine Research Society (Wayback capture) — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Richard Evans and Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum
5. (secondary) Haydock Collieries — Engole — Engole

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