Oak Colliery, Hollinwood

Overview

A Chamber Colliery Company pit at Hollinwood, sunk about 1848 to the Black Mine at 227 metres and deepened to 353 metres in 1909. Three drifts driven across the Chamber fault in 1911 reached coal that lay, stratigraphically, above the surface at the shaft top. It worked seven seams and closed in 1956.

History

Oak Colliery was sunk at Hollinwood, on the Oldham side of Manchester, on the site of earlier and shallower pits, by William Jones & Co. The Oak pit itself, 3.2 metres across, was put down to the Black Mine at 227 metres around 1848; the seam there was 1.1 metres thick. From about 1850 the colliery was linked to the Bradleybent canal basin by a self-acting inclined tramway, with another tramway running to the nearby Brook Mill. By 1859 the Chamber Colliery Company was running it, and in 1877 members of the Lees family reformed that business as the Chamber Colliery Company Limited, which worked Oak until nationalisation. What made the pit unusual was a fault. The Chamber fault throws the measures down 503 metres on its south side, which put a great many more seams within reach. To get at them the colliery drove three cross-measures drifts across the fault into the Roger Mine in 1911 - one for haulage, one for man riding and one for ventilation. The oddity is that the Roger Mine, stratigraphically speaking, lay above the surface at the Oak shafts: the coal the drifts reached belonged to a horizon that had been carried away by erosion on the colliery's own side of the fault. The shaft was deepened to the Old Mine at 353 metres around 1909, and over its life the colliery worked seven seams: the Black from 1848, the Bent from 1890 to 1915, the Coney Green in 1910 - a thin seam of 0.97 metres with a dirt band of a tenth of a metre - the Old from 1910 to 1950, the Roger from 1915 to 1950, and the Colonel and the Furnace from 1947 to 1956. By the mid-1930s the seams met in the shafts were nearing exhaustion and preparations were made to work the downthrown coal more extensively; the surface plant was reorganised in 1936, running on direct current generated on site.

Geology

Worked seven seams of the Oldham coalfield: the Black at 227 metres and 1.1 metres thick, the Bent, the Coney Green at 0.97 metres with a 0.1 metre dirt band, the Old at 353 metres, the Roger, the Colonel and the Furnace. The Chamber fault throws the measures down 503 metres on its south side, so the Roger Mine reached by drifts across the fault lies stratigraphically above the surface at the shaft top.

Workings

A shaft 3.2 metres in diameter sunk about 1848 to the Black Mine at 227 metres and deepened to the Old Mine at 353 metres about 1909, with a self-acting inclined tramway to the Bradleybent canal basin from about 1850 and another to the nearby Brook Mill. Three cross-measures drifts were driven across the Chamber fault into the Roger Mine in 1911, for haulage, man riding and ventilation. The surface plant was reorganised in 1936 and ran on direct current generated on site.

Closure

Worked by the Chamber Colliery Company Limited until nationalisation and then by the National Coal Board, the last seams - the Colonel and the Furnace - being worked from 1947 until the colliery closed in 1956.

What remains

Built over. The colliery ground at Hollinwood has been redeveloped and the canal basin the tramway served is gone.

Related mines

• Chamber Colliery — Both were worked by the Chamber Colliery Company; Oak at Hollinwood outlasted the Chamber Road pit by nearly thirty years and both were cut by the Chamber fault.
• Fairbottom Colliery — Both were Chamber Colliery Company pits in the Oldham coalfield, Fairbottom the older by nearly a century.

Nearby mines

• Chamber Colliery — 1.7 km NE
• Fairbottom Colliery — 2.9 km E
• Bradford Colliery — 5.7 km SW
• Hyde Colliery — 8.5 km SE
• Pendleton Colliery — 9.7 km W

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 shafts were sunk on the site of earlier, shallower pits by William Jones & Co. The Oak pit, 3.2 metres in diameter, was sunk to the Black Mine at 227 metres around 1848, the seam there being 1.1 metres thick, and was deepened to the Old Mine at 353 metres around 1909. ¹
• The Chamber fault throws the measures down 503 metres on its south side, increasing the number of seams available for working. Three cross-measures drifts were driven across the fault into the Roger Mine in 1911 - one for haulage, one for man riding and one for ventilation - and the Roger Mine lay, stratigraphically, above the surface at the Oak shafts. ¹
• The colliery worked the Black from 1848, the Bent from 1890 to 1915, the Coney Green in 1910 at 0.97 metres with a 0.1 metre dirt band, the Old from 1910 to 1950, the Roger from 1915 to 1950, and the Colonel and Furnace from 1947 to 1956. ¹
• From about 1850 the colliery was linked to the Bradleybent canal basin by a self-acting inclined tramway, with another tramway to the nearby Brook Mill. The Chamber Colliery Company was running the pit by 1859, and the Lees family reformed the firm as the Chamber Colliery Company Limited in 1877; it worked Oak until nationalisation. ^2,1

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Oak Colliery (1848-1956) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Oldham Coalfield — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Chamber Colliery Co., Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 23 September 2026 · Last researched: 23 September 2026