Old Clough Colliery

Overview

A small Hargreaves pit at Weir, near Bacup, worked from about 1834 to 1935 in the Lower Mountain mine without any mechanical haulage, where a new fossil crustacean was found in 1893; its old workings were reopened through a farm barn in 1966.

History

Old Clough Colliery stood in the village of Weir, north of Bacup, and was there before the village itself. It was opened about 1834-35 by John Ashworth of Hargreaves and Company, whose records of the 1840s describe the firm as already forty years old, and there are older workings in the area, part of which is known as Coalpit Clough; the pit is on the first Ordnance Survey map of 1844. It worked the Lower Mountain or Yard mine, about three feet thick, which ran right through the hill, and its workings eventually joined those of Grimebridge and Nabb. It was always small, never had mechanical haulage, and was run with Old Meadows, one manager serving both pits. In June 1848, when the cotton depression had cut the pit to a few days' work a week, Robert Lord was killed by a stone four yards long that fell from a roof he had been told to prop; he left a widow and five children. In 1880 the colliery was listed under George Hargreaves and Company. In 1893 George Scott found a new species of fossil crustacean, named Cyclus scotti, in the Ganister seam at Old Clough. Through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the pit employed about eight men underground and one at the surface, raising ten tons a day in 1920. On 23 March 1928 it was made part of Grimebridge Colliery under T. A. Ashworth, and it closed in 1935. In 1966 its remaining coal was reopened from Doals No. 3 farm by Jimmy Cropper: to win planning permission the pithead was hidden in the barn and farmhouse, a licence limited it to seven men using compressed-air picks, and it closed when its main airway collapsed.

Geology

Lower Coal Measures: the Lower Mountain or Yard mine, about 3 feet thick, and the Ganister seam, which yielded the fossil crustacean Cyclus scotti.

Workings

A small pit with an air shaft and no mechanical haulage, connected underground with Grimebridge and Nabb; reopened in 1966 through a small shaft and elevator inside a farm barn at Doals, with an air shaft 140 feet deep.

Closure

Closed in 1935. The 1960s Doals workings closed when the main airway collapsed.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Grimebridge Colliery — Old Clough's workings joined Grimebridge's, and on 23 March 1928 Old Clough was made part of Grimebridge Colliery (NMRS).
• Nabb 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.

• Old Clough was opened about 1834-35 by John Ashworth of Hargreaves and Company and is on the 1844 Ordnance Survey map. ¹
• In 1880 Old Clough, Bacup, was owned by George Hargreaves and Company. ²
• In June 1848 Robert Lord was killed at Old Clough by a fall of stone from the roof; the inquest at the Waterloo Inn, Bacup, returned accidental death. ¹
• In 1893 a new species of the fossil crustacean Cyclus, named Cyclus scotti, was found in the Ganister seam at Old Clough Colliery. ¹
• In 1933 Old Clough, Bacup, belonged to Hargreaves Collieries Limited, with Thomas Ashworth as manager, employing eight men underground and one at the surface. ³
• Old Clough closed in 1935, after being made part of Grimebridge Colliery in 1928. ¹
• In 1966 the Old Clough workings were reopened from Doals No. 3 farm, with the pithead inside the barn and farmhouse. ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Old Clough Colliery 1834-1935 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) List of coal mines UK 1880 — Coalmining History Resource Centre
3. (primary) Hargreaves Collieries Ltd. — Durham Mining Museum — Durham Mining Museum

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