Peasley Cross Colliery

Overview

The Bournes and Robinson colliery at Peasley Cross, St Helens, known as Peasley House until 1872 or 1873, sold to the Whitecross Company in 1887 and wound down by 1903.

History

Peasley Cross Colliery lay in the Peasley Cross district of St Helens, on ground where the UGB glass bottle works later stood. It grew from the mining of Bournes and Robinson, founded in 1824 by the brothers John, James and Peter Bourne with Robert Robinson, whose lease from the Hughes family began in 1826 with Sutton Colliery off Peasley Cross Lane. When Robinson left in 1856 the Bournes renamed the venture Peasley House Colliery, a name already recorded in 1855. A new pit was being sunk in 1858. In 1872 or 1873, after further exploration, it became Peasley Cross Colliery, and Sherdley Colliery was opened at the same time.

The pits worked the Potato Delf, the Main Delf and the London seams, and the Fiery seam there was two feet two inches thick. Gas killed John Molyneaux in the Potato Delf in 1865. In October 1871 James Burrows died of chokedamp, thought to have come from the town's sewers, and his father died going in after him. In August 1873 William Banks was suffocated when the stables in No. 2 pit caught fire. William Lee managed Peasley Cross and Sherdley together in 1879, and Robert Turner in the 1880s and 1890s.

Between 1876 and 1883 five of the Bourne family died, and on 1 February 1887 their heirs sold Peasley Cross and Sherdley to the Whitecross Company of Warrington, formerly the Whitecross Wire and Iron Company. In 1894 Peasley Cross employed 185 men underground and 80 on the surface; that August a pony boys' strike against a wage cut spread from Sherdley and 200 men there were laid off. The two collieries were run together, but Peasley Cross was slowly wound down, and in 1903 the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Company became the owner. Plans of the Peasley Cross and Sherdley workings were abandoned in 1903; a local history gives 1906 for the closure.

Geology

Coal Measures seams of the St Helens district, among them the Potato Delf, the Main Delf (Higher Florida), the Four Feet (Lower Florida), the London and the Fiery seam, which was two feet two inches thick.

Workings

A new pit sunk in 1858; a No. 2 pit is named in 1873. Seams worked included the Potato Delf, Main Delf and London; abandonment plans of Peasley House, Peasley Cross and the joint Peasley Cross and Sherdley workings also cover the Four Feet, Yard and Cannel.

Closure

Wound down under the Whitecross Company and sold to the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Company in 1903; plans of the joint Peasley Cross and Sherdley workings were abandoned that year, and a local history dates the closure to 1906.

What remains

Unknown.

Related mines

• Sherdley Colliery — Both belonged to Bournes and Robinson, then to the Whitecross Company from 1887; they shared managers and their workings were drawn on joint abandonment plans in 1903.

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Peasley Cross Colliery closed in 1906. (disputed) ³

Recorded claims

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

• In 1855 the colliery was known as Peasley House Colliery and belonged to Bournes and Robinson. ¹
• Peasley House Colliery was renamed Peasley Cross Colliery in 1872 or 1873, when Sherdley Colliery was opened. ^2,3
• The Whitecross Company of Warrington bought Peasley Cross and Sherdley on 1 February 1887. ²
• In 1894 Peasley Cross employed 185 men underground and 80 on the surface. ¹
• Plans of the joint Peasley Cross and Sherdley workings were abandoned in 1903, when the Sutton Heath and Lea Green company became the owner. ^2,4
• Peasley Cross Colliery closed in 1906. (disputed) ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Peasley Cross Colliery (NMRS accidents and incidents in Lancashire collieries) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) History of Sherdley Colliery (1870s-1944) — Sutton Beauty and Heritage (Stephen Wainwright)
3. (secondary) Coal Mining in Sutton, St Helens — Sutton Beauty and Heritage
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: PEASLEY CROSS AND SHERDLEY, Four Feet, abandoned 1903 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 25 October 2026 · Last researched: 25 October 2026