Sankey Brook Colliery

Overview

A colliery at Parr, St Helens, worked from the 1840s to about 1876; in June 1857 six men and boys fell 200 yards to their deaths when the wagon lowering them caught in the new Rushy Park pit, a shaft without guides.

History

Sankey Brook Colliery, at Parr in St Helens, was situated on Redgate Drive and was established by the 1840s. In 1848 it belonged to Johnson, Worthington and Company, and through the 1850s to the Sankey Brook Coal Company. Its output was 100,000 tons of coal a year in 1862. It was later merged with Ashton Green Colliery to form the Sankey Coal Company Limited, which failed in 1869, the year plans of its Four Feet workings were abandoned. In 1873 it belonged to Henry Bramall and Company of St Helens, and it probably closed about 1876.

In February 1848 gas from old workings fired at a candle; one account puts the dead at three, with four badly hurt, another at seven, with two injured. On 11 June 1857 six men and boys, the youngest twelve, were being lowered down the new Rushy Park pit in a wagon hung from its four corners when it caught on the side of the shaft; two hooks came free and they fell about 200 yards. The inspector, Peter Higson, had already warned the manager, who was not an engineer, that the shaft, 360 yards deep, was out of plumb, badly walled and without guides, and had come that day to point out its defects to a viewer. Among the colliery's many lesser accidents, a girl of sixteen, Susannah Norcross, was killed in 1855 when her dress caught in the steam riddle that sorted the coal.

Geology

St Helens coal measures, worked in the Four Feet seam; gas lay in old workings.

Workings

Several pits, among them the deep new Rushy Park pit of 1857, wound by rope without guides; a steam riddle sorted large and small coal at the surface.

Closure

Probably closed about 1876, after the failure of the Sankey Coal Company in 1869 and a last mention under Henry Bramall and Company in 1873.

What remains

Unknown.

What's uncertain

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

• Sankey Brook Colliery probably closed about 1876. (uncertain) ¹
• The February 1848 explosion killed three and badly hurt four. (disputed) ¹
• The Mining Almanac for 1849 put the February 1848 explosion's toll at seven killed and two injured. (disputed) ¹

Recorded claims

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

• Sankey Brook Colliery belonged to the Sankey Brook Coal Company in the 1850s. ^1,2
• Sankey Brook produced 100,000 tons of coal a year in 1862. ¹
• Plans of the Four Feet workings at Sankey Brook were abandoned in 1869. ³
• Sankey Brook Colliery probably closed about 1876. (uncertain) ¹
• On 11 June 1857 six men and boys fell about 200 yards to their deaths in the new Rushy Park pit. ^4,2
• The February 1848 explosion killed three and badly hurt four. (disputed) ¹
• The Mining Almanac for 1849 put the February 1848 explosion's toll at seven killed and two injured. (disputed) ¹

Sources

1. (secondary) Sankey Brook Colliery: accidents and incidents (NMRS accidents and disasters) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Colliery disaster, 11 June 1857: Sankey Brook (Durham Mining Museum) — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Mine plan: Sankey Brook, Four Feet (St. Helens) seam, abandoned 1869 (MRA NW407) — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
4. (secondary) Sankey Brook Colliery Shaft Accident, St Helens, 1857 (NMRS accidents and disasters) — Northern Mine Research Society

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026