Seneley Green Colliery

Overview

Coal workings at Seneley Green, Garswood, near Ashton-in-Makerfield, from the 1840s, when an explosion killed five, through a colliery of 1869-80 and pits abandoned in 1927 and 1938, to the National Coal Board's Seneley Green Drift of 1949-51, an expensive failure in a thinning seam.

History

Coal was worked at Seneley Green, in the old Ashton-in-Makerfield parish near Garswood, where the seams rise to a fault and outcrop. On 24 October 1848 an explosion in Mr Stock's new colliery there killed five people working with naked candles. A plan of the Pewfall, Engine, Seneley Green and Starvation pits in the Nine Feet seam was lodged on their abandonment in 1857, and Seneley Green colliery is listed among Garswood's mines as working from 1869 to 1880. Later workings in the Wigan Five Feet were abandoned in 1927 and in the Flaggy Delf in 1938.

In 1949-50 the National Coal Board opened Seneley Green Drift in Arch Lane, Garswood. Contractors exposed the Wigan Five Feet in a cutting and built two tunnels of arches, mesh and concrete, then backfilled over them. The seam was 4 ft 6 in at first but thinned until the 15-inch coal cutter had to give way to a 12-inch low-seam machine, and the mine was so wet that the cutterman went home mid-shift to change. An electrician was killed when a tram carrying a belt return end broke loose at the top of the drift, its knock-off shackle undone, derailed and pinned him to the roadside; the inquiry blamed the shackle, which was withdrawn from use. The NCB built screens, a bagging plant, offices and a lamp room, all demolished when the drift was declared unworkable; its workings were abandoned in 1951.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures where the seams rise to a fault and outcrop: the Nine Feet (Top Roger, Trencherbone), the Wigan Five Feet (Higher Ravenhead Delf) and the Flaggy Delf.

Workings

Shafts in the nineteenth century (the Pewfall, Engine, Seneley Green and Starvation pits by 1857); the 1949-51 drift was two concrete-lined tunnels from a cutting to the Wigan Five Feet, with a shortwall face cut by low-seam machines.

Closure

Nineteenth-century pits were abandoned in 1857 and the colliery stopped in 1880; later workings were abandoned in 1927 and 1938, and the NCB drift in 1951, declared unworkable.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

The NCB drift's screening plant, bagging plant, offices and lamp room were demolished.

What's uncertain

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

• The Seneley Green Drift was said at the time to have cost three-quarters of a million pounds. (uncertain) ³

Recorded claims

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

• On 24 October 1848 an explosion in Mr Stock's new colliery at Seneley Green, Ashton-in-Makerfield, killed five people working with naked candles. ¹
• Seneley Green colliery worked from 1869 to 1880. ²
• In 1949-50 the National Coal Board opened Seneley Green Drift in Arch Lane, Garswood, to the Wigan Five Feet; the seam thinned and the drift was declared unworkable. ^3,4
• An electrician was killed at Seneley Green Drift when a runaway tram's load pinned him to the side of the roadway; the inquiry blamed the knock-off shackle. ³
• The Seneley Green Drift was said at the time to have cost three-quarters of a million pounds. (uncertain) ³
• Seneley Green workings were abandoned in 1857 (Nine Feet), 1927 (Wigan Five Feet), 1938 (Flaggy Delf) and 1951 (the drift). ^5,6,7,4

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) NMRS: Seneley Green Colliery Explosion, Ashton-in-Makerfield, 1848 — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Wikipedia: Garswood — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Wigan World: Park Collieries, 1948 to 1959 (Seneley Green Drift) — Wigan World
4. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Seneley Green Drift, Wigan Five Feet, abandoned 1951 — British Geological Survey
5. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Pewfall Nos. 1-5, Engine, Seneley Green, Starvation, Nine Feet, abandoned 1857 — British Geological Survey
6. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Seneley Green, Wigan Five Feet, abandoned 1927 — British Geological Survey
7. (primary) BGS / Mining Remediation Authority mine plan: Seneley Green, Flaggy Delf, abandoned 1938 — British Geological Survey

Record created: 4 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026