Sherdley Colliery

Overview

Sherdley mined coal on the western side of Marshalls Cross Road in St Helens for about seventy years, from the early 1870s to 1944. The Hughes family of Sherdley Hall owned the land and the minerals under it rather than the colliery; Bournes and Robinson paid them for the right to get the coal. After it stopped drawing it was kept on as a pumping station for the pits down dip, and its headgears stood over the skyline for years afterwards.

History

The colliery company was founded in 1824 by the brothers John, James and Peter Bourne with Robert Robinson, and mined extensively in St Helens through the nineteenth century. Its lease from the Hughes family began in 1826 with Sutton Colliery off Peasley Cross Lane, which became Peasley House Colliery in 1856 when Robinson left the partnership. Further exploration led in 1872 and 1873 to the renaming of Peasley House as Peasley Cross and to the establishment of Sherdley. The colliery first appears in the Mines List in 1873, with two shafts being worked. Five members of the Bourne family died between 1876 and 1883 and their heirs sold up. The Whitecross Co. Ltd of Warrington, formerly the Whitecross Wire and Iron Co., bought both collieries on 1 February 1887 and managed them together for some years before winding Peasley Cross down; the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Colliery Co. became the owners in 1903. That company had been registered on 28 June 1890 with capital of £100,000, to take over Lea Green from Fanny Prescott Radley, widow of James Radley, who had sunk its first shafts in the early 1870s. Sherdley employed 572 people in 1894, 637 in 1896 and 641 in 1900, dropped to 44 in the 1905 return, and came back to 515 in 1910, 698 in 1915 and a peak of 894 in 1923. It fell to 496 in 1933 and recovered to 705 by 1940, working the Main Delf, Potato Delf, Four Feet and Yard seams for gas, household, manufacturing and steam coal. The Sutton Beauty and Heritage history of the pit has identified 46 deaths at Sherdley and believes there were probably many more. The first recorded was John Glynn, a collier of 37, crushed by a stone on 9 January 1874. Insufficient timbering runs through the list. Thomas Gornall, 43, was killed on 10 June 1881 by a fall his son Richard found him under, which the boy reckoned would have filled seventy tubs; the jury regretted that his request for more timber to prop the roof had not been met, which the management denied. He left a widow and nine children. The colliery stopped working coal in 1944. It was kept for pumping, standing near Alexandra and up dip of the company's own Lea Green and Bold collieries, and the National Coal Board was still using it as a pumping station in 1950.

Geology

Sherdley worked the St Helens part of the Lancashire coalfield. The seams returned are the Main Delf and Potato Delf from 1905, with the Four Feet and the Yard added by 1910. The colliery stood up dip of Lea Green and Bold, which is why it was worth keeping for pumping long after the coal stopped.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Two shafts, first recorded in the Mines List of 1873. Shaft depths have not been found in the sources read for this record. The colliery's headgears survived its closure by many years.

Closure

Coal working ceased in 1944 and the colliery was retained for pumping, being near Alexandra and up dip of Lea Green and Bold. The National Coal Board was still using it as a pumping station in 1950.

What remains

No account of the colliery site as it stands today has been found in the sources read for this record. The headgears dominated the skyline for many years after 1944 but are long gone.

Nearby mines

• Ravenhead Colliery — 0.6 km NW
• Clock Face Colliery — 2.5 km S
• Bold Colliery — 2.8 km E
• Sutton Manor Colliery — 3.7 km E
• Collins Green Colliery — 3.8 km E

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 Hughes family of Sherdley Hall owned the land and the minerals beneath it rather than the colliery itself; Bournes and Robinson paid them for the right to extract the coal. ¹
• Sutton Beauty and Heritage gives the colliery as mining coal from the 1870s until 1944, after which it was retained for pumping, lying near Alexandra and up dip of the company's Lea Green and Bold collieries. The Northern Mine Research Society's own dating of the pit is 1873 to 1943. (disputed) ¹
• The Sutton Beauty and Heritage history has identified 46 deaths at Sherdley and considers there were probably many more. Insufficient timbering causing roof falls recurs throughout them. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) History of Sherdley Colliery (1870s-1944) — Sutton Beauty and Heritage (Stephen Wainwright)
2. (secondary) Sherdley Colliery — Durham Mining Museum

Record created: 11 September 2026 · Last researched: 11 September 2026