Sovereign Colliery

Overview

A Wigan Coal & Iron Company colliery at Pickley Green, Westleigh, near Leigh, worked from the late 1870s to 1927, with its No. 1 Pit deepened to the Arley mine at nearly 1,950 feet.

History

The Wigan Coal & Iron Company held Sovereign Colliery from 1876 until 1927. Its Nos. 1 and 2 Pits, at Pickley Green on the west side of Leigh, came into production in the late 1870s. No. 1 wound the coal and was the downcast; No. 2 was the upcast. No. 1 was first sunk to the Bickershaw Seven Feet mine at 559 feet and later deepened to 1,948 feet 4 inches to reach the Arley mine. A third, coal-winding pit, No. 3, was sunk to the Arley during the later 1890s, and No. 1 then became an upcast.

In the 1890s the colliery worked the Hindley Green Five and Six Foot seams for household, manufacturing and steam coal. From 1905 the lists of mines return the two winding pits separately: No. 1 on the Hindley Green seams and No. 3 on the Arley and Yard, the latter also selling gas coal. Employment rose from 343 in 1894 to 975 in 1923, when the colliery raised about 150,000 tons a year, 25,000 of it cut by chain coal cutters and 5,000 by percussive machines.

Plans of the No. 1 workings in the Hindley Green Yard were deposited as abandoned in 1922 and those of No. 3 in the Ravine and Arley in 1927. Immediately before closure the colliery employed 301 men underground and 85 at the surface. It was abandoned on 2 December 1927. The bronze First World War plaques put up at the No. 1 and No. 3 Pits in June 1920 were later moved to the porch of St Paul's Church, Westleigh.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures. The No. 1 shaft passed through the Crumbouke, Brassey, Six Feet, Dirty Five Feet, Bickershaw Seven Feet, Hindley Green Yard, Four Feet and Five Feet (Trencherbone), King, Ravine, Haigh Yard, Bone, Smith and Arley mines.

Workings

Three shafts. No. 1 had a twin-cylinder horizontal winding engine, 26 by 60 inches, with a 12-foot parallel drum and a wooden headgear; No. 3 had a twin-cylinder horizontal engine by the Haigh Foundry, 36 by 78 inches, winding flat ropes. Water was pumped first by a 40-inch engine from the Bickershaw Seven Feet and later by electric centrifugal pumps at 193 and 397 yards. A Guibal fan 40 feet across ventilated the mine. Electricity and compressed air were generated on site.

Closure

Abandoned on 2 December 1927, after the No. 1 workings in the Hindley Green Yard had been given up in 1922. The reason for closure is unknown.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Parsonage Colliery — Neighbouring Wigan Coal & Iron Company pit in Westleigh.
• Priestners Colliery — Wigan Coal & Iron Company neighbour in Westleigh; their war-memorial plaques hang together in St Paul's Church.

Recorded claims

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

• Owned by the Wigan Coal & Iron Company from 1876 to 1927. ^1,2
• No. 1 Pit was first sunk to the Bickershaw Seven Feet at 559 feet and later deepened to 1,948 feet 4 inches to reach the Arley mine. ²
• Employed 975 people in 1923, 709 of them underground. ¹
• Employed 180 underground and 68 at the surface in 1896. ^1,3
• Abandoned on 2 December 1927. ^2,4
• Raised about 150,000 tons a year in the early 1920s. ²
• First World War plaques installed at the No. 1 and No. 3 Pits in June 1920 were moved to the porch of St Paul's Church, Westleigh, after the pit closed in 1927. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Sovereign Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Sovereign Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Westleigh, Greater Manchester — Wikipedia
4. (primary) Mine plan: Sovereign No. 3, Ravine and Arley seams (abandoned 1927) — British Geological Survey
5. (secondary) Wigan Coal and Iron Company, Sovereign and Priestner Pits, St Paul's Church Westleigh — War Memorials Online

Record created: 1 October 2026 · Last researched: 2 October 2026