Stopes Colliery

Overview

Thomas Fletcher and Sons' colliery at Little Lever, near Bolton, worked from 1855 to 1908 through three pits in the Trencherbone, Cannel, Quarters and Yard seams, and employing over six hundred people in the 1890s.

History

Stopes Colliery at Little Lever, eight miles north-west of Manchester, was opened in 1855 and belonged throughout to the Fletchers. Thomas Fletcher, born at Little Lever in 1805, had started out on the boats of the Bolton and Bury canal and as clerk at Boscow Pit, and became head of Thomas Fletcher and Sons, owners of the Bents, Stopes, Radcliffe and Outwood collieries and two cotton mills. He was the first chairman of the Little Lever Local Board, from 1872 to 1879, and died in 1893. In 1880 Stopes was one of ten working pits in Little Lever, four of them Fletcher and Sons'.

In 1894 the colliery employed 621 people, 481 of them underground, and in 1896 its three pits employed 602. No. 1 worked the Quarters and Trencherbone, No. 2 the Cannel and Trencherbone, and No. 3 the Ten Foot, Three Yard, Two Yard and Yard seams, for household, manufacturing and steam coal and fireclay. No. 3 had been discontinued by 1905, when 377 were employed. No accident at Stopes in the museum's list killed more than one person; many of the deaths were falls of roof and coal, in the Trencherbone, Cannel and Five Quarters seams among others. The colliery closed in 1908.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures. The pits worked the Quarters, Five Quarters, Trencherbone, Cannel, Ten Foot, Three Yard, Two Yard and Yard seams, with fireclay.

Workings

Three pits, Nos. 1, 2 and 3, the third discontinued by 1905.

Closure

Closed in 1908.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Outwood Colliery — Both Thomas Fletcher and Sons collieries near Little Lever and Kearsley.

Recorded claims

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

• Stopes Colliery opened in 1855 and closed in 1908. ¹
• Thomas Fletcher and Sons, owners of the Bents, Stopes, Radcliffe and Outwood collieries, owned Stopes Colliery at Little Lever. ^1,2
• In 1880 Stopes was one of ten working pits in Little Lever, owned by Thomas Fletcher and Sons. ³
• The colliery employed 621 people in 1894, 481 of them underground. ¹
• No. 1 pit worked the Quarters and Trencherbone seams and No. 2 the Cannel and Trencherbone. ¹
• In the early 1900s Thomas Fletcher and Sons Ltd were working the Five Quarters, Trencherbone and Cannel seams at Stopes. ^4,5
• Plans of the Bradley Fold, Stopes and Radcliffe Moor workings cover the Three Yards, Two Yards, Ten Feet, Gingham, Doe, Five Quarters, Trencherbone and Cannel seams. ⁶

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Stopes Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
2. (secondary) Thomas Fletcher (1805-1893) - The Mayors of Bolton Directory — Bolton Council
3. (secondary) Little Lever — Wikipedia
4. (secondary) Accident record: Luke Smith, Stopes, Five Quarters, 1900 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) Accident record: Abraham Brooks, Stopes, 1903 — Northern Mine Research Society
6. (primary) BRADLEY FOLD / STOPES / RADCLIFFE MOOR: Three Yards, Two Yards, Ten Feet, Gingham, Doe, Five Quarters, Trencherbone and Cannel: mine plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority
7. (primary) STOPES, Lower Yard: mine plan catalogue entry — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 8 October 2026 · Last researched: 8 October 2026