Tawd Vale Colliery

Overview

A Skelmersdale colliery whose Nos. 11 and 12 Pits were sunk from 1875 to the Arley at 510 yards. On 30 November 1897 the River Tawd broke into old workings and drowned it. Reopened in 1904 as Glenburn Colliery, it finally closed in 1923.

History

Tawd Vale Colliery lay about a mile and three-quarters north-east of Skelmersdale station. Earlier pits included No. 7, discontinued by 1896. Nos. 11 and 12 were begun in 1875, passing the Twelve Feet at 72 yards, the Park at 353 and the Rushy Park at 422, and reaching the Arley at 510. Lattice girder headgears carried twin-cylinder winders by William Wilkinson of Wigan and Robert Daglish of St Helens. Water was wound out in 550-gallon tanks. In 1897 the Rushy Park and Arley were worked longwall for about 1,000 tons a day, and the two pits employed about 770 in 1896.

The colliery had its share of multiple deaths: two sinkers in 1861, three in a firedamp explosion in 1865, four when the mine caught fire at a flue in 1872, and two lowered into the sump in 1878. On 30 November 1897 the River Tawd broke into old workings and flooded the colliery, drowning two men (see Disasters, below). The colliery was abandoned and the Tawd Vale Coal Company went into voluntary liquidation in 1899. John Griffiths and Son Ltd reopened it as Glenburn Colliery in 1904. It closed finally in 1923.

Geology

Lancashire Coal Measures: Twelve Feet (12 feet thick) at 72 yards, Park at 353, Rushy Park at 422 and Arley at 510 yards, dipping about 1 in 7.

Workings

Nos. 11 (upcast, 14 feet) and 12 (downcast, 15 feet) with iron lattice girder headgears; water wound in 550-gallon tanks; surface-powered haulage; longwall faces in the Rushy Park and Arley.

Closure

Flooded on 30 November 1897 when the River Tawd broke through into old Twelve Feet workings; abandoned, and the company wound up in 1899. Reopened as Glenburn Colliery in 1904 and finally closed in 1923.

What remains

Unknown.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Disasters & major incidents

• Tawd Vale Colliery inundation, 1897
  30 November 1897 · Flooding / Inundation · 2 fatalities
  On the night of Tuesday 30 November 1897 the River Tawd broke through a fall into old crop workings at Tawd Vale Colliery, Skelmersdale, and poured down through the old Twelve Feet workings and the shafts. The only two men below, a fireman and a hooker-on, were drowned. The colliery was abandoned.

Recorded claims

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

• Nos. 11 and 12 Pits were begun in 1875 and reached the Arley at 510 yards. ¹
• Reopened as Glenburn Colliery in 1904 and finally closed in 1923. ¹
• No. 11 employed 359 and No. 12 410 in 1896. ²
• Its plans show the Twelve Feet, Seven Feet, Earthy Delf, Park, Rushy Park and Arley. ³

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) Tawd Vale Colliery — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (primary) Tawd Vale Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
3. (primary) Mine plan: Tawd Vale Nos. 11, 12, Arley — British Geological Survey

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