Thorny Bank Colliery

Overview

The National Coal Board's loco-drift at Hapton, west of Burnley, driven from 1950 to win the Upper and Lower Mountain mines and closed by bad ground in 1968.

History

Thorny Bank Colliery lay at Hapton, west of Burnley, beside the older Hapton Valley pit. After nationalisation the National Coal Board decided to develop it as a new drift mine, and in 1950 began driving a loco-drift 1,190 metres long to win some four and a half million tons of coal in the Upper and Lower Mountain mines. For ventilation it used a small surface drift that had been driven from Thorney Bank Clough, behind the Hapton Inn, in the early 1940s to speed the Hapton Valley men to their work.

Production began in August 1952, with an expected life of around thirty years. Like the Board's other new drifts in the area it broke output records, and it was much bigger than they were: between 1955 and 1967 it employed an average of 289 men underground and 29 on the surface. The early promise could not be kept, and adverse geological conditions closed the mine on 12 July 1968, its Upper and Lower Mountain workings abandoned that year.

Geology

The Lower Coal Measures of the Burnley coalfield: the Upper and Lower Mountain mines.

Workings

A loco-drift 1,190 m long, driven from 1950, ventilated through the older Thorney Bank Clough surface drift.

Closure

Closed on 12 July 1968 because of adverse geological conditions.

What remains

Some of the colliery's buildings survive.

Former colliery buildings.

Related mines

• Hapton Valley Colliery — Thorny Bank was ventilated through the surface drift driven from Thorney Bank Clough for Hapton Valley.

Recorded claims

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

• The National Coal Board began driving a 1,190-metre loco-drift at Thorny Bank in 1950 to win the Upper and Lower Mountain mines. ^1,2
• Production began in August 1952. ^3,2
• Between 1955 and 1967 it employed an average of 289 men underground and 29 on the surface. ²
• It was ventilated through the surface drift driven from Thorney Bank Clough for Hapton Valley in the early 1940s. ³
• Adverse geological conditions closed the mine on 12 July 1968. ^1,2,4

Sources

1. (secondary) NCB Collieries - England (Northern Mine Research Society) — Northern Mine Research Society
2. (secondary) Thorny Bank Drift — Northern Mine Research Society
3. (secondary) Hapton Valley Colliery — Wikipedia
4. (primary) BGS mine plan: THORNY BANK, HAPTON, Upper Mountain, abandoned 1968 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 24 October 2026 · Last researched: 24 October 2026