Clifton Hall Colliery

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Clifton Hall Colliery was one of the two coal mines located in the district of Clifton (the other being Wet Earth Colliery) which was incorporated into the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England in 1974.

It was located at the bottom of the Irwell Valley, just off Lumn's Lane and had extensive railway sidings on the London and North Western Railway's Clifton Branch. It also had a connection to the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. This was achieved by means of a ¼-mile long tramway.

[edit] History

It is thought that the colliery was operating by 1820, and its tramway is shown on a parliamentary plan from 1830. It is also show on an 1845 map. Clifton Hall Colliery closed in 1929.

On 18 June 1885, an explosion within the mine killed 178 men and boys,^[1] to whom there is a monument in St. Augustine's Churchyard ( 64 of the victims were buried there ). It is thought that the explosion was caused by firedamp igniting upon contact with a candle. Underlooker Thomas Worrall, Blacksmith George Hindley (aged 16 at the time) and fireman George Higson, were part of a band of men who descended into the mine immediately after the explosion. They later received an Albert Medal in recognition of their heroism.^[2] Worrall received a 1st class medal as well as a Salford Humane Society Gold Hundred medal. Unfortunately the later award as well as Mine Rescue medals belonging to R Johnson and F Burtonwood and a Gold Chain inscibed to George Hindley were stolen from Lancashire Mining Museum in Buile Hill, Salford.