The Hulton Colliery Company was a coal mining company operating on the Lancashire Coalfield from the mid 19th century in Over Hulton and Westhoughton, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.[1]
It had its origins in small coal mines on the northern part of the Hulton Park estate in 1571 owned by the Hultons who had held the estate since medieval times. In the early 19th century the mines were owned by William Hulton. Hulton was High Sheriff of Lancashire in 1811 and in 1812 sentenced four men, including a 12 year old boy, to be executed for their part in a Luddite attack on a local mill. His orders led to the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.[2] In 1843 Hulton paid his colliers the poorest wages in Lancashire. He remained opposed to permitting the right to free assembly and was vehemently opposed to miners congregating with the object of forming a union.[3]
Hulton's pits thrived and in the 1820s were connected to the Bolton and Leigh Railway. Hulton established the Hulton Colliery Company in 1858. The company expanded and the shafts for Hulton Colliery Bank Pit Nos 1&2, the Klondike Pit, were sunk in 1897 west of Chequerbent and Bank Pit Nos 3&4, the Pretoria Pit, were sunk between 1900 and 1901 close to the Atherton boundary towards the west of the estate.[4]