Gibfield Colliery

Gibfield Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries in Atherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.[1][2]

A shaft was sunk to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 by John Fletcher [3] next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway line which opened in 1830.[4] The colliery was served by sidings near Bag Lane Station. In 1872 the colliery was expanded when a second shaft was sunk to access the Arley mine at 1233 feet. A third shaft was sunk after 1904 accessing nine workable coal seams between the Arley mine and the Victoria or Hell Hole mine while the original Gibfield shaft was used for ventilation.[5]

In common with many collieries on the Lancashire Coalfield, women, known as Pit brow lasses were employed on the surface to sort coal on the screens at the pit head.[6] The first pit-head baths in the country were built at Gibfield in 1913.[7] Gibfield closed in 1963 and the site was cleared.[8]

References

  1. ↑ NW Division map, cmhrc.co.uk, retrieved 2011-02-18
  2. ↑ Fletcher, Burrows & Co. Ltd., Durham Mining Museum, retrieved 2011-02-18
  3. ↑ North and East Lancashire (collieries A-G), Coal Mining Heritage Resource Centre, retrieved 2011-04-03
  4. ↑ Hayes 2004, p. 46
  5. ↑ Hayes 2004, p. 48
  6. ↑ Davies 2009, p. 58
  7. ↑ Gibfield Colliery Pithead Baths still open for business (pdf), wlct.org, p. 4, retrieved 2011-02-18
  8. ↑ Hayes 2004, p. 50

Bibliography

  • Davies, Alan (2009), Atherton Collieries, Amberley, ISBN 978-1-84868-489-8
  • Hayes, Geoffrey (2004), Collieries and their Railways in the Manchester Coalfields, Landmark, ISBN 1-84306-135-X

Coordinates: 53°31′43″N 2°30′17″W / 53.5286°N 2.5048°W