The Burnley Coalfield is the most northerly portion of the Lancashire Coalfield. Surrounding Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn and Accrington, it is separated from the larger southern part by an area of Millstone Grit that forms the Rossendale anticline. Occupying a syncline, it stretches from Blackburn past Colne to the Yorkshire border where its eastern flank is the Pennine anticline.
Geography and geology The Burnley Coalfield which surrounds Burnley, Nelson, Blackburn and Accrington is the most northerly portion of the Lancashire Coalfield. The Rossendale anticline, an area of Millstone Grit, separates it from the larger southern part of the coalfield. Occupying a syncline bounded by the Pendle monocline to the north, the coalfield stretches from Blackburn, eastwards past Colne to the Pennine anticline on the border with Yorkshire.
The coalfield's seams are the Westphalian Coal Measures of the Carboniferous period, laid down from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests more than 300 million years ago but here, only the Lower Coal Measures remain. Within the coalfield, the dip in the strata varies from shallow to the south and west but steeper where there are faults. Named faults include the Deerplay Fault in the middle of the district which is associated with a line to west where the Lower Mountain and Upper Foot mines combine to form the Union mine. The Cliviger Valley Fault has a throw of up to in the Cliviger valley. The intersecting Theiveley Lead Mine and nearby Hameldon Faults are some of a smaller number of easterly aligned structures which separate the coalfield from the horizontal strata of Rossendale. Other unnamed faults include one between Altham and Huncoat which is considered to be the boundary between the Burnley and Accrington district.
Around the district, 19 coal seams, of varying thickness were exploited over time. The most important were the Lower/Union and Upper Mountain, Dandy, King and Arley mines. Seams were generally less than 1.5 metres in thickness, frequently less. One notable exception occurs in the Calder Valley near Gawthorpe Hall, where as a result of the absence of the Tim Bobbin Rock which usually separates the King and Fulledge Thin mines, the Padiham Thick mine is up to 5.3 metres thick. Coal extracted from the Arley, Upper and Lower Mountain mines was used to produce high grade metallurgical coke which was in high demand for industry, whereas coal from the Union/Upper Foot mines had a high sulphur content making it unsuitable for making coke.
The Union mine is contaminated with in-seam concretions known locally as coal balls or bobbers, spherical concretions, composed of limestone measuring from 0.1 to 1.0 metre in diameter that posed hazards for mining. They were largely responsible for the closure of Bank Hall Colliery, the area's largest and deepest pit.
History
Coal was exploited in the 13th century at Trawden near Colne where receipts are mentioned in a rent roll from 1295. Coal was also bought at Cliviger. The first coals were extracted at the outcrops before shaft and adit mining were adopted. The coal industry grew in the 16th and 17th centuries, developing from manorial tenants who dug coal for their own use into fixed term leases in return for rent. Coal was mined all around Burnley, mostly from shafts. By 1800, more than a dozen pits had been sunk in central Burnley.
The arrival of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was a catalyst for industrialisation as was the coming of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway line through Burnley to Colne in 1848. In the 1840s some old small pits such as Cleggs Pit and Habergham closed and larger collieries were sunk at Bank House Colliery, Whittlefield Colliery and the old Fulledge Colliery was redeveloped and linked by a tramway to canal. Tramways came into more common use in the 1880s and several collieries in the town were linked by the system.
Several collieries were nationalised under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 on vesting day, 1 January 1947. After the 1950s much of the area was opencasted. Coal was opencast at Helm, Royal Zone, Gawthorpe Hall and Tipping Hill. Hill Top Colliery, a very small drift mine near Bacup, was still producing small amounts of coal in 2010 before complete closure in 2014.
Collieries Accrington district Aspen Colliery was next the canal and the East Lancashire line at Oswaldtwistle, having both a canal basin and railway siding. Mining here is thought to have commenced in the early 19th century and the colliery closed in 1930. The remains of the site which includes two stone-built engine beds and a bank of 24 beehive type coke ovens are protected as a scheduled monument. Baxenden Colliery was located on the western side of Baxenden village next to the old railway line from Accrington to Bury. Broadfield Colliery was south of Oswaldtwistle. The 1840s a surface tramroad connected to the printworks and Foxhill Bank via Moscow Mills. Dunkenhalgh Park Colliery was south of Dunkenhalgh. Huncoat Colliery was sunk by George Hargreaves and Company between 1890 and 1893. The shafts accessed the Upper and Lower Mountain mines. The company linked its Calder and Scaitcliffe Collieries to Huncoat underground before 1930 and it wound the coal from all three pits. The colliery was nationalised in 1947 and the NCB modernised the pit to raise productivity. Improvements were made to the pit bottom and coal raising was improved by higher capacity cages. Underground, new diesel locomotives hauled three-ton mine cars. The colliery closed after its coal was exhausted in 1968.
Moorfield Colliery next to the canal in Altham was opened around 1880 and mining continued until 1949. It was retained by the NCB as a pumping station until around 1970. It was originally worked by the Altham Colliery Company, who sunk a single shaft, linked by a inclined roadway to their colliery at Whinney Hill for ventilation and emergency escape. In 1895 the site had a winding engine with twin diameter cylinders made by Ashton, Frost and Co, a pumping engine capable of extracting over 230 gallons per minute by Hathorn, Davey and Co, and a surface-driven endless chain haulage system. There was also screening plant, a battery of 25 Simon Carves coke ovens and a bank of beehive type ovens. On 7 November 1883 an underground explosion killed 68 miners, including 13 boys and the colliery manager.* Martholme Colliery near the old hall at Martholme was connected to Bridge Hey Colliery across the River Calder and Great Harwood Colliery also known as Park Pit, in Great Harwood. Rishton Colliery in Rishton was begun by P.W. Pickup Ltd in late November 1884 and mining continued until 1941. The NCB used it as a pumping station from 1955 until 1970. A ginny road from the pit connected to a coaling wharf on the canal. Scaitcliffe Colliery in Accrington was sunk to the Lower Mountain mine in the late 19th century. It was located south of Accrington railway station, next to the old railway line to Bury near Howard & Bullough's Globe Works. After nationalisation the NCB employed 182 men underground and another 25 on the surface, but the colliery closed in the summer of 1962. Sough Lane Colliery was southwest of Oswaldtwistle and had a tramroad connecting it to Knuzden. Town Bent Colliery was south of Oswaldtwistle.
Burnley district
Bank Hall Colliery was the town's largest and deepest pit, sunk by the Executors of John Hargreaves between 1865 and 1869 and the pit closed on 17 April 1971. Barclay Hills Colliery was started before 1834. Its site was later occupied by coke ovens linked by tramroads to Hapton Valley and a coal staithe on the canal. The colliery had two shafts to the Arley Mine and a cupola chimney. Although the coke ovens are marked as disused on the 1912 map, coal screening of the output from Hapton Valley continued until 1947. Bee Hole Colliery was located to the northeast of Burnley FC's Turf Moor home and for many years gave its name that end of the football ground (replaced in the 1990s by the Jimmy McIlroy stand). Black Clough Colliery was opened by the Deerplay Colliery Company in 1915. It worked a small area of the Arley mine north of the Deerplay fault, and the Lower Mountain mine on the south side from a drift in Black Clough about 1.2 km distant. The colliery closed in 1940 but was reopened by the NCB between 1948 and 1950. A ginny road from the pit connected to a coal staith near the Thieveley Pike triangulation point, 1470 feet above sea level. The coal was opencasted between 1948 and 1955.
Burnt Hills Colliery on the Burnley – Edenfield road (A682) at Clow Bridge in Dunnockshaw and nearby Porters Gate were two small collieries owned by the Executors of John Hargreaves that operated from the 1840s and closed in 1920 as the redeveloped Hapton Valley Colliery had taken over their workings 10 years previously. Both worked the Upper and Lower Mountain mines and Burnt Hills had a coal staithe and a surface tramroad that connected the pits by about 1863. In 1880 the tramroad was extended from Porters Gate to connect to the system at Hapton Valley. In 1892 Burnt Hills had two shafts with a single-cylinder winding engine and an underground engine drove a long haulage system that raised the coal through a surface drift. Porters Gate had several shafts and a least three surface drifts and was one of the few pits in the area to record zero fatal accidents. Calder Colliery was open from 1908 until July 1958. It was sunk by George Hargreaves Collieries beside the Padiham to Clayton-le-Moors (A678) road on the north side the River Calder near Simonstone. Shaft sinking had commenced by 1903 but was stopped for several years due to water ingress. Coal was got from the Lower Mountain mine which was thick using longwall cutters and conveyor belts The pit was later linked to Huncoat and Moorfield Collieries. The pit was nationalised in 1947 and even though it was uneconomic, demand for this quality of coal was so high that production continued until its reserves were depleted and it closed in 1958. Clifton Colliery was sunk in 1876 by the Executors of John Hargreaves on the road from Burnley to Clifton Farm. It closed in 1955 but one shaft was retained for use as a pumping station until 1971. Mining at Copy Pit began in the 1830s from a drift near to Walton Copy Farm in Cliviger near the source of the River Calder. After the arrival of the railway line between Todmorden on the Manchester and Leeds Railway and Burnley in the 1850s, the Cliviger Coal and Coke Company expanded its operations. The pit was near the summit of the railway and gave its name to the route. Copy Row, a terrace of seven cottages was built for the mine workers on Burnley Road. The company built coke ovens and a gantry over the Todmorden turnpike road to a loading bay by the rail line. To access the Arley mine, the company sank two shafts in 1860. A Cornish-type steam pump was installed to de-water the pit. The headgear for each shaft was arranged on either side of the engine house with a single wheel for each. One shaft had a cage for miners and the other had a cage for coal tubs. Copy Pit was the Cliviger Coal and Coke Company's only colliery to be nationalised in 1947 as the others had been worked out. The pit produced 1,000 tons of coal per week until 1963, when it closed. At nationalisation the pit employed 52 men below ground in the Dandy seam and 17 surface workers.