Pits in Wigan

Sad when you think the pits in Wigan and the country have all long gone and now we are all paying sky high heating bills due to imported gas prices.

Tonks...more to be pitied than blamed..

I used to walk through a pit car park on the way to St Marie's primary school on Almond Brook Road from Pepper Lane....can't remember the name if the pit.....used to cut through past the pit cottages off Old Pepper Lane......

There's been loads of coal mines in the mining towns around Wigan. However, there's not been any productive collieries taking coal from under Wigan.

I can't understand how Wigan got the coal mining town name, because it's anything but. As you well know!

lizziedownunder (1866)
Robin Hill Drift Mine?

GrahamK (136
There was one or two in St Helens as well!

Tonker how do you know the pits weren't productive? Surely they were productive at the time of operation just in a more primitive way to the techniques used in modern day mining.

Within the township of Wigan there were at least 30 shafts that are recorded as such.

Pits in Wigan itself included
Peter Platts Pit
Waterhey Colliery
Holme House Colliery
Woods Pit
Rylands Pit
Gidlow Lane Pits
Swinley Colliery
Rimmers Pit
Douglas Bank Colliery
Meadow House Colliery
Barley Brook Colliery
Chapel Colliery
Hardy Butts Pit
Crompton Street Pits
Mesnes Colliery (Wigan)
Bottling Wood Drift

There are a few more for good measure. Surely one of these must have been productive and taken coal from under Wigan.

In response to why wigan is classed as a mining town. The mining in Wigan came before the mills.

detritus21.
I think you've got him there and I also think that an apology, from him, will be coming along very shortly....then again.

Oh and by the way, what happened to me logs??

Thanks Winder.....

Coal Mining will be back in the future when gas and oil have gone.

Was coal gas produced in any quantity in Wigan when the pits were in full operation? I think there were a number of other byproducts of that process, but they escape me at the moment.

Wigan had its own gas works where the current gas towers are. Once the Wigan borough could have been fairly self sufficient in terms of Electric and Gas. There own gas works and own power station all from coal from under the Borough mined by men from the borough. How times have changed.

can any one tell me are the gasometer's in working order ?

David Dunlop:


BY-PRODUCTS OF COKING

As the name implies, the recovery of coal chemicals is an important aspect of the by-product coking process. During the cokemaking process, approximately 30% by weight of the initial coal charge is given off as mixed gases and vapours. This raw coke oven gas is drawn off from the ovens, collected and put through a refining process in the By-Product area of cokemaking. The recovery system is extremely complex, but essentially it involves the condensation or extraction of the desired products from the gases of the coke-oven exhaust stream. The gases and vapours leave the ovens at a temperature ranging from 315 to 370 C. Water sprays at strategic locations in the collecting system reduce the temperature to a range of 145 to 215 C.

The carbonization or destructive distillation of a ton (0.9 metric ton) of coal produces an average yield of about 0.7 ton (0.63 metric ton) of coke; 11,500 cubic feet (345 cubic meters) of gas; 12 gallons (45.6 Litres) of tar; 27 pounds (12 kilograms) of ammonium sulfate; 50 gallons (190 litres) of benzol; 0.9 gallon (3.4 litres) of toluol and naphtha; and 0.5 pound (0.2 kilograms) of naphthalene.

Coal tar,a thick black, sticky liquid, is the source of a great number of chemical compounds, including creosote, pitch, toluene, and naphthalene; is extracted from the stream of gases evolved during coking. Coal tar is recovered by partially condensing (changing to liquid) the hot vapours from the coke oven. This is done by means of water spray cooling towers, mechanical impingement of tar particles, and electrostatic precipitation.

Ammonia, a gaseous compound, is used in products ranging from smelling salts to agricultural fertilizers. The most common method to extract ammonia from coke-oven gas,involves the concentration of ammonia bearing vapours by use of a still and an ammonia absorber. In the absorber, the rising gases are sprayed with dilute sulphuric acid to form ammonia sulphate, which, when dried, contains about 26 5 ammonia.

Phenol (C6H5OH) is recovered from coal tar and ammonia liquor. Sometimes called carbolic acid, phenol is used in the manufacture of plastics, perfumes, picric acid, salicylic acid, cutting oils, antiseptics, and wood preservatives. The method of recovering phenol uses benzol as a solvent to remove the phenol from the ammonia liquor. Caustic soda is then used to extract the phenol from the benzol, and the final product is sodium phenolate.

Cresols (C7H8O) are used extensively in insecticides, weed killers, resins, pharmaceutical,and photographic compounds. They are in the phenol family and are extracted by a process using sulphuric acid as a converter and benzene as an extracting agent.
Toluene (C6H5OH3) is recovered both from the coke-oven gas and from the coal tar. It is used in the manufacture of chemicals, explosives, detergents, solvents, and dyes, and is also converted to benzene.

Light oil, which is one of the components of coke-oven gas contains more than a hundred compounds.The most important elements recovered from light oil are benzene, toluene,xylene,and solvent naphtha. These chemicals are then used in the preparation of solvents,plasticizers, resins, and synthetic fibres.

The coke oven gas resulting from the refinement of the raw gas is used throughout the plant as a fuel for reheating furnaces, soaking pits, coke oven batteries, boilers, and numerous other uses.

Didn't they find a Pit shaft When they were building the previous Wigan Baths.

I think you are right,brings a new meaning to pithead baths

Thanks gj

Wigan Baths mine workings...

See here

well done art good research

This is in response to ( DETRITUS21 & GRAHAM K & TONKER) YOU ALL REFER TO NO COAL FROM WIGAN PITS BEING IN A PROFITABLE SITU UNLESS YOUR GOING TO BE "PICKY" WHAT ABOUT BLUNDELL'S AT TOP OF FOUNDRY LANE PEMBERTON,WIGAN .HE WAS THE FAMOUS OWNER WHO BUILT SCHOOL'S AT HIGHFIELD,AND ALSO GAVE MONEY FOR ST.MATHEW'S CHURCH . I CAN STATE CATEGORICALLY THAT THE PIT IN QUESTION HAD SEVERAL SHAFT'S AND MY DAD OFTEN TOLD ME ABOUT ONE OF THE ROUTE'S WAS HEADING DOWN BILLINGE ROAD AT ST.MARK CHURCH NEWTOWN THEY HAD TO "GO AROUND " AND CARRY ON IN THE DIRECTION TOWARD WIGAN,( THE REASON OBVIOUS CHURCHES BECAUSE OF THIER HEIGHT AND WEIGHT HAD TO HAVE A SUBSTANCIAL BASE SO HAS TO STOP FROM COLLAPSE. HE THEN WENT ON FURTHER TO TELL ME THE NEXT BIG OBSTACLE WAS THE PARISH CHURCH SLAP BANG IN THE MIDDLE OF WIGAN ,SAME AGAIN A HUGE BY PASS ROUND IT TO SAFE GUARD IT FROM SAME DISASTER. THE LAST POINT I WOULD WISH TO MAKE IS THE SO-CALLED LACK OF PROFITABILITY! THIS IS JUST TOMMY ROT ,WHY I HEAR YOU ASK ANYONE CAN GO DOWN INTO WIGAN LIFE CENTRE ( I think that's the place ) AND ASK FOR DATA,AND INFORMATION CONCERNING THE WEALTH THAT COLONEL BLUNDELL MADE OUT OF COAL MINING IN WIGAN AND YOU WILL BE AMAZED AT THE WEALTH THAT FAMILY MADE,ALL DUES TO THEM THEY PUT SOME THING BACK FOR THE FUTURE OF THE PEOPLE OF WIGAN. I WAS TOL OF ALL THIS NEWS INFO FROM A TRUE HERO MY DAD WHO BY THE WAY DIED FROM WORKING DOWN THE MINES OF WIGAN,DID NOT RECIEVE ANY MONIES FROM HIS 100% SILICOSIS WHICH CAUSED HIS DEMISE BECAUSE OF A PETTY RULING WHICH WAS THE FACT HE DID NOT WORK IN AN N.C.B.OWNED MINE BETWEEN 1950 TO 1954 HE DID NOT QUALIFY ,THOSE PART YEARS HE WORKED AT PRIVATE OWNED MINES JUST UP THE ROAD TOP OF ARBOUR " A DRIFT MINE QUAKER HOUSE COLLIERY, HE WENT DOWN THE MINES AT THE TENDER AGE OF 12 YEARS ( AT BLUNDELLS) IN1922,THAT DISEASE MEANT HE WAS FORCED TO STOP AT 58 YEARS OF AGE AND DIED 6 YEARS LATER AT 64 YEARS NEVER DREW ANY PENSION ,END OFF GOD BLESS DAD........

Blundell's Colliery was in Pemberton. In fact, they were named 'Pemberton Collieries'!

Blundells made money out of coal mining NEAR Wigan, not in it.
That's because the coal was obtainable in other places 'AROUND' Wigan, but not 'IN' Wigan.

The story of driving any mine workings FROM Pemberton UNDER Wigan is false.

Graham bear i think you have misinterpreted what i have written. Also please use lower case when typing as capitals is shouting and much harder to read.

My comments are based that there has been significant coal mining within the township of Wigan but much of it would not be profitable in modern times but when it was mined was profitable. There are a couple of exceptions however mainly Douglas bank and rylands collieries which both closed later.

The collieries in foundry lane were in Pemberton not Wigan

Don't be silly Tonka..Wigan was and is floating on coal...Plus its easy to doctor the log books to make a Pit un-economical!!!!!Even if a Pit was just breaking even, it was still worth keeping open to continue the survivable of the local community.. You know and we all know that Thatcher was a liar and made the industry look un-economical.

Campfire, the same coal is under Wigan that is under anywhere else in the region. However, it's a long way down. Much deeper than it is anywhere else. That's why it was uneconomical to go for it.
Pits that were 'in Wigan', went for coal under Pemberton, Ince or Haigh. No productive colliery took coal from 'under Wigan'.
Coal was brought 'into Wigan' for use in the mills and engineering, not taken out of Wigan for use elsewhere.

Rubbish........As usual

Tonker define productive. Productive would to me mean producing coal. As coal outcrops along the line of both library street and king street it makes the coal awful deep doesn't it? You telling me alliance colliery accessed coal outside of Wigan township when i have a map somewhere clearly showing workings well within township boundaries.

Tonker - Wigan is not just Standish Gate, I live Stubshaw and that's Wigan I believe !!!

http://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/pits/Wigan/Wigan-2.htm

Stubshaw Cross is a hamlet in Ashton in Makerfield, not included in the Wigan Urban Area. It is under Wigan council and mail is delivered from Wigan sorting office.

Of course Wigan is not just Standishgate. Wigan is a town in its own right. Standishgate is only a street.

Regardless of what some people write on the internet, it's a fact that coal cannot be taken from under Wigan in any quantity. It's too deep.
That's Wigan, by the way. Not all the other towns, with different names, that are under the authority of the same council.

Wigan was, primarily, a commercial town and a mill-town.

Tonker change the record you are wrong and know you are. Coal couldn't be taken today but more due to the fact Wigan is now so built up, but was in the past. There are a total of 22 feet of mines that outcrop in the town centre portion of Wigan being the 3 Wigan seams. Not to mention the outer areas of the township such as Ince 7 feet mine, Ince furness mine. Within the town centre King Mine, Ravine and Yard lie at approximately 200, 400 and 600 feet below the Wigan Seams all easily accessible and were accessed by collieries within the township of Wigan. Alliance Colliery accessed the yard seam at a depth of 618 feet from shafts on crompton street.

Under Mesnes park the Arley Mine lies at a depth of just over 800 feet. Under Swan Meadow Road Pemberton 5 feet lies at a depth of 390 feet.

I could carry on. So is 800 feet to deep to mine? given the depths of workings at some of the collieries outside of Wigan I would suggest not.

By the way I haven't just made the figures up they are off the 1934 Geological Survey Map sheet 93NE if you wish to have a look.

I think it could be said that Wigan was primarily a coal and commercial town which gradually turned into a mill town in the mid to late 1800's.

Well done detritus21.. Really Impressed

tonker cant accept that wigan is the capitol town of industrial lancashire

I wouldn't say it was the capitol town either it was however an important spoke in the industrial wheel of Lancashire. Tonker will now come out with the chestnut of Wigan not being in Lancashire since a long time probably since it became a county borough but we all know the truth well most of us anyway

it was said tongue in cheek detritus

My reply was also

Wigan: a town in OCCUPIED Lancashire.

Hi there( Detritus 21) a bit late but apologise for shouting at you in july 22nd 14, but when ever folk go on about pits etc I always think of my dad who gave so much yet like many,many other's got f/a back albeit a pair of knackered lungs. Also the guy (tonker) he still disputes what I stated about getting and at a profit coal from UNDER Wigan ,at the pit down foundry lane he travelled as I have stated before all the along billing rd,towards Wigan Parish church around that and the headed towards gidlow, after that I am at a loss ,but most surely under Wigan.

we are people of an age who remembered the coalmines our grandchildren wont know what a piece of coal looks like.ow many of us as seen a coal fire recently.

Well my daughter has a coal fire at her house, guess what she is paying £ 15 per bag of coal ,some one's making a killing...

good on her the price is ridiculous.

I just cannot accept your comment tonker were you say I was implying that I along with my father , brother, were telling lies. IT'S factual the mines from Blundell's went toward,s Wigan via ST. Mark's church and they had to detour around it ,similar the parish church when I have the time I will get you the truth.

GB Last Year, I was paying £12.50: that was for Kellingley Deep-mined housecoal. However, alas, that is no more, Kellingley recently having closed.

It was only available to special order, the coal merchant told me he had about 30 customers who specifically requested UK mined coal, so we all had to have our deliveries at the same time: ie no choice of dates.

At the time, the default would have been bags of Columbian imported housecoal, which was about £1 a bag more expensive, and definitely inferior stuff, though maybe its excessive powderiness was down to the rigours of its long sea voyage.

Throughout all this debate what is riling me is that someone is being rather silly and is splitting hairs.

To claim that coal which was mined under our feet in billing road, past ST.Marks church is not from Wigan is ludicrous as far as I am concerned I know the facts and at the end of the day that's all that matters.

Well said Golden Bear. Those who know shake their heads in disbelief at the rubbish spouted by you know who.