Photo-a-Day  (Tuesday, 22nd November, 2022)

I presume the shaft is capped with concrete or is it just filled and covered with railway sleepers? Even today a minor blot on the landscape but reminds us of our past

This is a lovely walk (on a dry day),walked there loads earlier this year.

I see a lot of these old mine shafts when I'm out walking with our group, and like this one, none of them look like they are fenced off properly with a strong safety fence.

Those old mine shafts covered with railway sleepers are a disaster waiting to happen, when the wood rots it gives way leaving gaping and very deep holes, I wouldn't like to be standing on one when it collapses. At least this one is marked with a fence around it, there's been a few lately which have long been buried and forgotten and only became known about when the sleepers had rotted away and collapsed, apparently it was a common practice and many were never marked on any records or maps.

There was a mine shaft (possibly in line with this one) at the side of the last house at Dukes Row at Aspull, I can remember the NCB filling it with tons of concrete.

The mine shaft at the end of Duke's Row was the Fothershaw Pit, Cyril. It went down to Haigh Sough and the Sough was extended from there to Aspull Pumping Pit.

You know your local pits Dennis. They cottage owners made a nice feature of it after it was filled in and concreted over by putting in a pit head wheel, or a replica, it looked good.

Cyril their was old Prince Albert pit ventilation shaft in your uncle John back garden with just a round stone wall around it, (like the one in the field next to the M6) that vanished one night.
It took the NCB a few weeks to fill it in.

He wasn't you uncle he was your cousin

I delivered load after load of concrete to the Dukes Row collapsed shaft ,Previous to the collapse it was capped and a fella that lived in the big house just beyond Duke’s row built a wall round the capping and had a square pond above the shaft with loads of coy carp in they were transferred to tubs and drums or whatever was available it was very dicey going anywhere near the half tilted capping. I also lived at number 11 Dukes row when they only had one door to the house and shared a toilet with next door neighbour ????

John didn’t those houses on Duke’s Row have their stairs on the outside at the back originally?

I do remember being told of that collapse Mick. When walking around you just don't know what's under your feet, when the land was being cleared for the subways for the new buildings at Wigan RAEI they came across what was initially thought to be an old well, this was later found to be a long forgotten pit ventilation shaft where the workings had flooded.

John, it was probably you that we saw delivering the concrete when we was up at Dukes Row.

Not sure about stairs being at the back Dennis as that was the farmers field and no access but they could have been.The stairs divided the living room and the kitchen and a bedroom either side at the top,no bathroom just a big galvanised bath if you were lucky you were the first ????,not sure about the window cleaner as it was the mother-in-laws house.The wagon I drove was GPF206V Green cab with Quickmix sign on even though Ready Mix owned them but that was 12 year’s after living there possibly 1980 when the cap collapsed John Woods was on the Pochin concrete pump majority of the time he lived in Westhoughton,few days work there.