Industrial Heritage Of Lightshaw Meadows - Bamfurlong, UK - UK Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

The area around here was used extensively for coal mining. As time went on land subsidence led to small natural lakes forming known as 'Flashes'. They now form an area of Special Scientific Interest.

This board concentrates on the mining activities.

Coal mining in and around Lightshaw Meadows was significant in bringing the Industrial Revolution to Wigan and Leigh. The cheap supply of coal attracted many textile factories and other industries. Today with the industry all gone, it is difficult to imagine that this area would have been a hive of activity.

Conditions in the coal mines

The coal mines were dirty, extremely dangerous and very	"When I was young I was told to learn
hard work. Wages were very low and there were	how to do my sums, otherwise I'd be
frequent accidental deaths due to roof falls, explosions,	down the pit, and that was a fate
gas seepages or equipment failure	worse than death." Eric

"My dad always said one of the jobs he would never ever have done was a miner. He said it's not human for a person to go down in all that dirt. He said they deserve every penny." Jan

A line drawing shows a miner working in a very narrow seam with the following text.
The position in which the colliers are obliged to work in the thin seams. An illustration from the 1842 Royal Commission Report on Children in the Mines.

A line drawing shows a children working in a very narrow seam with the following text.
Children "drawing" coal. An illustration from the 1842 Royal Commission Report on Children in the Mines.
In Victorian times, the coal was brought to the surface by 'drawers', women, or children as young as five, who pulled heavy carts of coal through wet tunnels up to the surface.

How did Wigan's flashes form

Lightshaw Meadows has been shaped by the area's industrial heritage. In places, land has subsided where coal mining has left a void underground. These areas of sunken land are regularly flooded by the river, creating the special habitat.
a diagram illustrates the process

Mining coal

Each colliery had at least one mine shaft sunk into the coal seams. The coal was won at the coalface by colliers. The coal was loaded into tubs and then taken by trains to the landing. Sometimes by ponies It was then loaded into the cage and wound to the surface in the downcast shaft. This was how large areas of coal were won. Increased demand for coal from industry resulted in larger, deeper mines.
a diagram illustrates the shafts in a coal mine

Other industry

The availability of coal around Lightshaw Meadows attracted other industries to the area, particularly textile factories. The industry began small, with domestic handloom weavers supplementing their income from farming. A small silk industry also developed during the early 19th Century. It was however the availability of raw cotton transported along the Leeds Liverpool Canal from Liverpool that made the cotton industry dominant from the end of the 19th Century.

Pit brow lasses
Women that worked on the surface were called 'pit brow lasses'. They carried out tasks such as emptying the coal tubs, loading coal onto wagons, or screening the coal to remove any stones or dirt. It was hard work, requiring a lot of strength.
While some pit brow lasses enjoyed their work, others considered the job unfeminine, especially their clothes, and thought women working in the mines would result in "loose morals".
Two photographs show pit brow lasses working and in their working clothes

Maypole Colliery Disaster

One of the biggest disasters in the area occurred at the Maypole Colliery in Abram. ON 11th August 1908 a large explosion ripped through the colliery killing 76 miners. A memorial was erected in 1929 at St. John the Evangelist church in Abram.

My great grandfather got in a fall and it crushed both his legs and he used sticks for the rest of his life. He said none of his children would ever go down the mine as long as he lived." Jack

Dorothy the engine

On 30th April 1945, Dolly the railway engine disappeared underground. Dolly, driven by Ludovic Barry, was shunting 13 coal wagons between Abram and Platt Bridge when a large hole appeared in the ground under the rail lines. This was the result of the subsidence of a mine shaft sunk 60 years previously and sealed in 1932. With the lines unsupported they broke under the weight of the wagons, causing them to plummet into the ground taking Dolly with them. Ludovic, who tried to save the engine, until it was too late to jump, lost his life.
Three photographs illustrate this story

"Some of my friends' dads were miners and when I was about nine years old there was a pit explosion and one of my friends' dads was killed in it. And then not long after that pit explosion there were a lot of miners' strikes."

Type of Historic Marker: Information board about the nearby historic mines. Give your Rating: Historical Marker Issuing Authority: Not listed Age/Event Date: Not listed Related Website: Not listed

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