A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



small copper bars of less than seven ounces troy 

 weight, for the East India Company, which ex- 

 ported them to China, where they were supposed 

 to pass for coins.* The works were discontinued 

 in 1 8 15. Since then they have been succeeded 

 by others, such as the Belvoir Mining Co. in 



1 831, the Staffordshire Co. in 1832, and many 

 others more recently. In 1850 6,971 tons of 

 copper ore were imported at Liverpool to be 

 smelted on the Lancashire coalfields.' At the 

 present time the business of metal extraction is 

 rather extensive at St. Helens.' 



COAL MINING 



All the Lancashire Coal Measures lie to the 

 south of the Ribble, where the prevailing rock is 

 the New Red Sandstone, which overlies all the best 

 English coal deposits. The measures extend 

 from Pendleton to Colne in the north-east and 

 St. Helens in the west, and together constitute 

 three groups of coalfields : (a) Burnley, (i) 

 Manchester (Ardwick, Pendlebury, Pendleton, 

 &c.), and (f) Mid-Lancashire (from St. Helens 

 to Wigan and Chorley, and thence through 

 Bolton round the semi-circle of hills to Rochdale 

 and Ashton, continuing south through Stockport 

 into Cheshire as far as Macclesfield). 



From a mining point of view the Lancashire 

 coalfield is associated with three special features : 

 steep inclinations, thin seams, and great depth.* 

 The greatest inclination is probably at Moston 

 Colliery, ranging from forty degrees to twenty 

 degrees, or from i in ij to i in 2f. At a 

 number of collieries extending from Ashton- 

 under-L)'ne to Pendleton and Clifton, and again 

 at St. Helens, the dip is from i in aj to I in 3^. 

 The inclination of the seams is associated with 

 the large faults which traverse this coalfield, the 

 Irwell valley fault having a throw of 3,000 ft. 

 and other faults of 1,800 ft., 1,500 ft. and 1,200 ft. 

 have been proved. 



Probably in no coalfield except Somerset are 

 thinner seams worked than in Lancashire. 

 Billinge, Bacup, Burnley, Accrington, Blackburn, 

 Chorley, Rivington, Rochdale, and Littleborough 

 produce coal from the Mountain Mine Series, 

 from seams less than a foot in thickness to some- 

 thing over two feet in thickness. The matter 

 of the depth of the Lancashire mines will be 

 referred to again below in detail, as it is a ques- 

 tion of some importance. First, however, we 

 must point out the various modes of mining 

 which have been used up to the present time, 

 and give some account of the earliest evidence 

 of wrorking. 



The material relating to the early history of 

 coal-mining in Lancashire is not very plentiful. 

 One reason for this probably is that for a long 



* Aikin, A Description of Manchester, 313. 



' Pari. Paper No. 457, Session 185 1, quoted in 

 Baines, Hist, of Liverpool, 763. 



" James Brockbank, Kist. of St. Helens, 23, 24. 



' John Gerrard (Chief Inspector of Mines for the 

 Manchester district). Presidential Address to the 

 Manchester Geological and Mining Society, Nov. 1 904. 



time even the local use of coal was very slight, 

 the principal fuel being turf, which could be easily 

 procured from the large tracts of mossland. Turf 

 had the further advantage of producing a moie 

 aromatic and less sulphurous smoke in the days o\ 

 chimneyless rooms.' 



The earliest reference to the working of coal 

 in Lancashire relates to Colne at the end of 

 the thirteenth century. Possibly from this neigh- 

 bourhood the monks of Bolton Priory procured 

 the sea-coals which they used for their forge 

 in 1294,' as they continued to send to Colne 

 for fuel for this particular purpose long subse- 

 quently. A more direct record, however, occurs 

 immediately afterwards. In the de Lacy accounts 

 of 1296 we find the items: ' Trochdene * 

 [Trawden], sea-coal, ioj. ; Clivachre " [Cliviger], 

 sea-coals sold there 31^.' In 1305 there is another 

 reference : ' ' Colne, sea-coal there, I 6j.' 



At the court of Penwortham, held 3rd De- 

 cember, 1323, John son of Richard the smith 

 paid \2d. for licence to get coals in Middilford,' 

 but the ' coal ' (carbo) may have been charcoal. 

 In the account of the issues of Penwortham in 

 1323-4 there is the item of I2d. of the same 

 substance sold there that year,* and in the same 

 account under ' Trawden ' we read ' 2j. 6d. of 

 coals sold there the year.' By one of the 

 Standish Charters, dated 30 November, 1350, 

 the grant of certain lands and tenements is 

 made, with the exception of fire-stone and sea- 

 coal, if it be possible to find them within the 

 said lands and tenements.' A little later coal at 

 Bolton is mentioned for the first time. In 1374 

 Richard de Heton brought a plea against Hugh 

 de Machon and Henry Scolecroft, both of Bolton, 

 for digging for sea-coals at Bolton.*" 



' On the question of the use of turf, see H. T. Crofton, 

 'Lane, and Ches. Coal Mining Rec' Trans, of the 

 Lane, and Ches. Antiq. Soc. (1889), 26, 27. 



' Whitaker, Craven (ed. 2), 384, quoted in Gallo- 

 way, Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade (ser. i), 

 28. 



* Chet. Soc. Remains, vol. 1 12, pp. 4, 1 19. 



' Ibid. 12, 124. « Ibid. 100, 176. 



' Lanes. Court R. (Rec. Soc. xli), 39 ('pro licencia 

 habendis carbonibus'). 



® Duchy of Lane. Min. Accts. bdle. 1148, No. 6. 



' Local Gleanings Relating to Lane, and Ches. (ed. 

 J. P. Eanvaker), ii, 47. 



'"De Banc. R. No. 455, m. 395 d'. Trin. 

 48 Edw. III. 



356 



