Fletcher, Burrows and Company
Encyclopedia
Fletcher, Burrows and Company was a coal mining
company that owned collieries in Atherton
, Greater Manchester
, England. Gibfield
, Howe Bridge
and Chanters
collieries exploited the coal
mines (seams) of the middle coal measures
in the Manchester Coalfield
. The Fletchers built company housing at Hindsford
and a model village
at Howe Bridge
which included pit head baths and a social club for its workers. The company became part of Manchester Collieries
in 1929. The collieries were nationalised in 1947 becoming part of the National Coal Board
.
leased the Atherton coal rights to Thomas Guest from Bedford
and John Fletcher of Tonge with Haulgh
, Bolton
forbidding them to mine under the hall. The Fletchers had mining interests in Bolton and Clifton
in the Irwell Valley
from Elizabethan
times. Matthew Fletcher's family owned most of Clifton in 1750 including the Ladyshore
and Wet Earth Collieries
. During the early 19th century the Fletchers worked several pits around Howe Bridge. In 1832 John Fletcher's son Ralph, who lived at the Haulgh in Bolton died leaving his pits at Great Lever
to his son, John who had built up the Lovers' Lane pit, and divided the business in Atherton into shares for his sons, John, Ralph, James and his nephew John Langshaw. The company was then known as "John Fletcher and Others". The company developed the Howe Bridge Collieries and sank three shafts in the 1840s when James Fletcher was the manager. The family acquired land and property in Atherton and between 1867 to 1878 Ralph Fletcher controlled the business. Abraham Burrows became a partner in 1872 and the company became Fletcher Burrows and Company. John Burrows was the company's agent from 1878 to 1900 when Leonard Fletcher took over. In 1916 Clement Fletcher took over and remained with the company for 45 years.
The Fletcher Burrows Company was considered to be a good employer as well as having a reputation for good management, in the 1870s it built homes at Hindsford
and the model village at Howe Bridge for its workers. The houses were designed by a Dutch architect. and some properties at Howe Bridge are now part of a conservation area. A public bathhouse, shops and a social club were part of the village. The workers, some of them women who worked on the pit brow screens sorting coal, were provided with hampers or turkeys at Christmas by the company. The Fletchers also contributed to the cost of St Michael and all Angels Church
at Howe Bridge in 1877.
In 1867 company employee Edward Ormerod
developed and patented the "Ormerod" safety link or detaching hook, a device that has saved thousands of lives in mines.
The company was a supporter in setting up the first Mines Rescue Station in Lancashire at Howe Bridge
in 1908.
In 1921 Heath Robinson
visited the company's pits and was commissioned to produce its 1922 calendar.
The largest of the early pits owned by the Fletchers which eventually became the Howe Bridge Collieries were Lovers' Lane Colliery which lasted until 1898 and the Eckersley Fold pits. The Crombouke Day-Eye, a drift mine or adit dates from the 1840s when a drift was driven into the Crombouke and the Brassey mines at a gradient of 1 in 5. The Crombouke and Eckersley Fold pits closed in 1907. The company sank the deep mines of Howe Bridge Colliery
in 1845. Three shafts were sunk to the Seven Feet mine, the Victoria pit where coal was wound at 447 feet, the Puffer for pumping water at 435 feet and the Volunteer, the upcast ventilation shaft. Howe Bridge Colliery was taken over by Manchester Collieries and closed in 1959.
Gibfield Colliery
's origins are in a shaft sunk to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway
line which opened in 1830. The colliery was served by sidings near Bag Lane Station. In 1872 the colliery was expanded when a new shaft was sunk to access the Arley mine at 1233 feet. A third shaft was sunk after 1904 accessing nine workable coal seams between the Arley Mine and the Victoria or Hell Hole mine while the original Gibfield shaft was used for ventilation. The first pit-head baths in the country were built at Gibfield in 1913. Gibfield closed in 1963 and the site was cleared.
Chanters Colliery in Hindsford was sunk in 1854 in an area where coal had been mined for centuries from small pits. One of these pits, the Gold Pit which closed before 1800 was reputed to have had an engine. The colliery was modernised and developed in 1891 when two shafts were sunk first to the Trencherbone Mine at 1121 feet and deepened to the Arley Mine at 1832 feet in 1896. These shafts accessed 12 coal seams. Coal screens and a washery were built, and steel headgear and a new winding engine installed by 1904. The colliery was continually developed and modernised and lasted until 1966.
at Fletchers sidings north of Atherleigh
. The Fletchers built a tramroad to a landsale yard at Stock Platt Bridge in Leigh
where their coal was sold. This tramroad constructed to standard gauge was converted to narrow gauge hauled by horses before 1850. The Fletchers decided to extend this short branch to the Bridgewater Canal
in 1857. A basin at Bedford
was built and the railway constructed from Stock Platt through Bedford via a tunnel, 889 feet long, built by the cut-and-cover method. A new line from Howe Bridge to the east of the turnpike was built to the tunnel by May 1861 and the old tramway was removed. The Fletchers bought two locomotives for use on this line, Lilford and Ellesmere, from Hawthorn's in Leith. They had reduced chimneys as the tunnel height was restricted. The tunnel operated for 70 years although in the later years its use declined and the track was lifted in 1952. The workshops at Gibfield Colliery built a 0-4-0 saddle tank in either 1888 or 1893 which probably worked to Bedford basin. It had no cab and a reduced chimney and was named Electric.
Chanters was connected to the Manchester and Wigan Railway line built by the London and North Western Railway
(LNWR), in 1864 between Tyldesley
and Howe Bridge Station
by a short branch provided by the LNWR. Fletcher Burrows bought another Hawthorn's locomotive Atherton and in 1878, a six coupled saddle tank locomotive, Collier, from Manning Wardle
in Leeds. Vulcan, a 0-6-0 saddle tank, was bought from the Vulcan Foundry
in 1892 A replacement for Lilford with the same name was bought from the Hunslet Engine Company
in 1897 and in 1909 the company bought its largest locomotive, another 0-6-0 saddle tank, Atlas from Pecketts in Bristol.
Two saddle tank locomotives, Carbon a 0-4-0 in 1920, and in 1923 Chowbent a 0-6-0 were bought from Andrew Barclay's in Kilmarnock. In 1927 0-6-0 saddle tank Colonel was bought from Hunslets.
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
company that owned collieries in Atherton
Atherton, Greater Manchester
Atherton is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England, historically a part of Lancashire. It is east of Wigan, north-northeast of Leigh, and northwest of Manchester...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
, England. Gibfield
Gibfield Colliery
Gibfield Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries in Atherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.A shaft was sunk to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 by John Fletcher...
, Howe Bridge
Howe Bridge Colliery
Howe Bridge Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries at Howe Bridge inAtherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England....
and Chanters
Chanters Colliery
Chanters Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries at Hindsford inAtherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.-Geology:...
collieries exploited the coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
mines (seams) of the middle coal measures
Coal Measures
The Coal Measures is a lithostratigraphical term for the coal-bearing part of the Upper Carboniferous System. It represents the remains of fluvio-deltaic sediment, and consists mainly of clastic rocks interstratified with the beds of coal...
in the Manchester Coalfield
Manchester Coalfield
The Manchester Coalfield is part of the South East Lancashire Coalfield. Its coal seams were laid down in the Carboniferous period and some easily accessible seams were worked on a small scale from the Middle Ages and extensively from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th...
. The Fletchers built company housing at Hindsford
Hindsford
Hindsford is a suburb of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated to the west of the Hindsford Brook, an ancient boundary between the townships of Atherton and Tyldesley cum Shakerley, and east of the Chanters Brook in the ancient parish of...
and a model village
Model village
A model village is a type of mostly self-contained community, in most cases built from the late eighteenth century onwards by industrialists to house their workers...
at Howe Bridge
Howe Bridge
Howe Bridge is a suburb of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated to the south west of Atherton town centre on the B5215, the old turnpike road from Bolton to Leigh...
which included pit head baths and a social club for its workers. The company became part of Manchester Collieries
Manchester Collieries
Manchester Collieries was a coal mining company formed in 1929 with headquarters at Walkdenfrom a group of independent companies operating on the Manchester Coalfield. The Mining Industry Act of 1926 attempted to stem the post-war decline in coal mining and encourage independent companies to merge...
in 1929. The collieries were nationalised in 1947 becoming part of the National Coal Board
National Coal Board
The National Coal Board was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947...
.
Fletcher Burrows
In 1776 Robert Vernon Atherton of Atherton HallAtherton Hall, Leigh
Atherton Hall was a mansion house and estate in Atherton historically a part of Lancashire, England but since 1894 incorporated into Leigh, Greater Manchester...
leased the Atherton coal rights to Thomas Guest from Bedford
Bedford, Greater Manchester
Bedford, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of three ancient townships, Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh, that merged in 1875 to form the town of Leigh.-Toponymy:...
and John Fletcher of Tonge with Haulgh
Tonge with Haulgh
Tonge with Haulgh was a township of the civil and ecclesiastical parish of Bolton le Moors in the Salford hundred of Lancashire, England.-Toponymy:...
, Bolton
Bolton
Bolton is a town in Greater Manchester, in the North West of England. Close to the West Pennine Moors, it is north west of the city of Manchester. Bolton is surrounded by several smaller towns and villages which together form the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, of which Bolton is the...
forbidding them to mine under the hall. The Fletchers had mining interests in Bolton and Clifton
Clifton, Greater Manchester
Clifton is a small town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies in the Irwell Valley in the northern part of the City of Salford....
in the Irwell Valley
Irwell Valley
The Irwell Valley extends from the Forest of Rossendale in North West England, through to the cities of Salford and Manchester. The River Irwell runs through the valley, along with the River Croal.-Geology:...
from Elizabethan
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
times. Matthew Fletcher's family owned most of Clifton in 1750 including the Ladyshore
Ladyshore Colliery
Ladyshore Colliery, originally named Back o' th Barn, was situated on the Irwell Valley fault on the Manchester Coalfield in Little Lever, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. Founded by Thomas Fletcher Senior, the colliery opened in the 1830s and mined several types of coal...
and Wet Earth Collieries
Wet Earth Colliery
The Wet Earth Colliery has a unique place in British coal mining history, apart from being one of the earliest pits in the country; it is the place where the engineer James Brindley made water run uphill...
. During the early 19th century the Fletchers worked several pits around Howe Bridge. In 1832 John Fletcher's son Ralph, who lived at the Haulgh in Bolton died leaving his pits at Great Lever
Great Lever
Great Lever is mainly a residential suburb of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. Historically within Lancashire, it is about 2½ miles south of Bolton town centre and the same distance north of Farnworth town centre. Great Lever has many shops and services serving the local community...
to his son, John who had built up the Lovers' Lane pit, and divided the business in Atherton into shares for his sons, John, Ralph, James and his nephew John Langshaw. The company was then known as "John Fletcher and Others". The company developed the Howe Bridge Collieries and sank three shafts in the 1840s when James Fletcher was the manager. The family acquired land and property in Atherton and between 1867 to 1878 Ralph Fletcher controlled the business. Abraham Burrows became a partner in 1872 and the company became Fletcher Burrows and Company. John Burrows was the company's agent from 1878 to 1900 when Leonard Fletcher took over. In 1916 Clement Fletcher took over and remained with the company for 45 years.
The Fletcher Burrows Company was considered to be a good employer as well as having a reputation for good management, in the 1870s it built homes at Hindsford
Hindsford
Hindsford is a suburb of Atherton in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is situated to the west of the Hindsford Brook, an ancient boundary between the townships of Atherton and Tyldesley cum Shakerley, and east of the Chanters Brook in the ancient parish of...
and the model village at Howe Bridge for its workers. The houses were designed by a Dutch architect. and some properties at Howe Bridge are now part of a conservation area. A public bathhouse, shops and a social club were part of the village. The workers, some of them women who worked on the pit brow screens sorting coal, were provided with hampers or turkeys at Christmas by the company. The Fletchers also contributed to the cost of St Michael and all Angels Church
St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge
St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge, is located in Leigh Road, Howe Bridge, a suburb of Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Leigh, the archdeaconry of Salford and the diocese of Manchester...
at Howe Bridge in 1877.
In 1867 company employee Edward Ormerod
Edward Ormerod
Edward Ormerod was an English mining engineer.Edward Ormerod was born on 2 May 1834 in the village of Church, near Accrington, in Lancashire, England. He worked as a mining engineer at Fletcher, Burrows and Company's Gibfield Colliery in Atherton, Greater Manchester, where he devised and tested a...
developed and patented the "Ormerod" safety link or detaching hook, a device that has saved thousands of lives in mines.
The company was a supporter in setting up the first Mines Rescue Station in Lancashire at Howe Bridge
Howe Bridge Mines Rescue Station
Howe Bridge Mines Rescue Station was the first Mines rescue station on the Lancashire Coalfield openedin 1908 in Howe Bridge, Atherton, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England....
in 1908.
In 1921 Heath Robinson
W. Heath Robinson
William Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist and illustrator, best known for drawings of eccentric machines....
visited the company's pits and was commissioned to produce its 1922 calendar.
The collieries
Among the old small pits working around Howe Bridge in the early 19th century were the, Old Endless Chain pit at Lovers Lane, the Old Engine Pit, the New Engine Pit (a gin pit), Marsh Pit, Little Pit, Sough Pit and Crabtree Pit. Colliers who worked for the Fletchers were entitled to free ale at the end of their shifts at the Wheatsheaf. In 1774 coal was sold for 2d. a basket but the price had risen to 5d. by 1805.The largest of the early pits owned by the Fletchers which eventually became the Howe Bridge Collieries were Lovers' Lane Colliery which lasted until 1898 and the Eckersley Fold pits. The Crombouke Day-Eye, a drift mine or adit dates from the 1840s when a drift was driven into the Crombouke and the Brassey mines at a gradient of 1 in 5. The Crombouke and Eckersley Fold pits closed in 1907. The company sank the deep mines of Howe Bridge Colliery
Howe Bridge Colliery
Howe Bridge Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries at Howe Bridge inAtherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England....
in 1845. Three shafts were sunk to the Seven Feet mine, the Victoria pit where coal was wound at 447 feet, the Puffer for pumping water at 435 feet and the Volunteer, the upcast ventilation shaft. Howe Bridge Colliery was taken over by Manchester Collieries and closed in 1959.
Gibfield Colliery
Gibfield Colliery
Gibfield Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company's collieries in Atherton, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.A shaft was sunk to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 by John Fletcher...
's origins are in a shaft sunk to the Trencherbone mine in 1829 next to the Bolton and Leigh Railway
Bolton and Leigh Railway
The Bolton and Leigh Railway was the first public railway in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It opened in 1828 for goods.-History:...
line which opened in 1830. The colliery was served by sidings near Bag Lane Station. In 1872 the colliery was expanded when a new shaft was sunk to access the Arley mine at 1233 feet. A third shaft was sunk after 1904 accessing nine workable coal seams between the Arley Mine and the Victoria or Hell Hole mine while the original Gibfield shaft was used for ventilation. The first pit-head baths in the country were built at Gibfield in 1913. Gibfield closed in 1963 and the site was cleared.
Chanters Colliery in Hindsford was sunk in 1854 in an area where coal had been mined for centuries from small pits. One of these pits, the Gold Pit which closed before 1800 was reputed to have had an engine. The colliery was modernised and developed in 1891 when two shafts were sunk first to the Trencherbone Mine at 1121 feet and deepened to the Arley Mine at 1832 feet in 1896. These shafts accessed 12 coal seams. Coal screens and a washery were built, and steel headgear and a new winding engine installed by 1904. The colliery was continually developed and modernised and lasted until 1966.
Merger
In 1927 Robert Burrows proposed a merger of several local colliery companies including the Atherton Collieries operating west of Manchester. As a result Manchester Collieries was formed in 1929. In turn when the coal industry was nationalised in 1947 Manchester Collieries became part of the National Coal Board's Western Division, No1 (Manchester) Area. A reorganisation in 1952 moved the Atherton Collieries into No2 (Wigan) Area.Colliery railways and locomotives
After 1830 Lovers Lane colliery was connected to the Bolton and Leigh RailwayBolton and Leigh Railway
The Bolton and Leigh Railway was the first public railway in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It opened in 1828 for goods.-History:...
at Fletchers sidings north of Atherleigh
Atherleigh railway station
Atherleigh railway station served an area of Leigh in what was then Lancashire, England. It was located on the Bolton and Leigh Railway line which ran from Kenyon Junction to Bolton Great Moor Street Station.-History:...
. The Fletchers built a tramroad to a landsale yard at Stock Platt Bridge in Leigh
Leigh, Greater Manchester
Leigh is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Wigan, and west of Manchester. Leigh is situated on low lying land to the north west of Chat Moss....
where their coal was sold. This tramroad constructed to standard gauge was converted to narrow gauge hauled by horses before 1850. The Fletchers decided to extend this short branch to the Bridgewater Canal
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester...
in 1857. A basin at Bedford
Bedford, Greater Manchester
Bedford, a suburb of Leigh, Greater Manchester is one of three ancient townships, Bedford, Pennington and Westleigh, that merged in 1875 to form the town of Leigh.-Toponymy:...
was built and the railway constructed from Stock Platt through Bedford via a tunnel, 889 feet long, built by the cut-and-cover method. A new line from Howe Bridge to the east of the turnpike was built to the tunnel by May 1861 and the old tramway was removed. The Fletchers bought two locomotives for use on this line, Lilford and Ellesmere, from Hawthorn's in Leith. They had reduced chimneys as the tunnel height was restricted. The tunnel operated for 70 years although in the later years its use declined and the track was lifted in 1952. The workshops at Gibfield Colliery built a 0-4-0 saddle tank in either 1888 or 1893 which probably worked to Bedford basin. It had no cab and a reduced chimney and was named Electric.
Chanters was connected to the Manchester and Wigan Railway line built by the London and North Western Railway
London and North Western Railway
The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. It was created by the merger of three companies – the Grand Junction Railway, the London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway...
(LNWR), in 1864 between Tyldesley
Tyldesley railway station
Tyldesley railway station is a closed railway station in Greater Manchester. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire.-History:...
and Howe Bridge Station
Howe Bridge railway station
Howe Bridge railway station, originally Chowbent station, is a closed railway station in Atherton, Greater Manchester. It was situated within the historic county of Lancashire.-History:...
by a short branch provided by the LNWR. Fletcher Burrows bought another Hawthorn's locomotive Atherton and in 1878, a six coupled saddle tank locomotive, Collier, from Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle
Manning Wardle was a steam locomotive manufacturer based in Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.- Precursor companies :The city of Leeds was one of the earliest centres of locomotive building; Matthew Murray built the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca, in Holbeck, Leeds,...
in Leeds. Vulcan, a 0-6-0 saddle tank, was bought from the Vulcan Foundry
Vulcan Foundry
Vulcan Foundry was a British locomotive builder sited at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire .-History:It was originally opened in 1832 as Charles Tayleur and Company to produce girders for bridges, switches and crossings, and other ironwork following the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway...
in 1892 A replacement for Lilford with the same name was bought from the Hunslet Engine Company
Hunslet Engine Company
The Hunslet Engine Company is a British locomotive-building company founded in 1864 at Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by John Towlerton Leather, a civil engineering contractor, who appointed James Campbell as his Works Manager.In 1871, James Campbell bought the company for...
in 1897 and in 1909 the company bought its largest locomotive, another 0-6-0 saddle tank, Atlas from Pecketts in Bristol.
Two saddle tank locomotives, Carbon a 0-4-0 in 1920, and in 1923 Chowbent a 0-6-0 were bought from Andrew Barclay's in Kilmarnock. In 1927 0-6-0 saddle tank Colonel was bought from Hunslets.