Howe Bridge Colliery was a coal mine which was part of the Fletcher, Burrows and Company

Fletcher, Burrows and Company

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 of the middle coal measures in the Manchester Coalfield...

's collieries 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...

 in
Atherton, Greater Manchester

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...

, then in the historic county of Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England.

The Fletchers owned several small pits which eventually became the Howe Bridge Collieries.
In 1845 Howe Bridge Collieries owned by John Fletcher sank three deep shafts to the Seven Feet mine,
the Victoria pit where coal was wound was sunk to 447 feet, the Puffer for pumping water to 435 feet and the Volunteer, the upcast ventilation

Underground mine ventilation

Underground mine ventilation provides a flow of air to the underground workings of a mine of sufficient volume to dilute and remove noxious gases . The source of these gases are equipment that runs on diesel engines, blasting with explosives, and the orebody itself...

 shaft. These last three pits were taken over by 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...

, became 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...

 in 1947 and closed in 1959.

After the pit closed Lancashire United Transport

Lancashire United Transport

Lancashire United Transport was a tram, bus and trolleybus operator based at Howe Bridge in Atherton, 10 miles north west of Manchester...

built a garage and bus repair works on the site.