Ashworth Colliery was located on the Ashworth Road opposite Ridd Cottages on
School Lane (SD 84960 13545), near Norden, Rochdale. Also known as Ridd Pit but
some other coal mines were also on that same site: including Wheel pit, Flash
Lane pit, Crawstone Rake pit, Tramping Cat pit and Engine Pit. The Ridd shaft
was a deep pit, while the others were perhaps drift mines; the coal seams and
tunnels apparently running in all directions and, even as far as Norden! It was
operational from before 1845 until its closure in 1898. Many local men and boys
would have worked down the pit here at Ashworth during the mid 19th century,
but, very sadly some never come to the surface again as there were tragic
disasters underground. In 1842 an Act of Parliament brought an end, for the most
part, to child labour in the coal mines. There is nothing much to see of the
Ashworth Pit today, apart from the capped-off pit shaft, a grassy mound, and
some large stones which lie in the grassy field adjacent to Ashworth Road. (The
photo below shows a drift mine in the Ashworth Valley in 1890. It is probably
one of the pits at Ashworth Colliery.)
H. D. Clayton writing in 1979 says: "
The whole Ashworth area was riddled with coal mines; many were drift mines
cut into the hillside; others. like Ridd pit on Ashworth Road, were deep pits
with winding gear operated by a steam engine. The inhabitants of Moss Row in
Norden were perturbed to hears miners cutting coal beneath their homes when
the pit head was a mile away. The chimney of this pit was only felled recently
and the huge stones of the engine bed can still be seen. The coal from the
drift mines below Ashworth Hall was carried to a weighbridge at Guelder Clough
by a tramway laid along the bank of the Naden Brook, where the path now runs.
Although for years naked candles were used by the miners for light, explosion
and fire do not seem to have been a hazard. The rock is permeated by
underground streams and water was the chief danger, as evidenced by the two
disasters at Birtle in 1852 and 1884, when two mines were flooded."
(The photo below shows the site of Ashworth Colliery marked by a red arrow).
Sandiford & Ashworth writing in 1981 say:
"There were several more pits to the south where the glacial valley cut
deeply across a number of coal measures whose names, like Sand Rock Mine and
Six Inch, arose from their location rather than their character. They were
not, however, broad seams, the former being about one foot nine inches while
the latter was about one foot. To mine such narrow seams it was necessary to
remove part of the adjacent seat earth and it was suggested that this
by-product may have promoted the operation of a pottery which stood at one
time close to the present Ashworth Reservoir House.
"The position of the measures, inclined across the direction of the valley,
meant that the drift mine was common, where the coal was worked progressively
from the point at which it emerged on the surface or was approached by means
of a passage or adit rather than a shaft. As the measures frequently sloped
downwards and the entrances were often on the side of the hill, there was the
constant problem of flooding. The danger was greater where flooding occured in
disused workings and there have been several instances where miners have
accidentally broken into these workings and have been swept away by the
released water. Such was the case at Birtle Coal Pit situated some 400 yards
from the Pack Horse Inn in Elbut Lane.
Northern Mines Research Society website gives the following: "The shafts at
this colliery, three kilometres north of Heywood, were 122 metres deep to the
Mountain Mine. It was being worked by Robert Lees, James Greenwood & James
Lord in 1854. The same people probably comprised the Ashworth Coal Co. which
had the colliery in 1855. Members of the Stott family owned Ashworth from 1859
to 1880. The Ashworth Colliery Co. Ltd worked it from 1885 until 1898, when it
was abandoned. In the latter period, 40 persons worked underground, with seven
on the surface."
References & Related Websites:-
Clayton H. D., A History of Ashworth near Rochdale, Ashworth Hall, Rochdale,
1979.
Cole, John & Fish, Grahame, Beyond Heywood, Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, 1978?
Sandiford, A. V & Ashwoth T. E., The Forgotten Valley, Bury and District Local
History Society, 2000.
https://www.nmrs.org.uk/mines-map/coal-mining-in-the-british-isles/lancashire-coalfield/rochdale-oldham-coalfield/ashworth-colliery-pre-1854-1898/
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/nostalgia/captain-fold-pit-disaster-1139413
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