Fletcher Burrows In 1776 Robert Vernon Atherton of
Atherton Hall 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 and 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
pit brow 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 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 2
d. 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 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. 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==