Clock Face Colliery, St.Helens (1890-1966)

Clock Face Colliery began sinking shafts in 1890 and initially boasted three. The no.1 and no.2 shafts were sunk to a depth of 500 feet but had to be abandoned due to water problems. In 1904 The Wigan Coal and Iron Company took over the colliery and promptly turned no.1 shaft into a pumping pit that dealt with over 700,000 gallons of water per day. Of this 500,000 gallons were sold onto St.Helens Corporation as fresh drinking water. By 1915 many miners and ancillary workers had relocated from Wigan to the Clock Face / Sutton area of St.Helens, boosting the local population.

A St Helens Reporter article from 1926 on the Clock Face Colliery

Just days before the 1926 national strike and subsequent lock out which blighted the lives of so many families, the St.Helens Reporter - in an article entitled 'Who Picks the Coal? - Dangerous Practice at Clock Face ' (16/4/1926) - described how serious damage had been caused to the colliery dirt heap by a group of 150 locals who had been pillaging coal.

The article reported that it had been the custom for some months for residents of Clock Face and Sutton to regularly visit the heap and "purloin some of the coal which they found there ". The practice had continued despite the death of a man - described as a "raider" - who weeks earlier had been buried alive picking out coal.

This low quality image shows women picking coal at Clock Face
Colliery during the lock out - note small boy on left

Fortunately on the morning of 29th March when 150 pickers were "busily engaged raking and scratching among the dirt for coal", no one lost their life. However, the railway line at the top of the heap on which 100 ton trains carried coal began to sink and so colliery management called the police. P.C. Johnson arrived but was single handed and quite unable to arrest so many pilferers on his own. He did manage to take the names of three men who were subsequently fined 5 shillings each by the bench at St.Helens Police Court chaired by Colonel W.N. Pilkington.

Clock Face Colliery pictured during the 1930s

Pit-head baths were installed at Clock Face Colliery as early as 1939, described in the local press as a "boon to the housewife". Further improvements were made during the 1950s and by the early '60s the mine was producing over 160,000 tons of coal a year and employing over 700 men. There were 122 colliery houses in Clock Face occupied by mineworkers and their families and a strong community spirit prevailed. The Clock Face Colliery Carnivals and athletics meetings were said to be among the most talked about events in the north-west.

St Helens Reporter article 23rd October 1965

However, in October 1965 the National Coal Board, as part of its national 'streamlining' initiative, deemed the pit uneconomic with "geological difficulties" and announced that the collery would close the following year.

There was then 638 men employed at the site. At the time of the announcement, John Quinn, head lampman and employee for 44 years at Clock Face, was quoted in the St Helens Reporter:

It is like losing a member of the family. Here you are in a community that has gone on for many years. It is a very homely and friendly pit from the management right down to the workers and this feeling has prevailed throughout the years.

The Times report from November 25th 1965

Eight months notice of the closure was given and understandably there was much anger amongst the workforce, as they believed that there was still plenty of coal underground. This anger boiled over on November 25th when the Coal Board informed the men that 200 of them were going to be moved straightaway to other pits. So five miners took part in a sit-down strike, 2000 feet below ground and by the following day it had become nine men with the rest of the workforce striking in support above ground. The protest only lasted 48 hours as they knew that it was futile, but it was the only way they knew to let off steam.

The site was reclaimed by St Helens Council as a community woodland and public open space in the late 1990s and is now known as Clock Face Country Park.

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Header: Clock Face Colliery's Old Pit