An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens

Part 12 (of 34) - Sutton Manor Colliery Part 2 (1960 - 1991)

Researched & Written by S.R.Wainwright  ©MMX     Contact Me      Bookmark and Share
Colliery Photo Album #1       Colliery Photo Album #2       Colliery Photo Album #3

 Sutton Manor Colliery History Pt1    Header image: Sutton Manor Colliery headgear winder

Sutton Manor Colliery St.Helens sign
Sign at the entrance to Sutton Manor Colliery (Frasier Nairn Collection)

By the beginning of the 'Swinging Sixties', Sutton Manor Colliery was in a strong position with 1600 men on its books and output rising. Now under the control of the National Coal Board (NCB) since the nationalisation of the industry in 1957, the colliery was annually outputting over 300,000 tons of coal and seemed to have a rosy future. They could even afford to knock down and rebuild part of their new social club because there wasn't enough elbow room in their snooker room!

Sutton Manor miners welfare club newspaper report
The Sutton Manor Welfare Club had been built in 1959 from a grant from the Lancashire miners' welfare fund. The NCB contributed halfpenny to the fund for every ton of coal produced at Lancashire pits. However, soon after construction, the miners began complaining of cramped conditions inside the snooker room. The club's committee limited the number of spectators, rearranged the furniture and even bought shorter snooker cues. But it was all to no avail and so three walls of the newly-built club were knocked down and it was rebuilt. The story of 'Miners Snookered!' even made it into the Times!

During the early '60s, the Coal Board began a study of the industry's pits, assessing their long-term economic viability and cost-effectiveness. In October 1965 as a consequence of their controversial 'streamlining' initiative, the NCB made the decision to close the adjacent and apparently uneconomic Clock Face Colliery. However, Sutton Manor with its record-breaking production figures seemed to have a more secure future. Having surprisingly placed Sutton Manor in the 'jeopardy' class of at risk pits, the NCB removed it from their list and began an advertising campaign to recruit boys to both Sutton Manor and Bold collieries. In adverts placed in the St.Helens Reporter during 1966, 15 year-old school leavers were promised a job for life:
Pasted Graphic    Coal mining offers Apprenticeship and a Lifetime's career....boys entering coal mining today can look forward to a lifetime in the industry.   Pasted Graphic 3

sutton manor tallies
Sutton Manor tallies issued to each miner as a safety check - they were surrendered prior to
disembarking down the cage, then returned when the miner surfaced

Fresh young recruits were promised "good pay right from the day you start". If they chose to work underground they'd receive a weekly wage of £7 3s 6d a week. The wage on offer for a 15 year-old surface worker at Sutton Manor was only slightly less, at £6 9s 6d. Employment benefits on offer included access to the canteen, pit-head showers, club and sports facilities.

underground locomotive in sutton manor colliery
Albert the underground loco at Sutton Manor Colliery (contributed by Les Dunning / Ian Lally)

Ex-miners were also targeted by the National Coal Board as part of their recruitment campaign using the headline 'Come Back Into Mining'. They were promised better pay than before plus "permanent employment and a secure future". The strap-line of the ads used uppercase to emphasise the longevity of employment on offer:

Pasted Graphic   Britain will need coal and mines for a LONG, LONG TIME  Pasted Graphic 3
(St.Helens Reporter advertisement 29/10/1966)

Sutton Manor Colliery, St.Helens in British Coal's in-house magazine 'Sutton Manor Magazine'
The colliery portrayed in British Coal's publication 'Sutton Manor Magazine'

Miner at Sutton Manor Colliery St.Helens
In the Spring of 1968, Sutton Manor Colliery was reorganised and coal production ceased in no.1 pit as the management believed that there were more economic seams contained within pit no.2. As a consequence, there was a reduction in the workforce of 481 men, leaving 937 men still on the books. Shaft no.1 was still used by the colliery, however, for essential ventilation and winding operations.

In 1974 a new 10 ton triple drilling rig was introduced that was said to resemble a mechanical octopus and 2 years later an untapped coal field was discovered just south of Sutton Manor at Barrows Green. A scheme was proposed which would involve driving two underground roadways of 1,150 yards in length through a major geological fault.

The Colliery Manager Peter Male was quoted in the St.Helens press as saying that this boded well for the future:

Pasted Graphic   Sutton Manor has been in jeopardy for some years because of a shortage of results from the coal face and we have lost some money. But this new field opens up new roads for the future and there are reserves of coal to last the pit for up to thirty years.  Pasted Graphic 3

mining families on a trip to russia 1974
Coal was also being obtained from the two faces in the Higher Florida and Wigan Four Feet seams and marketed locally to industry, power stations and the domestic market. Although Sutton Manor now had a slimmed down workforce, there weren't as many accidents and the colliery seemed to have a good future. One miner's family was also able to enjoy a free trip to the Soviet Union!

In one year miner Tommy Ludden and his wife Mary, a former pit brow lass at Sutton Manor but who then worked at the colliery as a cleaner, went with their young daughter Jane on a three week all-expenses paid holiday to Russia. This was as a result of an arrangement between the super-power's Miners Union and the National Union of Mineworkers. It was a wonderful opportunity to get away from the dirt and grime of the pit for a while in the company of fifty other mining families from all over the UK. This group picture is taken in a Black Sea resort about 1974 with 11-year-old Jane on the front row (3rd left) sitting next to her mother and enjoying three weeks off school! Miners were selected from a rota and had to be members of the union to qualify.

In 1982 the colliery announced its intention to sell surplus methane gas to the ICI Pilkington Sullivan works at Widnes. A 5 mile-long pipeline linked Sutton Manor with ICI and over 5 million therms of methane - equivalent to 3 million gallons of oil - was pumped through it. Cooling, distribution and pumping facilities were sited at the colliery and filtration and metering equipment at ICI. The scheme cost £3 million and began on July 14th, 1983.

Sutton Manor Colliery in St.Helens
Photographed in August 1986 the new no.1 headgear and no.2 headgear (Mel Moran Collection)

In December 1983 the National Coal Board announced a £14 million investment in Sutton Manor which they predicted would provide a "kiss of life" for the "viable" pit, converting it into one of Britain's most modern collieries. The St. Helens Star began its report of the cash injection by saying:

Pasted Graphic Happy days could be here again for pitmen at one hard-grafting colliery  Pasted Graphic 3 (St.Helens Star 15/12/1983)

The 1984 strike was a particularly difficult period in the colliery's life. However, it is remembered by many as a time of great generosity for the miners and their families who were denied benefits. There were gifts from many sources, especially from people in Liverpool and Brian Mitchell and Jim Smith took a brightly painted Play Bus into the city each week. People would come out of their homes and donate whatever they could spare onto the Play Bus. There were also collection centres in Hardman Street and at the Liverpool Seamans Offices.

For almost a year the Printers Union took Sutton Manor miners to a local cash and carry to buy fruit, bacon, eggs and vegetables. Every week a man, who no one knew, turned up at the institute with a large bag of carrots and one of onions. For the children of the strikers, the free school dinner was a lifeline as their main meal of the day and the community ensured that they had their annual Christmas party.

plan of Sutton Manor Colliery, St.Helens
1) Forest Road 2) Colliery canteen 3) Main gates 4) Manager's block 5) Pit baths clean side 6) Pit baths exit
7) Pit baths dirty side 8) Surveyors office 9) Toilets 10) Engineering workshops 11) Lamproom (pic Ian Lally)

In 1986 the NCB's successor, British Coal, shocked Sutton Manor mineworkers by announcing that they were going to make 250 redundancies. The pit was now considered uneconomic and was losing £25 for each tonne of coal that it produced. Jack Evans of British Coal told readers of the St.Helens Star that in his opinion some members of the workforce weren't grafting hard enough:

Pasted Graphic  Despite our best efforts to make the pit a success, there is an apparent reluctance on the part of some members of the workforce at Sutton Manor...Its future is in the hands of the men  Pasted Graphic 3
(St.Helens Star 9/10/1986)
Sutton Manor Colliery, St.Helens output table January 1990
The redundancies left just 425 men on the colliery's books and by February 1990 with a downsized workforce, matters seemed to be improving. In the 5th edition of in-house publication 'Sutton Manor Magazine', then Colliery Manager K.A. Leech praised the men for breaking 3 output records since the previous edition of the 4-page newsletter.

For week ending 20/01/1990, total weekly output had been a record 15,096 tonnes and the colliery results for the month of January 1990 were shown as an operating profit of £157,000, with net profit after capital charges of £46,000.

Miners at Sutton Manor Colliery in Sutton St.Helens
A photograph which appeared in 'Sutton Manor Magazine No.5' (February 1990)

sutton manor miner william mullaney
Happy mineworkers posed for a photograph (above) propping up a board which detailed their record breaking activities, subtitled as 'Manor Men Are Back Again' . The caption underneath the picture in 'Sutton Manor Magazine', referred to the output levels as a "grand achievement". Colliery Manager Mr. Leech in an article entitled 'Well Done!' explained that "work is well underway" on a new coal face.

By December 1990 the Colliery Manager was P.G. Redford and in the Christmas edition of 'Sutton Manor Magazine (no.9) he informed the pitmen that in the quarter that ended in October, output had gone down. He claimed that British Coal had lost money and so Sutton Manor had been put back into the 'Reconvened Review Procedure'. However, the colliery manager also revealed that since October, the week by week tonnage was starting to rise and there was some cautious optimism for the future with Redford also referring to planned development work.

So there was some bewilderment when just weeks later British Coal announced that the pit was unviable and scheduled for closure in June 1991. They claimed that Sutton Manor Colliery had lost £23 million over the previous five years and a British Coal spokesman was quoted by the St.Helens Star on May, 30th 1991 as saying that "The pit was losing money and not hitting output targets". It finally closed on the 24th May, 1991 with 40 years of coal still underground.

St.Helens newspaper cutting on the closure of the Sutton Manor Colliery, St.Helens.
St.Helens Star report on the closure from May 30th, 1991

There is so much heritage in the Sutton Manor site. Not many know that it was the last colliery in the country to employ a steam winder as the St.Helens Reporter reported thirty years ago:
Pasted Graphic   The sounds and smells of steam engines have left the railways and the factories but they still hang over Sutton Manor Colliery. For steam power is alive and well and putting in a 24 hours a day shift...every year visitors come from all over the country to take a look at one of the last refuges of the steam age.  (St.Helens Reporter 14/7/1978)  Pasted Graphic 3 

sutton manor colliery pitmen
Pitmen at Sutton Manor Colliery - please contact us if you can identify these men

Sutton Manor Colliery (St.Helens) – the remants of shaft no. 2.
In fact during its final years the colliery was unique in possessing one of the newest winding engines in the country as well as, pre-1986, one of the oldest in the steam winder. This was used for winding both men and materials and the same company which built the engines for the ill-fated Titanic also manufactured the steam winder's engine.

The old National Coal Board gates in Jubits Lane and the remnants of the pit shafts (see right - pit no.2) are all that’s left to remind visitors of the site's illustrious past. Due to their depth, a decision was taken not to fill in the shafts. Instead two concrete plugs, about three yards thick, were lifted into position over the twin shafts with venting pipes provided for the methane. From being a productive colliery with enormous slag heaps, the 230 acre site is now a Forestry Commission-managed woodland and grassland perfect for walking.

The people of Sutton haven't forgotten the site's heritage and hopefully the old NCB gates will remain as an ever-present reminder. Former mineworkers, of course, have considerable affection for their former workplace and some have even had their ashes scattered or interred there.

noah lamb
A number of former pitmen have became councillors or civic leaders such as Harry Williams who worked at Sutton Manor for 50 years as a foreman in the power house. He held the distinction of being the Mayor of St.Helens in 1973, its final year as a borough council prior to becoming a Metropolitan Borough under Merseyside. Former Sutton Manor pitman Brian Spencer is currently the Leader of St.Helens Council and Mike McGuire became MP for for Ince from 1964 to 1983 and for Makerfield from 1983 to 1987 when he retired. Dr. Ken Moses CBE from Thatto Heath became General Manager at Sutton Manor Colliery and later a senior executive at British Coal.

Another with a distinguished Sutton Manor service record was Noah Lamb (1898-1990) who spent 50 years down the pit. Noah is pictured sitting on his bed at 30 Chester Lane where he was born (contributed by James Lamb). Working down the pit for half a century didn't seem to have done him any harm, as he lived to the ripe old age of 92. However, it could be quite hard working in Sutton Manor. As Gary Conley put it on BBC North West Tonight on March 4th 2009 in a piece to commemorate 25 years since the start of the 1984 strike:

Pasted Graphic  It was hotter than the flames of hell in some sections and cold as the Antarctic in others Pasted Graphic 3

Despite, or perhaps because of the often harsh conditions, the bonds of friendship between the workforce in what's been called a family pit were very strong. Almost twenty years since the closure, many mineworkers still have a considerable connection to the site. On May 31st, 2009 as part of the Big Art Project, a work of public art called Dream was officially opened at the apex of the former colliery's spoil heap, which rises 270 feet above sea level. This artwork towers over the M62 and was designed by Catalan artist Jaume Plensa both to serve as a memorial for the site's heritage but also to look forward to the future. Appropriately, former Sutton Manor pitmen have played a pivotal role in commissioning this monument to the blood, sweat and toil that took place underneath the statue for eighty-five years of the twentieth century.

Sutton Manor Colliery mineworkers in 1980s (Mel Moran Collection)<br />Sutton Manor Colliery mineworkers in 1980s (Mel Moran Collection)<br />

Sutton Manor Colliery mineworkers in 1980s (Mel Moran Collection)

Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #1      Slideshow
Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #2 (Mel Moran Collection)   Slideshow
Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #3      Slideshow
Click Here for a plan of Sutton Manor Colliery (courtesy Mel Moran)

I am continuing to research Sutton Manor Colliery. If you have any
further information or photographs do please contact me.

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Next:  Part 13)  Clock Face Colliery;     Research Sources;

Copyright Notice / Factual Accuracy Statement

Stephen Wainwright (when I had hair!)
This website has been independently written and researched and most of the images photographed personally by the Sutton Beauty & Heritage site owner, Stephen Wainwright. All rights are reserved but my images and text content can be re-used, although I would prefer a credit. High resolution versions of many photographs can be supplied on request at no charge. Other images are used for heritage and educational purposes and are believed to be in the public domain. This site takes a responsible attitude to copyright and, where appropriate, I endeavour to obtain permission from rights holders. This is not always possible and you are strongly encouraged to contact me to resolve any copyright issue or if you require accreditation for the use of any photograph on this website.

Sutton Beauty & Heritage strives for factual accuracy at all times. Please do also contact me if you believe there are any errors, with details of all corrections contained within the site's update history page, which also details the regular updates. If you have any further Sutton information or photographs that you would like to share in this project, I would be delighted to hear from you. This website always credits any assistance given. I respond quickly to all emails and if you haven't received a response within 12 hours, do check your junk mail folder. Thank you!  SRW