An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens
Part 13 (of 58) - Sutton Manor Colliery Part 2 (1960 - 1991)
Researched & Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXI Contact Me 
The British Coal sign at the entrance to Sutton Manor Colliery (Frazer Nairn Collection)

The new Sutton Manor Institute or Welfare Club had been built in 1959 to replace the original building that had opened in 1922. It was financed from a Lancashire miners' welfare fund grant, of which the NCB contributed halfpenny for every ton of coal from 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!

A hazard of mining at Sutton Manor Colliery through geological pressure

This 1964 view from St.Nicholas church tower has Sutton Manor Colliery behind Mill Lane - contributed by Jim Lamb
During the early '60s, the National Coal Board began a study of the industry's pits, assessing long-term economic viability and cost-effectiveness. In October 1965 as a consequence of their controversial 'streamlining' initiative, the NCB decided to close the apparently uneconomic Clock Face Colliery.
However, the adjacent Sutton Manor with its record-breaking production figures seemed to have a much more secure future. Having initially (and rather 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 Sutton Manor and Bold collieries. In a series of advertisements placed in the St.Helens Reporter during 1966, 15-year-old school leavers were promised a job for life:

Sutton Manor tallies were issued to each miner as a safety check so that managers know how many men were underground
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.

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:
(St.Helens Reporter advertisement 29/10/1966)

The colliery portrayed in British Coal's publication 'Sutton Manor Magazine'

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:
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. ![]()

Tommy Ludden worked in the Powder magazine and distributed detonators to shotfirers. About 1974 Tommy and his wife Mary - a former Sutton Manor pit brow lass who was then working at the colliery as a cleaner - travelled to Russia with daughter Jane on a three week all-expenses paid holiday. This was as a result of an arrangement between the super-power's Miners Union and Britain's National Union of Mineworkers.
It was a wonderful opportunity to get away from the dirt and grime of the pit in the company of fifty other mining families from all over the UK. This group picture was taken in a Black Sea resort with 11-year-old Jane sat on the front row (3rd left) next to her mother and enjoying three weeks off school! Manor miners were selected from a rota and they had to be union members 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.

Photographed in August 1986 the new no.1 headgear and no.2 headgear (Mel Moran Collection)

Happy days could be here again for pitmen at one hard-grafting colliery
(St.Helens Star 15/12/1983)
There were gifts from many sources, especially from people in Liverpool. Sutton Manor's Brian Mitchell and Jim Smith took a brightly painted Play Bus into the city each week and people came out of their homes and donated whatever they could. 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 that served as their main meal of the day and the community also ensured that the children had an annual Christmas party.

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:
(The St.Helens Star October 9th, 1986)
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.

A photograph which appeared in 'Sutton Manor Magazine No.5' (February 1990)

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 Star report on the closure from May 30th, 1991
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 enjoyed by many.
The people of Sutton haven't forgotten the site's illustrious past and, hopefully, the old NCB gates will remain as an ever-present physical legacy. In 2009 a number of heritage seats were installed on the site, courtesy of nearby Sutton Manor Primary and artist Bernadette Hughes, and a heritage art trail will be installed in 2010. Former miners have considerable affection for their former workplace and quite a number have had their ashes scattered or interred there.

The NCB certificate awarded to Noah Lamb who spent 48 years at Sutton Manor - Contributed by Jim Lamb

Former Sutton Manor pitman Brian Spencer was until 2010 the Leader of St.Helens Council for several years and Mike McGuire became MP for Ince from 1964 to 1983 and for Makerfield from 1983 to 1987. Dr. Ken Moses CBE from Thatto Heath became General Manager at Sutton Manor Colliery and later was a senior executive at British Coal.
Another with a distinguished Sutton Manor service record was Noah Lamb (1898-1990) who spent forty-eight years down the pit. Noah is pictured right sitting on his bed inside his white cottage at 30 Chester Lane in Marshalls Cross where he was born. Being a miner for almost half a century didn't do Noah any harm, as he lived to the ripe old age of ninety-two.

Pit deputy George Streete pictured in 1960 and at his retirement in 1980 (contributed by Esther Streete)
However, working down Sutton Manor was not easy. Ex-miner Gary Conley described the conditions on BBC North West Tonight on March 4th, 2009, in a report that commemorated 25 years since the start of the 1984 strike:

Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #2 (45 pictures) Slideshow
Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #3 (50 pictures) Slideshow
Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #4 (44 pictures) Slideshow
Click Here for Sutton Manor Colliery Photo-Album #5 (44 pictures) Slideshow
Click Here for a plan of Sutton Manor Colliery (courtesy Mel Moran)

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