An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St.Helens
Part 11 (of 58) - Mineworking in Sutton, St.Helens
Researched & Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXI Contact Me 
The Bolds themselves soon got in on the act and a number of new shafts were dug to the chagrin of the people of Sutton. Old documents c.1588 reveal residents highly critical of the mining operations of Richard Bold and record how mining had made walking in Sutton, St.Helens somewhat precarious. One said:
Upon the said wastes, lanes, ways and passages, the earth does sink and so falls upon them in great deepness and holes...and also divers of his majesty's subjects have fallen therein and been drowned, killed and maimed. 
The old pit at Clock Face Colliery (1890 - 1966) - see dedicated Clock Face Colliery page
By the mid-1840s, the output of coal in St.Helens districts was a million tons a year. Consumption of coal had greatly increased due to a rapid expansion of factories, growth of the railways and an increase in the use of steam boats. However, being a miner was an especially hard life which was illustrated on December 13th, 1843 at a public meeting of three hundred local colliers that took place at the Moor Flat in St.Helens. A number of Sutton miners attended and their working lives were summed up in a keynote speech delivered by William Dickson of Manchester:
No man in his labour was more exposed to physical exertion than the coal miner. In a place two feet high, how must he double himself up to work!… In some instances the collier was compelled to work naked, up to the middle in water. In a few years he was so surfeited that he could scarcely walk, and at thirty years of age they would not be taken for less than fifty. Look round this meeting. There is not one with the bloom of health on his cheek…the coal miner had to contend with the explosion of hydrogen and oxygen gas, and his health was undermined by inhaling poisonous gases from the minerals by which they were surrounded. 
(The Liverpool Mercury 15/12/1843)
Sherdley Colliery Rescue Team - Thomas Noonan is second from right on the back row
The mines were the largest employer in Sutton and by 1900, 6000 men worked in them. They were renowned as hard working fellows but not always the most popular of folk. In 1862 Samuel Bishop the owner of a flint glass works remarked that:
Colliers have a bad name; they used to live as it were isolated from everyone and were rough and ignorant; to some extent they are so still but towns have grown up round coal pits of late years ...the colliers have now been forced to mix more with their fellows and have improved accordingly. 
Letterhead of the Sutton Heath & Lea Green Collieries Company
The Sutton Heath & Lea Green Collieries Company were a major player in Sutton for many years, owning a number of mines and brickworks. About 550 men worked at Lea Green pit which was situated in Lowfield Lane and sunk in the 1870s by James Radley.
Radley also initially owned the nearby Sutton Heath Colliery which was recorded in 1873 as having two pits and was situated at the corner of Eltonhead Road and Sutton Heath Road. Upon his death on March 28th, 1885, James Radley's widow briefly owned the colliery before apparently selling it onto the newly created Sutton Heath & Lea Green Collieries Ltd c.1890. For many years during the twentieth century, Sutton Heath served as a pumping pit and mining activities were concentrated at nearby Lea Green.
The headgears of Lea Green Colliery in Lowfield Lane - Contributed by Sutton Historic Society
As mentioned on our industry page, William Bickford's plants in Cornwall and Sutton Junction that made safety fuses, saved many miners' lives. This 1831 invention provided greater control when detonating explosives in mines, although it took decades before they were routinely used due to penny-pinching by mine owners.
However, the safety fuse didn't stop miners from being blown up and there was a plethora of other ways in which workers in mines could be despatched to meet their maker. The employees of Lea Green colliery endured quite a few of them as our incomplete timeline of serious accidents demonstrates:
- January 1886 - George Parr, colliery 'hooker-on' was struck on the head by a bolt that was dropped down the shaft and later died
- January 1887 - 53-years-old William Lunt was killed by stones from a blast after lighting a fuse - he was profoundly deaf and thought his 'shot' had already gone off and so returned to the scene of the explosion prematurely
- May 1888 - 26-years-old William Lunt (son of above?) was killed plus 6 others injured as a result of a blast in Lea Green's Potato Delph mine caused by using naked candles - the law then only required the use of safety lamps if gas was actually known to be present
- September 1890 - 14-years-old pony driver, Thomas Hitchen, was crushed to death by waggons as a result of driving too fast - he was the son of the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries manager, also called Thomas Hitchen
- November 1891 - 38-years-old waggoner Daniel Brownbill of 720 Mill Lane, Sutton Heath was crushed to death by two runaway coal waggons - William Cutts was censored by the coroner at Brownbill's inquest for not coupling the waggons
- April 1892 - 21-years-old St.Helens rugby player James Rennie, a waggoner of 25 Chester Lane, was crushed by a large stone in Potato Delph pit and broke his back, dying a week later in hospital
- May 1892 - 71-years-old Peter Platt was crushed to death after crossing between waggons when shunting suddenly resumed - he didn't apparently hear the engine driver's whistle
- June 1893 - 44-years-old collier James Roscoe was killed through a fall of stones and dirt from the pit roof. "His head was badly smashed...death being instantaneous" - Liverpool Mercury (10/6/1893)
- October 1893 - Pit sinker Evan Jones was killed and seven other mineworkers "dreadfully burned about their heads and arms" Illustrated Police News (21/10/1893) when a naked candle fell from the side of a new shaft that they were sinking which ignited an accumulation of gas
- February 1894 - 49-years-old Robert Hill was working with his young son James in the Main Delph Mine of Lea Green when a quantity of cannel coal fell from the roof burying him alive
- July 1894 - Collier Edward Birchall was killed and his son injured by a large stone 12 feet long and 5 feet thick which detached itself from the side of their working place
- September 1895 - Fireman Peter Malone was killed and two men injured by a blast after fireman Timothy Foster lit a fuse without checking sufficiently for the presence of gas
- May 1896 - William Jones slipped backwards lifting a box onto rails and his arm became trapped - he ruptured muscles and died a week later from inflammation of the heart
- July 1896 - 16-years-old pony boy George Stott was killed leading a pony pulling three full coal waggons when he fell and the first waggon passed over him killing him instantly
- December 1896 - Metalman Sydney Borrows of Lowfield Lane was blown up and killed when firemen set off a charge without first checking that the area was clear
- January 1897 - 50-years-old Thomas Havey was buried alive at King pit, Lea Green whilst repairing a roof - "10 tons of rubbish" fell on him - Liverpool Mercury (23/1/1897)
- March 1897 - Thomas Isherwood of Jubilee Cottages, Clock Face Road was badly injured by a roof fall and died two years later on July 1st, 1999 at age 40
- June 1897 - 14-years-old pony boy John Herbert Gamble fell under waggons and their wheels passed over him fracturing his right thigh and jaw
- February 1898 - 24-years-old miner Jesse Dingsdale fell down the shaft and was found dead at the bottom
- May 1898 - Weighing clerk Charles Atwell was killed by a wagon when crossing the railway line at the colliery works - he crawled under a standing wagon to get to a weighing box and was run over
- May 1902 - Stoker James Stephens was severely scolded after steam escaped from a boiler pipe and he later died
- June 1911 - Three labourers - John Duffy, Joseph Armstrong and Stephen Kelley - were killed at Queen pit, Lea Green when going for their dinner - they entered a wooden cabin at the pit top, which toppled over and fell fifteen feet
- August 1911 - 23-years-old Jane Houghton of Thatto Heath had an arm amputated after an accident at Lea Green
- December 1912 - Contractor Thomas Regan was killed when the pit roof fell on him
- December 1923 - 14 mineworkers, mainly boys, were taken to St.Helens Hospital after a pit cage fell to the bottom of the shaft - 14-year-old Benjamin Saunders fractured his thigh
- April 1926 - John Prescott was mysteriously found dead inside Lea Green colliery
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the wages and employment rights of local miners were improved by the formation of the Lancashire Miners' Federation in 1881 and then the Miners' Federation of Great Britain in 1888. Samuel Woods (1846-1916), who was born in Sutton, was the first president of the former and vice-president of the latter and briefly Member of Parliament.
However, there were so many accidents at that time that colliery owners were concerned at their financial exposure. In June 1900 the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Company refused to pay a compensation award to a collier called John Moore who had fractured his right foot in an accident at Lea Green the previous February. In court they claimed a technicality, arguing that Moore had been employed by a contractor and not directly by the colliery itself. They also said that he'd worked for the contractor called Hankey for less than two weeks, so didn't come under the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act. In fact he was injured on his first day with Hankey but had extensively worked at the colliery previously. The judge dismissed their argument and awarded Moore 13s 6p per week compensation.
Employing contractors was a wide scale practice and simply meant that the colliery paid one individual for the work involved in extracting the coal. He was employed on piecework and would hire one or two assistants to help fulfil his contract. The contractor, or hewer, usually hewed the coal from the face himself and his staff - known as drawers or waggoners - would transport the coal to the foot of the pit shaft. At each fortnightly 'reckoning', the colliery paid the contractor for the recovered coal and then he in turn paid his assistants. Married men tended to use their own wives and children as drawers, so Hankey was probably single.
Having failed to wriggle out of their obligations through employment technicalities, the Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Company tried a different tack in reducing their compensation payments. In September, 1900 the Master of the Rolls, the third most senior judge in England and Wales, ruled on an appeal by the colliery company. They'd been ordered by St.Helens & Widnes County Court to make a compensation award under the 1897 Act to Elizabeth Houghton. Her miner husband, Edward, had been killed by a large stone that had detached itself from the roof inside Sutton Heath Colliery on June 28th, crushing him to death.
Winding house and pit headgear at Sutton Heath Colliery
To compound their poor treatment of Elizabeth Houghton, the unsympathetic Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Co. argued in the Appeal Court that the County Court award should have had his weekly oil payment deducted. Her husband's wages, like other miners, had 6d. deducted each week for the oil required for his lamp. It was only a tanner, but was likely to add up to a substantial amount when multiplied by the number of weeks' compensation award for each perished or injured mineworker. The Master of the Rolls dismissed the case as he said that the miner would probably have had to pay for clothing and tools out of his wages and it would be impossible to decide where the line should be drawn.
Part of the lengthy share issue advertisement published in The Times in 1920
The extra tanners in compensation awards didn't dent their profits by that much though, as Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Co. made good money throughout the twentieth century. The Times in 1924 reported a £98,031 trading profit. As well as their ownership of Lea Green and Sutton Heath collieries, they also owned coal mines at Sherdley and Nutgrove as well as large brickworks at Roughdales and Sutton Heath.
They also had a significant stake in Sutton Manor Colliery. In a 1920 share issue prospectus Sutton Heath and Lea Green Collieries Co. stated that their pits produced a combined 600,000 tons of coal per year and prior to the war years, their brickworks were generating 14.7m bricks per annum, with the intention of raising output to 25 million bricks per annum.
The headgears at Sherdley Colliery also owned by Sutton Heath & Lea Green Collieries Co.
They stood for many years after the pit ceased production
On June 30th 1915, Heyes demonstrated the invention at his Peckers Hill Road pub to members of the St.Helens and District Miners' Central Committee. The St.Helens Newspaper of July 2nd devoted many column inches to the demonstration, commenting how the attendees were full of praise for the safety device. However, Councillor Waring predicted difficulties in persuading the colliery owners to invest in it. So the committee called upon the government to immediately instigate tests of the Provident Patent Safety Catch and if they proved satisfactorily, to make its use compulsorily in mines.
Part of the lengthy St.Helens Newspaper account of July 2nd, 1915 - Contributed by Mary Heyes
The 1926 general strike and subsequent lockout hit all miners hard as relief was only paid to dependents of married miners. So on the 17th June Sutton miners poured into St.Helens town centre to join a march of 15,000 mineworkers who processed to the offices of the Poor Law Institution at Whiston. The St.Helens Newspaper reported on the event:
In the streets adjacent to Bridge Street men were massed in their thousands from not only the centre of the town, but from Sutton, Parr, Clock Face, Sutton Manor and other districts...A jazz band from Sutton Manor in particular appeared to appeal. 
1926 march to Whiston demanding Poor Law Relief with Sutton Manor British Legion jazz band
The Sutton Manor British Legion Jazz Band was formed during the 1926 strike with the aim of raising funds for the striking miners' families. The photograph below of band members was taken in front of the British Legion Club in Gartons Lane, which was a timber structure that was later rebuilt with bricks and still stands today as a pump repair works.
Sutton Manor British Legion Jazz Band - contributed by George Houghton
The soup kitchens in Sutton and Clock Face were said to be amongst the best in the borough with local shopkeepers donating food and giving credit to hard-pressed families. A Sutton miner's wife in later years remembered:
They didn't give us any strike money unless it was the odd half-a-crown now and then. I know we got food vouchers, that is all. We were really all in the same boat then, everyone was miners round Sutton. You could all console one another. It made a mess of the shops. Mr. Bell, the grocer, hung himself. He had so much owing to him through the strike. 
Men preparing food for the soup kitchen at Clock Face in Sept.1926 during the miners' lockout
- Bartons Bank Colliery - Watery Lane - first mentioned 1750s, closed by 1839
- Bold Colliery - Bold Lane - sunk 1881, closed 1985
- Burtonhead Colliery - corner of Burtonhead Road and Sherdley Road - mentioned 1844, closed ?
- Clock Face Colliery - Gorsey Lane - first sunk 1890, closed 1966
- Collins Green Colliery - sunk 1800s, closed 1931
- Eltonhead Colliery - various pits dating back hundreds of years - mentioned on mineworker William Bradshaw's death certificate of 1845 and on OS maps of the time
- Lea Green Colliery - Lowfield Lane - sunk in 1870s, closed 1964
- Peasley Cross Colliery - first mentioned 1855 as Peasley House Colliery, closed 1906
- Phoenix Colliery - Burtonhead Road - opened 1873, mentioned in Times article (15/11/1893) as having about 200 men. Manager Samuel Urmson unsuccessfully fought West Sutton council election in Nov. 1894 - closed 1895
- Ravenhead - Burtonhead Road - sunk 1866, closed 1895 - reopened and mentioned in Times news article 4/6/1953 - closed Oct. 1968
- St.Helens Brick & Tile / Wood & Co / Old Teapot - small scale mining (Frodsham /Old Teapot pits) associated with a brick and pottery works located just south of Sherdley Colliery - began in 1880s, closed 1944
- Sherdley Colliery - Broadgate Avenue - first mentioned 1873, closed about 1943
- Sutton Colliery - Peasley Cross Lane - sunk about 1812, closed by 1881
- Sutton Heath Colliery - corner Sutton Heath Road & Eltonhead Road - first mentioned 1867
- Sutton Manor Colliery - Jubits Lane - sunk 1906-12, closed 1991
Sutton Beauty & Heritage strives for factual accuracy at all times. Please do also get in touch if you believe that there are any errors, with details of any corrections contained within the site's update history page, which also details the regular updates. Many individuals from all over the world have kindly contributed Sutton information and photographs. If you would like to participate in this project, I would be delighted to hear from you and this website always credits any assistance given. Do also consider contributing any recollections of old Sutton that you might have for the Sutton Memories pages, which are proving very popular. I respond quickly to emails and if you haven't received a response within 12 hours, do check your junk mail folder or send your message again. Thank you! SRW
