Mercer and Evans appear to have begun sinking shafts at this site alongside the L&NWR Liverpool to Manchester line in 1873. The coal Measures here underlie the New Red Sandstone, the thickness of which, including the drift lying above it, is about 88 metres. An accident “at Messrs Evans colliery at Collins Green” was recorded in November 1875, in what was clearly in a sinking pit – “At about 4.30 p.m. a large bucket of water was being wound up the shaft but the browman missed the trough and a large quantity of water went down the shaft carrying a considerable portion of loose bricks and stonework. All the men working in the shaft were injured by the falling debris and two so severely that they died the following day. Matthew Hampson died at 10.30am and James McDonald also died on Tuesday. Both men left families.”.
Soon afterwards the colliery was in the hands of the Collins Green Colliery Co. Ltd, which was floated in 1875 with Mr John Mercer, of Alston Hall, as its chairman. The following description is based on an article in the Colliery Guardian of December 23rd 1892.
Shaft Nos.1, 2, 3 and 4 were sunk about 40 yards apart along a NW to SE line. No.1 (downcast) Shaft was 4.88 metres in diameter and 516 metres deep to the Lower Florida seam. No.2 (upcast) Shaft was 4.3 metres in diameter and the same depth as No.1. No.3 Shaft is 4.4 metres in diameter and 88 metres deep, and No.4 is 2.7 metres in diameter and the same depth as No.3. Nos.3 and 4 are used for pumping only.
In sinking Nos.1, 2 and 3 shafts through the New Red Sandstone the feeders of potable water reached a maximum quantity of 800 gallons per minute, but that declined to 500 gallons per minute. That amount was then raised in the No.3 Shaft to a height of 18 metres in order that it would flow by gravity to St Helens, where it supplied a large part of the town.
The water in No.1 shaft was held back by tubbing from a depth of 27 to 93 metres at which depth the wedging crib was laid on warrant or metal and the tubbing built up continuously for 66 metres. No.2 Shaft was lined with tubbing from 27 to about 64 metres. It is probable that neither set of tubbing served the purpose for which it was intended as the main feeders were tapped near No.1 Shaft by a boring put upwards and the bottom of the tubbing each giving about 250 gallons per minute which was conducted to the lower lodge room at 64 metre depot which was designed originally as the permanent place for it, but afterwards made lower.
The main pumping engine stood at the top of No.3 Shaft. It had two horizontal cylinders of 26 ins in diameter and a 4.5 foot stroke geared 1 to 4 to two horizontal rods of pitch pine, iron plated and two quadrants at the top of the shaft. From each quadrant, 9-inch rods of pine were suspended which worked the forcing pumps at the bottom of each shaft. Each pump had a self-acting 20-inch ram, a 5-foot stroke and both pumps deliver at the surface through one rising main. After allowing for leakage, each pump will deliver 62 gallons per stroke and the two pumps 124 gallons. At the speed of four revolutions per minute, the quantity of water forced to the surface would be 496 gallons per minute.
A smaller engine was placed on the opposite side of the No.3 Shaft which raised water from the upper lodge room at 70 yards deep and was only used when the main engine was temporarily stopped. It had two horizontal cylinders 16 inches by 48 inches horizontal connecting rods to two quadrants. From these two pitch pine rods 6 inches square descend into the pumps in the higher lodge room which is worked by two 14 inch rams with a 4-foot stroke two pumps delivering 50 gallons per stroke to the same rising main. It requires 10 revolutions of the engine to deliver 500 gallons per minute.
In 1892 a new pumping engine, constructed by Messrs. John Slee and Company of Earlestown, was being placed in a chamber between Nos.3 and 4 shafts, the latter recently having been sunk for the purpose. The engine was placed about eight metres above the lower lodge room and the suction pipe from the engine descended into it. The new engine had two horizontal cylinders 27 inches by 2-foot stroke working directly to two 12 inch double-acting rams. The two pumps delivered 36 gallons per revolution of the engine to give 540 gallons per minute.
The No.1 Shaft winding engine had two horizontal cylinders 32 inches by 72 inches with ordinary slide valves and a 17-foot cylindrical drum with a foot brake acting on each side of the drum and steam brake. It raised six tubs in each cage on two decks placed end to end, each tub carrying 7.5 cwt of coal.
There were three iron conducting wires to each cage, kept in tension by screws at the top. Winding ropes of plough steel 1.75 ins diameter and the pulleys are 13.5 feet in diameter. The Upper and Lower Florida seam are worked and the output from these mines is 700 tons per day.
The No.2 Shaft winding engine had two horizontal cylinders 32 inches by 66 inches with primary slide valves. The 16-foot cylindrical drum had a foot brake acting on each side of the drum. The engine raised four 7.5 cwt capacity tubs in a two-deck cage. There were three wire rope conductors to each cage. The Four Feet and Yard Coals were being worked in 1892, with the output being 500 tons per day. The sinking engine at the No.4 pit had two horizontal cylinders of 18 inches.
The ventilation at Collins Green was produced by two furnaces and three boilers in the Yard seam. The quantity of air being 150,00 cubic feet per minute.
The No.1 haulage engine, at the bottom of the No.1 Shaft, had two horizontal cylinders 16 inches by 30 inches geared 1 to 3 and works with one drum and a five-eighths inch rope on a 1 in 6 down brow, 500 metres long. The engine hauled ten laden tubs up the brow, while the same number of empties ran down by gravity on the rope.
The No.2 hauling engine had one horizontal cylinder 12 inches by 24 inches geared 1 to 4, one drum with a five-eighths plough steel rope. It raised sixteen boxes up a slant dipping 1 in 10 in the Upper Florida Mine. The engine was in the Yard seam, near the ventilating furnace and boilers of No.2 shaft.
No.3 hauling engine was also in the Yard seam and had one horizontal cylinder 10 inches by 20 inches and geared 1 to 4 with two drums on each shaft which can be put in or out of gear by an intermediate clutch. It worked two downbrows, one on the east after the rope passed over two guiding pulleys, hauls up a plane of 238 metres. The one on the west also passed over a guide pulley and hauled up a 600-yard plane. While a set of laden tubs was being hauled up, the empty tubs were run down on the gravity plane.
A range of eight Lancashire boilers supplied steam for the engines on the surface. Five were 28 feet by 6.5 feet and two steel ones were 30 feet by 7.5 feet, made by Tetlow Brothers, Hollingwood and fitted with Meldrum blowers, two in each flue. There is also one of 30 feet by 7.5 feet, made of steel, by Messrs Hough and Son of Wigan. The meldrum blower consists of jets of high pressure steam blown under the fire. Underground there were three vertical boilers, four feet in diameter and 6.5 feet high, each fitted with sixty Field tubes the working pressure was 70lbs. The boilers were fed by water pressure from the shaft.
For each cage, a plate was provided for the attachment of the winding rope at the top and bridal chains to three apertures at the lower part. The plate was made either of Low Moor iron one and three quarters in thick or of steel 1.5 inches thick. There are six bridal chains each of which takes part of the weight, being attached in pairs.
The workable seams of coal passed through in No.1 Shaft at the Collins Green colliery were:
| Workable coal (m) | Depth from surface (m) | |
|---|---|---|
| The Potato Delf or Four Foot Seam 1.07 (coal) 0.05 (shale) 0.23 (coal) |
1.1 | 432.5 |
| Yard seam | 1.1 | 477.3 |
| Higher Florida or Pemberton Five feet | 1.1 | 510.2 |
| Lower Florida or Pemberton Four Feet | 1.4 | 515.7 |
Other valuable coals below the Florida seams, which will eventually be reached, are the Ravenhead or Wigan Five Foot seam, Ravenhead Delf or Wigan Four Foot, Roger Delf or Wigan Nine Feet, Rushy Park or Orrell Five Feet and the Little Delf.
On the surface at Collins Green, two ordinary bar screens were in use and one of wire netting vibrating lengthways, 4 inch in throw. The inclined surface of the wire netting is 10 feet by 4 feet and over this the charge coal passed to a travelling band of steel 31 feet by 4 feet wide upon which all the debris were separated from the coal. An engine with one cylinder 6 inch by 12 inch worked the screen and band by means of line shafting, one pulley and a wire rope half an inch in diameter.
Collins Green Colliery closed in 1931 when it employed 256 people. It not the end, however, and by 1964 Collins Green was being used as a pumping station for its neighbour, Bold.
Further information:
- NMRS Records, Gazetteer of British Collieries.
- National Archives: BT31/34141/9529 (1875) Collins Green Colliery Co. Ltd
- St Helens Newspaper & Advertiser, 27th November, 1875.
- The Lancashire Coalfield, Colliery Guardian, 23rd December, 1892
