Hurdsfield Collieries

The more I look into the subject the more I realise just how extensive the coal mining industry was in the hills around Macclesfield. I took a stroll into Higher Hurdsfield and soon found coal workings adjacent to Well Lane and Swanscoe Lane. There is one mine on the left, against the wall with lots of holly growing out of the shaft. Well Lane runs across the image and the mounds on the right in front of the wall are the remains of another shaft which I suspect was the one used to raise coal with carts loading just inside the gateway.

Just out of view to the right along Well Lane is a large old house fronting the road which used to be a public house known as the Traveller's Rest. The location suggests that Well Lane may have been the old route of the road to Rainow. Maybe Eagle1942 can help with this?

Judging by the evidence available so far, it is likely that these pits were operating in the first half of the nineteenth century. They were certainly out of use by the 1870s.

Cliff Hill in the background was part of Macclesfield Common where coal was being worked in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and probably earlier. I shall have to have a look at the remains up there in the next few weeks.