Pits above Long Lane, Pott Shrigley

Coal Mining was quite extensive across Pott Shrigley in the eighteenth century, although the coalfield was small and badly divided by faults. Above Long Lane, which forms the boundary between Adlington and Pott Shrigley, there are a number of abandoned shafts which are easily spotted due to the plantations of trees over and around them. The planting of trees was a stipulation in the leases from the Downes family of Pott Shrigley. When a pit was finished and abandoned it was to be walled or fenced round and trees planted. The fences have long gone but the trees remain.

These pits were working the Bassy Mine (or seam) which averaged about 48ins thickness but was split up by a number of dirt bands. The shaft on the right is situated on the outcrop of the Ribbon MIne which was only about 10ins thick, whilst the Sweet Mine (18ins) outcrops just in front of the camera. Nab Farm can be seen in the centre, whilst to the left is another mound with trees which is probably the site of another shaft. Until the late 1970s these shafts were open, but they have since been capped.