tarboat's photos with the keyword: milnrow

Butterworth Hall Colliery was one of the largest in Milnrow in the early twentieth century. In 1869 the mine was owned by Richard and William Stott, but it was sold to Platt Brothers of Oldham. It is said to have been a very wet mine and it finally closed in 1928 after the workings became flooded. It was then purchased by Oldham Corporation for use as an underground reservoir, with upwards of a million gallons of water per day being pumped to Piethorne Reservoir, around 2 miles away. The headstocks were demolished in 1950. This building was originally constructed as the power house for generating electricity for use on the colliery. It is now used by a civil engineering company. The name lives on and today the shaft, which is situated a short distance behind this building continues to supply water, although the site is now run by United Utilities.

I was driving along the M62 past Milnrow as I have done many times before, only this time I spotted something. On approaching a bridge carrying a farm lane over the motorway I looked up and spotted a bank of coke ovens on the hillside. How on earth had I managed to miss those for so many years? Moving on a couple of weeks I was back for a closer look at this row of beehive ovens built into the hillside. The stone facing has long been removed for re-use but the back half of the kilns remains. My first thought was that they were associated with Tunshill Colliery which was a short distance downhill from here, but after a bit of research I reckon they were built to use coal drawn from the Tunshill Hey Collieries operated on the north-east side of the hill in the later nineteenth century by Benjamin Chadwick and the Executors of Alfred Wild who also seem to have been involved with the colliery and coke ovens at Schofield Hall, of which more anon. The coal was brought through the hill from Tunshill Hey workings and emerged from a tramming level close to the ovens. By producing the coke here it was closer to the markets of Oldham and Rochdale and may even have been sent down the tramroad linking Tunshill Colliery with Butterworth Hall Pit in Milnrow itself.

Butterworth Hall Colliery was one of the largest in Milnrow in the early twentieth century. In 1869 the nine was owned by Richard and William Stott, but it was sold to Platt Brothers of Oldham. It is said to have been a very wet mine and it finally closed in 1928 after the workings became flooded. It was then purchased by Oldham Corporation for use as an underground reservoir, with upwards of a million gallons of water per day being pumped to Piethorne Reservoir, around 2 miles away. The headstocks were demolished in 1950. The name lives on and today the shaft, which is situated just in front of the brick building in the background, continues to supply water, although the site is now run by United Utilities.