Combermere Colliery

Here, two shafts were sunk immediately to the north of the Coxe or Wharton Hall Fault which had a downthrow of some 225 feet to the north. The Six Feet or Rams Mine was intersected at 315 feet and the Seven Feet or Black & White Mine was reached at 600 feet from the surface. Coal was worked northwards from the shafts, to the rise, the dip of the seams being approximately 1 in 4.5 southwards. Closed for coal winding in 1893, the colliery continued to be used for some time, winding fireclay, supplying the adjacent brickworks. Pumping was also still carried on.

A single 12 inch ram pump was located at the Six Feet Mine and the water was raised to the surface in a single lift from the pump. The pump was operated by a Bull type engine having a cylinder 40 inches bore by eight feet stroke. Steam for the colliery was supplied by three Lancashire boilers, 7ft diameter by 26ft long, pressed to 45psi. The late Alan Gerrard related to me that as a boy he watched, with some amazement, water being wound in tanks at Combermere. This would probably be in the 1920s.

Immediately following World War II, the brickworks was revived for a time but by the early 1950s the whole site was derelict. Two 7ft diameter Lancashire boilers remained in situ, as did a small winch housed in the former winding engine house.