There had been shallow coal pits at Hunt Clough since the late sixteenth century. At some time, probably in the early nineteenth century, shafts were sunk to the Black Mine at a depth of 91 metres. Hunt Clough Colliery was at work by April 18th 1826 when two brothers, Joseph and Thomas Stafford, fell 64 metres down the shaft. Thomas was only 12 years old.
A tram road from Hunt Clough ran to Chadderton Roughs, where it met a short spur of the Rochdale Canal at the site late occupied by Ferney Fields Colliery. Joseph Jones and Co. was working the Black Mine in 1842, but the colliery’s rateable value fell sharply from £570 in 1844 to £47.50 in 1846 and 1847. Moreover, Hunt Clough is absent from the List of Mines until 1880, when it was worked Chamber Colliery Co. Ltd. The latter company deepened the shafts to the Royley Mine, at a depth of 283 metres, between 1874 and 1876. It is possible, therefore, that the mine was closed in the 25 years or so before the shafts were deepened.
Hunt Clough closed in 1897 when the Royley Mine was abandoned.
Sources:
- NMRS Records, Gazetteer of British Collieries
- Fanning, G. Oldham Coal (British Mining No.68, 2001)
