The full story of the coal owning landlords and those individuals, partners and companies who exploited the Wigan coalfield is complex and very long, stretching back as far as the 14th. Century. As may be imagined the story has a goodly share of intrigues, fortunes made and also many bankruptcies.

The following notes are a very (extremely) brief overview of the estate owning lords and other gentry and those who worked the collieries. Commencing north of Wigan the coverage rotates in a clockwise direction using Wigan as the centre and describing segments of the coalfield in turn. The detached Skelmersdale district has a small section of it’s own. This part of the coalfield seemed to have more than it’s fair share of financial failures.

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