Agecroft Colliery

Agecroft Colliery was a coalmine on the Manchester Coalfield in the Agecroft district of Pendlebury that first opened in 1844 in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It exploited the coal seams of the Middle Coal Measures of the Lancashire Coalfield. The colliery had two spells of use; the first between 1844 and 1932 when the most accessible coal seams were exploited and a second lease of life after extensive development in the late 1950s to access the deepest seams.

Andrew Knowles acquired the lease of coal under the Agecroft estate in 1823 and his colliery is shown on an 1830 plan alongside the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal not far from old workings near Park House Bridge. Two shafts were sunk by Andrew Knowles and Sons in 1844. The colliery's screens and surface buildings were modernised in the early 1890s and No 3 and No 4 shafts were sunk to 700 yards to the Trencherbone mine in 1894 and worked an area to the south of the Pendleton Fault. The fault to the north, with a displacement of 695 metres to the northeast, formed a natural boundary to the colliery. The colliery was located close (less than a mile) from Clifton Hall Colliery (Lumns Lane, Clifton), and had access to the Manchester and Bolton Railway line and the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal. In 1896 Agecroft Nos 1 & 2 pits employed 371 underground and 111 surface workers while Agecroft Nos 3 & 4 employed 15 underground and 39 on the surface. In 1923 Nos 1 and 2 pits employed 272 workers and Nos 3 and 4 a total of 371. Floor upheaval on 4 November 1926 resulted in the deaths of six miners.

Andrew Knowles and Sons was merged into Manchester Collieries in 1929 and Nos 1 and 2 pits closed the following year. Nos 3 and 4 pits closed in July 1932 but the shafts were retained for pumping to drain nearby collieries.

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