Fletcher, Burrows and Company

Fletcher, Burrows and Company was a coal mining company that owned collieries and cotton mills in Atherton, Greater Manchester, England. Gibfield, Howe Bridge and Chanters collieries exploited the coal mines (seams) of the middle coal measures in the Manchester Coalfield. The Fletchers built company housing at Hindsford and a model village at Howe Bridge which included pit head baths and a social club for its workers. The company became part of Manchester Collieries in 1929. The collieries were nationalised in 1947 becoming part of the National Coal Board.

In 1776 Robert Vernon Atherton of Atherton Hall leased the Atherton coal rights to Thomas Guest from Bedford and John Fletcher of Tonge with Haulgh, Bolton forbidding them to mine under the hall. The Fletchers had mining interests in Bolton and Clifton in the Irwell Valley from Elizabethan times. Matthew Fletcher's family owned most of Clifton in 1750 including the Ladyshore and Wet Earth collieries. During the early 19th century the Fletchers worked several pits around Howe Bridge. In 1832 John Fletcher's son Ralph, who lived at the Haulgh in Bolton, died leaving his pits at Great Lever to his son, John who had built up the Lovers' Lane pit, and divided the business in Atherton into shares for his sons, John, Ralph, James and his nephew John Langshaw. The company was then known as "John Fletcher and Others". The company developed the Howe Bridge Collieries and sank three shafts in the 1840s when James Fletcher was the manager. The family acquired land and property in Atherton and between 1867 and 1878 Ralph Fletcher controlled the business. Abraham Burrows became a partner in 1872 and the company became Fletcher Burrows and Company. John Burrows was the company's agent from 1878 to 1900 when Leonard Fletcher took over. In 1916 Clement Fletcher took over and remained with the company for 45 years.

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