Wet Earth Colliery

Wet Earth Colliery

Canal entrance to the colliery
Location
Location	Clifton, Greater Manchester
Country	United Kingdom
Production
Products	Coal
Type	Underground
History
Opened	1740s
Closed	1928

The Wet Earth Colliery was a coal mine located on the Manchester Coalfield, in Clifton, Greater Manchester. The colliery site is now the location of Clifton Country Park. The colliery has a unique place in British coal mining history; apart from being one of the earliest pits in the country, it is the place where engineer James Brindley made water run uphill.

The colliery is situated in the valley of the River Irwell which flows north to south along the Pendleton Fault. Many other coal mines were situated on this major fault which threw up the underlying Carboniferous coal measures by some 1,000 metres making them accessible for mining from early times. To the east of the fault is the red Triassic sandstone, to the west are the coal measures, which in places outcrop at surface.

The area around Nob End in Kearsley, a few hundred metres to the north of the Wet Earth Colliery shows evidence of early bell pit working and small ladder pits. The first deeper working was by the owner of the Clifton Estate, John Heathcote of Glossop in Derbyshire in the 1740s. Heathcote sank two shafts, which were about 50 feet (15 m) deep to the Doe mine. This seam was 9 ft 7½ in thick and dipped at a gradient of 1 in 3½ to the south-west and outcrops in the river valley. The Wet Earth Colliery was begun in 1751 when Heathcote sank a deep shaft to the seam about half a mile to the south-east but he ran into technical difficulties and had to call on the help of Matthew Fletcher.

Jacob Fletcher, a mine owner from Bolton, had several mines in Harwood, Breightmet, Bolton and Atherton. He had two sons, John and Matthew. John was responsible for sinking a pit in Atherton whilst Matthew took up mining engineering. John Heathcote was having problems with the pit and called on Matthew Fletcher to help sink a new shaft. The new shaft was sunk 262 feet (80 m) to the seam at a point which became the central focus of the Wet Earth complex. The shaft was deepened to 328 feet (100 m) to connect with the Five Quarters mine which at this point was 3' 7" thick. The workings were plagued with water, which entered from the River Irwell via the Pendleton Fault. Heathcote asked Matthew Fletcher to advise him on how to solve the flooding, but it seems he was unsuccessful. John Heathcote closed the pit in 1750.