Denton, Lancashire

The earliest known proprietor of Denton Colliery is Jacob Fletcher Fletcher and it is likely that he was responsible for sinking the shaft. He was the son of Ellis Fletcher (a landowner and coal proprietor) and Mary Ramsden. He was born in c1791 at Breighton, Lancashire, which lies to the north of Little Lever between Bolton and Bury. In c1800 Ellis Fletcher acquired an estate at Clifton, Lancashire, and by 1824 he was living at Clifton House where he lived until his death on the 26 April 1834.

Jacob Fletcher Fletcher entered Brasenose College, Oxford, at the age of 16 years and in 1844 he was married at Preston, Lancashire, possibly to Anne Fisher. The couple's only child was their daughter, Charlotte Anne Fletcher, who was born at Bermondsey, London, in 1845. Jacob Fletcher Fletcher lived at Peel Hall, Little Hulton, Lancashire and he died in the Fylde District of Lancashire in 1857. On his death, his daughter, Charlotte Anne, inherited the estates of her father and grandfather. She was also patron of the Church of St Anne, Manchester Road, Clifton, which was founded in 1872.

On the afternoon of Thursday, 13 October 1853, Jacob Fletcher Fletcher and his daughter, Charlotte Anne, were at the site of the new St Lawrence's Infant and Junior School on Stockport Road, Denton, in the presence of distinguished company and a large crowd. Here, Charlotte Anne, then aged 7 years, laid the foundation stone for the new school, her father having given the land upon which it was to be built. The Bishop of Oxford made a short speech and then he led the people in prayer. The Rt Hon William Ewart Gladstone MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, then stepped onto the foundation stone and made a speech. Three cheers followed this for Queen Victoria, Mr Gladstone and the Bishop of Oxford after which the gathering dispersed. The new school replaced an earlier school, built in 1769, that was closer to St Lawrence's Church.

On the 2 June 1866, Charlotte Anne Fletcher married Sir Robert Wellington Stapleton-Cotton, 3rd Viscount Combermere of Bhurtpore, son of Colonel Sir Wellington Henry Stapleton-Cotton, 2nd Viscount Combermere of Bhurtpore and Susan Alice Sitwell. Her married name then became Stapleton-Cotton but in 1879 the couple were divorced. They had two children, Madeline Isabel Stapleton-Cotton, born in 1877, and Cecil R Stapleton-Cotton, born c1879.

In 1886 Charlotte Ann married Alfred Wynne Corrie in the district of St George Hanover Square, London. In Denton, Wynne Grove, Wynne Close, Corrie Close and Corrie Primary and Nursery School commemorate her second married name.

By the time of her second marriage Charlotte Anne was a very wealthy lady and at this point she became associated with the Oswestry district of Shropshire. In 1893 Alfred Wynne Corrie Esq JP opened a new reservoir at Pen-y-gwely, about seven miles distant in Wales. In 1883 the chapel of St Anne was erected at Park Hall in the township of Weston, the cost of £2,000 being met by Charlotte Anne. However, she was still married to the Hon. Stapleton-Cotton at the time that she acquired Park Hall. She did a lot of charity work around Oswestry where she donated gifts to Morda Hospital, ensured that all newborn children in the area received a gift and that the poor and needy were provided with hot soup, which was delivered by her chauffeur in her Rolls Royce. She held an annual summer picnic for all the local children in the grounds of Park Hall and provided pheasants for the needy at Christmas time.

As she grew older she put on weight and she had a lift installed to hoist her up to her bedroom. One June morning in 1913 she got into the lift to descend when the rope broke, sending her crashing down the lift shaft. She remained conscious but two days later she died of her injuries and shock.

The Waggon and Horses Inn was built on Stockport Lane (later Stockport Road), Denton, in 1796 and subsequently this was demolished and replaced. At some point its name was changed to the Fletcher's Arms to commemorate Jacob Fletcher Fletcher. This inn was built almost opposite to Burton Nook, which became inextricably linked with Denton Colliery. It seems that there may have been an earlier Burton Nook Pit and that its shaft was sunk in 1841. When Denton Colliery opened it subsumed Burton Nook Pit. Evidently, Denton Colliery was formed as a merger between Ellis Pit on the north side of Stockport Lane and Top Pit on the southern side. It is possible that Top Pit was the name of the small pit sunk on land that ultimately became Fletcher Street and Ellis Pit may have been a small pit on the site of Denton Colliery.

On the opposite side of the Stockport Lane to Denton Colliery the short Fletcher Street was built and the later Cemetery Road was built alongside it. A number of miners' cottages were built in Fletcher Street as well as another four on Stockport Lane. Fletcher Street and its houses were only razed to the ground long after the coalmine closed.

In 1853, a mineral tramway, known locally as the 'Bogie Lines', was opened to first connect Denton Colliery and then Great Wood Pit to Denton Colliery Sidings and Coal Wharf at North Reddish, where there was a connection to the London and North Western Railway (Stockport and Guide Bridge Line). Following the closure of Denton Colliery, the tramway remained in place until the outbreak of World War II in 1939 when the rails were lifted for scrap. Any remaining wooden sleepers were lifted in 1945 to be used on the bonfire for the VE Day celebrations. This bonfire was held in the yard of the former Denton Colliery by the entrance to the Colliery Fields.

In 1854 Denton Colliery is mentioned in Joseph Dickenson's list of mines and Jacob Fletcher Fletcher was then the Proprietor. The manager at this time may have been Peter Higson.

On the 4 June 1855 Charles Lowe, a collier aged 35 years, married Hannah Maria Smith at St Lawrence's Church, Denton, the ceremony being taken by Rev. Walter Nicol, the Rector. He was able to sign his name, his signature being large and spidery but he missed the R out of Charles.

In 1872 Denton Colliery was established as Denton Colliery Company Ltd and it rapidly became the major mine owner in the town.

By 1880 Denton Colliery Company controlled the following mines:

• Denton (the main site on Stockport Lane)
  
  
• Burton Nook (subsumed)
  
  
• Great Wood (in fields on the opposite side of Stockport Lane)
  
  
• Top Pit (on the site of Fletcher Street?). There is no mention of Ellis Pit
  
  
• Victoria (at Haughton)

The Trade Directory of 1874 for Denton and Haughton lists Peter Rothwell of 22 Fletcher Street, Denton, as the Managing Director (Proprietor) and he was employing 194 men and 82 boys. In 1896 the Manager of Denton Colliery was Samson Garside and the Under Manager was Philip Lloyd (Note 1). There were then 268 underground workers and 49 surface workers. The coal gained was categorised as being for household and manufacturing purposes. The coal seams, which were an integral part of the large Lancashire coalfield, were the Great and the Roger.

In 1908 the Manager of Denton Colliery was William Ollerenshaw (Note 2) and the Under Manager was still Philip Lloyd. There were then 315 underground workers and 108 surface workers.

In 1911, John Doodson of Balfour Road, Southport, was the Secretary at Denton Colliery and Thomas Doodson of Kersley Villas, Stockport Road, Denton, was the Assistant Secretary.

The Coal Mines Act of 1911 made it mandatory for central rescue stations to be built and by 1914 it became compulsory to have such a station within 10 miles of each coal mine (later this was increased to 15 miles). One of these manned stations was built on Stockport Lane on the opposite side of the road to the Denton Colliery. This was provided with a mortuary at the back but there is no evidence that this was ever used. Additionally, collieries were expected to keep and maintain their own sets of rescue equipment.

On the 3 May 1926 the General Council of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) called some 1½ million workers out on strike (the General Strike) in support of coal miners who had been locked out by the coal owners on the 1 May 1926 when they rejected wage cuts recommended by the Samuel Commission. The TUC called the strike off on the 12 May 1926 but angry miners stayed locked out for a further six months until they were forced back with wage reductions and longer hours.

During the period of the miners' strike it was impossible to maintain the underground workings and many mines were damaged by flooding, never to reopen. Denton Colliery was one such mine and it went into voluntary liquidation in 1929/30. Correspondence related to this liquidation is held at Tameside Local Studies and Archive Centre under reference DD83.

Speaking in 1974, Mr Wagstaffe, a former miner who still lived in one of the miners' cottages on Stockport Lane, stated that prior to the General Strike in 1926, the Colliery Company wanted to sink a new shaft closer to the actual coal faces because the miners had a considerable distance to travel underground before reaching them. Apparently an application had been made to the government for funding but the strike interfered with these plans and they were never implemented. Mr Wagstaffe also bitterly remembered that the Company still owed him one week's wages from the time that he was sacked.

A few of the structures surrounding Denton Colliery survived until after World War II and others are still extant. One of the buildings associated with the tramway sidings was used as an engineering workshop. The shaft, waggon loading area, reservoirs and the isolated powder house all remained, the area being used by children as a play ground but no-one was injured or killed. On the north side of the level crossing over Stockport Lane there was a small cluster of miners' cottages but by the time of World War II these were in a ruinous condition. Opposite these cottages there was an arrangement of buildings, roughly in the form of a square, with a setted courtyard inside. One former activity here was the provision of stables for pit ponies and throughout the war the farmer at Yew Tree Farm, Benjamin 'Ben' Phillips, used them to store hay and potatoes. Lower down the road, some distance in, a tall chimney associated with a boiler house also survived. The mine rescue station was built close to the stables and this survives to the present day as two houses. On the same side but on the far side of Cemetery Road, one miner's cottage survives, much altered.

On the Denton Colliery side of Stockport Lane, the colliery office was taken over by Albert Jones, a monumental stone mason, one part being used as a showroom and the other part and the first floor being used as his residence. The working area was in the yard at the rear. Today it is still used as a showroom by Albert Jones Memorials. During World War II this yard was used on one occasion to give a public demonstration of how to extinguish incendiary bombs dropped by enemy aircraft.

Following the closure of Denton Colliery, a timber palisade was built around the shaft to prevent anyone from falling down. This started to rot, creating holes in the sides, and people then began using it for rubbish disposal. Children also dropped stones down and counted how many seconds it took before they hit the bottom with hollow thuds. It was not until 1974 that the National Coal Board finally sealed it. This operation took several months, during which time fly ash was continuously pumped down it. The ash was recovered from the chimneys of power stations by electrostatic means and being very fine it had similar properties to fluids. At the bottom of the shaft it first flowed along the surviving galleries until they were all sealed. When this was completed, the shaft itself began to fill with ash and when full it was capped with a reinforced concrete raft. Prior to the pumping work starting, some excavation work of the surrounding slag heap was necessary and this unearthed a range of fossilised remains of tree ferns and tree horsetails from the Carboniferous Period.

And finally, on the 29 April 1901, Samuel Howard and James Worth, employees of the Denton Colliery Company, were brought before the Justices at Ashton-under-Lyne for causing an obstruction. They were charged with leaving their horses and carts outside the Blue Pig Inn at Audenshaw for an undue length of time. Both defendants pleaded guilty to the charge and they were fined 1s 0d plus costs.

For more details about Denton Colliery and coal, use the following menu:

The head stock of Denton Colliery, early 20th century. Note the line of carts for the local distribution of household coal.	The mine rescue team at Denton Colliery, early 1920s. The building in the background is the Winding House.
The mine rescue team at Denton Colliery, 1921.	Denton Colliery 0-4-0 saddle-tank locomotive, early 20th century. The 1901 census shows that at this time Thomas 'Tommy' Wagstaffe, aged 35 years, of Stockport Road, Denton, was employed at the colliery as a locomotive engine driver.
A former locomotive shed, 1930s. Following the closure of the mine, this shed was used an engineering workshop.	The office staff at Denton Colliery, early 20th century.
John S R Finney (1890 - 1952). John was born in Denton and he spent part of his working life in the Winding House at Denton Colliery. However, due to ill health, he left this job to become the caretaker at the People's Hall Cinema in Prestwich Street, Denton.	The former office of the Denton Colliery Company, 15 August 2008.

The mineral tramway (Bogie Lines) looking eastwards towards Denton Colliery, early 20th century. The head stock of the colliery is visible in the centre background. This view is from an accommodation bridge over the tramway that connected Hyde Hall to fields in Reddish Vale. Hyde Hall is off the picture to the left. When the tramway was constructed the cutting severed an orchard behind the hall and the wooden footbridge was provided to reconnect the two parts of the orchard. Horse Close Wood is off the picture to the right.