Hyde Wharf, Hyde Change
Bridge,
Hyde Colliery & Peacock Pit
Hyde Wharf
Hyde Wharf is situated on the
north side of Hyde Change Bridge where the Peak Forest Canal passes below
Manchester Road (formerly Hyde Lane). Over the years two brick-built warehouses
and two cranes were provided on the wharf as well as a small basin at the
northern end of the wharf.
The first warehouse was a three-storey building erected by the Peak Forest Canal Company in 1828 adjacent to Manchester Road and it provided the principal storage accommodation on the wharf. This building was constructed at 90° to the canal and it has a pitch roof with gable ends. Loading slots were provided in the gable ends to enable goods to be transhipped from and to boats and carts. The gable end facing the canal has an elliptical stone tablet above the loading slots bearing the date, 1828. Besides providing storage facilities, there would also have been an office for the Wharfinger and Clerks. When it ceased to be used as a canal warehouse it was occupied for a while by Morley Brothers (Ironfounders) Ltd. Since then it has been fully restored to provide office accommodation and it was listed as a Grade II building on the 22 August 1979, (Reference H3/26). It was listed as the Wharfinger's Warehouse with particular reference to its group association with the adjoining single-storey warehouse and Hyde Change Bridge.
The second warehouse was a single-storey building erected by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Company in 1859 on the opposite side of a cobbled yard behind the three-storey warehouse. This building was built parallel to the canal and it has a pitch roof with gable ends. There is a large doorway in each gable end and there are two loading slots on the canal side, each slot being provided with an internal crane. The keystone in the archway at the northern end of the building is rusticated and the date, 1859, is intertwined in it. This building was also occupied by Morley Brothers (Ironfounders) Ltd. It has now been fully restored and it is used as a workshop.
A crane was erected on the wharf between the two warehouses and a cantilever jib crane was erected on the wharf to the north of the second warehouse near to the small basin.
Cantilever jib crane on Hyde Wharf,
14 February 1976.
Hyde Change Bridge
Between Ashton Junction
and Hyde Wharf the towpath is on the western side of the canal but at this
roving bridge it changes to the eastern side. There were no physical reasons
for this change of sides as it was done at the behest of George Hyde Clarke who
was a promoter of the canal and a major shareholder. The canal was cut through
his estate and he did not want the towpath to be sited on the western side
where the family seat of Hyde Hall was situated.
As Manchester Road was widened to accommodate more traffic it was necessary to widen this bridge and there is clear evidence of this widening process below the bridge.
Hyde Change Bridge showing how it was
widened, 10 January
2007.
Hyde Colliery (Hyde Lane Pit) and Peacock
Pit
The date of the sinking of the shaft of Hyde Colliery is
uncertain but it is likely that it was shortly after work commenced on
constructing the canal in 1794. It is even possible that it was built on the
site of an earlier but shallow mine. The 1816/17 Commercial Directory of
'Merchants, Manufacturers, Tradesmen, &c' lists Messrs Wright,
Brown and Clayton as being Coal Dealers with premises on Ayton (now Aytoun)
Street, Manchester. These business partners were Strethill Wright, Thomas Brown
and William Clayton and Thomas Brown was the Surveyor and Resident Engineer for
the Proprietors of the Peak Forest Canal Company. It is known that Thomas Brown
and William Clayton worked this mine and that Joseph Holford was the Manager
and Charles Ogden was the Collector at this time. In 1841 Thomas Brown and
William Clayton were recorded as the occupiers of Hyde Colliery and also of
Peacock Pit, situated about 520 yards due south, close to the Peak Forest
Canal. Peacock Pit was named after the Peacock Mine (seam) of coal that was
worked there. Peacock Pit had closed by 1888.
By 1889, the Proprietors were Joseph Watson Sidebotham (1857-1925), MP for the Hyde Division, and his brother, James Nasmyth Sidebotham (1864-1904) and the mine was trading as the Hyde and Haughton Colliery Company. The Manager was Joseph Goodwin and the Underlooker was Edward Jackson.
In 1896 the colliery seemed to be trading as the Hyde Lane Colliery Company. The Manager was Abraham Elce (or Else) and the Under Manager was Edward Jackson. There were 233 underground workers and 44 surface workers. The types of coal mined were gas, household and manufacturing and the Two Feet and Black Seams were being worked.
Hyde Colliery, c.1912.
The parapet of Hyde Change Bridge
is in the foreground and the colliery offices are to the right of the
parapet.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the main shaft was about 295 yards deep and the coal faces being worked were about one mile away from the shaft bottom and some 75 yards deeper. This extra depth was brought about because the coal seams sloped downwards and in some places this was by as much 28°. To get full coal tubs to the bottom of the shaft there were inclined planes ('jigs') in the tunnels. As the slope was downwards it was not possible to have self-acting inclined planes in which descending full coal tubs were used to haul up ascending empty ones, so gins (capstans) must have been placed at the top and pit ponies used to wind full tubs up the inclines. The workman who controlled a plane was known as a 'jigger' (sometimes spelt 'jagger').
Once the coal had reached the surface it could be distributed by road, canal or railway and gas coal would be taken directly to the nearby Hyde Gas Works, which was on the other side of Barnfield and Millwood Mills. A deep wharf was provided by Hyde Change Bridge and a long chute, built at a skew angle to the canal, passed over this wharf and then over the canal and towpath to terminate on land close to Hyde Railway Station. A side chute from this went to the deep wharf where coal boats moored below were loaded.
The deep coal wharf opposite Hyde Colliery, which is the site of the
chute used to load coal boats, 25 February 1979.
The dragline in the
background is excavating the main pit shaft prior to it being sealed with
reinforced concrete.
Hyde Colliery Explosion, 1889
At just after
9:00am on the Friday, 18 January 1889, an underground explosion occurred that
caused 23 miners to be killed and another five to be seriously injured. For
details of this pit disaster and the names of the men killed and injured click
on the miner's check.
Hyde Colliery Explosion, Click here
Tithe Maps of Hyde Colliery and Peacock Pit, Click here
