An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St Helens, Lancashire

Part 91 (of 95 parts) - Bold Colliery Part 2 (1955 - 1986)

Also See: Bold Colliery Part 1   |   Bold Power Station
Photo Album 1   |   Photo Album 2   |   Photo Album 3   |   Photo Album 4
Researched and Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXX  Contact Me
An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St Helens
Part 91 (of 95) - Bold Colliery Part 2 (1955 to 1986)
Also see: Bold Colliery Part 1  |  Bold Power Station
Photo Album 1   |   Album 2   |   Album 3   |   Album 4
Researched & Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXX
An Illustrated History of Old Sutton in St Helens
Bold Colliery Part 2
Bold Power Station
Bold Colliery Part 1
Researched and Written by Stephen Wainwright ©MMXX

An aerial view of the newly-modernised Bold Colliery c.1955 - From the Cliff Payne Collection

An aerial view of the newly-modernised Bold Colliery c.1955

Aerial view of Bold Colliery c.1955

When Joe Gormley first began working at Bold Colliery in July 1955, he must have been very impressed by what he found. The man who was to become President of the National Union of Mineworkers would no doubt have approved of the modern pit that had just received a £5.5 million investment and was producing a high grade of coal. Unusually for any new project – especially in mining – the reorganisation had been completed on schedule and to budget. During its 5½-year reconstruction, all the existing buildings on the surface were demolished and built in their place were new pit head baths, a coal preparation plant, power house, bunkers, workshops, canteen, administrative block and a medical centre that treated 1,550 a month.

The mainly steam-driven surface machinery was replaced by modern electrical equipment, including winding equipment for the three pit shafts. Modernisation underground was conducted during the weekends and in the off-shift, so Bold was able to maintain its scheduled output while the work was underway. Electric locomotives were introduced to carry materials through high vaulted, well-lit, airy tunnels, with the loading point known by the men as ‘Clapham junction’. However despite the many innovations, tunnel boring was still by dynamite, with blasting only allowing tunnelling of less than two yards a day. No boring machine had yet been invented that satisfied the National Coal Board. There was plenty of coal, with estimates of up to 192 million tons of 'black gold' underground and the Nos. 1 and 3 shafts were deepened to 915 yards to take full advantage (No. 2 shaft had a winding depth of 611 yards).

The newly-modernised Bold Colliery pictured about 1955 - From the Cliff Payne Collection

The newly-modernised Bold Colliery pictured about 1955

The newly-modernised colliery c.1955

Bold was now capable of generating more than 700,000 tons of saleable coal per year from an expanded workforce. In fact in 1957 there were 1819 workers (1478 underground and 341 surface) who produced 748,735 tons of coal. This compares to 1947 when 920 workers produced only 201,326 tons. Productivity had greatly improved too, with the OMS (output per man-shift) having almost doubled its 1947 figure of 19.51 tons to 35.8 tons. The introduction of the Anderton Shearer Loader coal cutting machine partly explained this increase and the National Coal Board (NCB) believed that Bold would soon be able to reach its target of an annual output of 840,000 tons of coal, plus OMS of 40cwt. per man shift.

The new 'lighter, brighter' colliery - as described by the Manchester Guardian - was shown off to the press on May 24th 1956. The newspaper described it as 'one of the National Coal Board’s prides and joys', which ‘looks as pleasant as a mine could do’. The St.Helens Reporter said that Bold was ‘probably the most representative organisation in the country’, with twelve nationalities working there, alongside men from St.Helens, Wigan and Bootle. However miners’ agent Sam Unsworth said that the suppression of dust still had to be addressed. He told the journalists who had visited the colliery underground earlier that day, that the dust that had got into their lungs would have done them more harm than the next 200 cigarettes that they smoked.

At that time the workforce totalled 1650, which was 350 under strength. Two hundred miners had been transferred from the Long Lane Colliery in Ashton after it had closed in 1955. The NCB also revealed that two large waste banks, that had dominated the Bold Colliery skyline for 70 years, were in the process of being removed. Two million tons of red shale had already been moved and used as a base for work at Speke Airport, as well as for roads and tennis courts. From 1955 the colliery had instead begun using Bold Moss as a spoil tip and they continued tipping on the ancient moss - which had long provided peat for use as firelighters - until 1967.

The construction by the British Electricity Authority (later CEGB) of Bold Power Station adjacent to the colliery was a huge boon. It was officially opened on September 30th 1955 having generated electricity for the first time in December 1953. The 'blended smalls' coal was transferred directly from the colliery to the power station by means of an overhead belt conveyor. On the occasions when this was not possible, the fuel was diverted into wagons and transported the short distance by rail. Fiddlers Ferry Power Station was also a customer and in total 82% of the colliery's output was used to generate electricity.

Bold pit deputies; L-R: ?; Arthur Bates; Percy Broughton; Richard Longworth; ? Photo by Neil Selfridge, Id. by Alf Hodkinson

Bold deputies L-R: ?; Arthur Bates; Percy Broughton; Richard Longworth; ?

Bold pit deputies from the 1950s

Accidents at the colliery became less frequent post-war with the introduction of safer practices and improved technologies. However some still inevitably occurred. During the 1950s, Leonard Campbell worked down Bold colliery as a shot firer. He had been brought up in Sutton's Pudding Bag district but was now living at 117 Malvern Road in Parr. Leonard suffered a back injury and had to be invalided out of his job. Then in January 1965 his next door neighbour, Harold Treeby, was killed at Bold as a result of a roof fall

 By now most mineworkers at the colliery were living in Parr, as the National Coal Board had built 612 houses between 1952 and '54, after buying up a farmer's field. Concrete instead of brick was used with a pebbledash finish, so that each house could be built within a week. They also built a large block of flats, shops and several dozen garages for the NCB's vehicles. Bold had suffered from an annual turnover of staff of about 70% and the coal board believed that in providing good, new housing, this would be reduced. Many homes were inhabited by families who had relocated from Liverpool, and a number were Polish. The majority had three bedrooms and for these tenants during the mid-50s paid 25s. 3d. rent per week, which was raised to £39s. 8d. if they left the mining industry.

On July 20th 1957 the new Bold Miners’ Institute, in Fleet Lane in Parr, was officially opened by Edwin Hall, the General Secretary of the Lancashire NUM. At the time it boasted the most up to date recreation facility for miners in the country. Costing £87,000 to build and covering some 15 acres, the institute would cater for a variety of sports, with inside facilities for dancing, theatre, refreshments, reading and indoor games. In his opening speech, Hall said the institute was a sign of the higher standards of the modern miners and praised the coal board and the men who had “made possible such a wonderful transformation from what was a derelict pit”.

The manager of Bold Colliery, W. Bibby, said the building was not just a landmark in mining but a measure of the success of the improved relations between management and employees. The Institute’s Recreation Ground only officially opened on June 8th 1963. On that day thousands of miners led by brass bands processed through St.Helens to the ground, where sports, morris dancers, a gala queen competition and a fair were held.

From 1952 to 1961 Ted Lyon worked at the colliery and has endured health problems ever since:
 I have many happy memories working on 9 west face at Bold colliery where was 3 belts, 3 ploughs and 31 colliers. If we missed a winding at 6.30am, we would work in the screens and do our best to keep away from the woman at break time or we would be greased on our private parts! It also happened to all the new lads working on the coal face. I left school at 15 years and went to tech college and did my training at Lea Green Lime pits and Clock Face colliery. In 1971 I was diagnosed with T.B. and today I suffer with C.O.P.D. and chronic emphsymia caused by working underground. In 2002 I received £5000 miners compensation but it should have been more. That's the price we paid.

Bold colliery in the 1950s - note Clock Face Colliery in the background and power station cooling tower on the right

Bold colliery in the 1950s - note Clock Face Colliery in the background

Bold colliery during the 1950s

Ted Lyon also describes how there were three coal faces at Bold. On the left main brew was ‘4 east’ and on the right was ‘9 west’ plus ‘Crombrook’, with the mine workings extending under Burtonwood airport. Jim Gorman was the manager during the '50s and he employed a number of former Italian POWs and Polish workers. The former mainly did packing duties on the coal face and the latter put up girders in the tunnels leading to the coal face.
During 1958 some 130 men transferred to Bold from Garswood Hall Colliery, after the longstanding Haydock mine had closed. NCB magazine Pit Prop included the above photographs in their account of the colliery’s closure (used courtesy of Alan Davies). They show some of the men being inducted at Bold and in the first image Training Officer Jack Wildman interviews a couple of the men. In the centre picture Head Lampman Ned Ashton shows the new recruits how the recently introduced self-service lamp system works at Bold. Pit Prop then explained how the men were next given a tour of the pithead baths, before enjoying a cup of tea in the canteen. The third image in the strip features the men ready to return home on the bus.

On June 6th 1958, Sir Ian Horobin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Power, had a two hour underground tour of Bold. After surfacing he told journalists how impressed he'd been saying "Many people wonder whether we are getting value for money from the coal industry. We are certainly getting it here".

During 1959 proposals to convert Burtonwood airfield into an international airport caused much alarm at Bold. Much of the colliery’s best coal was located 3 miles away underneath the airfield’s main runway, which had been leased to the United States Air Force. The Americans were officially leaving on July 1st 1959 and the NCB had an agreement with the British Air Ministry not to mine under the runway until at least 1962, so as to prevent subsidence. If the authorities agreed to the airport proposals, then Bold’s own plans would have to be revised at a huge cost.

Lancashire County Council and Newton MP Frederick Lee were highly supportive of a new airport, but understandably Speke and Manchester airports were against a rival. Discussions continued on and off for six years, until the NCB announced in February 1965 that they intended to begin working a 4 foot seam of coal directly under the former base. This would entail 600 square yards of coal that was directly under the 1.7 mile-long runway. Mining began in June, scuppering any chance of an airport.

A full page advertisement by Thos. W. Ward which was published in the Railway Gazette of July 25th 1958

Advert by Thos. W. Ward in the Railway Gazette of July 25th 1958

Ad in Railway Gazette July 25th 1958

Bold Colliery was now considered to have one of the best safety records in the country. However this was no consolation to the family of William Costello from Brooklands Lane in Parr. On May 25th 1959, the 27-year-old was crushed to death by tons of fallen stone, while working down the no. 1 pit. On November 3rd 1960, a four-day strike over pay scales began, which affected nearly 600 coalface workers.

Seven months later, on June 15th 1961, bailiffs evicted William Donnellan from his coal board home in Berry’s Lane, Sutton. The 36-year-old had worked at Bold for 14 years but had been forced to give up his job in 1960 after developing bronchitis. Since leaving the colliery, Donnellan had kept up his weekly rent payment of 25s. 9d., and other NCB houses in his street were occupied by former Bold miners who had left through illness or injury. However bronchitis was not classed as an industrial disease and the NCB claimed a housing waiting list of 800. So Donnellan, along with his wife and six children, had to go.

In 1962 a monorail system to transport materials underground was introduced at Bold, to replaced the existing installation. By May 1965 there were 18 in operation, with 14 more on order. Men travelled by the new 'package train', which ran on flexible track to go round corners and up inclines. In 1963 the colliery became the first in the country to have an electronic monitoring installation to keep track of all operations. The communications centre was situated in the administration block and it became the colliery nerve centre, detailing minute by minute information. The installation also enabled remote control operation of pumping and conveyor systems and a safety alarm panel provided audible warnings for smoke and methane concentration as well as water flow.

Underground the telephone system was extended to provide loudspeaker communication directly to the coal face. At a cinema in Cambridge on September 6th 1965, the chairman of the National Coal Board, Lord Robens, presented a live television broadcast from three-quarters of a mile under Bold colliery. Delegates were shown the new electronic system at Bold and The Times reported that the chairman pressed a switch that stopped a coal conveyor belt two hundred miles away and which was witnessed on screen by the delegates.
By the 1960s boys were no longer tending to follow their fathers down the pit and so the coal board launched another recruitment campaign to encourage new recruits. In 1964 a new training centre was opened at Bold to prepare youths and adults entering the coal industry for life down a mine. The centre catered for trainees from West Lancashire and was located 2,745 feet underground within the East Rushy Park district of the colliery. This had 1300 yards of underground roadways, which were equipped with different types of haulage systems to give the trainees more experience. There was 100 yards of ‘static’ coal face with different types of roof support, plus a lecture room, fire station and first-aid post.

An advantage to the colliery was its close proximity to British Railways main line from Liverpool to Manchester, permitting easy distribution of its coal stocks. Bold was only 13 miles from Liverpool and 19 miles from Manchester. However there were disadvantages in having express trains thundering past the pit and a number of miners lost their lives through walking across the rails (see article Crossing The Line – Rail Deaths in Old Sutton).

On December 29th 1965 there was nearly a major tragedy, when the points for the colliery sidings derailed a passenger train. The six coach Trans-Pennine express was travelling at 50mph with 70 passengers on board when the partial points failure occurred. The points were controlled by the Bold Colliery Sidings signalbox and the leading coach's wheels were pulled in three directions, one of which was towards the colliery's empties reception siding. Driver William Graylish saved the passengers by promptly braking when the train started shuddering and lurching and only minor injuries were received.

Left: Martin Higgins volunteered to fall off the top of a pumphouse at Bold to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new safety harness; Right: Horace Pugh (front 3rd left) and his team in charge of coal sales at Bold Colliery - contributed by Alan Pugh

Left: Testing a new safety harness; Right: Land (coal) sales team

Testing a new safety harness at Bold

On January 10th 1967 the St Helens Newspaper reported that £686,000 had been earmarked for future projects at Bold Colliery. These included the driving of tunnels to reach more top quality coal reserves, the installation of two additional sets of powered supports and a project to concentrate on underground loading. In January 1968 it was announced that Bold had broken its output record from the Wigan 4 feet South Dip face, with 9,700 tons produced in a week. The record-breaking face was one of five that were being worked and was fully mechanised with self-advancing roof supports. During early 1968 Britain had an ‘I’m Backing Britain’ patriotic campaign, aimed at boosting the British economy. Bold had its own version, with banners stating ‘I’m Backing Bold’.

In October of that year the National Coal Board announced that Bold had, over the last 12 months, converted a £750,000 loss into a £50,000 profit. Productivity, defined by OMS (output per man-shift), had increased by 10cwt. to 40 tons 6 cwt. Its coal was in great demand with half going to the nearby power station, 25% to industry and 25% for domestic use. The acting manager Ken Houghton said that Bold’s improved position was down to increased machine running time and reducing the number of coal faces from 7 to 5.

Technological advancements were also improving productivity at the colliery. The coal board’s Mining Research Establishment had developed a smaller drum for the shearer and the idea of fitting fewer but larger picks, in order to extract larger coal for the domestic market. Powered supports were also contributing to the efficiency of operations. The NCB were offering jobs to another 100 men and a union official was talking of a life expectancy for the mine of between 50 to 100 years, with mining operations extended under Cheshire.

In October 1968 a full scale mock-up of a coal face was built in the yard at Bold Colliery. It was part of a nine-month long safety campaign intended to reduce the numbers of shifts lost through accidents. During the year ended March 30th, Bold lost 3,541 shifts through accidents, out of every 100,000 shifts worked. One half of the mocked-up face was in perfect order, while the other half showed mistakes that could cause accidents. The colliery’s safety engineer D. Owen and safety officer J. Forster supervised the men who built the mock face.
The Bold pitmen were invited to visit the display and take part in competitions identifying the accident dangers. There were also fire-fighting and first aid competitions, with Lord Robens – the chairman of the coal board – having sent letters and booklets to each miner asking for their co-operation. Bold was one of fifty mines in Britain that were selected for the initiative by the NCB.

On October 12th 1968 the St Helens Reporter stated that new safety appliances called ‘self-rescuers’ were due to arrive at Bold within the next few weeks. The small canister / mask contained a chemical that converted carbon monoxide into small, harmless quantities of carbon dioxide. The deadly gas often polluted the air in coal mines after a fire or explosion.

There was one disadvantage with the self-rescuer in that the process gave off heat. A leaflet that came with the appliance said: “The air passing through the mask will get warm and you will feel this in your mouth and throat. Because of this heat, you may be tempted to take off the self-rescuer. You must never do this, otherwise you may lose your life.”

The St.Helens Reporter on December 14th 1968 featured irate residents of Broad Lane in Collins Green complaining about lorries thundering past their homes. Every 15 minutes for the past 18 months, slurry from Bold Colliery had been taken to a tip at Clock Face Colliery. This was as a result of the National Coal Board being refused permission to extend their tip at Bold Moss.

The residents might have been able to tolerate the noise and the slurry falling off the wagons if it only occurred during the day. However after a five-hour break at 5pm, the lorries resumed their journeys and continued through the night. “The noise is terrible, it keeps me awake.”, said Mrs Hill of 129 Broad Lane. Her next-door neighbour James Orford was also concerned about the safety aspect, with lorries skidding on the slurry-covered surface: “Someone is going to get killed there one of these days. We have had two accidents already.”

On May 9th 1969 the St Helens Reporter stated that plans were going ahead for the opening of a new coal face in Bold’s four feet seam. This would replace the worked out south dip face underneath Burtonwood Air Base that had been badly damaged by crude oil seeping in from surrounding rock formations. Another face – known as the light west face – was reported as already being operational.

In August 1969 it was announced that investigations were being made into the effects of tobacco chewing on the soft tissues of the mouth. The mouths of over 2000 miners were going to be examined by Dr. William Tyldesley, to discover whether sustained chewing was harmful. Dr. Tyldesley had already made a preliminary survey at Bold Colliery, where at least a third of the 1350 underground workers chewed tobacco while working. Many admitted to being ‘chain chewers’, immediately replacing a finished wad with another. Bob Ashcroft, a Bold miner with 17 years experience, told a journalist "I can really relax at the job with a good chew. Tobacco is much better than chewing gum. That seems to collect all the dust and turn into concrete in your mouth."

In November 1969 the NCB launched a recruitment drive to fill 500 vacancies at nine Lancashire mines, including 50 at Bold. A four-month long advertising campaign sought to recruit former miners, youths for apprenticeships and men without prior mining experience. The National Coal Board announced in early February 1970 that Bold had smashed both its output and productivity records. Much of the increase was down to the new T-one coal face in the Trencherbone seam which was opening up new coal reserves. The W-eight face in the Wigan Four Feet seem had also accounted for 8,000 tons of the 20,100 total. Recently a new tunnel had been driven to connect both shafts and a 500-yard-long conveyor had been installed in the tunnel, enabling coal to be wound up both shafts. Previously most coal was wound up the No 1 shaft.

On March 6th 1970 the St Helens Reporter had an extensive feature on the mining disease pneumoconiosis with hopes rising that a Government review would lead to increased pensions for the widows of sufferers. The paper said the killer pit disease had widowed forty St Helens' women in 1969 and the case of Jack Williams was profiled. Jack was sixty-seven and for the last twenty years his breathing had gradually been getting louder.

The Reporter wrote: "Now, he cannot breathe like a healthy man, and has to take great desperate gulps of air into his tortured lungs." Mr Williams had been forced to retire in 1962 but during his last twelve months at Bold Colliery he had hardly been to work because of the disease. "I started at Sutton Manor and later went over to Bold", said Jack. "We had two lads but I would not let them go down the pits. The young ones who are going down are making the biggest mistake of their lives."

Left: Miss Bold Colliery, Lancashire Miners Gala Queen entrant Carol Cunningham in 1970; Right: Bold Miners' Institute

Miss Bold Colliery Carol Cunningham 1970 and Bold Miners' Institute

Miss Bold, Carol Cunningham

Pictured in the St Helens Reporter on May 21st 1970 was Carol Cunningham of Hamer Street who had been voted Miss Bold at the annual dance at Bold Miners Institute. The 22-year-old hairdresser only received £10 plus a £10 clothing voucher but would go forward to the Lancashire Miners Gala Queen and the Coal Queen of Great Britain contests.

At the end of May 1970 it was announced that Bold had won the NCB's national safety competition for pits employing over 1,000 men. The colliery had shown the largest reduction in accident rates in the year ending in March. Parkside Colliery in Newton-le-Willows was runner-up. The mineworkers drew lots to share in the £2,273 prize with 28-year-old Arthur Hurst from Ashton-in-Makerfield winning a 12-day holiday for two in Majorca. Each month a safety pamphlet containing poems and limericks that the men had written was issued. There were now over 1,600 employees at Bold, which was considered to be the third largest colliery in the North West.

The Liverpool Echo reported on December 3rd 1970 that Roy Green had come third in an annual students competition organised within the mining industry. The 25-year-old from Union Street was a practising deputy at Bold and attended Wigan Technical College where he studied mining legislation for his under-manager’s ticket. He was awarded the prize for a paper on the installation of powered supports.

In January 1971 Edmond Blakeley from Leigh took over as deputy manager of Bold Colliery, succeeding Ken Houghton who had moved to Somerset. In March of that year it was reported that Adam Walewski had been awarded damages of £500 after being injured in a fall at Bold Colliery. Mr. Walewski was a chargehand ripper at the mine and in November 1968 – while helping to carry a section of arched girder – tripped and fell over another girder lying on the ground.

A fortnight later paneller Joseph Bielak was awarded damages of £10,000 after being injured at Bold in June 1967. The 49-year-old from Liverpool had been operating with a gang of three men working in number two tunnel. A compressed air pipe suddenly burst and the bucket of a shovelling machine struck Mr Bielak on the head. It was stated in court that his injuries and the resulting shock had left him suffering from anxiety, a lack of self-confidence and a personality change.

It was announced at the end of May 1971 that Bold had set a new Northwest productivity record of 42.5 cwt. per man shift, almost 9 cwt. above the average for the region. The colliery was also now officially the safest in the country, having won the NCB’s national safety competition. The miners were awarded £8,000 for the fewest days lost through accidents and the best improved safety record for pits employing over a thousand men.

Inside Bold Miners Institute

During the afternoon of December 1st, the workforce at Bold walked out after a dispute over a power loading agreement but returned to work five days later. They were out on strike again on January 9th 1972 as part of a national dispute over pay. A large number of strikers took part in a march in Liverpool in heavy rain on January 26th as part of a demonstration against unemployment.

The suffering caused by the strike was exemplified on February 11th when two miners appeared before Widnes magistrates separately charged with stealing coal from Bold Colliery. One man had taken just one cwt. of coal worth 60p and was fined £10. The father of four told the Bench that that he had no coal and it was causing hardship to his family. The second man told the court: "I did it because of the children". The strike ended on February 28th 1972, when the miners returned to work.

On January 21st 1972 the St.Helens Reporter published an article entitled ‘A Pitman’s Pittance’, in which they stated that a blacksmith’s striker at Bold took home just £12.70 a week. The newspaper analysed the payslip of Bob Lancaster, who’d worked at the mine for 18 years. The 41-year-old’s gross pay was £19.40 for working a 40-hour week from 7am until 3pm. Automatically stopped from his wage was £1 for concessionary coal money and £1.84 rent for his three bedroomed semi-detached house in Downland Way, on the colliery estate in Parr.

Other deductions for insurance, pension contributions and union dues totalled £1.61, and there was also £2.25 tax. Bob’s wife Martha told the newspaper: “We don’t really live. We survive.” However Bob said he felt fortunate as he worked on the surface and not underground. “Conditions are terrible down there”, he added.
Bold Colliery was spotlighted in the July 1972 edition of ‘Coal News’, the mining industry’s monthly newspaper. Pictured were Horace Derbyshire, Charlie Fairhurst and Alf Hodkinson standing on 24 tons of coal that they had brought out in just six hours (shown above – contributed by David Yeates). The report stated that the colliery’s use of ‘retreat mining’ – in which supporting pillars are removed after tunnelling – had enabled far more coal to be extracted and had greatly improved output from their W10 seam.

On July 3rd 1972 five surface workers at Bold were rushed to hospital after an explosion in the workshop in which they were working. The men were using welding equipment to repair machinery used in the coal preparation plant when there was a blowback. An oxyacetylene burner caught fire and then exploded, throwing the men over 20 feet. The blast also caused a number of other cylinders that were stored nearby to explode, scattering fragments of metal flying for over 100 yards in every direction. A Fire Brigade spokesman said it was a miracle that anyone had survived.

The five injured men were James Holcroft (60), Wilfred Derby (45), Herbert Stazacker (56), Arthur Ellis (59) and William Bretton (52). In July 1974 Mr Ellis was awarded £4,000 damages and Mr Bretton £20,000. The latter received burns to 50% of his body after being hurled twenty yards into a coal slurry. Over the next four years Bill Bretton had more than ten operations at Whiston Hospital’s major burns unit with a third of his skin having to be replaced.

There was controversy in September 1972 when the National Coal Board began negotiating with St Helens Corporation over the sale of 600 NCB houses in Parr. More than half of them were occupied by miners from Bold Colliery and their families and the NUM lodged a protest with the coal board over the proposals.

Ted Ashton, the head of the lamproom at Bold, retired on January 26th 1973 after 51 years service, having started work at the colliery as a 14-year-old boy. What was remarkable about Ted was that during his employment he never once went underground, with all his jobs having been on the surface. The mine's personnel manager, Ken Harris, presented Ted with a clock on his retirement and invited him to go underground. However he declined saying "After all this time, I don't see any reason for breaking my record".

In May of 1973 it was revealed that Bold’s average coal output per manshift (OMS) during the past year had been 44 cwt. This was the highest output in the NCB’s North-Western Area, which comprised 14 mines, with the nearby Sutton Manor Colliery’s output having been an OMS of 33 cwt. In July 1973 it was announced that the colliery’s General Manager William Monks was leaving to take up a new post in Staffordshire. During his tenure the mine had won awards for safety and greatly boasted its productivity.

With the prospect of a national strike over pay looming, pickets at Bold stopped members of the National Association of Colliery Overmen, Deputies and Shot-firers from conducting safety inspections. The picketing took place over the weekend of February 2nd / 3rd 1974 with the checks instead having to be carried out by management. The strike began on February 5th and led to Prime Minister Edward Heath calling a General Election.

Photo in the Liverpool Echo of February 15th 1974 of Bold Colliery miners on the picket line with Mal Gregory shown third from right

Liverpool Echo photo of miners’ picket line with Mal Gregory 3rd from right

Bold miners on the picket line

The Liverpool Echo on February 15th wrote a lengthy article on the strike. Their reporter visited the picket line at Bold Power Station and commented on the "pallor that marks the underground worker and the almost complete absence of young faces". Mal Gregory, Bold Colliery representative on the Lancashire executive of the National Union of Mineworkers, told the journalist:
 This is the message we're trying to get across. No young men are coming into the pits. The wages are too bloody awful. Just look at the situation we have here. The average age of all our members at Bold is 47 – and the average age of the men actually working the coal face is 54. The young men who do have a go with us don't stay for long. They're off to work in better conditions and for more money.
1975 was a very difficult year for the Bold workers with adverse geology leading to the loss of two coal faces. The colliery had great hopes for a new face called W10, which was advancing into a virgin area of coal. It was producing 4,000 tons a week but then hit an unchartered major fault and a new face had to be opened out instead. A second face called T10 was producing 3,000 tons of coal a week but was affected by pillars of coal that had been left in another seam and the roof conditions became so bad that the face had to be abandoned. However their troubles were left behind them at the beginning of February 1976 when it was announced that the men had broken the colliery’s overall productivity record with an OMS during the previous week of 58.4 cwt.

An article in the Liverpool Echo of January 28th 1976 stated that steeplejack Joe Selsby had once demolished a 400 ft. chimney at Bold Colliery. A further report on May 21st 1976 stated that former boxer Charlie Fox had died aged 54 after collapsing at work at Bold Colliery. The son of a famous boxing trainer (with the same name) had gone into boxing as a professional in 1934 at the age of 16 and had close on 100 contests before retiring from the ring in 1946.

Photos from centenary brochures - L-R Jim Dowd (NUM); Alan Houghton (General manager); Tom Redmond (NACODS)

L-R Jim Dowd (NUM); Alan Houghton (Manager); Tom Redmond (NACODS)

L-R Jim Dowd (NUM); Alan Houghton (Manager); Tom Redmond (NACODS)

During that year the colliery celebrated its centenary and on Saturday August 28th a special open day was held with the public invited to make a trip underground. A promotional leaflet said:
 Come and see Britain’s modern mining. Experience a ride in the shaft. Travel a simulated coal face. Ride on a man-train. See the working model of a mine, and the various processes that coal goes through before delivery to your home.
Nine hundred people took up the offer to make a 900-yard descent down no. 1 shaft. The coal board believed that this was the first time that such an underground public opportunity had been held in a North West mine. Those who made the trip were presented with a diploma to commemorate the occasion. There was also a mining machinery display, exhibitions of scientific and fire fighting equipment, a working model mine and visits to the colliery lamproom. The celebrations held at the miners’ welfare institute included Morris dancing, whippet racing, fun fair, sideshows, brass band and a centenary disco dance. A sports programme included for children’s sack races and 50 metre sprints, ladies egg and spoon race and a tug o’war for the men.

Alan Houghton was the General Manager at Bold Colliery at the time and he wrote in the centenary programme about the technical progress at the colliery:
 Picks and shovels were the order of the day when Bold colliery first began production in the 1870s. Today, high powered machines have taken over much of the muscle work out of mining and the miner has become a skilled technician, controlling machinery that has cost millions of pounds to install.
Whilst this was true of part of the face worker's role, an appreciable amount of the associated face work was still manually carried out in a dangerous environment.
The programme contained a number of images, which vividly demonstrated how mining at Bold had changed over the past 100 years. Frank Grimshaw, who by 1976 was the NCB’s North Western Division photographer, would have taken all the modern-day photographs. The pictures above contrast the pick ’n’ shovel days of hewing coal by hand, with the modern-day production face at the colliery. It was stated that more coal could now be produced in a day, than a miner with a pick could hew in a year.
Next the programme looked at the changing methods of coal transportation within the pit. The above image (left) shows a sad-looking pony and its driver, who was usually referred to as a pony boy. For very many years these animals were used to haul coal to the pit bottom in order to be wound up the shaft, with most ponies spending their lives underground. This image contrasts with the photo on the right, which shows the modern battery-powered locomotives, capable of hauling up to 100 tons of coal at a time.
This photograph shows how the driving of a new underground roadway had by the 1960s become in part, highly mechanised. The tunnelling machine comprised a boom-ripper, harnessed to a gathering arm-loader and each year more than 4,000 yards of new roadways were driven by these machines to exploit Bold’s considerable reserves. However this application was not practical in all cases, with the strata geology such as hard rock and fault conditions sometimes dictating the use of traditional drilling of the strata, followed by explosive firing to advance the tunnel.
The final group of photographs contained within the open day programme concerns the developments in Bold’s surface operations. The small inset picture (above left) provides a glimpse of the steam-driven winding engine in use at the turn of the century. The main photograph shows the huge electrically-powered modern winder, which was capable of lifting a nine-ton payload over 900 yards in less than two minutes. Two D.C. motors, each rated 1800 h.p., served the no. 1 shaft, which was the main coal winder. The no. 2 and 3 shafts used electric winders with a 15 feet diameter cylindrical drum, which was driven by 1200 h.p. induction motors.

The two pictures on the right contrast the improvements in coal preparation, which for many years had involved the sorting of coal by hand. Women and men undertook this arduous task in screens buildings, grading and separating the coal from dirt. The second photograph (bottom right) demonstrates how manual screening had largely been replaced by sophisticated treatment facilities. The picture shows the process control room - with automated push-button systems and television scanners - which enabled the washing, grading and blending of coal to the particular needs of Bold’s customers.

Some traditional screening did, however, continue but on a very small scale, primarily removing associated mining items, such as timber and steel items, via magnets. The modernisation of Bold’s coal preparation facilities was based on the National Coal Board’s recognition that the market for coal was changing, with a major decline in the use of coal on the railways and a drive for using cleaner domestic fuel. This presented the NCB with the opportunity to increase the value of the end saleable product, through the introduction of new and cost-effective scientific processes.

The band performing at the centenary celebrations was the Bold Miners’ Brass Band, which was formed around 1970 and folded about 1990. They were said to be the last miners' band playing on the Lancashire coalfield. The band were based at the aforementioned Bold Miners' Institute.

During 1976 Bold methane drainage officer Michael Wood won a £100 award from the NCB’s area inventions award panel for inventing an improved stuffing box used in the drilling of methane holes. In January 1977 some long-serving Bold and Sutton Manor miners were sent on a pre-retirement course at the industry’s Old Boston training centre. This was intended as a pilot scheme for the National Coal Board and was thought to be the first of its kind in the country. More than 20 veteran pitmen, who were approaching retirement age volunteered for the 16-hour course, which provided advice on pensions, benefits insurance, tax and even the need for active interests upon retirement. The classes were run by senior training officer, Percy Davies and course tutor Bob Howarth.

Bold Colliery General Manager W. E. Taylor with a party of visitors - contributed by Neil Selfridge, identification by David Owen

Bold Colliery General Manager W. E. Taylor with a party of visitors

Bold Colliery General Manager W. E. Taylor with a party of visitors

On July 14th 1977 more than 400 miners had to be evacuated from the colliery as fire ripped along a coalface, leaving a trail of poisonous fumes and smoke in its wake. An NCB spokesman said they were examining the possibility that the fire had begun as a result of shot firing underground as roadways were being built near to the coal face. During that summer the National Coal Board completed a £1 million scheme to improve coal winding facilities at Bold. The coal was now loaded into skips and as a consequence no. 2 shaft stopped being used for coal winding. No. 1 pit now exclusively wound the coal, with no. 3 shaft principally used for winding men and materials and for upcast ventilation. At this time the extracted dirt was loaded onto lorries and dumped onto a tip adjacent to Burtonwood Brewery. After its six year life expired, the plan was to transport dirt to the old Clock Face Colliery tip.

A plan of the Bold Colliery coalfield from c.1977 showing the Main, North East and South Areas

Bold Colliery coalfield plan c.1977 showing the Main, NE & South Areas

Bold Colliery coalfield plan c.1977

Bold's future seemed secure with substantial coal reserves (estimated in January 1977 as 35 million tons), mainly within the new North East Area and South Area. The latter extended 2½ miles from the shafts, with two faces being worked in the Wigan 4 ft. seam as well as the Trencherbone seam. The third area of working was the Main Area, which by now had been extensively worked in several seams and only the Rushy Park seam was intended to be worked in future.

In January 1978 the NCB announced a local incentive agreement with Bold mineworkers. Such productivity deals were opposed by union leader Arthur Scargill but could mean up to £40 extra pay for underground workers at the colliery. However the bonuses were at times a bone of contention and led to a walkout by the men on September 29th 1978. A new productivity record was set in mid-February 1979 with an average OMS (output per manshift) of 3.07 tonnes. General manager Alan Houghton said that the success was mostly due to the co-operation from the men and the newly-opened ‘retreat’ face in the Trencherbone seam.

On June 25th 1979 the Evening Post and Chronicle published a revealing article on Bold Colliery, in which manager Alan Houghton explained how he couldn’t mine coal fast enough to meet demand, saying: “I haven’t had a ton of stock here for five years. They’re clamouring to buy it.” It was the rising price of oil during the 1970s that made coal more attractive for electricity generation, with as much as 80% of the colliery’s output now despatched by conveyor belt to Bold Power Station.

However the author of the piece described how the cost of coal was also on the increase and the Central Electricity Generating Board was, as a result, looking more closely at importing cheaper coal from Australia, Poland or South Africa. The article explained how Bold Colliery had huge operating costs:
 Simply to keep the mine alive and open – to keep nature at bay during holidays or weekends – costs a staggering £150,000 a week. Down below, the machinery hacking out the coal costs a cool £1m apiece. And wages for the pit’s 1,500 miners eat up 60 per cent of costs.
The lengthy write-up also described the pit cage descending 1,000 yards down the shaft in just 54 seconds, with well lit, 16 foot wide roadways at the bottom, laid with railway lines, in order to transport the men and materials. Using push-button controls, ‘huge coal rippers’ would slice a 6 feet high, 240-yard long seam at a rate of three metres a minute, with men crouching beneath roof supports capable of withstanding 240 tonnes of pressure.

Working was undertaken purely by the light of helmet lamps and as body temperatures on the face rose into the 80s (F), most men worked stripped to the waist. ‘Methane, the killer gas feared underground, is an ever-present threat’, wrote the author, in explaining how deputy Albert Whitehead from Burtonwood – a veteran of 25 years underground – made regular checks of gas levels on his safety tours.

According to the article only 28% of Bold’s workforce actually produced coal, with the majority of staff being mechanics, electricians, roadway builders etc. Although jobs at the colliery were in great demand, absenteeism was high with up to 30% of workers off at any one time (including rest days and holidays). Despite this staff retention was very high, with 90% of hired mineworkers remaining with the company, producing an average age for Bold employees of 39 years.

Left: Loco Bold in 1954 - photo by Harry Townley; Right: Robert pulls hopper waggons in 1981 - photo by Brian Dobbs

Left: Loco Bold in 1954; Right: Loco Robert pulls hopper waggons in 1981

Robert pulls hopper waggons in 1981

Despite the state-of-the art technology inside the pit, Bold was still employing steam locomotives outside. This was essentially because the colliery had begun supplying coal to Fiddlers Ferry power station and this required large 48 ton wagons. Bold then had two engines: a North British 0-4-0 diesel hydraulic and 'Whiston', a Hunslet Engine Co. austerity class steam loco that was kept as a spare. The handling of the larger wagons on the steep gradient at Bold colliery from the weighbridge to the British Rail exchange sidings caused the diesel engine to overheat. Unsuccessful attempts at curing the problem were made by locomotive fitters from Walkden.

So Surface Superintendent Harry Simmons put steam loco 'Whiston' to work. Harry had previously been Surface Foreman at Cronton Colliery and earlier in his career, a steam loco driver at Gin Pit at Tyldesley. His expertise of steam engines and their reliability led him to resume the use of steam locos at Bold, which lasted from 1974 until Harry’s retirement eight years later. Dieselisation at the colliery had first taken place in 1957/8. It was then that steam locomotive 'Bold' was transferred to Ravenhead Colliery. The engine was scrapped there in May 1969, having been built in Bristol in 1927 by Peckett & Sons Ltd. and at Bold was works no. 1737.

Whiston was a good engine but soon suffered an accident. A collision damaged its front end, although the engine was only superficially damaged and still workable. Harry managed to get another loco, 'Alison', from the closed Gresford Colliery, as a further backup. The diesel repairs were discontinued and the engine discarded, with Harry referring to it as a monument. He was very keen to have reliable motive power to work the traffic at Bold, knowing that steam locos would work even with ailments. Later 'Robert' built by Hudswell Clark was obtained from Littleton Colliery in Staffordshire and was extensively used. Whiston was repaired and repainted.

The loco shed at Bold Colliery in March 1977 with HE3163/44 pictured outside - photo by Kevin Lane

The loco shed at Bold Colliery in March 1977 with HE3163/44 outside

Loco shed at Bold Colliery in 1977

During the Rocket 150 celebrations at Rainhill in May 1980, numerous preserved locomotives descended on Bold's sidings from all over the country. Just like the old steam shed days at Sutton Oak, the locos were given a temporary home and serviced at Bold. Dieselisation for the second time took place at the colliery on September 23rd 1982 upon Harry Simmons’s retirement and Railway World magazine dubbed it 'the effective demise of industrial steam' in Britain.

Steam locomotive Whiston pictured at work at Bold Colliery - contributed by Neil Selfridge

Steam locomotive Whiston pictured at work at Bold Colliery

Loco Whiston at work at Bold Colliery

All three steam locos have found new homes. Whiston is in working order at the Foxfield railway in Stoke and Robert is at Loughborough awaiting restoration. Alison was renamed 'Joseph' after an overhaul at Walkden workshops in 1980 and returned to work at Bold. It is in working order at the East Lancs railway at Bury, although now using its Army days name of 'Sapper'. However it has been largely rebuilt using the boiler tank chimney etc. of another loco.

Bold Colliery had a close proximity to the Liverpool to Manchester line. This picture (left) was taken in 1980 at the Rocket 150 celebrations. Note loco 'Evening Star' and Advanced Passenger Train coaches behind it in the Bold sidings. Right: Sidings signal box.

Left: Rocket 150 celebrations in 1980; Right: Sidings signal box

Bold Colliery Sidings signal box

As of 1980 the colliery employed 1,496 men and had an output of 709,133 tonnes. However, output soon fell and the NCB reported that Bold was making heavy losses. On May 27th 1981 the Liverpool Echo published an article on Harding and Browne, two Liverpool soul singers who used to work at Bold Colliery. The pair had just released a new single and had persuaded NUM President and former Bold employee Joe Gormley to pose with them for publicity photos. And what was the name of their record? It was, of course, a cover version of Lee Dorsey’s 'Working In A Coalmine'!

In September 1981 it was reported that geological problems had led to a slump in production at Bold from 8,000 tons a week to 1,000 tons. As a consequence 80 jobs were being axed, although the job losses were covered by early retirement and voluntary redundancy. An NCB spokesman said the drop in output would be temporary, as there were plans to open up three new coal faces over the next eight months:
 Bold is going through a bad geological patch. Output has been affected by serious rock faults deep underground. The drop in output is not the fault of the men. When conditions have been favourable, they have consistently broken output records. It is just a series of geological faults over which we have no control. We have agreed a plan with the N.U.M. for restoring the pit to full production.
On November 6th 1981 the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt. Rev. David Sheppard, paid a visit to Bold Colliery and talked to miners during an underground trip. On June 23rd 1982 a national 24-hour strike by health workers in pursuit of a pay claim led to Bold being at a complete standstill. Six nurses formed a picket line outside the colliery and 700 miners who were due to start work at 5 am refused to cross it.

A new strategy that had been outlined in January 1982 to concentrate on three faces was not paying dividends, due to deteriorating roof conditions and faults. The Rushy Park face was stopped in November 1982 which left just two faces to be exploited. With less need for manpower, the labour force was reduced to 1,080 by March 1984 and No.2 shaft was filled and its headgear eliminated.

“Canaries”
Two of the redundant canaries with Les Barton
On March 11th 1983 the St Helens Reporter published a denial from the NCB that Bold would be closing. They said that they had no plans to close any collieries in the Lancashire area. "Bold Colliery has had its ups and downs and output varies from year to year, but the main problems have been of a geological nature", added a spokesman.

However the Coal Board also felt it was not receiving the full support of the men. A memo to employees dated May 23rd 1983 criticised levels of punctuality and attendance and the withdrawal of labour through disputes over bonus payments. General Manager B. Carey added: "It is immoral that a small percentage of the men feel that they only need to come to work when the mood is on them."

“Canaries"

Bold’s redundant canaries with Les Barton

In July 1983 Robert Stevenson from Lymm was appointed deputy manager of Bold Colliery, succeeding Ken Tyldesley who had joined H.M. Mines Inspectorate. The Liverpool Echo described on September 21st 1983 how three loyal employees of Bold Colliery were going to be made redundant. They were referring to the trio of canaries that the colliery had been legally obliged to keep as an early warning system against dangerous gases. The law was changing and the canaries were now coming out of Britain’s mines. The job of feeding and tending the birds at Bold for the last six years had gone to fire safety officer Les Barton.

Although the introduction of advanced technology had greatly improved mining efficiency, it could still be incredibly demanding work. In his memoir 'The Pit', a former Bold miner using the pseudonym Woden described his irritation at the suggestion that modern mining was all ”push button" and easy. Woden worked under Great Sankey almost four miles from the pit bottom and almost a mile deep in "unbelievably hot" conditions. His job was face installation “dragging in these enormous ‘boiling pieces’, great hunks of hydraulic equipment, using powered windlasses and, with the help of pull lifts and 'tirfers', sheer muscle power.”

Bold Colliery with sixteen ton coal wagons pictured in the foreground - photographed around 1980

Bold Colliery around 1980 with 16 ton coal wagons in the foreground

Bold Colliery pictured around 1980

Like many other pits, the 1984/5 strike badly affected the workforce at Bold colliery. It became the first Lancashire pit to join the national strike with workers first downing tools on March 13th 1984 after pickets arrived from Yorkshire. Relations with the police were highly strained with a number of violent clashes. One of the worst was on August Bank Holiday Monday of 1984 when six strike-breakers went past picket lines for the first time and over 20 arrests were made.

Upon the so-called 'blacklegs' second day at work, one of their wives was telephoned by a man purporting to be an official who claimed that her husband had been seriously hurt at work. It was described by the coal board as a 'cruel and nasty hoax'. Despite a massive picket line numbering 300, the six strike-breakers continued to cross the line for some time.

Bold Colliery photographed in the summer of 1983 - contributed by Dave Almond

Bold Colliery photographed in the summer of 1983 by Dave Almond

Bold Colliery in the summer of 1983

Coaches were then laid on to take workers into the colliery, although a number had their windows smashed by pickets. A report in The Times of September 28th 1984 said that a red snooker ball had broken a window of a coach carrying miners into Bold colliery, slightly injuring one man through flying glass. Then on January 18th 1985, The Times reported that a strike-breaking miner was nearly blinded after a stone struck his coach.

National Union of Mineworkers leader Arthur Scargill addressing Bold Colliery strikers

NUM leader Arthur Scargill addressing Bold Colliery strikers

Arthur Scargill addressing Bold strikers

There were a large number of arrests. Two French film-makers Dominique Masson and Anne Marie Poupon made a one-hour film 'La Dernière Grevè', which sympathetically documented the struggles of the Bold colliery miners and their wives. The film claimed that there were a total of 7000 arrests locally during the strike. Les Huckfield, the Labour MEP for Merseyside East, was a prominent campaigner on behalf of Bold miners and in September 1984 he was arrested for obstruction outside Bold power station although he was cleared at St.Helens Magistrates Court.

After ten months despite a drift back to work, 78% of the miners were still striking, although the pit was deteriorating badly. As early as June 5th, the Bold colliery management had declared that most coal faces were "in trouble...We need every man back at the pit".

Bold colliery photographed in the summer of 1983 - contributed by Dave Almond

Bold Colliery photographed in the summer of 1983 by Dave Almond

Bold Colliery in the summer of 1983

The strike didn't end until March 1985 and in October of that year, the National Coal Board announced that they intended to close Bold colliery by the following March. They claimed that the pit had lost £3 million since the strike and a total of £22 million over three years. The Times of October 14th 1985 reported that the National Union of Mineworkers would fight the closure plans. However, upon discovering that this would not include a ballot on industrial action, the miners held a lightning strike on October 23rd as a protest.

It's the end of an era in 1987 at Bold Colliery as a headgear is brought crashing to the ground

A Bold Colliery headgear is brought crashing to the ground in 1987

A headgear is demolished in 1987

Coal production ceased in November 1985 and the closure led to 811 mineworkers losing their jobs. It's been claimed that 500 supply workers lost theirs too. On March 26th 1987, the reinforced concrete headgear that towered 150 foot over the no. 1 shaft was brought crashing to the ground, following a similar fate that had befallen nos. 2 and 3 headgears. The destruction was televised and shown on regional television. However the steam crane built in 1949 that was worked at Bold Colliery survives to this day on the Rushden, Higham and Wellingborough Railway.

Pit head wheel on the site of the former Bold colliery photographed in 2009 - contributed by Neil Selfridge

Pit head wheel on the site of the former Bold colliery photographed in 2009

Pit head wheel on the former Bold site

As regards the Bold Colliery site, the Bold Business Centre operates on it owned by a company called Bizspace, who manage a number of business units. These include an old colliery building and within it on the first floor a shower room is still intact. Colliers Moss Common has also been created nearby. Neil Selfridge, who has a great interest in the mining history of St.Helens, has contributed the above photograph and writes:
 This picture was taken by myself in the summer of last year, when the site was redeveloped as a nature reserve. A pit head wheel was put in place as a reminder of the site's heritage. Apart from the three capped shafts, this is all that is left to show people what the site was. 

Capped shaft number 3 at the former site of Bold colliery - contributed by Neil Selfridge

Capped shaft number 3 at the former site of Bold Colliery

The capped pit shaft number 3

Research Sources: The Bold Colliery research sources include 'Round About The Pits' by Frank Bamber; 'Colliery Scrap Book 1 - Accidents and Incidents in St.Helens Collieries' compiled by Ian Winstanley; Railway Magazine article (April 1983): 'Bold: The End' by Brian Dobbs & Bob Avery; Railway Bylines article (March 2009): 'Bold Colliery' by Tom Heavyside, plus numerous old newspaper articles. Thanks to Steven Oakden for his assistance with the steam locos section and special thanks to former NCB engineer Harry Hickson for his advice on all the mining pages.
Also See: Bold Colliery Photo-Album 1 (31 images), Photo-Album 2 (Terry Almond Collection - 29 images), Photo-Album 3 (Cliff Payne Collection - 31 images), Photo-Album 4 (John Brooks, Keith Halton and Steven Oakden Collections - 23 images), Bold Power Station, Sutton Manor Colliery, Clock Face Colliery, Lea Green Colliery & Sherdley Colliery
Also See: Bold Colliery & Bold Power Station Photo-Album 1 (31 images), Photo-Album 2 (Terry Almond Collection - 29 images), Photo-Album 3 (Cliff Payne Collection - 31 images), Photo-Album 4 (John Brooks, Keith Halton and Steven Oakden Collections - 23 images), Bold Power Station, Sutton Manor Colliery, Clock Face Colliery, Lea Green Colliery and Sherdley Colliery
Also See: Bold Colliery Photo-Album 1, Photo-Album 2 (Terry Almond Collection), Photo-Album 3 (Cliff Payne Collection), Photo-Album 4 (John Brooks, Keith Halton & Steven Oakden Collections), Bold Power Station, Sutton Manor Colliery, Clock Face Colliery, Lea Green Colliery and Sherdley Colliery
Next:  Part 92)  Bold Power Station  |  Back To Top of Page
Stephen Wainwright
This website has been written and researched and many images photographed by myself, Stephen Wainwright, the Sutton Beauty & Heritage site owner. Individuals from all over the world have also kindly contributed their own photographs. If you wish to reuse any image, please contact me first as permission may be needed from the copyright owner. High resolution versions of many pictures can also be supplied at no charge. Please also contact me if you can provide any further information or photographs concerning Sutton, St.Helens. You might also consider contributing your recollections of Sutton for the series of Memories pages. Sutton Beauty & Heritage strives for factual accuracy at all times. Do also get in touch if you believe that there are any errors. I respond quickly to emails and if you haven't had a response within twelve hours, check your junk mail folder or resend your message. Thank you! SRW
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