Wet Earth Colliery

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. GeologyThe 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, 100 yards 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. HistoryEarly miningThe area around Nob End in Kearsley, a few hundred yards 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 50ft 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. 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.

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. GeologyThe 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, 100 yards 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. HistoryEarly miningThe area around Nob End in Kearsley, a few hundred yards 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 50ft 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. 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.