ABSTRACT
As a distinct sub-area within the wider south-west Lancashire field, the Wigan coalfield has a complicated geological structure because the main anticline is broken up by a series of NW-SE faults. Many seams come to the surface in a relatively small area extending from Ince to Standish, providing ideal conditions for early mining while hindering the modern industry (Holcroft n.d. p. 8). Fault lines have also acted as sluices for damming back water accumulating in old mines. The Lower Coal Measures, found on the margins of the anticline, were rarely thick enough for commercial mining and have left only a modest legacy of ‘day eyes’ near the main outcrops. However, the Middle Measures were much more extensive: especially the Arley seam, which was the first to be exhausted after early mining development in the east at Haigh and Worthington and in the west at Orrell and Winstanley (Figure 3.1). Higher up comes the cannel which was mined from the sixteenth century: John Leland mentions Mr Bradshaigh’s activities at Haigh in 1538. Cannel was widely used in the late sixteenth century and seventeenth century as fuel and ornament (of remarkable hardness) when Wigan had more outcrop workings than other parts of South Lancashire. In 1595 the Rector complained that the burgesses were ‘digginge coal pittes and taking coals out of the same to great value’ (Powell 1986 p. 10). Indeed, cannel was much sought after until the incandescent mantle killed demand by the middle of the nineteenth century and by this time fortunes had been made around Haigh and Winstanley (Clegg 1957-8; Hawkes 1945). However, major investments like the Haigh Sough were needed, and miners had to wear a gauze mask for protection against splinters which left blue marks on the face and body (Worswick 1971).
