Grade II
Astley Green Museum Winding Tower
Higher Green Lane (east side), Tyldesley
Description
Pit-head winding tower. 1912.
Pit-head winding house, now museum.
The colliery at Astley Green was founded in 1908 by the Pilkington Colliery Company. Although large amounts of coal lay deep beneath the surface waiting to be dug out, the ground above was not very suitable for mining. It was extremely wet and unstable, perhaps unsurprising as it lies on the edge of the extensive bog land area of Chat Moss. However demand was so high for coal that it was deemed worth extracting. Accordingly, a new technique to sink the first shaft was developed – the Drop Shaft method. This involved creating a hole using iron rings with a sharp cutting edge at the bottom of them. The rings were forced through the ground using thirteen hydraulic jacks.
Read more from great research from A & S Bowden
