THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION AT LAWNS FARM

I’ve lived at Lawns Farm for over 50 years and its still revealing its secrets which I feel I should have known since school age. We learnt all about the industrial revolution but I never grasped it actually happened in my own back yard.

It started when I found a piece of small gauge railway come up to the surface in the farm yard. “Thats right” said my Father, Tom Ashton, “when I was a lad a cart road ran there, it brought coal and shale down into the brickworks from the top pit.”

And so my research began.

Coal Mining started in Orrell in the 1600’s - probably earlier - but it was the 1770’s that saw large scale coal mining begin. We have 10 recorded pit shafts at Lawns Farm and 3 recorded Collieries. 

The method of getting the coal to the surface evolved over the years, probably starting with Day Eyes (Day Hays) on shallow seams. This is where coal was got from going down a tunnel. A neighbouring farmer was still getting his household coal from a Day Eye in the 40’s, by the bucket!

This will have been followed by ladder shafts, horse powered gins and finally steam wound shafts. The three collieries on the 1894 OS Map of Lawns Farm had wooden pit head gear with steam wound shafts. There were tramways or small railways running from each colliery to the Brickworks which is now The Janet Lally Memorial Playing Field. Each Colliery included a tall steam chimney, twice as tall as a house, as well as ancillary buildings. We have recently found some well preserved timbers from pit head gear and a section of very small gauge track from the 1800’s.

As all the was happening at Lawns the Manager of nearby Orrell Colliery, Mr Dalglish, built a steam locomotive known as The Yorkshire horse, this was in 1813, 16 years before Stephenson built The Rocket. It transported coal from Winstanley Hall Estate to the Canal at Crooke. It was one of the first steam locomotives in the world and was the first to cross a viaduct. People would often catch a lift on top of the coal tubs which is why it is cited as being accidentally the first passenger train in the world. How astonishing is it for Orrell to have had one of the first ever trains in the world?

There have been at least 4 railroads across Lawns Farm, also known as wagon roads. The earliest possibly around 1800 when the coal tubs were pulled by horses. 

The proximity of Orrell West Siding was no accident. This opened up a huge market for our coal as it could now be transported far and wide. The steam trains passing through Orrell of course needed two fuels, coal and water. As there were good underground aquifers at Lawns a steam powered pump was used to pump the water down to the Train Station to be held in reservoirs ready to be taken onboard by the steam trains.

Records of Wells at Lawns Farm include Shaft Number 1 bored in 1885 (or earlier) which pumped 40,000,000 gallons per year to the Railway Company. Lawns Pumping Station Shaft Number Two was 180 feet deep at a bore of 6”, it was used until 1935 for winding coal and water supply. Shaft Number 3 was also 180 feet deep, water was pumped from this shaft was used by Upholland District Council as an emergency supply until 1942.

Today we have fields named after our past but none of this is recorded. We have Top Pit Field which needs no explanation, Magazine field where explosives were stored for use in the mines, Day Eye, and Quarry field.

I have commissioned a “Coal Tub” which has been made by Darren Block, the resident Blacksmith at The Astley Colliery Museum. This is on show adjacent to the public footpath and commemorates all the miners, woman and children that worked above and below ground at Lawns Farm. Anthony Bolton who has worked at Lawns Farm for thirty years helped to unload the heavy tub, telling us that his Dad worked down the mine and his Grandma was a Pit Brow Lass!