Bridgewater Collieries

The problem was solved by driving an underground level intersecting the coal seams northwards towards Walkden from the Bridgewater Canal into the rock face of an old quarry at the Delph.

The Duke had sunk the Queen Anne and Chaddock Pits in the 18th century and by about 1820 they were linked to the Bridgewater Canal at Boothstown Basin by an underground level.

In the 1830 the Burgess Land pit was sunk to the Bin mine north of Ellenbrook, it employed 35 "men and boys" in 1852[7] and was linked to the canal by a tramroad.

The City and Gatley pits at New Manchester north of Mosley Common were sunk in the 1840s and linked to the navigable levels and a horse-drawn tramroad to Mathers Fold.

The Bridgewater Trustees began sinking deep shafts closer to the Ellenbrook in 1862 and the pits became known as Mosley Common Colliery.