Matthew Fletcher (mine owner and engineer)

During the 1740s, Heathcote had attempted to sink Wet Earth Colliery, the first deep coal mine in the Irwell Valley at Clifton.

[2] At some point between the 1750 pit closure and the 1756 reopening, John Heathcote signed over ownership of Wet Earth Colliery to Matthew Fletcher.

Ringley Colliery was on the east bank of the Irwell upstream of Wet Earth near the intake for Bridley's leat.

[2] In 1796, the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal opened between Rhodes Lock (across the Irwell from Wet Earth Colliery) and Salford.

The canal company consulted Benjamin Outram who recommended the construction of a second lock in Fletcher's Canal but Fletcher enlarged the lock to create a chamber 90 feet (27.4 m) long by 21 feet (6.4 m) wide that had a fall of 20 inches (51 cm) and could accommodate three narrow boats side by side.

Following the model of the underground canals that Brindley had developed to extend the Bridgewater Canal into the Worsley coal mines, Fletcher had short underground connecting arms cut at the Wet Earth, Botany Bay and Spindle Point Collieries each terminating at a basin next to the shaft, enabling coal to be loaded directly onto barges at the pit head.

[2] With the improved access to market that the canal connection brought, Fletcher reinvested in Wet Earth Colliery, buying a steam engine in 1804 and sinking a second shaft in 1805.

[2][5] Fletcher became the chairman of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation and a committeeman of the Manchester, Bolton and Bury Canal Company.