Hello again,
On having a look-up from your mining site, I noticed you now have much more information.

However, on the down-side, I also notice you've had information from a Wigan site, 'Winder's'. This has prompted you to give false information, in so much as you've now listed many coal mines as 'Wigan pits', which is not true.

One of your featured collieries, Maypole, is now listed as 'Maypole colliery, Wigan'. Sacrilege!

The Maypole colliery was in ABRAM, not Wigan.

Since the 1974 local government act created the 'metropolitan borough of Wigan', it has placed many of these collieries within the Wigan 'council area', but none of them were ever in Wigan.

This is coal mining 'history', not coal mining 'modern day council area'.

Speaking in terms of 'coal producing areas', all the Ashton in Makerfield and Haydock collieries you have listed as 'Wigan collieries' were actually in the St.Helens coal area, not Wigan.

Tyldesley area was in the Manchester colliery area.

It's so easy to be taken in by these Wigan promoters. To them, everything, everywhere is in Wigan and Wigan is the only place in England where coal mining took place.

Wigan, to them who know no better, was the main centre of coal mining in Britain, when the truth is that there is no coal under Wigan.

All the collieries were in other places, like Pemberton, Ince, Billinge, Leigh, Ashton in Makerfield, Haydock, Parr etc. These were all places with a close knit mining community that were not in Wigan.

Please stop referring to mines being in Wigan when they weren't. It's spoiling your, otherwise , factual site.

Regards,

JemmyH.

Fionn,
Owing to you taking notice of the so-called 'Wigan History buffs'  who, may I add, have no ideas at all about coal mining, your site now contains wrong information.

These guys have shown you a map of the 'Metropolitan Borough of Wigan', which is a large, modern, local government area. It contains many coal mining communities; however, none of them are in Wigan.  

Wigan is an old mill town, and has had very little coal mining activity. 

The surrounding towns of Ince in Makerfield, Pemberton, Standish, Aspull, Ashton in Makerfield, Orrell etc., are all coal mining towns, with many pits operating there throughout history.  Wigan 'town centre' has an outcrop of a cannel (poor quality)  seam within it. That's all.  All the coal seams are thrown down to well over 2000 feet below Wigan by the Pembereton fault (over 1700 feet throw), only rising again at Haigh, on the other side of Wigan, hence Wigan itself having very little coal mining history.

The coal mining history from the area belongs to the individual towns, where the pits were situated and the miners lived, not to the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan as a modern day local government area which didn't exist during the coal mining era.

Take it from me.  There are no accessible coal reserves under Wigan, certainly not accessible during the coal mining era and not economically viable using modern mining methods.

Don't let these Wigan history buffs ruin the accuracy of your site's information.  All they want is to promote the name 'Wigan' wherever possible, as if nowhere else ever existed.

Jemmy H.