Bickershaw Colliery, Leigh, BR 20180 & 20142 (15.00 Bickershaw - Fiddlers Ferry P.S) February 6th 1987.
Bickershaw Colliery near Leigh and how things changed after the miners strike in 1984-5. I would go there many times in steam days and to stand on this spot then there would have been four tracks, all swept away in favour of the one track under the loader. This arrangement required top & tail working from Springs Branch and a full 34 MGR'S would be loaded and away in an hour and a half. A far cry from steam days when the loose coupled 16 tonners would be taken up the incline to Abram Exchange sidings in tens.
* After the closure of Golborne Colliery in 1989, the pits production target was set at an increased 20,000 tonnes a week. However, with targets consistently missed, the 600 miners were balloted on a move to give Bickershaw a stay of execution, against British Coal submitting a report showing the colliery to be unprofitable. Bickershaw and Parsonage Collieries finally closed on 13 March 1992.
Bickershaw Colliery, Leigh, BR 20180 & 20142 (15.00 Bickershaw - Fiddlers Ferry P.S) February 6th 1987.
Bickershaw Colliery near Leigh and how things changed after the miners strike in 1984-5. I would go there many times in steam days and to stand on this spot then there would have been four tracks, all swept away in favour of the one track under the loader. This arrangement required top & tail working from Springs Branch and a full 34 MGR'S would be loaded and away in an hour and a half. A far cry from steam days when the loose coupled 16 tonners would be taken up the incline to Abram Exchange sidings in tens.
* After the closure of Golborne Colliery in 1989, the pits production target was set at an increased 20,000 tonnes a week. However, with targets consistently missed, the 600 miners were balloted on a move to give Bickershaw a stay of execution, against British Coal submitting a report showing the colliery to be unprofitable. Bickershaw and Parsonage Collieries finally closed on 13 March 1992.