Robin Hood Mine (Swinton)
Locality | |
---|---|
Coordinate | 53.526, -2.3356 |
Adm. div. | Lancashire |
Vicinity | Opposite the Robin Hood at 180 Manchester Road, Swinton, Manchester |
Type | Establishment |
Interest | Robin Hood name |
Status | Defunct |
First Record | 1892 |
A.k.a. | Robin Hood Colliery |
By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-02-26. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2021-01-07.
The Robin Hood Mine in Clifton (Swinton, Manchester) was probably situated opposite the present Robin Hood pub on 180 Manchester Road.The secondary sources do not tell us where the colliery was situated, but the earliest of the O.S. maps listed below have a mine opposite the Robin Hood pub at what is now 180 Manchester Road. A few hundred meters to the east was Robin Hood Siding, but most likely the unnamed mine in the O.S. maps was the Robin Hood Mine. It is said to have been "midway between the Wet Earth and Botany Bay collieries, but farther from the Irwell."[1] This tallies better with the location near the pub.
Operations at the mine were begun or taken over by Matthew Fletcher, whose period of activity seems to have begun c. 1756. He did in 1808.[2] If Fletcher gave the colliery its name, this would then have been between those dates. However, it is also possible that the mine already existed under that name before he acquired it or that it was in fact only renamed the "Robin Hood Mine" at some later point, perhaps even after Fletcher's time. The fact that it is now referred to as the "Robin Hood Mine" is no guarantee that this was its original name. Despite the fact that both its name and history probably went a good deal further back, the 1892 allusion is therefore the earliest certain reference.
Allusions
1892 - Grindon, Leo H - Lancashire (4)
The organic remains found in the coal strata rival those of the mountain limestone both in abundance and exquisite lineaments. In some parts there are incalculable quantities of relics of fossil fishes, scales of fishes, and shells resembling mussels. The glory of these wonderful subterranean museums consists, however, in the infinite numbers and the inexpressible beauty of the impressions of fern-leaves, and of fragments of the stems — well known under the names of calamites, sigillaria, and lepidodendra — of the great plants which in the pre-Adamite times composed the woods and groves. In some of the mines — the Robin Hood, for instance, at Clifton, five miles from Manchester — the roof declares, in its flattened sculptures, the ancient existence hereabouts of a vast forest of these plants.[3]
Gazetteers
- Not included in Dobson, R. B., ed.; Taylor, J., ed. Rymes of Robyn Hood: an Introduction to the English Outlaw (London, 1976), pp. 293-11.
Maps
- 25" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.12 (1893; surveyed 1891)
- 25" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.12 (1909; rev. 1907) (georeferenced)
- 25" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.12 (1909; rev. 1907)
- 25" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.12 (1928; rev. 1927)
- 25" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.12 (1938; rev. 1937)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV (1850; surveyed 1844-46)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1894; surveyed 1889-91)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1910; rev. 1907) (georeferenced)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1910; rev. 1907)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1930; rev. 1926-27)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1936; rev. 1936-37)
- 6" O.S. map Lancashire XCV.SE (1947; rev. 1938).
Discussion
- The Industrial Heritage of Britain: Denton Colliery (Ellis Pit)
- I remember when Salford...: Clive's Memories
- Wikipedia: Matthew Fletcher (mine owner and engineer).
Also see
Notes
- ↑ Wikipedia: Matthew Fletcher (mine owner and engineer).
- ↑ Wikipedia: Matthew Fletcher (mine owner and engineer); The Industrial Heritage of Britain: Denton Colliery (Ellis Pit); I remember when Salford...: Clive's Memories.
- ↑ Grindon, Leo H. Lancashire: Brief Historical and Descriptive Notes (London, 1892), p. 353.