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Astley Green Colliery Museum -
Astley Green Mining Museum

Astley Green Colliery Museum is at OS Grid: SJ 705 000 just off the Bridgewater Canal to the north at the centre of the picturesque village of Astley Green on Higher Green Lane. It lies behind what is now the 'village green' that once housed the Colliery Bath House, off the A580 between Leigh and Worsley in an area known locally as Chat Moss. The Astley Green Colliery Museum occupies around fifteen acres of the old Astley Green Colliery site. The surrounding landscape is low-lying ensuring that the museum's lattice steelwork headgear at almost 100 feet can be seen for many miles from the east on the canal.

This area was once full of collieries and Astley Green was fortunate enough to have been saved from total demolition by a number of mainly steam enthusiasts, leading community members and supporters within Lancashire County Council. Mainly due to the uniqueness of a 3,300 hp twin tandem compound reversible steam winding engine the demolition was to a halt. As the result of the stay of execution, the museum grounds house Lancashire's only surviving pit headgear and engine house, both of which now have listed building status.

We visited the museum for about an hour and a half in July 2007 and apart from the steam winding engine and headgear the small museum building houses many Interesting mining exhibits, as well as a growing collection of colliery locomotives and mine rolling stock. Probably the largest collection of this type of equipment in Europe. The site itself could do with a huge injection of cash to build a covered, weatherproof area for the proper display of the loco's and rolling stock (before they rust away!). The volunteers are working on a working surface railway circuit.

The Astley Green Colliery shaft was sunk in 1908 to exploit the extensive coal reserves in the south Lancashire Coalfield. The coal seams at Astley Green are very deep and are overlaid by about 100 feet of Chat Moss, wet and unstable ground. The colliery only had a lifespan of 62 years, closing its gates for the last time in 1970. Because of its short and relatively recent history, a vast number of written and photographic records have been preserved. These factors have enabled a detailed study to be made of not only the construction but the subsequent operation of the colliery.

The Astley Green Mining Museum relies on fund raising and to a lesser degree donations at the moment. The museum is now run and maintained, on behalf of the community, by the Red Rose Steam Society Limited, a registered charity based in Lancashire with a membership of around 150, with about 10% of them devoting some (or much) of their spare time as hands on engineering and grounds maintenance and resident 'experts'.

Free Admission for all.

Museum Opening Times are restricted to Sunday: 13.00 to 17.00, Tuesday: 13.00 to 17.00, Thursday: 13.00 to 17.00. Closed: Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Surprisingly astley green mining museum .com is not the official website but www.agcm.org.uk/ is!