LOOKING BACK: Blackrod's mining heritage

The caption to this picture in July 1931, reads 'Scot Lane, No 4 Pit, Blackrod, which may be shortly closed unless pumping arrangements can be agreed upon with the Wigan Coal and Iron Co.' That particular colliery was by far the largest in the Blackrod area, and has been opened in the 1850s. It had a sophisticated railway system for transporting coal, and its mining tunnels linked with those with other mining companies; all relied upon the Aspull Pumping Station of the Wigan Coal & Iron comp