Astley Green Colliery Museum

Astley Green Colliery was established to extract deep coal seams of the Manchester Coalfield beneath the peat bog known as Chat Moss, motivated by high coal demand in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the depletion of accessible coal reserves in the Irwell Valley. Shaft sinking began in 1908 by the Pilkington Colliery Company, a subsidiary of the Clifton and Kersley Coal Company, and the pit began production in 1912. In 1928 the colliery was amalgamated with other local collieries to form Manchester Collieries. The mine was modernised when the coal industry was nationalised in 1947. Astley Green Colliery was closed in 1970 and was subsequently opened to the public as a museum.