This area is part of the green belt separating the western fringe
of the Manchester/Salford conurbation from Bolton and Wigan. The eastern
section bordering Little Hulton was extensively mined from the mid
19th century until the early 20th century as can be seen from the map
extracts:
The Area in the mid 19th century
The area at the end of the
19th century
Mine waste was initially deposited around the early collieries but
it was in the 20th century that the tip developed to its present size
as valley of the Cutacre Brook, which can be clearly seen on the
early maps,became the dumping ground for mine waste from the larger Brackley
Colliery to the north and from Moseley Common Colliery to the south
east. This continued until the last of these collieries
closed in the 1960s. One edition of the Guiness Book of Records named
Cut Acre Tip as the world's largest area of mine waste.
There is less visual evidence of mining to the west which is still
an area of farmland and farm buildings. The seams underlying this area
were possibly tapped from mines to the south in Shakerley.
Opencast mining took coal from this area in the 1950s following which
the land was restored and farming recommenced.
From the mid 1980s further proposals have been submitted to repeat the
mining to a greater depth and also to separate useable
coal from within the tip itself and then obtain coal from the seams
which lie below the tip itself. The residue from
the tip is then to be deposited in the excavations made in the
agricultural land to the west.
section. Planning permission for this work was granted on appeal but
implementation was initially delayed due to falling demand for coal.
However in 2004 it appears that demand for home produced coal is
rising and recent reports indicate that the mining will soon begin.
The original permission provided for a railhead to transport the coal
but it appears unlikely the this will be provided resulting in the
removal by road to power stations in Yorkshire. The developing
proposals also appear to include commercial develoment of the
reclaimed area with suggestions that this if approved would extend
onto existing greenbelt land to the west of the tip.
The scenes which follow are a record of the area prior to any
further mining which may occur.
The map locates view points VIEW POINTS
.
To view each click on the yellow spots.
Where single enlarged views appear use the computer BACK ARROW to return to
the map.
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