Exhibition on Neston’s mining past opens next week at Neston Library

Apr 22 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Birkenhead News

THE 250th anniversary of Neston’s coal mines is being marked next week with the launch of a major exhibition and history trail.

An exhibition which opens at Neston Library on Monday – Blood, Sweat and Toil in Neston – will list the names of thousands of miners who worked at Neston Collieries.

Burton and Neston History Society, which is behind the project, is also launching a Collieries Trail, looking at key mining sites.

The first mine in the area, Ness Colliery, opened in 1759 and employed 200 people.

Anthony Annakin-Smith, from Burton and Neston History Society, said: “Many people are not aware that there is a long history of coal mining in Neston.

“The mines and associated industries played a major role in the life of the town for decades and many local families today are descended from the early miners.

“We want to increase public awareness of the extraordinary story of the mines.”

The exhibition includes copies of colliery plans, owners’ correspondence and even accident record books.

The trail follows a two mile route in the Little Neston area looking at surviving traces of the mines.

These include buildings, a shipping quay, spoil heaps and the line of the mine’s railway.

Mr Annakin-Smith said: “There are many reasons why the Neston mines were remarkable. The first steam engine anywhere in the region was here, and mile-long canals were built deep underground to move coal.”

Another mine operated for a time in Little Neston but both had closed by 1855, when silting of the Dee Estuary made it difficult to move coal in bulk. Operations restarted as Neston Colliery in 1874, using a newly built railway.

The business closed in 1927.

The free exhibition at Neston Library on Parkgate Road runs until May 23.