Sandhole Colliery No.1 Shaft

I started scanning some slides from the Tarchives today and found a box of colliery images. This pit was actually called Bridgewater Colliery but was always referred to as Sandhole. It was sunk in 1865 and eventually became an important part of the Manchester Collieries Ltd empire. High costs associated with geological problems led to closure in 1962 and the colliery was demolished in 1964 apart from the washery that continued to operate until 1968. This view is during the demolition process.