The foundation stone for the new Parkside Colliery, Newton-le-Willows, was laid in May 1957, after exploratory borings had proved the existence of about 100 million tons of coal in six seams.

The colliery cost £13 million. The two shafts, which were 24 feet in diameter, were sunk to 886 yards and a British record for shaft sinking was set up during the operation.

During the development of the underground workings, ten miles of roadways were driven and more than one million tons of debris was excavated. Much of the debris was used for surface levelling. One of the winding towers was 191 feet 6 inches in height, and the other was 14 feet higher.

The colliery began production from two faces in the Crombouke Seam on 31st March 1964. Coal was mined from four fully mechanised faces in the Lower Florida, Crombouke and Wigan Four Feet seams. 

All the faces were equipped with the latest power loading machinery and had powered roof supports. The first face in the Wigan 5 ft. commenced mid-1985.

The coal was wound up No.2 shaft in 15-tonne skips and No.1 shaft was used for winding men and materials. The surface installations included a coal preparation plant, twin ventilation fans and an electricity sub-station. The waste and dirt from the colliery was taken to fill in an old quarry at the side of the M6 motorway.

In 1976, the colliery received planning permission for a Southern extension of the underground workings to exploit additional coal reserves.

In 1977, a £750,000 scheme involving the reorganisation of the colliery’s coal preparation plant to improve the product and reduce maintenance costs was completed.

In August 1978, the NCB Western Area signed a contract with Joseph Crosfield and Sons Limited, chemical manufacturers, of Bank Quay, Warrington, to supply methane gas from Parkside to the Company’s boilers.

The initial contract provided for an average yearly supply of 9.5 million therms of gas (equivalent to 6 million gallons of oil) and the contract was revised to supply between 12 and 15 million therms per year as from June 1983.

The firm was six miles away from Parkside and the gas flowed through a pipeline 7.6 miles long. The supply was connected in May 1980, and was officially opened in July of that year.

Laying the pipeline and installing the ancillary equipment cost the Coal Board over £3 million. A gas drying plant and a reserve gasholder was built at Parkside and the Company’s boilers were adapted to burn methane gas, which provides 75 per cent of the energy requirements of the chemical works.

Methane had to be drained from Parkside and many other collieries for safety reasons as part of their normal operation. Some was used on the colliery’s own boilers, but surplus gas had to be exhausted into the atmosphere.

The contract was the largest of its kind negotiated by the National Coal Board.

Parkside had an outstanding record for safety and first aid. The Senior First Aid team won the NCB national championships in 1970, 1971 and 1974 and won many other first aid trophies. The colliery was also the only one in the Western Area to have a male voice choir. 

The 1978 Parkside Coal Queen, Miss Ann Melling of Wigan, went on to win the Lancashire and “Coal Queen of Britain” titles.

The colliery employed over 1,600 men. About 500 lived in the Wigan area, 600 in the St. Helens, Haydock and Golborne areas and nearly 300 lived in or near Leigh.

The coal produced was top quality, industrial and domestic coal.

About 60 per cent of the output went to power stations - much of it by the rapid loading system to Fiddlers Ferry Power Station, near Widnes.

In 1985, a “merry go round” rapid loading installation on the surface, installed in 1976, was further improved at a cost of around £500,000. This enabled a string of continuously coupled air-braked steel hopper railway wagons, each capable of holding 30 tons of coal, to be loaded or unloaded with 1,000 tons in less than half an hour. The loaded train took the coal to the power station.

Also in 1985 a decision was taken to rationalise the winding systems in both Koepe Towers.