For many generations the Appleton's were Agricultural Labourers, like many other families of the time, earning their living from the land. Later, Josias born 30th Dec 1700 and baptised 6th Jan 1700, became a tailor. These dates may strike you as strange, but until the Gregorian calendar was introduced into Britain in 1725, the new year began on March 25th (Lady Day), thus it was possible for someone to be born in say October and die in February or March the same year. The first page of the Parish Register of Farnworth Chapel does not indicate a new year starting in January 1538.

Three generations after Josias we find the first collier recorded. He is Joseph, born in Windle in 1789. Both his sons William and Joseph were also colliers, working in the private coal fields and living in mineworkers cottages. The cottages in Hardings Row, Bushy Lane, Rainford belonged to William Harding the owner  of Rainford Colliery and both Joseph born 1824 in Sutton, St. Helens and his son were living here in 1871.  It was the movement of labour from one small pit to another which accounts for the family's movements over several generations.

The shaft of Rainford Colliery was sunk through sixteen feet of wet gravel and sand in 1860. The 1926 coal strike marked a decline in the pit, which finally closed in 1928.

In 1865 William Greener, manager of Pemberton Collieries for the previous eleven years, was killed at Rainford Colliery.

For information on the history of coal mining in Lancashire visit Jack Nadin's website at http://www.jnadin1.50megs.com/index.html

For a list of all Coal Mines operating in the United Kingdom in 1880 see:- http://www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/list80.htm