In about 1888 miners employed by the Tyldesley Coal Company exceeded the boundaries of the lease and extracted coal south of Well Street which was discovered when colliers of neighbouring Astley and Tyldesley Collieries broke through and found the coal gone. Lengthy litigation followed resulting in a £3,000 fine for Green's company. The colliery's railway expanded at the same time as the pits were developed. The line to Combermere Colliery was extended to Peelwood Colliery, which opened in 1882 next to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Manchester to Southport line and where the company had a siding. A fault caused the company to sink another shaft, the Daisy Pit, to win coal from seams close to the surface. In 1896 Cleworth Hall employed 304 men underground and 46 surface workers. Gas coal, household and manufacturing coal was mined from the Black and White, Six-Foot and Trencherbone, mines.The Yew Tree Colliery was smaller with 118 below ground and 23 above. Steam, household and manufacturing coal were mined from the Seven Foot mine. In 1923 only Cleworth Hall and Peelwood, which together employed over 1,400 workers, were operating. Peelwood closed in 1928. In 1933 Cleworth Hall mined the Trencherbone, Haigh Yard, Cannel, Three Feet, Four Feet and Arley coal seams and employed over 900 workers. The company remained independent until it became part of the National Coal Board's (NCB) North Western Division on nationalisation in January 1947 when 760 men were employed underground and 258 on the surface. In 1961 the area became the NCB's East Lancashire Area. The area mined by this company, Shakerley Collieries and James Roscoe's New Lester Colliery was opencasted after the Second World War, removing all traces of the industry. Disaster The worst mining disaster in Tyldesley occurred at Yew Tree Colliery on 11 December 1858. An explosion of firedamp caused by a safety lamp cost 25 lives, the youngest 11 and the oldest 35 years of age. Some of the victims are buried in the churchyard at St George's Church. Locomotives The locomotives owned by the Tyldesley Coal Company had to pass under the Manchester Road bridge which had restricted headroom and were built to a reduced loading gauge. Its first locomotive was a 4-coupled saddle tank locomotive from the Haigh Foundry in Wigan. It was delivered in 1867 and named Tyldesley. Beatrice, another 4-coupled saddle tank, was bought from Vulcan Foundry in Newton le Willows