Red Clogs
Wigan, Greater Manchester
“If we played at those abandoned pit sites, crept under the rusting barbed wire coils to tread, giggling and terrified, on the infill that could surely collapse at any moment, then Red Clogs would surely get us.” David Barnett
The tale of ol’ Red Clogs has been often related to Ince Moss Colliery or Alexandra Pit at Whelley, but Red Clogs has also been claimed by Pidgeon Pit (close to Alexandra) Blundell’s pit at Pemberton, Bryn Pit, a pit at New Springs and by Taylor Pit in Wigan… The story of Red Clogs, however, never differs.
Red Clogs isn’t a descriptive name for a miner with dazzling, snazzy red colour clogs, no… The red of his clogs refers to the blood that will not shift.
Ince Moss Colliery
The story goes a collier met his untimely end when working with a mechanical coal-washing hopper. This machine would wash soil and rock away from coal before crushing it into chunks using rotating blades at the bottom of the machine. Unfortunately, this collier decided to lean in to clear away an obstruction in the machine and fell... His feet were very badly mutilated, reduced to pulp some stories say.
His clogs became washed in his blood, dying from his injuries it is said that the ghost of this collier was doomed to roam in eternal pain from his crushed feet, blood dripping from his clogs, earning him the nickname ‘Red Clogs’. Many children were warned against playing around abandoned mining pits in the Wigan area lest the ghost of Red Clogs snatch them away.
Many children have reported hearing the distinct sound of clogs clomping in the dark tunnels of the abandoned pits…
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