 In 1836 Jacob Fletcher of Peel Hall Little Hulton bought the Shakerley estates and acquired "514 acres of land, and the valuable mines of coal and stone lying under the same; the estates abounded with thriving young timber; the mines of coal were inexhaustible, of excellent quality, and being in a manufacturing district found a ready sale".Shakerley Colliery, which was later renamed the Nelson Pit was sunk in the 1830s or 1840s on land leased from Ellis Fletcher on the Manchester Coalfield in Shakerley.It was worked by Nathan Eckersley and in 1861 passed to his nephew William Ramsden who owned the nearby Messhing Trees Colliery which is named on the 1869 mines list.