MORE fuel has been added to the Burgey Banks controversy.

Over the past weeks, a number of theories have been advanced as to how those towering waste heaps at Haresfinch came by their strange name.

And now, I'm advised, burgey was the name for small, inferior coal. The revelation has been plucked from the pages of a scholarly publication with a weighty title dealing with the St Helens of long ago.

Co-authored by T.C.Barker and J.R.Harris, the book, 'A Merseyside Town in the Industrial Revolution: St Helens 1750-1900' reports on the highly successful coal mines which once graced the district and served, among other leading enterprises, the major steamship companies.

And here comes that Burgey Banks clue: "For boiling salt, small coal or 'burgey' was quite good enough, and in later years, H.E. Falk was able to boast that the saltboilers could manage with the 'cheapest and worst coal, which would be wasted if we did not use it.'"

But the steamship customers of those old-time St Helens pits were far more particular. Says the publication: "They would tolerate nothing but Rushy Park or Little Delf coals from the richest measures in the coalfield."

The famous Rushy Park seam (4f t6ins) and Little Delph seam (3ft) occurred near the surface to the north and west of St Helens and both had been worked since the 18th century.

MY thanks to the anonymous follower of this column for forwarding that wager-settling information.