ASTLEY Green's pit headgear may soon become as big a tourist attraction as Blackpool Tower!

Visionaries see the village pit site - an unforgettable reminder of seven centuries of coal mining - as the centre of a booming tourist trade attracting hundreds of thousands of people every year.

As the region's last example of lattice steel traditional colliery Astley Green's pit headgear it is a poignant landmark and memorial to the Lancashire coalfield.

An enterprising steering group - The Bridgewater Initiative -chaired by Wigan Council's Deputy Leader Cllr Tom Sherratt, aim to boost the area's economy by highlighting and developing canalside attractions including the futuristic Xanadu snowsports complex zoned for Leigh.

Wigan, Salford and Trafford councils are combining in the venture along with the Astley Green based Red Rose Steam Society, the Environment Agency, Manchester Ship Canal Company, quarry and waste specialists Terry Adams, Red Rose Forest, Bridgewater Canal Trust and Trafford Development Corporation. A "FABULOUS" collection of mining artefacts from the Salford-based Lancashire Mining Museum is all set to move to Astley Green.

And the re-location of the museum would complement and itself be complemented by the Red Rose Steam Society's on-site exhibits like the towering headgear and the magnificent winding engine.

This week the local authority and private enterprise steering group co-ordinator Royston Futter spoke excitedly of the future.

Mr Futter, currently head of Salford Council's Arts and Leisure set-up, explained how the group is hoping to form a company - called Steam, Coal and Canal - to further the potential at Astley Green.

He said:"We are talking about a major tourist attraction that is going to bring in several hundred thousand people a year.

"There would be no traffic problem. Tourists would be walking or travelling by boat."

Evidence exists of coal being worked locally since the 13th century and the remaining Astley Green headgear is the only such structure in the whole of the mine-riddled north west.

Now a steelwork survey is being carried out on the headgear where herons once nested.

Cllr Tom Sherratt, chairman of the group, told The Journal:"The headgear survey is purely a safety first approach being funded by Wigan's land and property department.

"Greater Manchester Council restored the engine house and now Red Rose Steam Society are restoring the winding engine.

"I'm confident the Astley Green marina will go ahead. Planners have given approval but now we need Department of the Environment approval because the scheme is in Green Belt.

"I don't see any problems - because it is simply a matter of launching boats into the canal. The D of E's Government Office North West is very keen. It's their favourite project, so I don't foresee any problems."

Museum curator, Alan Davies, is delighted with schemes to highlight the Astley headgear.

He said:"It is a superb survivor - the last symbol of the North West's coal industry with links back to the 13th century.

"It was made by the industry's North East based specialists Head-Wrightson and built to stand immense stresses.

"I also think we should hang on to one slag heap in the region, otherwise in the future nobody will have a proper idea of the way things were."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.