Haydock 4.97

Haydock is a village within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. Historically in Lancashire, it contains all of the Haydock electoral ward and a section of the Blackbrook electoral ward. The village is located roughly midway between Liverpool and Manchester, and contains the junction of the M6 motorway and the A580 (East Lancashire Road). At the 2001 Census, the village had a population of 11,962, reducing to 11,416 at the 2011 Census.HistoryThe placename is from Celtic heidd, meaning "barley, wheat" with the suffix -aco meaning "place". An undated source refers to the name as Heidiog. The village is often referred to by the colloquial name of 'The 161', and its inhabitants may be referred to as 'Sixes' or '16's.Haydock was one of the United Kingdom's richest areas in coal and coal mining, Haydock Collieries had up to 13 collieries working at one time. The last colliery in Haydock – Wood Pit – closed in 1971, bringing to an end coal mining in the area. This site had been the scene of a mining accident explosion on 7 June 1878 which a subsequent Report of the Inspector of Mines concluded claimed the lives of 189 men and boys. Among them were forty-five-year-old Nathan Boon and his five sons. According to GenUKI, 15 victims were not included in the Inspector's report but their names "appeared in the Coroner's Inquest and in some cases in the burial registers". If included, the final death toll would have been 204.