Coal Mining in the Neston area, including the Neston Collieries Trail
The first mine, Ness Colliery, owned by the Stanley family of Hooton, was opened in 1759 and soon employed almost 200 people, closing in 1855. For a while another mine operated in adjacent Little Neston, owned by the Cottingham family, 1819 to 1849.
There was fierce antipathy between the owners, leading to sabotage, which in turn, ended up in court (see here for summary of the two cases). Both mines had closed by 1855 by when, silting of the Dee Estuary had made it difficult to move coal in bulk. 
Operations restarted as Neston Colliery in 1874, using a newly built railway. The business went through several hands before closing permanently in 1927. At its peak, in 1921, the final business - Wirral Colliery - employed about 350 people.
This was where the region's Industrial Revolution started. It saw the earliest large-scale employment, and the first use of steam engines in Wirral and West Cheshire was here.
Conditions were appalling: until the 1850s children aged just nine were employed, and some miners worked 100 hours per week. The work was dangerous, with many deaths recorded. Rock falls and flooding presented risks, as did poisonous and explosive gases. Later, there were railway accidents.
The early miners lived in one-room shacks with their families - in 1847 Ness was described as 'the most miserable mass of hovels' on the Wirral.
All the collieries struggled to be profitable against strong regional competition, ultimately forcing this chapter of Neston's story to close.