HnD::List all messages of thread: Coal Mines in Leeds

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Thread: Coal Mines in Leeds

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 19:28:51.

There were of course hundreds!!

We know of the Middleton and Waterloo mines but many smaller ones existed.

If you go along Farm Road Crossgates between 42-44 there's a gap and a mound of earth with trees built on it. That's an old coal mine - any more?

As a kid I used to wonder why there was a Coal Road on the north side of the city, when all the mines were south. Of course that was not true and I assume Wetherby was supplied with coal by this road from mines in Crossgates.

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 20:02:33.

There is quite a bit of info on collieries in and around Crossgates on a thread entitled BARNBOW in the Buildings and Structures section. It was running about last July and is now in the "last year" archive.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 21:12:56.

Barwicker wrote:

Thanks for that. I must look up Hudson's book. I do know it but probably half read it 35 years ago!!

I didn't know of the Adelaide Pit, although Brown Moor and the overgrandly named "West Yorkshire" mines I did.

If you go far enough out manston lane it eventually turns north and in a field just up there on the right is a spoil heap. No sign of anything else just a spoil heap.

Dickinson reckoned there was a siding running north to the sandbeds pit in manston from the Main line?? That there were mines in suburban Manston is fascinating. I cannot find the exact location of Manston and Sandbeds in relation to what's there now - albeit I haven't tried that hard!!

He also reckons the low shops just before the Arndale centre were miners cottages. The area was riddled in mines and miners and you would not think it today!

rikj (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 22:05:28.

I've the Hudson book out of the library at the moment Parksider! Great read and some ace maps as well. Ask away if you've got any questions as it isn't due back for a while!

I hadn't realised until a couple of weeks ago about the coal mining over the Pudsey side of Leeds, Farnley, Fulneck, around there. Out towards Tong there was Charlie Pit, as well as all sorts of other bell pits and adits.

Even the Godfrey maps have a surprising number of old shafts etc marked. I don't think it was until after the 1850s that abandonment plans had to be made when mines closed. Even then, mine owners weren't too keen as it wasn't a profit earner.

What's more surprising is how readily a lot of these sites get built on. I suspect that "advances" in civil engineering techniques mean that old workings can be built over more safely. Or that's what the developers say anyhow! It's a shame that here in Yorkshire nearly anything to do with mining is wiped off the face of the earth.Flip side I suppose is we have the Caphouse Colliery Mining Museum.

At the peak of coal mining I think 1 in 16 workers was involved with mining in the UK.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 22:28:17.

The Parksider wrote:

Mentioned in the other thared, the Shaft on Farm Road collapsed, I think it was in the 70's.

It was common practice to simply cap these redundant shafts with a timber raft and cover rather than fully back-fill. The reports at the time said som 700 wagons of hardcore where used to fill it in!

There are two more shafts close to the community centre on what is now Maryfield (? road) at the end of what was the Bridle Path, belonging to - no surprise - Mary Pit. The area used to be a large spoil heap, fenced of with iron railings as seemed to be the way they were secured, but still accessable. The top couple of feet of the brickwork lining of one shaft was clearly vissible.

There were also shallow workings close by in the adjacent field behind Seacroft Hospital and Killingbeck Colliery was situated behind the corner of the Sutton Trust Housing Estate off York Road, just at the end of the old bridge over the railway track. The old maps show a couple of shafts ther on the edge of what I remember to be a very large spoil heap which came to a very abrupt end with a heck of a drop down the side!

Unfortunately both these sites have undergone considerable landscaping so there is no trace on Google Earth.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 22:33:44.

rikj wrote:

This happened at Colton towards Garforth rikj. The Geological Survey maps show dozens of old shafts throughout that area and there are believed to be many not recorded.

Certainly the area used to be prone to extensive subsidence; the old Bullerthorpe Lane used to be re-aligned regularly, only to return to a roller-coaster once again after just a few months. We considered moving up there when built - but decided caution might be wise....!

Brandy (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 22:41:53.

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

Trojan (User) Posted on: 18-Jan-2008 23:35:28.

[quotenick="chameleon"]

The Parksider wrote:

There were of course hundreds!!

It was common practice to simply cap these redundant shafts with a timber raft and cover rather than fully back-fill. The reports at the time said som 700 wagons of hardcore where used to fill it in!

.

The Lofthouse Pit disaster which occurred in 1973, actually happened under a field on the borders of Kirkhamgate and Ossett (there's a memorial at the side of the road) when the miners were swamped by water when they broke through to old workings. My father in law who at the time was editor of the Ossett Observer, asked a guy from the NCB why they didn't know it was there. He said the whole of the area was riddled with old workings and day holes so no he didn't know. My father in law then said that people's homes could be built upon old workings, the NCB man's response - he put a finger to his lips and said "Shh!"

When I worked at Levertons on Gelderd Road Gilderson, the coal seam was plain to see in the exvated land behind the workshops - you could literally get the coal out with your hands.
The coal is still there and they way energy prices are going I'd bet that sometime soon someone is going to start getting at it!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 11:00:24.

'when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps '

Bandy - My map shows two shafts here as Gipton Pit. One is next to the letter 'T' of Thorn Mount in the bottom left of your circle, the second in a straight line to the right, on the grass, just to the left of the 'T' ofThorn Walk.

The notes say:

'Crow coal at 11ft
Black bed at 141 ft
Better bed at 246ft
Pit bottom at 250ft'

Let's hope these were properly filled when this pit closed!

Interestingly, these are the only ones showing in that area until you reach Crossgates to the east and the railway track to the south.

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 20:04:50.

I believe that the subsidence mentioned above affecting Bullerthorpe Lane may have been caused by the workings of Temple Pit which was certainly in this area. The pits at Colton I understood to be mostly "Bell Pits", still possibly dangerous but less likely to cause that sort of subsidence.

There were of course at least three deep mines at Garforth, all at one time owned by the Gascoigne family and when I lived in Crossgates many years ago the house was very close to what had been Brianside Colliery, somewhere in the triangle outlined by York Road, Crossgates Road & Crossgates Lane, again giving a reason for many road names.

Trojan (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 20:23:59.

Barwicker wrote:

I suppose most people round Leeds associate mining with Wakefield and the areas further south, but it's less than a generation that there was coal mining in the Leeds area. I remember miners in their muck, still wearing their helmets catching the 52/53 in Morley. Admitedly this was in the days when the LCT buses were blue, but it's in my living memory, and I'm still working age (just) so presumably it's in other's living memory too.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:01:55.

Barwicker wrote:

It's difficult to accurately pin-point the position of the Brian Pit with the re-alignment of York Road at that point. Although I remember some the houses between York Road and Crossgates Road being built, I was rather young to remember the exact layout!

If you can remember a small turning circle some ten or so houses up from Hawkhill Avenue on York Road, it apears to be in that small area, chances are, that it is very close to the new build there!

A second old shaft sits to the left of Crossgates lane and must be situated somewhere close to the bottom of the ramp to the car park under what was originally GEM. I did hear stories that when ASDA was housed there, that stock had to be periodically moved around to prevent 'problems' from developing - true or not, I can't say.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:19:18.

rikj wrote:

I've the Hudson book out of the library at the moment Parksider! Great read and some ace maps as well. Ask away if you've got any questions as it isn't due back for a while!

What's more surprising is how readily a lot of these sites get built on. I suspect that "advances" in civil engineering techniques mean that old workings can be built over more safely.

Question - which Library you got it from and when you gonna send it back - seriously Rik - I want to get it next mate!

I was half involved with the Old WMC (Oh god I have done it now - Lost Leeds WMC's) opposite the Beeston shopping centre/old white hart.

The ground report indicated mining activity under the club and they were to either pump in concrete, or sink piles, or both to ensure the foundations of the new apartment blocks were sound.

maps from 1800's will show deeper workings, but there was a lot of 1700's mining closer the surface and this is what it was.

bell pits mined the seams close to the surface and as history progresses mines of course went deeper....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:23:18.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Yes, Mary pit remains a grassy area with trees on it. Across the road up York Road on the right was Brian Pit, but I think this was built over - there seems to be houses on it (I wouldn't buy one there). Up Hollyshaw Lane there's another piece of spare bumpy land with trees on it - Prince arthur pit. A small run of stone spoil heal retaining wall remains.......

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:29:55.

chameleon wrote:

Gipton Pit was at the bottom of The Fairway - roughly. The end of coldcotes school grounds was the spoil heaps - I recall the thin grass on grey shale like stone.

The Gipton pit had a tramway that ran to Hovingham avenue to coal staithes just above the Fforde greene.

It is a distance from Gipton pit to Killingbeck colliery or the crossgates mines (Brian Pit and Mary Pit) but mine shafts went down - then they mined outwards!!!

You don't have to be on a shaft to be built above mine workings!!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:33:36.

Barwicker wrote:

Brianside pit I think IS built over unlike other croggy collieries!!!

Anyone manage an exact location - It's on Godfreys?

chameleon (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 21:49:18.

Brian Pit (as described on the maps) is on the old Godfrey map.

The one I also referred to is the Geological survey which is laid over the 1934 OS map and so has more recent structures and housing shown.

It is from the relative positions of these that I approxomated the position of the shaft, adjacent to the new York Road and immediately next to the old road - confident I'm prety close there.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 19-Jan-2008 22:02:47.

'Brianside pit I think IS built over unlike other croggy collieries!!!

Anyone manage an exact location - It's on Godfreys?'

Godfrey shows the old railway sidings and gas works behind the Station Hotel in crossgates, but it doesn't reveal the presence of an old 300' shaft in what must be the corner of the Arndale Centre car park (nearest to Station Road) It's either there or underneath that strange furniture store just inside the Centre on the right!

liits (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 02:48:27.

The Parksider wrote:

Not only on Farm Road, even when I was at school [Crossgares Middle School] to the rear of the school, on Bridle Path Road, was another mine. Yet another, but older, was on Hollyshaw Lane. This was on the left just before the crest of the hill, on the left as yoy went up towards Whitkirk. If you were to venture as far as Barowby Comon, on the left had side, as you headed towards Garforth, was a whole great big area that had been mined. This area still [in the mis 1970's] showed obvious evidence of being mined.
A school friend of mine [no punn] who lived on Hawkhill Avenue, had little glass plated fastened to her house because it was subject to subsidence, the whole area of the Hawkhills, Brian's and Snadways being an area of monong prior to houses beings built in the late 30's and then comencing again after WW2.

liits (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 03:01:44.

Actually, thinking about it, the remains of the mine / pit on Farm Road were subject to a bit of subsidence in the late 70's / early 80's. A school friend of mine lived in the semi's on the same side of the road, Well Garth Mount, junction with Farm Rd. At this particular time, so he said, there was "like an earthquake". Some outfit, presumably the NCB spent a few days pumping mud down the hole to stop it cavung in further.
Also, and I've posted a version of this elsewhere, when Vickers [spit] pulled down the ROF and built their new shed, they found big "voids" in the earth. This was filled by vertue of pumpimg in fly ash [the residue of coal dust from power stations]. Even after this had been done, and the big concrete slabs had been poured for the new factory floor, where the big chuncks butted up against each other, they sitll didn't lay flat, riding up against each other over time.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 10:50:22.

Some of the very locations which started this thread liiits - more info further back there.

Loiner in Cyprus (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 16:34:42.

Trojan wrote:

Barwicker wrote:

Yes it,s in my living memory. I worked at Middleton Broom in the 60s

wiggy (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 20:39:37.

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

my gran used to look for coal on the 'pit hill',on gipton during the war,the slag heap as it was then,the one on your picture was much bigger,it was reduced in size after aberfan,then again when they built the old folks home in the 80s.i believe gipton pit closed in 1921.then there was neville hill,east end park and a few on york road including white horse pit.....have we all done this before??

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 21:43:38.

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

my gran used to look for coal on the 'pit hill',on gipton,the slag heap as it was then,the one on your picture was much bigger,it was reduced in size after aberfan,then again when they built the old folks home in the 80s.i believe gipton pit closed in 1921.then there was neville hill,east end park and a few on york road including white horse pit.....have we all done this before??

Behind the firms on the left on York Road as you climb to the shaftsbury there's a large spoil heap worth looking for if you drive out that way (crash)...........

wiggy (User) Posted on: 20-Jan-2008 23:38:30.

The Parksider wrote:

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

Behind the firms on the left on York Road as you climb to the shaftsbury there's a large spoil heap worth looking for if you drive out that way (crash)...........

yeah thats right mate,also a big one in east end park,known locally as 'elephants back'.

Si (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 08:49:57.

I've a book somewhere which has an old picture of a backfilled bell-pit. It was in Leeds city centre and discovered when foundations were cut for a new building. The bell-pit is clearly visible in the section and is the exact shape of a hand bell!

wiggy (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 12:20:20.

Si wrote:

yeah i've got that pic...it was lower briggate or boar lane i think.

wiggy (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 12:20:38.

Si wrote:

yeah i've got that pic...it was lower briggate or boar lane i think.

Brandy (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 14:53:57.

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

yes wiggy im quite sure we have been here before lol it's like ground hog day sometimes this site but i still love it ! Regular Smiley

Si (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 14:57:49.

Brandy wrote:

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

yes wiggy im quite sure we have been here before lol it's like ground hog day sometimes this site but i still love! Regular Smiley

See Rolarena!!!!! Is that Sonny & Cher I can hear?!

Si (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 14:58:32.

Brandy wrote:

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

yes wiggy im quite sure we have been here before lol it's like ground hog day sometimes this site but i still love! Regular Smiley

See Rolarena!!!!! Is that Sonny & Cher I can hear?!

Si (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 14:59:13.

And a double post! Wierd!

Brandy (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 16:03:44.

Si wrote:

And a double post! Wierd!

yes si i think SL is having one of its funny doo's today Regular Smiley

chameleon (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 19:51:27.

Brandy wrote:

wiggy wrote:

Brandy wrote:

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps

yes wiggy im quite sure we have been here before lol it's like ground hog day sometimes this site but i still love it ! Regular Smiley

I think Brandy, new users do't always realise how much has gone on before and don't look back, the presence of threads older than a month too isn't obvious until you've become familiar with the site.

It could do perhaps with a little 'welcome and how to' message being sent to people as they register.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 19:56:33.

The Parksider wrote:

Barwicker wrote:

Brianside pit I think IS built over unlike other croggy collieries!!!

Anyone manage an exact location - It's on Godfreys?

Parksider - transfering the co-ordinates from the '34 Geology map to the '76 OS map does put the shaft where I suggested as shown below - to within a few feet.

It looks as though the area was purposely left when the houses were built, just a bit of road and a few garages. The house to the left is newly built - have to wonder if they know what they have as a neighbour!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 21:22:21.

liits wrote:

[another, but older, was on Hollyshaw Lane. This was on the left just before the crest of the hill, on the left as yoy went up towards Whitkirk. If you were to venture as far as Barowby Comon, on the left had side, as you headed towards Garforth, was a whole great big area that had been mined. This area still [in the mis 1970's] showed obvious evidence of being mined.

Prince Arthur Pit up Hollyshaw Lane with a bit of the spoil retaining wall left. Brown moor and west yorkshire collieries on barowby common.

Loads more in a big sweep across Leeds as far across as Blue Hill Colliery on Blue Hill Lane.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 21:41:21.

rikj wrote:

I've the Hudson book out of the library at the moment Parksider! Great read and some ace maps as well. Ask away if you've got any questions as it isn't due back for a while!

You finished that book yet!!!!!!!!

Seriously no rush, but tip me the wink when/where it's going back!!

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 22:44:47.

Great thread!

When I was very wee my mum worked at Killingbeck and then Jimmies Intensive Care Unit on odd shift patterns (long night shifts at the weekend ending sometime after lunch). The weekend treat was my dad taking me and my wee sis to collect mum from the hospital ......... but it wasn't see mum that use to be the treat!

We would always go and do the messages (normally from Grandways in Halton) and then head out to go and see some trains. In those days you could head out to Micklefield and visit Peckfield Colliery where there was always a pug working in the yard such as http://www.sharpos-world.co.uk/mainindx/uk/indx/mistrain/page2/peckfield01.htm (when going to see my Nana in Darlington on the train from Crossgates I always insisted on sitting on the right going and left coming home just so I could get the best view of the pug at the screens as you went through Micklefield) or down to Woodlesford to Primrose Hill Colliery and see their pugs http://www.sharpos-world.co.uk/mainindx/uk/indx/mistrain/page2/primrose01.htm or if there was enough time some of the other steam locos working at places like Wheldale, Glasshoughton or Fryston Collieries. Then there was the (at the age of six the frankly baffeling) narrow gauge railway that linked Ledston Luck Colliery and Peckfield Colliery http://www.geoffspages.co.uk/specials/ledstonluck/

I can remember in the late 60's and early 70's pit buses running from Crossgates and Halton to the likes of Primrose Hill, Ledston Luck and probably far beyond!

These infantile memories and my mothers constant threats that "if you don't do well at school than it's pit for thee" conspired to ensure that I did moderately well at school. Unfortunately my announcement that I fancied a career in mining engineering didn't go down too well at home. In a desperate attempt to put the fear of God in me, my mum pulled a few strings with a husband of collegue and arranged for me to go underground at Prince of Wales Colliery. It had the opposite effect, after wangling another trip this time to Rothwell Colliery that was me set! My mum need never worried about her wee lad going down t'pit for life as I joined the industry in 1983 and Mrs Thatcher was just about to help her out! Still I managed a couple of years working underground which I look back on with nothing but fondness and respect for the lads I worked with (and the generations of colliers I came from) and my own pride of being a coal face worker if only for a short period of my life!

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 21-Jan-2008 23:07:48.

Following on I have in my possesion a copy of the Colliery Guardian's Guide to the Coalfields 1967. It is interesting to note the collieries still operating then in the city and its immediate environs:

GOMERSAL COLLIERY - Gomersal, Nr Leeds
Working Beeston and Blocking coals
Employing 298 men underground & 70 men surface

LEDSTON LUCK COLLIERY - Kippax, Nr Leeds
Working Middleton Little, Silkstone and Flockton Thick coals
Employing 275 men undergound and 115 men surface

LOFTHOUSE COLLIERY - Outwood, Nr Wakefield
Working Flockton and Eleven Yards coals
Employing 764 men undergound and 210 men surface

MIDDLETON BROOM COLLIERY - Middleton, Leeds 10
Working Black Bed coal
Employing 387 men undergound and 91 men surface

PECKFIELD COLLIERY - Micklefield, Nr Leeds
Working Beeston coal
Employing 337 men undergound and 91 men surface

PRIMROSE HILL COLLIERY - Woodlesford, Nr Leeds
Working Middleton Little, Silkstone and Eleven Yard coals
Employing 607 men undergound and 222 men surface

ROTHWELL COLLIERY - Rothwell, Nr. Leeds
Working Eleven Yards and Furnace coals
Employing 679 men undergound and 144 men surface

SAVILLE COLLIERY - Methley, Nr Leeds
Working Flockton (Firthfield) coal
Employing 273 men undergound and 119 men surface

SHAW CROSS COLLIERY - Dewsbury
Working Eleven Yards, Wheatley Lime and Beeston coals
Employing 452 men undergound and 150 men surface

THORNHILL COLLIERY - Thornhill, Nr Dewsbury
Working Wheatley Lime, Silkstone and Beeston Coals
Employing 413 men undergound and 73 men surface

WATERLOO MAIN COLLIERY - Temple Newsam, Halton
Working Silkstone, Middleton Little and Black Bed coals
Employing 276 men undergound and 123 men surface.

A few notes of trivia .......... when Rothwell Colliery closed in 1983 it was the oldest working colliery in the UK (with a history that could be traced to the the 18th Century ......... DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY LINKS REGARDING THE COLLIERIES HISTORY?) and Waterloo Main Colliery's most famous Bevin Boy was the city's Sir Jimmy Saville (I vaguely remember reading his amusing and slighly odd autobiography 'Love is an Uphill Thing' where he recalls working underground stark bollock naked, cleaning himself carefully underground before emerging dressed to the nines at the end of the shift to head into town to run a dance ......... or something like that)

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 22-Jan-2008 22:00:06.

grumpytramp wrote:

Super post and just over the road to your mum's work was Killingbeck Colliery!!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 22-Jan-2008 22:01:56.

Si wrote:

Yep - a brilliant photo.

beats yet another of the Town Hall.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 22-Jan-2008 22:04:46.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Barwicker wrote:

Brianside pit I think IS built over unlike other croggy collieries!!!

Anyone manage an exact location - It's on Godfreys?

Parksider - transfering the co-ordinates from the '34 Geology map to the '76 OS map does put the shaft where I suggested as shown below - to within a few feet.

THANKS - isn't that brilliant - tracing the position of Brian Pit's main shaft. We may eventually trace one to UNDER a house!!!! that's be bad news for someone.

Sandways pit in Manston is one I tried to look for and the area where it was was all built up. Maybe they just made sure just a road was built over the shafts - probably a concrete cap on the shaft first?

It looks as though the area was purposely left when the houses were built, just a bit of road and a few garages. The house to the left is newly built - have to wonder if they know what they have as a neighbour!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 22-Jan-2008 23:09:30.

Parksider - I don't know Sandway Pit in Manston but looking at the magic (!) geology map there are some shafts noted around there.

The one between Manston Way and Avenue is shown as Victoria Pit, the other two simply shown as shafts. Looking again since saving the piccy, I've seen a fourth, north of Sandbed Lane and west of The Avenue in the corner of the junction and sorry - non of these are under houses - I'll keep looking though!!

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 23-Jan-2008 21:11:36.

The Parksider wrote:

Super post and just over the road to your mum's work was Killingbeck Colliery!!

Well as a matter of fact at the time we lived in Valley Drive, Halton so I can remember vaguely that when you on the train to Crossgates you could see the spoil heap or general remains of Killingbeck Colliery (? are there any remains still there)

Infact that stirred another memory of the first coal I ever won ....... from a wee trial mine I started with my sand spade down the back of the garage, which was cut into the hill side with a revetment wall behind leaving about a 2' gap sufficient for me to prize a 3" coal from beneath a lump of sandstone ......... I have to admit though I got bored of mining very quickly and reverted to running aound the garden with box over my head (mmmmm the simple pleasures of infanthood in the days before TVs and Playstations!)

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 23-Jan-2008 22:22:25.

chameleon wrote:

More genius map superimpositions - thanks for that.

G.C. Dickinson says in Victorian times there was a branch line from the railway up to the manston pits!! Up Church lane I assume.

As you pass the end of austhorpe lane(?) along the dual carriageway down past Arndale and the Station, the row of low shops BEFORE the arndale were apparently once colliers houses.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 23-Jan-2008 22:28:42.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Super post and just over the road to your mum's work was Killingbeck Colliery!!

Killingbeck left behind some spoil heaps but even they have gone.

Down Osmondthorpe Lane by the railway is the rec, we once played a soccer match there. That was the site of osmondthorpe colliery. There was a tramway that hauled the coal up to York Road for distribution. It is now a ginnel cutting through the estate at an angle and following exactly the tramway line - dunno if the estate was built either side whilst the tramway was still being used.

If you go on Leodis there's a couple of pics of halton Colliery and there seems to be no deep shaft and associated gear - it looks like they just ran an incline down into the ground - a bit like you - dig only so far and you hit the coal.

My fave Dibnah episode was when he sank a coal shaft in his back garden - must have got the idea from thee lad!!

peterg (User) Posted on: 23-Jan-2008 22:56:08.

In the late 40's, before the Shute Estate was built of Appleyard's Hill, to get from Penda's Grove where I lived to Whitkirk Cricket Ground, I used to cycle up Appleyard's Hill and then cut across the fields to the Ring Road and then on to the field and I remember seeing coal remains in the middle of the fields, although I have no idea whether there was any mine near there.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 24-Jan-2008 17:27:35.

The Parksider wrote:

chameleon wrote:

I didn't know they were colliers cottages but it makes sense. If you look above the current day shop fronts, the old soffits and roofs are still vissible. They used to continue a fair way down Station Road but were mostly demolished to make way for the Arndale Centre, on was a Dentist's surgery I recall.

Ive seen note on records somewhere that states all of the house in that area had been declared 'insanitary'!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 25-Jan-2008 00:07:29.

peterg wrote:

I'm lost here - Pendas Grove fair enough - but where is the shute estate and appleyard's hill, is the cricket ground south of the selby road where whitkirk wanderers play(ed)?

peterg (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 19:06:15.

Appleyard's Hill is the hill on Austhorpe Lane (I think that's the name) which rises up towards Austhorpe Hall (known to us as Chapman's farm, from the name of the then owner). The Shute Estate was known from the name of the builder and is that estate which stretches from Austhorpe Lane to the Ring Road. Whitkirk Cricket ground was (or still is) located behind the extension to Whitkirk Cemetry somewhere on the stretch of Selby Road covered by the ends of Knightsway, Kingsway and Queensway.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 21:32:23.

peterg wrote:

I assume that going up Austorpe lane then across to Whitkirk Cricket ground you hit the Prince Arthur Pit.

It's still "there" as a waste ground and trees with some uneven land and part of a spoil retaining wall. Up Hollyshaw lane on the left??????? This what you saw??????

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 22:50:18.

chameleon wrote:

Dickinson has the first pit sunk at "Old manston" in 1811 dunno where that is????

Then 1827 Old george Pit which is the bottom one in your picture, Victoria pit which you name and sandbeds which is the top one in your picture.

Crossgates colliery was sunk at that time and is probably in the internal car park/service area behind the Arndale.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 23:02:35.

CMHRC list of Coal mines in 1880 has a list of mines in Leeds. many no suprise, but there was apparently a Seacroft colliery (Drat and double drat Mr. Godfrey what about sheet 203.15) which may explain the "coal road" even more, a Calverley Colliery - my goodness!! and a Potternewton Colliery!! Wonder where any of these three were.......

chameleon (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 23:42:04.

The Parksider wrote:

The name Coal Road indeed has its origins as you sumise from its usage:

'Grandma and Grandad had sixteen children, thirteen girls lived and one son. They had their own pew in Shadwell Church and were all very religious. Every evening one had read a passage of the Bible. Part of Grandad’s tenancy was when harvest was finished he had to cart so many loads of coal from Barnbow Pit to Harewood House. Hence "The Coal Road’. Passing in to York Road, he had a toll of 1/2d wheel to pay at the Toll House [which as a lot of people remember, is where Mrs Ibbotson (who is still around at 93 and often talks to me about my mother) lived].'

This is taken from an article by Alan Noble, Church Warden, St James' Seacroft in 1997 which some of you may like to read in full -

http://home.freeuk.com/seacroft/documents/noblea.htm

I have family conections with old Seacroft going back to at least my Great Grandfathers generation. He lived in Poplar House which was on the site of what is now Neto.

peterg (User) Posted on: 27-Jan-2008 23:50:00.

I am not talking about Hollyshaw Lane. If you find Austhorpe Lane on the Google map ( it will mark a place just beyond Austhorpe Hall), and then move diagonally down to the left you will come to the Ring Road. The Estate between those two roads was the Shute Estate and the place I was talking about was somewhere in the middle of there. I have forgotten the names of the streets.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 28-Jan-2008 00:32:35.

peterg wrote:

There were bell pits across that triangular area to the right of Austhorpe Lane and there is an un-named shaft were Lulworth Cres., turns to the right at the top.

wiggy (User) Posted on: 28-Jan-2008 11:09:15.

the little houses on seacroft village green were miners cottages...i think thats what they are still called...

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 29-Jan-2008 08:56:34.

chameleon wrote:

The old manson Colliery is on the 1854 map, old manston being out manston Lane - it's just above the railway and traces can be seen on Google.

A second colliery is further along where the road heads north - is this at shippen house? in the field is the remains of a pit heap you can see on Google. This was "barnbow Common" so I can only assume this may have been "Barnbow Colliery" not marked in 1854 - haven't found out hoe to look at the later OS maps yet.

I'd assume they mined out from Old manston then just sunk another shaft further east at barnbow common??? How did thos shallow mines work in those days???

chameleon (User) Posted on: 29-Jan-2008 11:55:12.

There are so many features showing o Google Earth which could be of interest - just wish I could interpret them for what they really are!

There is another rough area depicted on the OS maps which may have een a spoil heap above the NW corner of the present sports ground to the right of Shippen House farm with an interesting blob or two seen on google - wonder if this was the site of a pit head too?

Some years ago now, during a very hot dry summer, there was quite a fire in the woods to the north which took hold underground and burned for ages. Could this have spread through the old shallow workings?

At that point,Barnbow lane was closed I recall for safety and Though I've not been along there for some time, I suspect (as many of these tracks now are) that it remains gated.

Shallow workings seem to be as frequent as the deep mines around East Leeds. During the construction of the new York Road and roundabout between the Melbourne and Seacroft, there was quite a collection of old track and and even trucks brought out from the excavations.

peterg (User) Posted on: 29-Jan-2008 14:20:48.

In the late 40's there was an area off the Selby Road known as Three Wells Wood. I can't remember exactly where it was, but I assume the three shafts must have been related with a mine. Can anyone enlighten me on the matter?

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 29-Jan-2008 21:45:07.

peterg wrote:

I got your last question wrong with the genius that is Chameleon answering more accurately, but I will have another stab!!

Off Selby Road leaving Leeds is Barrowby Lane at the end is a wood that was the site of the west Yorkshire Colliery. When the colliery was sunk I don't think there were trees there - nothing is shown on the 1854 may. By 1893 the map shows a wood on the abandoned colliery. Brown Moor Colliery appears as a wood after abandonment.

Strangely Prince Arthur pit has some tall mautre trees on the site today as does Mary Pit.

How on earth pits became Woods in some cases i don't know???

The 1854 map is interesting as it shows a railway running up church Lane manston to the colliery, and both West Yorkshire and Brown Moor had railways running the coal to main line.

Miggy Railway wasn't the only colliery railway in Leeds - and of course Gipton pit had a railway and Busk pit in wortley rec has a railway - the track bed was still showing a few years ago.....

rikj (User) Posted on: 29-Jan-2008 21:51:28.

The Seacroft pits are mentioned in "The Aberford Railway" book, as from memory, they were bought and sold by the same owners as the Garforth collieries.

There are quite a few remains around Barnbow, though I think the ROF and colliery shared the same site in different times. So it's a bit difficult with hindsight to say whether the remains are arms or coal related.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 30-Jan-2008 08:16:09.

rikj wrote:

The spoil heap well down Manston Lane and not on the Barnbow Factory site but on Barnbow Common looks like mine spoil that can be seen on other like spoil heaps - I once visited in person.
Old Manston Colliery is east of the Barnbow Factory and east further still is Barnbow common. I suggest the Arms Factory is actually in Manston so maybe Barnbow colliery was as I say on the common - BUT it should show on maps as a mine but doesn't?

Don't forget to warn me when that book goes back. Does it give any idea where the Seacroft Colliery is - I can find nothing on maps.

Arguably Brianside Pit is well more in Seacroft than Crossgates?? It's very near the end of seacroft Village and opposite Seacroft Hall and Park. Crossgates Lane runs behind but as the name indicates it's a lane TO crossgates and not In crossgates A la Wetherby road is leeds road in wetherby and so on. In the absence of an answer that could be it??????. I feel Park pit is harehills colliery as an example. If there was a seacroft colliery in 1880 onwards it should show on the 1890's maps.

The Foundry on Foundry Lane was an area I felt could have had a mine sunk for coal power, but nothing shows, however south parkway is known as "Iron Hills" and ironstone was mined alongside fireclay and coal, it being recorded ironstone being mined in Roundhay Park.

So Rik, any more indications in the book??

chameleon (User) Posted on: 30-Jan-2008 11:09:58.

chameleon wrote:

Come across another map! This shows a second shaft about two miles due east of the Barnbow/Lazencroft site simply maked, Collieries. Another half mile east, there are three more again running about half mile apart in a northerly direction marked respectively, East Garforth, Hawk's Nest Wood and Parlington Hollings.

Thereafter, save for Peckfield, activity to the North and East vissibley peters out dramatically with a change in the underlying geology.

yorky55 (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 16:23:28.

grumpytramp wrote:

primrose was in SWILLINGTON not WOODLESFORD..
the pit at woodlesford was named water haigh, rothwell was known colloquially as fanny pit there was another pit at methley near saville named newmarket

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 20:10:39.

From the map in Mr Hudson's book it appears that the colliery on the site of the WW2 ROFactory was called Manston Lodge Coliery. Manston Old Colliery was on the south side of the railway very close to the present Manston Pedestrian Crossing. Barnbow Colliery was a distance further east closer to Garforth than the WW1 Munitions Factory and then there was Clapham Pit somewhere to the south of Garforth Golf Course, possibly under the M1 now.

Garforth Colliery was more or less opposite the present Golf Club house and the other main collieries in Garforth were called Sisters, Isabella & Lily although there would appear to have been another one called Garforth Moor Colliery somewhere near the present junction of Main Street & Church Lane.

The map also shows a railway line/ wagonway leading from the sidings at the pit in the present Arndale carpark northwards to first the Old George pit, presumably somewhere along Church Lane, Crossgates and then on to both Victoria pit & Sandbeds pit.

I think the main reason for the many shallow Bell pits is the fact that main so called Barnsley Seam of coal outcrops in this area and Immediately the geology changes.

There is mention of Seacroft Colliery in the book but sadly Mr Hudson does not seem to have been able to locate it exactly. As stated it did belong at one time to the Gascoigne Family, the owners of the Garforth Collieries.

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 20:16:27.

I have mentioned on another thread that I own a copy of Mr Hudson's book on "The Aberford Railway and the History of the Garforth Collieries" If and when a date is settled for the SL gettogether I could probably be persuaded to attend, bringing the book with me, and if Parksider has still not got his hands on the Library Copy he might like to borrow mine.

At least carrying the book I should be recognisable.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 20:30:59.

Barwicker, I'm rather intrigued by the rail track to the Church Lane Pit (Identifed earlier in thread) and can't see any trace of it on any of the older maps, coyuld you describe the route in relation to the present streets/ buildings for me?

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 20:56:15.

Mr Hudson's sketch map is devoid of modern roads but I would hazard a guess that its probable route was roughly along one side of the present Church Lane, turning right towards Sandbeds pit close to Manston Church and also left towards Victoria Pit which I can only assume was close to the present Ring Road/Manston Drive junction.

A quick read of the appropriate appendix in the book yields the following: " The OS 1845/47 shows a waggonway to this pit (Crossgates) and another with branches to Sandbeds pit 367352 and to Victoria pit 363352. Church Lane follows the the line of this wagonway as far as Manston Church"

Although it is not stated above the second waggon way joins the first at a junction somwhere close to the present gas holders behind the Arndale Centre ( I really must get used to calling it the Crossgates Centre)

The Appendix also offers the opinion that Seacroft Colliery was "probably in the area 357353"

I hope that helps.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 31-Jan-2008 22:18:01.

Yes it does thank you, I can visualise the course but so much has changed there over the last 100 years (more than once!) I doubt there will be any remnants left to identify it.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 01:03:38.

Barwicker wrote:

There is mention of Seacroft Colliery in the book but sadly Mr Hudson does not seem to have been able to locate it exactly. As stated it did belong at one time to the Gascoigne Family, the owners of the Garforth Collieries.

Seacroft Colliery is in use in 1880 when it is listed as owned by the manston Colliery company.

The listing does not list Brianside pit although that was live in 1880.

Given Brianside is one of a series of manston c.co. pits in the area and that it is in seacroft, I can only assume Brianside Pit is Seacroft Colliery.

Take a line north from Brianside and it joins up directly with the Coal Road.....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 01:04:47.

Barwicker wrote:

That is a very kind thought and offer..........Thanks

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 01:06:09.

chameleon wrote:

Barwicker, I'm rather intrigued by the rail track to the Church Lane Pit (Identifed earlier in thread) and can't see any trace of it on any of the older maps

Go on Old-maps.co.uk and see the line on the 1854 ordanance survey.........

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 01:11:54.

Barwicker wrote:

The Appendix also offers the opinion that Seacroft Colliery was "probably in the area 357353"

I hope that helps.

Thanks again - anyone know how to use these co-ordinates?

Godfrey's map has a series on numbers in the margings but they don't look like proper grid references!!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 01:47:17.

The Parksider wrote:

Barwicker wrote:

The Appendix also offers the opinion that Seacroft Colliery was "probably in the area 357353"

I hope that helps.

Thanks again - anyone know how to use these co-ordinates?

Godfrey's map has a series on numbers in the margings but they don't look like proper grid references!!

The Godfrey maps I've just looked at don't seem to have grid reference points or latitude and longitude marked on them. The numbers arround the perimeter seem to be thenumber assigned to each parcel of land where only a small section of each is shown on the map.

On a standard OS map, break the series into two blocks of three digits - 357 and 353. Along the bottom (or top) edge of the map find the vertical line corresponding to the first two digits of the first block (35), the 7 then refers to a virtual line 7/10 of the way along.

Do the same with the remaining block finding (35) on the side of the map, the 3 similarly representing a line a further 3/10 of the way up the map. Where the lines intersect, id the position described. Hope this makes sense - it's late!!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 07:48:22.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Barwicker wrote:

The Appendix also offers the opinion that Seacroft Colliery was "probably in the area 357353"

I hope that helps.

Thanks again - anyone know how to use these co-ordinates?

Godfrey's map has a series on numbers in the margings but they don't look like proper grid references!!

On a standard OS map, break the series into two blocks of three digits - 357 and 353. Along the bottom (or top) edge of the map find the vertical line corresponding to the first two digits of the first block (35), the 7 then refers to a virtual line 7/10 of the way along.

Do the same with the remaining block finding (35) on the side of the map, the 3 similarly representing a line a further 3/10 of the way up the map. Where the lines intersect, id the position described. Hope this makes sense - it's late!!

I'll try to find my old 2 and a half inch map thanks....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-Feb-2008 07:59:27.

WEST YORKSHIRE COLLIERY

Working in east leeds so took a jaunt up Austhorpe Lane to look at West Yorkshire Colliery.

The whole site is wooded now and wasn't wooded when it was started as a colliery so maybe some sort of environmental effort was made to cover old collieries even in those days, as several of the old mines are now woods. The spoil heaps are steep, and only reveal their content in parts as 100 years of leaf mould has created soil and comsequent vegetation.

I found little dark grey spoil representing the normal shale spoil associated with coal, there was a lot of "red brick" spoil as though clay for bricks had been mined there extensively - some large round (now solid) globules of the stuff!! Austhorpe Hall is brick built and probably the bricks were of local clay although the Hall (1694) pre-dates the mine.

Evidence of the colliery is also found in some large stone blocks. The hole cut in the centre tops is probably for mounting mining machinery like engines and screens etc. Up and down the spoil heaps to the rear of the colliery and you will find - again now tree lined - the low embankment and track bed of the connecting tramway down to the Railway.

And so a glance towards the close Brown Moor Colliery, but alas industrial development appears to have obliterated that, so it was back to the car trying to imagine the industrial revolution as it was in what is today just a funny looking wood......

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 05-Feb-2008 22:26:06.

I have just remembered an incident on the site of the old Middleton Colliery probably early seventies.

At that time many old collieries had inspection shafts in which a brick square was left over a shaft and an iron cover was placed on top.

I recall about three of these at Miggy. A lad got into one and climbed down the shaft, and unfortunately was overcome with the mine gases.

I recall that vividly, and it led to these inspection shafts being dismantled in many cases.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 07-Apr-2008 23:14:52.

Parksider - if you're arround you might find this of interest, turned it up today. The ELHAS have published several related articles and have been investigating Lazencroft Farm too.

http://www.crossgatestoday.co.uk/elhas/Cross-Gates-in-the-early.3032958.jp

fevlad (User) Posted on: 09-Apr-2008 07:15:42.

the gascoine family were big coal owners in the leeds area. They lived at Lotherton hall
Bamber Gascoine of University Challenge fame comes from this family.

Trojan (User) Posted on: 09-Apr-2008 22:24:00.

fevlad wrote:

Bamber Gascoine of University Challenge fame comes from this family.

Bamber "shilling" I used to call him - geddit - shilling - gas coin
Coat.

wiggy (User) Posted on: 09-Apr-2008 23:00:55.

fevlad wrote:

the gascoine family were big coal owners in the leeds area. They lived at Lotherton hall
Bamber Gascoine of University Challenge fame comes from this family.

thats very true....half of garforth is named after the gascoigne family and the only two gents to host university challenge have very strong local connections.and on that note,have you read 'THE ENGLISH,PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE',by our very own paxo?only a leeds lad could bite the way our jeremy does.

liits (User) Posted on: 10-Apr-2008 00:22:46.

wiggy wrote:

fevlad wrote:

the gascoine family were big coal owners in the leeds area. They lived at Lotherton hall
Bamber Gascoine of University Challenge fame comes from this family.

I always understood that Bamber, the eponymous, Gascoine, was no relation the the Gascoines of east Leeds, just shared the name.

wiggy (User) Posted on: 11-Apr-2008 01:37:40.

liits wrote:

wiggy wrote:

fevlad wrote:

the gascoine family were big coal owners in the leeds area. They lived at Lotherton hall
Bamber Gascoine of University Challenge fame comes from this family.

I always understood that Bamber, the eponymous, Gascoine, was no relation the the Gascoines of east Leeds, just shared the name.

no no...he's landed gentry don't you know!!

edlong (User) Posted on: 11-Apr-2008 15:48:31.

Morley had many coal mines. One I know the location of was just off Wakefield Road near the Bruntcliffe crossroads. It's the site where "Motosave" is presently located and the industrial area behind it. Don;t know the name unfortunately. For older readers, it is where "CARR of Morley" used to be -

incidentally, does anyone know what happened to "Carr" - when I was a kid, they had a Ford
dealers (where Motosave is), petrol stations on both sides of the road and a haulage operation to boot.

Barwicker (User) Posted on: 19-Apr-2008 16:35:44.

To Parksider. I must apologise for not posting this earlier but if you would still like to borrow Mr Hudson's book please email me and we can possibly arrange a meeting somewhere convenient.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2008 07:48:47.

chameleon wrote:

Thank you Chameleon as always

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2008 07:51:27.

Barwicker wrote:

To Parksider. I must apologise for not posting this earlier but if you would still like to borrow Mr Hudson's book please email me and we can possibly arrange a meeting somewhere convenient.

Very kind! I will..........

edgey2001 (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2008 15:34:38.

The colliery you refer to Edlong was Victoria Colliery, Some details can be found here:
http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2006915_161888&DISPLAY=FULL

dervish99 (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2008 15:55:19.

My dad told me about a tunnel which opened up in the hillside beneath Beeston Hill Cemetry which is located next to Noster Terace (where he grew up) in Beeston, he said it came from miggy coal mine, does anyone have anyother info?

cheers

Russ

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2008 22:57:40.

dervish99 wrote:

In that position it will be part of beggars hill colliery or older workings closer the surface. Some workings were bell shafts that dug down to coal measures near the surface. On a hillside you could drive a tunnel into the coal outcrop where it showed at the surface. I think these were "day holes".

It won't have connected to Middleton Colliery it's simply too far away and too near the surface......

bigpants (User) Posted on: 25-Apr-2008 14:02:59.

garforth pits. Trench pit was on what is now ninelands lane. a substantial brick building still remains in the yard of stocks blocks which occupies the site. sisters pit was in the field behind my mothers house, and as kids we played all the time on the spoil heaps. the spoil heaps are still very much there and the top of the shaft was at one time visible. when some houses were built about 5 years ago behind tesco (on the old pit yard) a beam pumping engine was uncovered along with various structures. i believe the pumping engine was removed and taken to a museum somewhere. the isabella pit was located along ash lane. the spoil heaps and shaft head were still there last time i was down there but there has been alot of development since so they may now have dissapeared. there are a few of the old isabella pit buildings still in existence in and around the yard of proctors fencing.
the cutting for the narrow guage railway from peckfield pit to ledston luck is still there - i can remmebr the track in the cutting when i was a kid but its generally full of tat now so track may have been removed. ledson luck still has most of its buildings in situ including the winding house which is a lovely building.
the story re- garforth is that all of garforth is mined out underneath except for the church which has a large "pillar" of coal left under it.
when they opencasted on barwick lane a few years ago one of the main objections was that if they hit one of the old workings the water could escape and cause subsidence elsewhere.
when primrose pit was closed they had a brand new shearer down at the face and it was decided the cost of dismantling it and bringing it up was more than it cost and so it was abandonned down there. guess this happened quite a bit.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 01-May-2008 21:47:29.

bigpants wrote:

Cheers Nick.

Was in the area today and noted the Trench Pit building in Stocks yard and various bits in the area of Ash lane belonging to Isabella Pit including a row of pit cottages still housing people.

Sisters pit - I just passed on the roadiide and din't have time to go beyond - there seems to be a lot of fencing there.

Looking at how large gascoigne's Sisters Pit was I now know exactly why the two pubs are called the Gascoigne and the Miners!

isambard01 (User) Posted on: 21-May-2008 10:40:09.

There was a coal mine at Farsley (west Leeds) but it was closed in the early 1900s. However, Coal Hill is still there as a reminder - presumably a slag heap (?). My neighbour's son is a pot-holer and he recently said that he went down some shafts that are still there - but were very "difficult" . . .

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 13-Jun-2008 19:25:30.

The Parksider wrote:

rikj wrote:

The Seacroft pits are mentioned in "The Aberford Railway" book,

Arguably Brianside Pit is well more in Seacroft than Crossgates?? It's very near the end of seacroft Village and opposite Seacroft Hall and Park. Crossgates Lane runs behind but as the name indicates it's a lane TO crossgates and not In crossgates A la Wetherby road is leeds road in wetherby and so on. In the absence of an answer that could be it??????.

here's me answering my own post (with Riks).

I have now applied the co-ordinates of the seacroft colliery and they seem to land bang on Brianside pit which is where Brian Crescent is on the York Road.

The source they came from states the area from York road opposite seacroft park was seacroft moor and the moor runs right across to Manston.

Hunslet moor, Holbeck moor, woodhouse moor and now seacroft moor!!

Over at Garforth at Sturton Grange the sturton colliery is just south of the railway in the field by ermine street. It is said at ploughing the grey/black rings of the old shaft spoil shows.

So I googled it and my word they do show loud and clear. in these old mines which have several shafts sunk all in one area, they dug down, then out a bit getting the coal. The started again further away. It was easier to sink more shafts then that drag coal to the shaft bottom.

Hope Rik and Chameleon ses this, and BTW Barwicker's a gent!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 13-Jun-2008 21:41:56.

The Parksider wrote:

rikj wrote:

The Seacroft pits are mentioned in "The Aberford Railway" book,

Seen indeed. The present boundry between LS14 and LS15 is the centre of the A64 here. Seacroft Hospital on the same side of the road is considered LS14 though, with the other structures such as the Blood Transfusion Service, within the grounds, are LS15!

I suspect all are boundries suiting the modern day.

Chris D (User) Posted on: 25-Jun-2008 11:31:30.

I bought one of the houses on the Silkstone Court/Silkstone Way estate in the early 1990s. I noticed a large concrete area on part of the development and the builder advised me that it was a capped off mine shaft – he assured me that the whole site had been “pump grouted” and there would be no problems with subsidence (and there weren’t). Does anyone know anything of the history of the mine there?

spudoil (User) Posted on: 25-Jun-2008 12:02:42.

The Parksider wrote:

peterg wrote:

Re/ Gipton pit..
Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 25-Jun-2008 22:22:44.

spudoil wrote:

Re/ Gipton pit..
Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck.

Don't like "correcting" people, but the Gipton pit at the bottom of the fairway had a tramway running off to Hovingham avenue behind the Fforde Grene where there was a depot to distribute the coal. I don't think it ran to Wyke Beck but nice to hear your memory of the track bed!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 25-Jun-2008 22:30:50.

Chris D wrote:

I don't know of any major mine in that exact area.

North there were the manston mines. The crossgates mine was the other side of the railway where the arndale is. mary pit was down at the other end of the estate opposite you. Up Hollyshaw lane you can see traces of Prince Arthur and up austhorpe lane west yorks pit.

But there were odd isolated shafts all over. Down farm road there's a break in the houses and a fenced of bit of rough that was a shaft and no reason there may not have been one where you were. I have not seen any historical reference to it.

They may have dug a shaft of some depth and simply found nowt, or it flooded out, or they abandoned it pretty quickly.

The old beeston club land opposite the old white hart had mine shafts under that were due to be pumped with concrete to prevent subsidence. I have not seen any records of mines in that exact area either, but workings can go back before anyone ever bothered recording anything, and workings may have lasted only a few years if that.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 25-Jun-2008 22:44:00.

The Parksider wrote:

Chris D wrote:

Silkstone Court is built on what was originally I believe.a site used as a hospital for war casualities, pre-fab concrete buildings laid in in wings off a long L-shaped corridor.

Subequently it was used by the Institute of Geological Sciences until they relocated to Nottingham and then as temporary storage for another large Government Department, with the first, 'A' Wing, being used as the Royal Mail sorting office upto the redevelopment.

From that history it goes back quite a long way and agreeing with Parksider, there are no shafts showing on any of my documents either, certainly I have no recolection of anything to suggest otherwise being vissible before your houses were built.

spudoil (User) Posted on: 26-Jun-2008 03:33:35.

The Parksider wrote:

spudoil wrote:

Re/ Gipton pit..
Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck.

Wonder what it was then? The track bed was biult on a high bank !

chameleon (User) Posted on: 26-Jun-2008 22:34:05.

spudoil wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

spudoil wrote:

Re/ Gipton pit..
Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck.

Wonder what it was then? The track bed was biult on a high bank !

I lived just a little further up Oakwood Lane in the early 70's, I remember a footpath going down there but don't recall it being raised at all - do you remember anything else about it spudoil?

liits (User) Posted on: 01-Jul-2008 21:49:08.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Chris D wrote:

I'm not sure how true this is but..... I always knew the place as "the Geological", although the buildings in front of it was a Royal Mail sorting office. I was told that some of the moon rock that was given to the UK by the "Yanks" was brought here for investigtion / experimentation. Can anybody throw any light on this?

Chris D (User) Posted on: 03-Jul-2008 17:38:18.

Another are that interests me is Brown Moor - the land adjacent to the site of the West Yorkshire Pit and now sadly being eaten away by the Thorpe Park Office development. I had heard that this area was open casted not that long ago (1960s?), and similarly the land to the North of the railway line adjacent to the Pendas Fields Housing Estate. Does anyone have any information on this?

Chris D (User) Posted on: 11-Jul-2008 13:13:05.

Chris D wrote:

Just realised this was largely answered in a thread in 2007... I'm new to this !

chameleon (User) Posted on: 19-Apr-2009 21:01:08.

The Parksider wrote:

peterg wrote:

I found the shaft head mentioned in the Woods off Barrowby Lane, this will be the West Yorkshire Colliery I think. The Brown Moor pit was further east and is now a private garden if I'm correct.

Tha shaft has been filled - I presume - but the surface has settled. Being unsure of how it was closed, I wasn't about to jump down..... but I'll try to improve this on a better day!

Brandy (User) Posted on: 19-Apr-2009 23:26:55.

Did you not get tempted to have a little climb down Chameleon?? Regular Smiley

lol

chameleon (User) Posted on: 20-Apr-2009 17:59:23.

Brandy wrote:

Did you not get tempted to have a little climb down Chameleon?? Regular Smiley

lol

Well certainly not jump as I said, but on a better day I might negotiate the brambles, ivy, milk crates, prams dead ferrets and in the best possible Style de Phill hope there is something solid underneath to put my feet on. If on the other hand, I stop posting suddenly - send for Phill and his rope anyway Wink

Brandy (User) Posted on: 20-Apr-2009 18:04:01.

chameleon wrote:

Brandy wrote:

Did you not get tempted to have a little climb down Chameleon?? Regular Smiley

lol

Knowing phill you will probably bump into him on the way down lol Regular Smiley

chameleon (User) Posted on: 20-Apr-2009 18:18:52.

Brandy wrote:

chameleon wrote:

Brandy wrote:

Did you not get tempted to have a little climb down Chameleon?? Regular Smiley

lol

Knowing phill you will probably bump into him on the way down lol Regular Smiley

(more likely on his way up - dread to think where he might have started, here perhaps:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8007873.stm )

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 20-Apr-2009 22:37:15.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

peterg wrote:

Wow! I missed that so when I am next passing I will go and have a look thank you. It's the area on the left before you get as far as the private garden??

chameleon (User) Posted on: 20-Apr-2009 23:10:22.

Yes, enter the wood at about the middle and follow the larger path to the right - it's faily near the edge on the right, up a slight emabankment.

More suitably dressed. I'll consider a stumble or two down it - surely it must be fully backfilled rather than capped and collapsed, something would have been done with it otherwise. Don't 'spose you know the depth as a working pit do you! Confused

btw (unrelated) had a look at Wyke Beck to try and decide where the junctures were for the various streams running from the Seacroft end - its far from obvious and there are a lot of them. I'll post something on the seconded Mill thread when I've sorted bits out.

One thing I did find a little way up-stream before the high-rise block, was a very large (90 - 100cm) outflow which seemed to have run parallel to the east of the beck for some way which I don't remember. Almost dry so probably a storm/overflow system. I did wonder if it was associated with the works at Roundhay some years ago but I don't remember seeing anything at that end - it would probably start somewhere across Wetherby Road from the park. (Wondering if Phill saw anything there?).

Looking at the number and size of some of these pipes, little wonder the beck floods, the potential quantity of water is very high.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 21-Apr-2009 21:56:00.

'One thing I did find a little way up-stream before the high-rise block, was a very large (90 - 100cm) outflow which seemed to have run parallel to the east of the beck for some way which I don't remember. Almost dry so probably a storm/overflow system. I did wonder if it was associated with the works at Roundhay some years ago but I don't remember seeing anything at that end - it would probably start somewhere across Wetherby Road from the park. (Wondering if Phill saw anything there?).'

Saw your comment on flickr Phill - question answered!

Hector (User) Posted on: 22-Apr-2009 08:56:24.

Probably getting off the original thread (pehaps some one can start one on Wyke Beck) there are a number of photos on the LEODIS site of work done on Wyke beck in the 1930s to create new drains etc. I assumed these were in relation to the creation of Wykebeck Valley Road and associated housing developments in Gipton.

chameleon (User) Posted on: 22-Apr-2009 18:00:48.

Hector wrote:

Did you catch the thread discussing Foundry Mill Hector? (That was a mining thread which went off-course too, but related in a way Regular Smiley

). There is a lot of debate in there which includes the route(s) and triutaries of Wyke Beck.

Much of what is on Leodis I think is concerned with the alterations to accommodate the York Road improvements over the years.

Phill might be good enough to re-post his myspace set about the Rounhay Tunnels.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 22-Apr-2009 23:42:21.

Hector wrote:

I think some of those are where the Wyke Beck and where the stream from Roundhay Grange merged at the foot of asket hill.

Easterley Road was built over that point and the two streams were culverted in these works......

Brandy (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 00:05:50.

speaking of which they have closed the bridge http://snipurl.com/ghiq6
for repairs.It gets pretty busy at rush hour now so its well worth avoiding if your passing through!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 18:56:56.

Brandy wrote:

speaking of which they have closed the bridge http://snipurl.com/ghiq6
for repairs.It gets pretty busy at rush hour now so its well worth avoiding if your passing through!

Had a quick look before they started Brandy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chameleon2008/3460480552/in/pool-secretleeds

Brandy (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 21:34:07.

chameleon wrote:

Brandy wrote:

speaking of which they have closed the bridge http://snipurl.com/ghiq6
for repairs.It gets pretty busy at rush hour now so its well worth avoiding if your passing through!

Had a quick look before they started Brandy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chameleon2008/3460480552/in/pool-secretleeds

you've been getting your 'out's'. of late chameleon lol Regular Smiley

Photographing bridges,climbing down capped mineshaft's lol whatever next?

chameleon (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 22:21:01.

Brandy wrote:

chameleon wrote:

Brandy wrote:

speaking of which they have closed the bridge http://snipurl.com/ghiq6
for repairs.It gets pretty busy at rush hour now so its well worth avoiding if your passing through!

Had a quick look before they started Brandy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chameleon2008/3460480552/in/pool-secretleeds

you've been getting your 'out's'. of late chameleon lol Regular Smiley

Photographing bridges,climbing down capped mineshaft's lol whatever next?

Don't ask. Well actually, they are digging a big hole in Wellington Street to mend a collapsed sewer (foul Confused

)

Brandy (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 22:30:22.

Yes i read something about that in the YEP.
Have you got any photo's yet?
I wonder if its owt to do with the illusive tunnel under Leeds city centre? lol

chameleon (User) Posted on: 23-Apr-2009 22:37:27.

Brandy wrote:

Yes i read something about that in the YEP.
Have you got any photo's yet?
I wonder if its owt to do with the illusive tunnel under Leeds city centre? lol

Smelt it the other day - a lot of activity in the basement at Metro from the Drain men - wonder if they've lost a bus!

Usual paranoia about H&S, great screens and fences everywhere, but working on it. Don't know if it's a modern(ish) pipe or something older and interesting - maybe Cardiarms has some inside info?

raveydavey (User) Posted on: 27-Apr-2009 20:31:31.

chameleon wrote:

Brandy wrote:

Yes i read something about that in the YEP.
Have you got any photo's yet?
I wonder if its owt to do with the illusive tunnel under Leeds city centre? lol

Talking to one of the workmen the other day, the collapsed sewer is actually a tunnel that goes from Kirkstall Abbey to Temple Newsam...possibly...

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Jun-2009 21:59:33.

isambard01 wrote:

Hi Mr. Kingdom-Brunel.

Have you an exact location for the shafts????

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Jun-2009 22:07:49.

edgey2001 wrote:

The colliery you refer to Edlong was Victoria Colliery, Some details can be found here:
http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2006915_161888&DISPLAY=FULL

To all interested.

I have in mi 'ot little hand "Coal mining in Morley" by Jim Thorp.

Superb NMRS publication. Great piccies of Morley Main, Howley Park.

A London illustrated news featuring an explosion at Morley Main

Morley folks picking the heaps during the strike

Incs plenty of East Ardsley....

But Oh for a book on Leeds!!

chameleon (User) Posted on: 16-Jun-2009 22:18:09.

The Parksider wrote:

edgey2001 wrote:

The colliery you refer to Edlong was Victoria Colliery, Some details can be found here:
http://www.leodis.org/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=2006915_161888&DISPLAY=FULL

Now, now my friend, sit down and take a pill or three - you're making the entire net shake Regular Smiley

(but if you find one I want a look !)

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Jun-2009 22:28:29.

chameleon wrote:

[

Now, now my friend, sit down and take a pill or three - you're making the entire net shake Regular Smiley

(but if you find one I want a look !)

Say the word you can borrow it.....

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 16-Jun-2009 23:58:36.

The Parksider wrote:

I have in mi 'ot little hand "Coal mining in Morley" by Jim Thorp.

Superb NMRS publication

Tis a rather grand publication or as they say in these parts "pure qualitee ...... " [cue another plug for the NMRS - for copies see http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=1793 ]

The Parksider wrote:

But Oh for a book on Leeds!!

Parkie, have you seen "Remebering how it was - Mining in the Leeds Area" by Granville Williams published by Leeds City Council in 1993 (my copy does not have a ISBN number but is referenced on the rear leaf 16/003/297/00 )

Its a glossy A4 landscape publication with a very general history of mining in Leeds but is really a social history intersperced with interviewed account of mining of former colliers principally employed at Ledston Luck colliery (as well as Allerton Bywater, Bowers Row, Fryston, Mount Pleasant, Water Haigh, Rothwell and Peckfield). There is also quite a bit of detail about Ledston Luck and Allerton Bywater Collieries

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 17-Jun-2009 09:03:07.

grumpytramp wrote:

I will check that out at the Local History Library - thanks VERY much for that. However when you mention the mines covered they are all outside of Leeds in the traditional Yorkshire coalfield I grew up with!
But thanks again - today I'll go see if I can find Calverley Colliery!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 21:01:14.

The Parksider wrote:

[today I'll go see if I can find Calverley Colliery!

Tried the woods as suggested. Found all sorts - see other thread.

On return can't even find a reference to a Calverley Colliery - anyone recall where this came from??

The Pudsey Colliery was at Greenside. I'll see if I can trace that.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 21:06:44.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

peterg wrote:

Found this shaft today, great open top shaft with brick lining.

Further down the track is part of a the pit heap showing shale.

The shaft is on the border of the wood. Next door is willow garth house and if you look carefully there's a massive rockery in the garden the base of which is very large dressed blocks and possibly some large pieces of broken concrete. It's disguised as a rockery but may be something to do with the colliery. At 40 yards from the shaft I wonder if it was the winding engine house??????

For chameleon you can see it from the roadway without having to be nosey/intrusive......Thoughts??

chameleon (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 22:32:25.

It's good isn't it? Probably the best we'll ever see I think. Re-visit on the cards. (note to self - check for stranded Phills in the bottom Wink

)

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 23:13:14.

The Parksider wrote:

On return can't even find a reference to a Calverley Colliery - anyone recall where this came from??

It is listed in Mike Gill's database "Mines of coal and other stratified minerals in Yorkshire from 1854" held on the MMRS website [see http://www.nmrs.co.uk/mainframeset.htm and the Online Resources drop down menu on the right]

It lists:-
Name: Calverley
Township/parish: Bradford
From: 1855
To: 1878

I have also come accross a few other references:

In A Topographical Dictionary of England (184 Cool

, edited by Samuel Lewis (see http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50853#s15 ) reference to Calverley the following is noted:

Quote:

CALVERLEY (St. Wilfrid), a parish, in the union of Bradford, wapentake of Morley, W. riding of York, 5 miles (N. E.) from Bradford; containing, with the township of Bolton and the chapelries of Idle and Pudsey, 21,039 inhabitants, of whom 4142 are in the township of Calverley cum Farsley .............................................The village is beautifully situated, partly on the brow of an acclivity on the south side of Airedale, and partly on the bank of the river, and near the Leeds and Liverpool canal. The population is principally employed in the woollen-manufacture, for which there are extensive establishments; and within the parish are also some stone-quarries and coal-mines.

In Whites 1837 "History, gazetteer, and directory, of the west-riding of Yorkshire etc" list under coal merchants in the Bradford directory:

Quote:

Rawson, Clayton & Coulson; Bradford and Calverley colleries

See http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=C8cHAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA454&dq=Calverley+Bradford+colliery&as_brr=1

Not much, but at least it confirms it was a real undertaking. I do wonder though whether the name of the pit has anything to do with the Calverley family or Low Moor iron works?

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 23:33:14.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

On return can't even find a reference to a Calverley Colliery - anyone recall where this came from??

, edited by Samuel Lewis (see http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50853#s15 ) reference to Calverley the following is noted:

Quote:

In Whites 1837 "History, gazetteer, and directory, of the west-riding of Yorkshire etc" list under coal merchants in the Bradford directory:

Quote:

Rawson, Clayton & Coulson; Bradford and Calverley colleries

Thank you very much for that.

Checking old maps I found Calverley Quarries today and the workings were extensive and the quarry face so big that today it is a haunt of some climbing enthusiasts!!!

As a village Calverly is just about 100% stone built!!

I would guess the Colliery may be the other side of the village.

If Mike Gill says it it's usually right. Unfortunately the 1855 date may postdate the ordanance survey 1854 map and closure predate the 1890's OS maps on old-maps so the research will be harder.

Thanks again.....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 23:39:15.

Just gone on old maps and on the 1851 map three coal pits are clearly marked in Calverley.

All to do now is superimpose the sites onto the modern street map and go have a look......

Whoopee!

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 23:50:48.

Parkie,

I was a native of east Leeds so Calverley is a wee bit off my coal mining radar ........... but having seen the references above I couldn't help but have another poke about.

Go to Old-maps.co.uk and specifically the 1851 OS 10,560 sheet, then look to the south of Calverley and you will see that there were three "coal pits":

Coal Pit #1: to the immediate east of the junction of original alignment of Old Carr Lane and Woodhall Road

Coal Pit #2: amongst the houses of Foxhole Lane

Coal Pit #3: to the immediate west of the junction of Rodley Lane and Town Gate (? on Brookleigh)

I suspect that these pits are near an outcrop and that one or all of these may be Calverley Colliery or Calverley Colliery was located down dip (which I would assume from my knowledge of the regional geology would be to the south and/or east) and are no likely be buried below modern Calverley

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 18-Jun-2009 23:52:02.

The Parksider wrote:

Just gone on old maps and on the 1851 map three coal pits are clearly marked in Calverley.

All to do now is superimpose the sites onto the modern street map and go have a look......

Whoopee!

Ooops ........

I would obviously like to say that great minds think alike!

Regular Smiley

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jun-2009 15:22:31.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Just gone on old maps and on the 1851 map three coal pits are clearly marked in Calverley.

All to do now is superimpose the sites onto the modern street map and go have a look......

Whoopee!

Ooops ........

I would obviously like to say that great minds think alike!

Regular Smiley

No thank you for the effort! The listed life of the colliery doesn't match 1851, but what the heck. I'd much rather find traces of the pits.

I would assume looking at Google I may find nothing but grey shale dust against the normal earth/sandstone covering of the land.

But a find is a find, and a location pinpointed a nice victory.

Did you ever google Sturton Grange Colliery where all the pits showed up superbly as black circles in a brown ploughed field!!!

Pudsey Greenside next and hopefully Chameleon may comment if the structure in Willow Garth House is a winding engine house!!!

All this enthusiasm of mine is based on tracing the lead mining fields in the Dales as a younger man!

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 19-Jun-2009 16:05:11.

I get Pudsey Greenside coal mine at Alexandra Grove........

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 30-Jul-2009 08:25:38.

Check out the new tome "Coal mining in Middleton Woods". It's available in the Civic Trust bookshop wharfe street and because the mining was in the woods it seems the remains of early leeds mining were not obliterated by the ruling that if you mined agricultural land you had to fill your mine back in after exhausting it.

The archeological Interpretation of the many paths, heaps and hollows is very interesting indeed, and it's not just a series of ancient bell pits......

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 06-Aug-2009 22:59:27.

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Does the coal on the geological map really stretch that far Chameleon/GT.....

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 07-Aug-2009 00:18:39.

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Does the coal on the geological map really stretch that far Chameleon/GT.....

An excellent discovery, congratutions!

I have taken a look at the 1:10,560 sheet of 1851 at Old-maps and concur. It appears from Google Earth that the spoil heaps of the most northerly of the three pits may still be in existance below shrubbery by a hedgerow!

Unfortunately my BGS Sheet 70 and corresponding Memoir extends only as far west as Harrogate Road. I would hazard a guess that the coal worked must be a coal either right at the base of the Coal Measures (Soft Bed or Pot Clay) or be a coal in the underlaying Millstone Grit.

I have had a wee root about and found two interesting references to mining in Horsforth.

Firstly extracted from "The London and Edinburgh Philosophical magazine and Journal of Science, Vol 1, July - December 1832" extracted from a paper entitled "On the lower or ganister coal series of Yorkshire", John Philips confirms that it is likely to be workings at the very base of the coal measures. He provides a section provided to him by the late ES George from Horsforth Colliery showing 1' 4" coal sitting on 8' of "white earth" above another 1' coal.

I would hazard that this is the Pot Clay Coal that was worked at Horsforth

The second reference is very tragic and is taken from "The Annual Register or a view of History, Politics and Literature for the year 1806" and records the events of January 29th 1806

Quote:

About 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the earth from the roof of a coal pit, at Horsforth, near Leeds, about twenty yards deep, fell in; two men and a boy were at work in the pit; the boy was killed by the earth falling in on him; the men lived some time after and could be plainly be heard by people who flocked from every part to dig them out. One of them survived to four o'clock the next morning, at least he was never after heard. He had previously said that both his fellow sufferers were dead. No labour was spared to get them out; but as the people increased their exertions, the earth fell in more, and at last completely buried the colliers in her bowels

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 07-Aug-2009 20:48:50.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Does the coal on the geological map really stretch that far Chameleon/GT.....

Quote:

Superb stuff GT. I will have to abandon Mike Gill as my mining hero and sub you.

I am looking forward to tracing the workings on foot soon.

I think a book on Leeds mining that captures the social aspect rather than the staid history would be a wonderful project and I will manage that in time.

Middleton Woods 1758 - "some miners in order to get through a stratum of hard stone saw fit to drill holes and fill them with gunpowder. They threw fire down from the shaft top to blast the stone. It made a report little more than a pistol shot but the blaze setting the foul air (firedamp?) produced a blaze truly shocking and the works (Gin?) at the mouth of the pit were blown to pieces"

It had all the trees shaking violently and frightened the "bark pullers" (Oak bark being a tanning material).

Good stuff.....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 07-Aug-2009 20:56:37.

grumpytramp wrote:

I would hazard a guess that the coal worked must be a coal either right at the base of the Coal Measures (Soft Bed or Pot Clay) or be a coal in the underlaying Millstone Grit.

Going north from Leeds to the dales small pits produced coal as you say from coal beds in the Millstone Grit.

NMRS have done a whole edition on the "Masham Collieries" which is Colsterdale.

The remains out in the dales and north york moors are easier to see, and are indicative of how early coal would have been won in Leeds.

I was in the old Quarries at Newlay yesterday which was a particular kind of quality Gritstone.

Although Horsforth is an area extending NW of the Leeds coal measures are you saying it's probably more a southerly extension of dales coal???

Threshfield Colliery in Wharfedale is a particularly good site to visit.....

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 10-Aug-2009 22:28:35.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Does the coal on the geological map really stretch that far Chameleon/GT.....

From the east end Lee lane stops dead as a road at Westbrook lane, but the original lane carries on into the fields as a "public footpath". Once several yards into this the old lane blossoms as a proper causey stone laid (in parts only now, but they are there) lane with stone walls either side. Local legend is this is a roman road. How do I know? A lady was taking her grandkids for a walk and I heard her say this. It's more likely the road was laid with stone for the carriage of coal into Horsforth, but let's not spoil the myth?

Two pits to my left but no spoil heaps and heavily undergrowthed as the plough doesn't bother to go near the wall. A pit in the field on the right- no trace unless the plough lays bare the shale, then another one obliterated by groundworks for more sports facilities at Trinity college.

Last chance to see remains lies at the West end of Lee Lane which becomes a road again to service the housing. At the junction with West end lane in the second field beyond the ditch are the remains of one of the coal pits (at last).

Neat bit of trespassing into what I remember to be the P-Y-O strawberry field (old caravan and fencing still there) and the low sprawling mounds typify the remains of Georgian/early victorian coal mines. Was this the one where the miners were buried alive??

No sign of coal/shale as the mounds are well vegitated now (didn't 'ave me spade). Some large lumps of sandstone that maybe the miners had to break up and shift to get through to the coal seam.

Rewarding trip and GT right as 'allus.

grumpytramp (User) Posted on: 13-Aug-2009 08:01:30.

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Alas the pits on Lee Lane days as the most northerly of the Leeds collieries is over!

Time for Parksider to do a wee bit more exploring

See http://www.british-history.ac.uk/mapsheet.aspx?compid=55145&sheetid=9527&ox=0&oy=0&zm=1&czm=10&x=285&y=140

I can see 4 coal pits marked on the 1st Series 1:10,560 OS sheet to the immediate north of Rawdon

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 13-Aug-2009 15:03:17.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Thanks for this, debatable (need to get mi compass) as to wether Rawdon is more northerly than Horsforth, but no matter as neither were really leeds at all.

I note the pattern here. In any vliiage on the coalfield, transport costs were seemingly such that coal for local consumption was gained by just digging a hole somewhere around the village.

If you overlaid a geological map with accessible near to surface coal seams over Leeds and district possibly every village in that area could have a local coal pit.

Even Woodhouse saw coal dug from Woodhouse moor.
Another field trip tommorrow - thanks.........

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 14-Aug-2009 09:21:13.

grumpytramp wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

Time for Parksider to do a wee bit more exploring

I can see 4 coal pits marked on the 1st Series 1:10,560 OS sheet to the immediate north of Rawdon

From the main road I walked up towards the wood where pit 1 is by the wall of the road. The road is remarkably very similar to Lee Lane with some causey stones lain in part and full walling either side. The area of the pit is level and overgrown. Possible converted back to agricultural land.

A lovely walk across the hill and down through the field to the next two pits. Again no trace of that up the hill, but the one near the beck which croses the main road 200M down is there.

It is a small clay mound with rough sandstone blocks and tiny bits of poor quality coal strewn through the clay and sandstone. It is in a field where I assume the farmers have just ploughed round it, and close to it there's a private road with new housing that leads back to the main road.

From there to pit 4 - the largest depicted. You can see the site in the field from the field adjacent which is now an extension of the church graveyard. In there there's a house fronting the main road, but next to it where the pit was sited is a large lawn/garden. That could have been a second house, but perhaps they didn't want to build directly on the pit?

I collected a pocket full of coal bits and just to prove them I put them in a clay pot and put my blowtorch on them. Sadly the gas ran out pretty quickly, but I will have another go. The coal didn't seem to want to light quickly, but it may have been damp, and certainly was poor quality.

The idea the communities across the coalfield went out onto adjacent hills and fields to dig coal for local consumption also applies to Leeds. Martin Roe in his Middleton book noting bell pits aplenty as close as the site of the corn exchange and cloth hall street, and later many more out to quarry hill and burmantofts.

Interstingly he notes the famous Briggate Bell Pit as "here ironstone had been removed from above the black bed coal, but coal had been left".............

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 14-Aug-2009 09:30:47.

[quotenick="grumpytramp"]

The Parksider wrote:

Leeds most northerly coal mine is now Horsforth Colliery on Lee Lane, Three old coal pits there in 1851.

I can see 4 coal pits marked on the 1st Series 1:10,560 OS sheet to the immediate north of Rawdon

Google earth to Rawdon 01.46"N 40.46"W Remaining pit in the field has been ploughed around.

Brunel (User) Posted on: 15-Aug-2009 13:31:16.

Excellent items on Gipton Pit and the colliery railway, can be found

in this small booklet, to be found in Oakwood Library.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 15-Aug-2009 15:13:28.

Brunel wrote:

Excellent items on Gipton Pit and the colliery railway, can be found

in this small booklet, to be found in Oakwood Library.

Is it a reference book?? Will go and have a look if so. Don't want to go and it's out? - Have you taken it out??

chameleon (User) Posted on: 15-Aug-2009 17:28:16.

The Parksider wrote:

Brunel wrote:

Excellent items on Gipton Pit and the colliery railway, can be found

in this small booklet, to be found in Oakwood Library.

Is it a reference book?? Will go and have a look if so. Don't want to go and it's out? - Have you taken it out??

Steady now, can feel the rush of air over here - your blood pressure will be worse than mine if you keep this up Wink

Brunel (User) Posted on: 15-Aug-2009 18:57:05.

I will be returning it on Mon.

You will find it along with many other booklets by the Oakwood Historical Soc. in the local history section.

kenneth (User) Posted on: 15-Aug-2009 22:55:30.

Many years ago there used to be a mock up of a coal mine in Leeds City Museum in the days when the Museum was located on Park Row when the HBos bank building is now

chameleon (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 10:54:43.

kenneth wrote:

Many years ago there used to be a mock up of a coal mine in Leeds City Museum in the days when the Museum was located on Park Row when the HBos bank building is now

You might find this of interest or even amusing -

http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Messages.aspx?ThreadID=72&HighLight=1

Brunel (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 11:15:46.

This should prove useful to all the "bookworms"

http://librarycatalogue.leedslearning.net

If you search for Oakwood Historical Society.

Shows 11 copies of the above book available.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 15:02:09.

Brunel wrote:

This should prove useful to all the "bookworms"

http://librarycatalogue.leedslearning.net

If you search for Oakwood Historical Society.

Shows 11 copies of the above book available.

Thank you kind sir.

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 15:03:19.

chameleon wrote:

[

Steady now, can feel the rush of air over here - your blood pressure will be worse than mine if you keep this up Wink

Enthusiasm is the elixir of life.

You would not want me to be Victor Meldrew now would you?

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 15:08:27.

kenneth wrote:

Many years ago there used to be a mock up of a coal mine in Leeds City Museum in the days when the Museum was located on Park Row when the HBos bank building is now

Yes, I went in with my mum, must have been about 4 years old then.

One day the city may recognise it's mining/quarrying heritage again?

For anyone interested who looks at the old mones/quarries Leeds had a number of "Calliard" quarries, which is a tightly packed type of sandstone.

One of those words long forgotten and explanation courtesy of Mike Gill. Mike also kindly explains how coal may have been present in Moortown area due to a fault, or may be from a coal bed that wasn't the same as mined in south Leeds. Either way he has records of Moortwn Colliery producing coal.....

kenneth (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 15:56:14.

The Parksider wrote:

kenneth wrote:

Many years ago there used to be a mock up of a coal mine in Leeds City Museum in the days when the Museum was located on Park Row when the HBos bank building is now

being raised in Beeston I believe our back to back in the Marsdens is built on top of mines. And yes it would be nice if the city recognised it's debt to those miners and also the engineers and tailoring industry who also put this city on the map. My Dad was a master tailor and latterly worked many years for Joseph May & Sons down the bottom of Domestic Street. My Mum was born in Morley, one of three sisters who all served time in the woolen mills before she moved to Leeds with her Mother to take a corner shop on Elland Road.

Interestingly, her Mother had the first ice cream business in Morley. They used to make thier own ice cream and take it round the streets with horse and cart

kenneth (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 16:08:43.

Brunel wrote:

This should prove useful to all the "bookworms"

http://librarycatalogue.leedslearning.net

If you search for Oakwood Historical Society.

Shows 11 copies of the above book available.

That is a really interesting link thank you. I am also very interested in Subterranean Leeds. Did I read somewhere that you had some involvement in this. I am sure there was a link to some of your pictures

chameleon (User) Posted on: 16-Aug-2009 17:06:32.

kenneth wrote:

Brunel wrote:

This should prove useful to all the "bookworms"

http://librarycatalogue.leedslearning.net

If you search for Oakwood Historical Society.

Shows 11 copies of the above book available.

Try these:

http://www.secretleeds.co.uk/forum/Threads.aspx?ForumID=22

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 17-Jul-2010 22:39:49.

Just to add to the long since defunct Idea Moortown Colliery on King Lane was Leeds northernmost coal mine I have.....

1. Whinmoor Coal Mine - referred to in "Foundry Mill" when quoting what the Manor of seacroft consisted of in 1603 when James 1st transferred the land to a new owner.

2. Cookridge Coal Mine - Referred to in Don Coles wonderful histories, appearing as a record in the local magistrates dealings when the owner of the said mine was fined for not filling it back in after it was worked out.

Whinmoor was next Moor up from Seacroft Moor where Brian pit?saecroft colliery was, and Cookridge is adjacent Rawdon and Horsforth whose old mines still show surface remains......

chameleon (User) Posted on: 17-Jul-2010 22:45:11.

The Parksider wrote:

Any idea of a more precise location for Whinmoor pit - new one on me.
The land there is boulder clay giving out to limestone the further north you go, so would this one be on the edge of the field?

The Parksider (User) Posted on: 18-Jul-2010 09:08:01.

chameleon wrote:

The Parksider wrote:

Any idea of a more precise location for Whinmoor pit - new one on me.
The land there is boulder clay giving out to limestone the further north you go, so would this one be on the edge of the field?

Seacroft Moor/Manston provided adequate enough seams for deep mining and as you say those seams should peter out as they head north.

Heading north takes you onto "Winn Moor" and I suspect that that particular moor may have stretched from seacroft moor - possibly Barwick Road being the boundary, north and over York Road and on to the coal road (what does your maps say).

Whilst I have no maps for the 1600's and possibly they would not feature coal pits anyway, all I can conclude is the Winn Moor pit can only have been towards seacroft moor/Manston on the southern edges of the Winn Moor, such that it would only have been a short distance from very viable pits.

Possibly winning some coal on whin moor gave the miners enough info to make the next dig southwards rather than northwards!!!

As for the Cookridge pit I suspect that was on the high ground near crag hill and a continuation of thin seams from Rawdon and Horsforth. I collected some coal bits from a Rawdon pit site and could not get them to burn, so poor quality stuff up here.....