SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Not sure if this is in the right bit but here goes...... My grandad tells me of school trips he used to go on, down the shafts and into the mine of Waterloo Main near Temple Newsam. I have looked in to the colliery as best I can on the internet but cannot find a great deal of information.I am led to believe that there were three Waterloo Collieries in Leeds (Bride, Nursery and I don't know the other), one of which I have traced to what now appears to be a clump of trees in the middle of nowhere (found only on a map). I cannot seem to locate the other two places on maps. I understand that there is probably nothing there now anyway (which is a shame) but there must be something, somewhere that shows where they were.Can anyone lend me a hand and send over some information regarding the whereabouts of the three collieries, when they closed and any useful links/maps.Thanks in advanceThe S/L Noob!Nursery Pit: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&sourc ... t=h&z=16PS I have got the details of Nursery pit from the 1906 OS Map 218.07. Bride pit is near by but I am unable to locate on a modern map. I have also noted a lot of shafts in the area. Are these mining shafts or something else and what happened to them?

big_rob2004 wrote: Not sure if this is in the right bit but here goes...... My grandad tells me of school trips he used to go on, down the shafts and into the mine of Waterloo Main near Temple Newsam. I have looked in to the colliery as best I can on the internet but cannot find a great deal of information.I am led to believe that there were three Waterloo Collieries in Leeds (Bride, Nursery and I don't know the other), one of which I have traced to what now appears to be a clump of trees in the middle of nowhere (found only on a map). I cannot seem to locate the other two places on maps. I understand that there is probably nothing there now anyway (which is a shame) but there must be something, somewhere that shows where they were.Can anyone lend me a hand and send over some information regarding the whereabouts of the three collieries, when they closed and any useful links/maps.Thanks in advanceThe S/L Noob!Nursery Pit: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&sourc ... t=h&z=16PS I have got the details of Nursery pit from the 1906 OS Map 218.07. Bride pit is near by but I am unable to locate on a modern map. I have also noted a lot of shafts in the area. Are these mining shafts or something else and what happened to them? These are covered elsewhere in here on another thread - somewhere. Doing a search on threads and messages should put you in the right area (Ithink there's a map too)On the otherhand, I know a couple of chaps who'll put you right ....Call to arms, Parky & Grumpy

big_rob2004 wrote: Not sure if this is in the right bit but here goes...... My grandad tells me of school trips he used to go on, down the shafts and into the mine of Waterloo Main near Temple Newsam. I have looked in to the colliery as best I can on the internet but cannot find a great deal of information.I am led to believe that there were three Waterloo Collieries in Leeds (Bride, Nursery and I don't know the other), one of which I have traced to what now appears to be a clump of trees in the middle of nowhere (found only on a map). I cannot seem to locate the other two places on maps. I understand that there is probably nothing there now anyway (which is a shame) but there must be something, somewhere that shows where they were.Can anyone lend me a hand and send over some information regarding the whereabouts of the three collieries, when they closed and any useful links/maps.Thanks in advance Bride pit appears on Google as a rough bit of ground by Pontefract Lane on the south side just before the sewage works. North west is nursery pit which was a ventilation shaft only, and just south of Nursery wood - your "clump of trees".Dam pit was south west of Bride Pit and Parks pit just to the east of the sewage works.Temple pit was in the woods east of Temple Newsam House. The last of the pits to close and is a rough patch of ground in the middle of the wood, just about make it out on google.Part of the remains of the old collieries can be the remains of the railways that linked them. Out of easy Road depot ran a line that crossed the back of the bridgefield and ran to Park and Dam pits. A line ran out of neville hill south to Bride pit. Because it was ventilation only Nursery pit had no railway.You can only find the stretch of land the line ran on behind the Bridgefield now.Colliery buildings were demolished, lines taken up along with sleepers, shafts capped etc and it is hard to find much apart from the odd bed of a railway as above, or the rough ground where a pit stood.It is still however fun and you just need enough old maps - so grab any you can including OS maps of course but also Leeds street maps from the mining days. From the 20's and 30's street maps you can trace the positions of everything on google - although I believe Pontefract Lane was realaigned at some point which can lead you to lose your bearings a bit.All over Leeds tiny, unnoticed remains of coal mining can be found.Temple pit probably closed in the early seventies. Leeds last coal mine I think (without looking it up).........

My Grandfather worked down Waterloo Pit . I remember he took me for a walk one day to see the remains of Temple Pit. I was about 6 or 7 years old which makes it about 1965. We walked to the pit from Temple Newsam House, down the path in front of the house to the pond at the bottom of the hill and then follow the roadway to the right until you come to a gate on the left hand side where the road bears to the right. We went through the gate that then stood in this spot and followed a footpath through the woods. I remember passing a small field that had some ponies in then we got to the pit buildings that where verging on being derelict . I remember going into one building and looking down one of he shafts that had not bean capped off and had only had a barrier made of scafolding .The landscape in which the pit stood has totaly changed since the pit closed due to opencast mining. Some may remember the opencase mine that you could see from the front of Temple Newsam House , this is the Temple pit was. This was the first opencast in the area and was filled in and landscaped years ago.

GlennDun wrote: My Grandfather worked down Waterloo Pit . I remember he took me for a walk one day to see the remains of Temple Pit. I was about 6 or 7 years old which makes it about 1965. We walked to the pit from Temple Newsam House, down the path in front of the house to the pond at the bottom of the hill and then follow the roadway to the right until you come to a gate on the left hand side where the road bears to the right. We went through the gate that then stood in this spot and followed a footpath through the woods. I remember passing a small field that had some ponies in then we got to the pit buildings that where verging on being derelict . I remember going into one building and looking down one of he shafts that had not bean capped off and had only had a barrier made of scafolding . There's something remotely romantic/nostalgic about old mines. When I was a kid there was a kids programme called "Tom somebodies(for get the name) war" and it featured a couple of kids who had adventures in the countryside, many of them down at the abandoned mine.I've been googling and if you follow as Glenn says the path down from the house past the farm until it enters the trees and have that in the top LH corner of your Google screen, close to the bottom is an orangey/brown clearing of rough ground in the trees. I think that is the site of Temple pit shaft and colliery buildings.Parks pit is on the elbow of the wyke beck diversion channel out of the sewage works. All you can see is a field now, but the feint rough squares in the buff coloured earth just above the channel as it straightens up may be from old foundations of the pit building.At one time you could see the rather old (1700's) sturton colliery bell pits at Garforth show as black circles in the brown ploughed earth south of the railway line. Google often shows up like a Geophysical survey.Dam pit was just above Thwaite mills and the knowsthorpe road. there's some trees and a squared off clearing where the pit was.Halton Moor wood is there, but Nursery wood looks like just a few trees. Again a bit of rough ground as opposed to the green field shows the position of the pit.Bride Pit is the best, From just below neville hill sidings across halton moor road a diagonal line runs south east between the two industrial estates. I think that is the line of the railway to the pit.Across Ponte Lane you can pick that line up as a feint furrow in the rough ground and it intersects with another feint furrow coming in from the west. Where these meet (these being the colliery road and railway in) is the site of Bride Pit exactly!!If we all take our spades and dig down on that exact point we may well be able to uncover the shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh.......

The Parksider wrote: although I believe Pontefract Lane was realaigned at some point which can lead you to lose your bearings a bit. I have the 1908 map of the area around osmondthorpe and was comparing it to a modern street map. it took me about an hour to realise that Ponte Lane had been realigned lol.You can actually draw a rough line where it used to be, but correct me if im wrong here... comparing the maps, it looks like the "new" course of ponte lane travels along the old Waterloo Colliery Railway for a short distance (?)It's all slow progress with this as it is a massively changed area. My other areas are Cross Gates and Roundhay Park areas. Although I am sticking with the Waterloo Collieries for the time being

big_rob2004 wrote: The Parksider wrote: although I believe Pontefract Lane was realaigned at some point which can lead you to lose your bearings a bit. I have the 1908 map of the area around osmondthorpe and was comparing it to a modern street map. it took me about an hour to realise that Ponte Lane had been realigned lol.You can actually draw a rough line where it used to be, but correct me if im wrong here... comparing the maps, it looks like the "new" course of ponte lane travels along the old Waterloo Colliery Railway for a short distance (?)It's all slow progress with this as it is a massively changed area. My other areas are Cross Gates and Roundhay Park areas. Although I am sticking with the Waterloo Collieries for the time being You are right. Pontefract Lane ran just south of Bride pit. It's realignment took it north of bride pit and along the side of the waterloo colliery railway until the railway left it to veer south east to park pit. The old pontefract lane at the west end became a dedicated road into bride pit after it was dug up for extensions to the sewage works. Where the old ponte lane came out of the sewage works extension there was a double road for a short run with the old ponte lane crossing and running above the new one. That was dug up for the golf course, and the lot was dug up for the new road into the motorway.Crossgates and the districts around are fascinating as far as old coal mines are concerned, the West Yorkshire pit having extensive remains - best in Leeds.What are you researching in Roundhay Park I'd be fascinated to know. No coal mines there?????

big_rob2004 wrote: I have also noted a lot of shafts in the area. Are these mining shafts or something else and what happened to them? Yes they are coal (and possibly some fireclay) mining shafts from earlier workings that probably are onto thinner coal seams nearer the surface. Some of the earliest will have been shallow 1700's "bell pits" some later may have been more extensive, deeper mines. The bigger collieries that ran in the 20th. century being deep mines onto thicker seams much further underground.As with every mine in leeds they were all abandoned at some time and capped. Buildings and railways demolished and dismantled.You need to look at maps from various years to see how mines opened and closed progressively.Some old Leeds pits still have the spoil heaps to mark their whereabouts. Neville Hill colliery just in east end park is so apparent once you recognise the grassy mounds for what they were. Other spoil heaps were taken away to create hardcore for roads and footpaths.....

The Parksider wrote: Some old Leeds pits still have the spoil heaps to mark their whereabouts. I have seen some of the spoil heaps around the Kippax Area. Especially the old Kippax Colliery which now appears to be wasteland and a dirt track for motorscross bikes. And that is a very interesting area! Just a shame I'm a newbie to Urban Exploration otherwise I think I would be like a kid on (old) Blue Smarties!!! The Parksider wrote: What are you researching in Roundhay Park I'd be fascinated to know. No coal mines there????? Roundhay Park is local to me and I have always loved it. I am in search (mainly) of what appeared to be a grave stone in Devils Canyon. I remember, as does my brother, being what looked like it was glowing, up on the North-Eastern hillside. And we have never seen it since! I have also found some old interesting things in the woods out there... but I'm still looking for the Armitage, the remains of the Keepers House and the old Dog Head drinking fountain!

chameleon wrote: On the otherhand, I know a couple of chaps who'll put you right ....Call to arms, Parky & Grumpy Jinx, I disapear back and forth to the Shetlands for a few weeks to earn an honest crust; to return to find Secret Leeds going a tad mad ............ thank goodness for a bit colliery talk!I have the very faintest recollection of Waterloo Main as a very wee lad. My dad would tell me that if I put my ear to the ground on the lawns at Templenewsam I would hear the miners digging!I suspect that this area was subject to mining from the earliest of days. A cursory examination of the 1850 1:10,560 sheet (see old-maps.co.uk) shows the area of Waterloo Main Colliery's interest extending SW-NE along a nest of majors fault in the Middleton Main coal from Knowlethorpe Lodge on the river (to the west of Thwaite Mill). The Dam pit is to the immediate north and there appears to be a shaft section showing that the Middleton Main was reached at (?) 95 yards. To the NE Bride Pit can be seen with the shaft showing that the Middelton Main was reached at 95 yards. At the end of the tramway extending from the the Dam Pit are workings marked as Open Coal Workings (which is probably either a day level/adit or a primitive opencast in the outcrop of the Middelton Main) The area to the east is dotted with the remains of old pits for example I can see due east of Skelton Grange the Lord, Ingram, Bridge and Calf Pasture pits.Waterloo Main Colliery was a nominal title given to a royalty working (ie an area of coal leased from the landowner - ? Marchioness of Hertford of Templenewsam). It was operated by William Fenton and not unsurpringly his inital working were begun in 1815. Coal was delivered by tramway to the river before being taken by river to a staithe at Nether Mill by the Parish Church for onward delivery before Waterloo Staithe was constructed in the 1830's. I believe that the initial sinking was at the Park Pit (OS ref SE 343312)I understand that the early history of Fenton's coal workings here and at Rothwell are described in extensive detail in John Goodchild's "The Coal Kings of West Yorkshire" produced by Wakefield Historical Publications (1978 ). I have never seen a copy but there is almost certainily a copy in John's archive (http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/CultureAndL ... efault.htm )There after the company went through a variety of owners, Fenton & Leather, JT Leather, Brooks and ultimately Stringer and Son prior to vesting day & nationalisation.A railway connection was made to the NER sometime in the late 1840/early 1850s at Waterloo Junction. The spur to the GNR at Hunslet Yard was opened on 3rd July 1899.Waterloo Main collieries were greatly affected by Firedamp explosions, resulting in a number of fatalities. By way of example the Leeds Mercury reports on 17th June 1837 one Jacob Midgely was killed by an explosion of firedamp at the East Field Pit of Waterloo Main. The explosion was caused by the son of one of the three men employed returning to recover something using a lighted candle rather than a safety lamp that the men carried. All four were severely burned.There is a lot of information about Waterloo Main to be found in a very interesting book called "Managing Industrial Decline - The British Coal Industry between the Wars" by Michael Dintenfass. It is out of print, but thankfully the publishers have made it available online at http://www.ohiostatepress.org/ [search coal at the site, you will find a link to the book and here the PDF is available in the bottom right corner]Temple Pit (SE 363315) was sunk between 1913 and 1914. It appears at this stage there was a significant rationalisation of the companies mining interests. Mining was concentrated at the Temple Pit, the Temple Drift Mine and the Park Pit. The Bride Pit was abandoned in December 1910 and the Dam Pit in November 1915. In 1925 they closed the Temple Drift Mine and in 1927 (23/11/27) production ceased in the Park pit though it was retained for pumping.On Vesting Day ownership was transferred to the NCB North Eastern Division, Area No.8 as Waterloo Main Colliery (Temple Pit). I think that the Park Pit was finally abondoned in 1945 (see NMRS database Mines of coal and other stratified minerals in Yorkshire from 1854 ) but it was still shown on the 1950 Guide to the Coalfield Map [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.anc ... /map85.htm]Waterloo Main Colliery closed in December 1968 and was outlasted by its sister pit on the other side of the valley Rothwell Haigh, Fanny Pit (Rothwell Colliery closed on the 9th December 1983)