Day Hole Miggy Colliery

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The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

grumpytramp wrote: 1. With regards the location of the Gosforth Pit, I have no idea of it's location though I think Parkie you are looking in the wrong direction. 2. Gosforth pit, which is about eighty yards in depth, and of considerable extent, is entered by what is called a day-hole, which proceeds under a hill, on a level with the surface of the ground, for upwards of 1400 yards, to what is called the shaft.3. The distance from Day Hole to the Gosforth Pit shafts are stated as being 1400 yards. The shafts are said to be eighty yards deep. As the dip of the coal in the area is approximately 10 degrees a bit of simple trig suggests that the shaft will be located approximately 450yards from the outcrop of the Middleton Main. This must put the position of the Gosforth Pit somewhere to the North or North East of the Day Hole pit [NB if driven south from the Day Hole pit on the outcrop of the 40 yard coal and at 1:40 it could never intersect the Middleton Main or Little]4. With regards the tramway. It is my understanding that the original tramway extended from a landsale yard at Casson Close to shallow pits working the Middleton Main and Little Coals in the approximate area that Middleton Broom Colliery ultimately occupied and was constructed in and about 1758. 5. The incline clearly visible running up from Day Hole End to the Venter (or Venture) Pit was constructed in 1827 as a self acting incline 6. In conclusion the I would expect to find the Gosforth Pit very approximately 1400 yards (1280m) from Day Hole End and even more very approximately 450 yards (410m) from the outcrop of the Middleton Main. Looking at the 1854 OS plan with all its useful geological data I would expect to find the pit somewhere to the North East of the Day Hole End. 1. I am seriously confused guys - bear with me.2. If Gosforth was entered by "a" day hole (taking it to be "the" day hole) then entry is in a southerly direction? Northerly direction is back up the valley towards Broom?3. Again this takes us north back up the valley4. The original waggonway is depicted in the centre pages of the seventh edition of the history of the middleton railway. It was built from from the River staithes at Thwaite gate in 1755 and "may be" shown as extending south further than day hole end. I say may be because the exact dating is confusing,a. The incline to town street is shown 1827-1968b. The line terminating at the day hole is shown 1758-1968c. The southerly extension past the day hole to two un named pits near Middleton lane above the day hole is undated but could be assumed to be the 1755 run?5. The incline indeed runs up to Middleton, but the 1854 OS map shows abandoned pits of some importance a quarter of a mile west of the inclive as it passes across Town Street.6. 1400M NE of the day hole pit on the Middleton Railway history map places Gosforth pit somewhere near Belle Isle Circus?????

The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote: Hi Grumpytramp. Great research and reasoning as ever. Might the workings described as New Hall Colliery/Pits on the 1854 OS fit that set of requirements?     The 1854 map Jim shows an active "coal pit" with an adjacent brick kiln near New Hall. From DHE it is to the east and slightly south.Then there's an "old coal pit" that seemingly has some remaining construction around it south of DHE nearly to the middleton road where it meets town street at lingwell syke. I take it this is Well Pit as it matches the archeologocal survey positioning of Well pit.Finally over the Middleton Road from Well Pit is an "old coal pit" not sure what this was.What I can't do is pan north of New Hall as the new old-maps set up restrict how far you can pan around a selected area.....Will have to lear co-ordinates!

The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote: Hi Grumpytramp. Great research and reasoning as ever. Might the workings described as New Hall Colliery/Pits on the 1854 OS fit that set of requirements?     Cracked it. There are various "old coal pits" marked north and consequently north east of DHE across Middleton Road and Belle IsleOne is marker "Ebor Colliery".Could any of these be GT's positioning of Gosforth Pit?If so (back in dumb mode maybe) did the original day hole and the 1914 day hole run in different directions???

jim
Posts: 1898
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Post by jim »

Hi Parksider. I follow your reasoning, but every possible site has factors mitigating against it. Ebor Colliery doesn't seem to be as far as 1400 yards away, and, in any case, having regard to the land surface heights, it would appear to have been more practical for any dayhole to that site to have come from due west or north-west, where a outfall would have indeed been "level", shorter, and still emerging onto the Middleton Estate land, thus saving both uphill haulage and waggonway distance to Leeds. It would indeed appear that the two dayholes ran in different directions, and operated at different periods - unless we have all missed an important point, or not even discovered one.

jim
Posts: 1898
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Post by jim »

We have indeed missed an important point ( or two ).Noting Parksider's comment that he couldn't lay his hands on his Middleton Railway History, I decided to leaf through mine. I have both the 1968 and 2004 editions, and they are both of help. I do not know the sources of the information given, but in the past I have known all three of the credited authors, and believe them to be careful and accurate researchers.From the 2004 edition 8, page 28 :-"Work on the unusual Gosforth Pit was initiated in1818. The coal seam aimed at was not accessible by a conventional shaft, as the land above the seam did not belong to the Brandlings. Instead an adit was driven into the hillside, mining an inferior, downward sloping coal seam. About 1400 yards from the entrance, the adit was opened out into a large cavern, from which a shaft was sunk to the main coal seam. The adit was laid with rails, becoming an inclined plane........The system started in the Gosforth Pit with small wagons of coal being pushed on light track from the coalface to the shaft bottom, placed on platforms, and raised by a steam winding and pumping engine to the cavern. Here, four wagons at a time were transferred to one larger wagon, and drawn almost a mile up the incline to the surface."From the 1968 edition 4, page 9 :-"This may well have been the dayhole located at Grid Reference SE 309288, near the later Broom Pit. At one time there were two shafts, one called Gosforth and the other Woodstar, located close together at SE 312277. The surrounding land, bounded by Sharp Lane and Throstle Carr Beck on the north, east, and south, had belonged to a Mr Armitage and no known map shows any track leading to the site of these pits, which may have been for ventilation only, the position being not inconsistent with a tunnel of 1400 yards to the dayhole."Acknowledgements to Sheila Bye, Mike Crewe, and the late John Bushell, and any uncredited author of the various editions of The History of the Middleton Railway, Leeds.    

The Parksider
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Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote: "Work on the unusual Gosforth Pit was initiated in1818. An adit was driven into the hillside, About 1400 yards from the entrance, the adit was opened out into a large cavern, from which a shaft was sunk to the main coal seam."This may well have been the dayhole located at Grid Reference SE 309288, near the later Broom Pit. At one time there were two shafts, one called Gosforth and the other Woodstar, located close together at SE 312277. The surrounding land, bounded by Sharp Lane and Throstle Carr Beck on the north, east, and south, had belonged to a Mr Armitage and no known map shows any track leading to the site of these pits, which may have been for ventilation only, the position being not inconsistent with a tunnel of 1400 yards to the dayhole." Brilliant Jim.It's too easy to forget with the focus always on the later massive Broom pit and the photos always centering on that just how extensive mining was all around the area. The shape of the mining field over 300 years will have changed again and again. It's also that all remains are obliterated unlike Dales lead mining where the history looks you in the face.The original proposition from you that the waggonway had to meet a purpose going south before DHE ws driven in 1914 looks absolutely correct and the extent to which the original waggonway went south past DHE is also fascinating - even though there's mining aplenty on the approach to and on the plateau, it appears the waggonway continued up the slope - have you seen the south end of the line in the Railway history book?Any Adit driven 1400 yards to a "cavern" (Bet Phil D has been in it) with a descending shaft and possibly an air shaft to surface above in the Sharpe Lane/Throstle Carr Beck area is still southwards though, but don't (sshhhh) tell GT.In my 1920's map the position is nearly to "Castle Pit" in Thorpe just over the beck.....

jim
Posts: 1898
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Post by jim »

Interestingly, if one draws a straight line from the presumed Gosforth Pit ventilation shaft through the 1818 dayhole and project it north-north west ( the drift runs more or less south-south east ) it will pass through the 1914( ish ) dayhole. It's my bet that the later dayhole entrance ( like Loiner in Cyprus, I saw the date spelled out in coloured brick above the entrance arch, but fail to remember what it said! ) was an extension of the older dayhole running under the Middleton plateau incline, and from it's exit cutting rising up an embankment to a set of screens or chutes to a wagon loading system of some sort. The old dayhole exit would have been arched probably, in order to allow the rail parallel loop arrangement to be extended into the headshunt right up into the valley head .    

The Parksider
Posts: 1581
Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote: Interestingly, if one draws a straight line from the presumed Gosforth Pit ventilation shaft through the 1818 dayhole and project it north-north west ( the drift runs more or less south-south east ) it will pass through the 1914( ish ) dayhole. It's my bet that the later dayhole entrance ( like Loiner in Cyprus, I saw the date spelled out in coloured brick above the entrance arch, but fail to remember what it said! ) was an extension of the older dayhole running under the Middleton plateau incline, and from it's exit cutting rising up an embankment to a set of screens or chutes to a wagon loading system of some sort. The old dayhole exit would have been arched probably, in order to allow the rail parallel loop arrangement to be extended into the headshunt right up into the valley head .     Great stuff.....Back to the photographs appearing on leodis, there's also a photo of the link from the MR up onto the GNR answering a question posed some time back.My new question relates to the 7th edition of the MR history book in which abandoned pits are shown as black dots on the map.North of Broom - which shows two abandoned pits and north of belle Isle Hamlet - are three pits. One is presumably Beeston Colliery, One prsumably New Pit - both being around till the 1960's, then there's a third pit just on the west side i=of todays MR route.It has a short run of track to it (shown as a broken (abandobed) line and even a tiny siding that supposedly goes under a bridge carrying the main MR line???Can you see that detail???? Any ideas what that is as I have never seen any pit down as positioned there Jim?

jim
Posts: 1898
Joined: Sun 17 May, 2009 10:09 am

Post by jim »

Hi Parksider. Neither of my editions of the Middleton History show this set of info, but, back in the 1960s, when maps were more freely available in the Leeds Reference Library, I spent a couple of days tracing and superimposing large scale maps of the whole Middleton railway system and connecting waggonways onto the then present road system. I am quoting from more than forty years ago, so my information should be treated with caution!New Pit was more or less central in the triangle formed by the old and new railway alignments south of the GNR branch, which formed the remaining triangle side.Beeston Pit was, if I remember correctly, sited to the east of the then top of Westland Road, immediately north of the GNR branch. Again from memory, the third rail-served pit you mention was as you say, two open pits, the pit to the east of the railway very small, and I believe both for clay. At a later date a light narrow gauge rail track led up the valley to the brick-works from the larger pit.The link from the MR to the GNR branch took most of Brooms coal out from 1959, when the tracks north of the junction were abandoned ,leading to the founding of the present day Trust, until 1968 when the colliery closed for good.The coal trains were worked by J50s, an occasional L1, and finally by WDs. I often wonder how the track up at Broom coped with those!    

The Parksider
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Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

jim wrote: In view of the construction of the wagonway, in 1758, there must have been some considerable mining activity in the area to warrant the outlay in wagonway construction.... In trying to examine the mining activity south past the Broom and Day Hole End the Tithe map seems helpful.You can trace the waggonway down past broom and DHE and the boundaries and feint brown line seem to go all the way to the junction of Miggy road and Town Street with a number of structures and even a reservoir in place all equating to sites of old coal pits on later OS maps.The southern tip of the old waggonway indeed goes a long way south/south east. If a day hole/level ran into neighbouring ground to create the Gosforth Pit under the sharp lane area, would the workings at "lingwell syke" at the junction of Miggy Road and Town Street be related?? Or may they be onto two diferent seams.....

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