Harehills Colliery

[Brunel]

These are the brickworkers cottages today.

[allawet]

I grew up on Easterly Grove in the fifties and sixties. I spent many hours playing in an area we called 'The Hollows'. This consisted part of the rough track I believe was the course of an old tramway which ran from Harehills Lane to St Wilfred's Avenue and the rough slope up to and parallel with St Wilfred's Drive to the East of Ryan Place.
At that time there were large lumps of collapsed masonry on the slope. I was told by an elderly resident that there had been a coal pit on the site and that this was origin of the epithet 'The Hollows'.
I have no other verification.
Please make of this what you will.

[tilly]

Welcome to the site allawet.

[grumpytramp]

I grew up on Easterly Grove in the fifties and sixties. I spent many hours playing in an area we called 'The Hollows'. This consisted part of the rough track I believe was the course of an old tramway which ran from Harehills Lane to St Wilfred's Avenue and the rough slope up to and parallel with St Wilfred's Drive to the East of Ryan Place.
At that time there were large lumps of collapsed masonry on the slope. I was told by an elderly resident that there had been a coal pit on the site and that this was origin of the epithet 'The Hollows'.

I am not sure about the epithet 'The Hollows' but that elderly resident was absolutely spot on ......... there was indeed a colliery at this location consisting of a shaft and adit (day hole). They were exposed, backfilled and made safe by Leeds City Council in December 1986 and help conclude this thread

[grumpytramp]

Going back to the start of this thread I was curious to know where Harehills Colliery was situated (see the thread start). Harehills Colliery was referenced in numerous reliable sources as being worked by the Leeds Fireclay Company alongside the Gipton Pit.

Earlier in the year I re-read the interesting article on the Gipton Pit published by the Oakwood and District Historical Society, which is well worth a read:

http://www.oakwoodchurch.info/Oak%20Lea ... tchell.pdf

I went back and revisited this thread and sources.

I know realise that I had grasped the truth as long ago as 3rd February 2008 ........ It was only when I looked at the BGS geological plan now available online I realised that the Beeston Coal outcropped very close to the area identified by 'allawet' in the post above, and was bound on either side by faults (the coal had probably had been left untouched when the majority of the Harehills coal was extracted in the mid nineteenth century).

What appears to have happened is that for some reason the Leeds Fireclay Company formed the Harehills Colliery Co. and confused issues by using different names in a number of documents.

In a number of official documents and returns such as the Geological Survey's "Special Report on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain - Vol XIV - Refractory Materials Fireclays" they referred to the Gipton and Harehills mine. In actual fact the Gipton Pit (described sometime as Gipton No.2) was located at the location 'allawet' referred to above close to the terminus of the Low Moor Railway on Harehills Lane.

The pit referred to as Harehills Colliery in these documents is the colliery widely known as Gipton Pit [confirmed by the latitude/longitude reference and the specific coals worked] worked the Crow and Better Beds for coal and fireclay. Gipton No.2 worked by an adit and shaft worked the Beeston seam for its coal and fireclay

A journey around one huge circle but at least I learnt a wee bit more of East Leeds mining heritage.

Thank you everyone for your contributions

t