Info needed: Barnbow pit/Barrowby lane (calling the Chameleon)

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 8:46 pm

Excellent work Chameleon.Dam this Firefox browser lol Cheers!Ok what do we make of this lot then?

Post by **chameleon** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 8:49 pm

Spose the hole is not an animal bunker is it? Or weathering? Difficult to tell really but from what you've seen and contrary to what I'm told, I think discretion is the better part of an unexpected adventure hereThe shaft to Mary Pit in Crossgates, marked on the maps as such rather than a subsidiary shaft site perhaps, was exposed at the head for many years but it was nothing like the diameter of this one, I suspect this was pretty major in its purpose - is Grumpy Tramp about anywhere????

Post by **chameleon** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 8:51 pm

btw might be the light - that prickley wire looks rather newer than I recall - would you say it was recent?

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 8:58 pm

Yes i'm very wary of this ''hole'' lol.It's why i want to know as much as poss about it.I doubt the void is a fox or animal hole, it's a good drop into the shaft, i dont think an animal would be going in there. there were a few of these voids, it just didn't seem to be bricklined on that side.T.b.H i never noticed that barbed wire (i'm not joking, i must be oblivious to obstacles now lol) till i upoaded the pics on to the p.c. at home.I thought eh? where did that come from?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 9:00 pm

chameleon wrote: The shaft to Mary Pit in Crossgates, marked on the maps as such rather than a subsidiary shaft site perhaps, was exposed at the head for many years but it was nothing like the diameter of this one, I suspect this was pretty major in its purpose - is Grumpy Tramp about anywhere???? If there was a winding house (You had a look yet?) - and I assume the late Victorian dating means a deep coal mine - and a railway link, the shaft would have had to accomodate winding up and down groups of men and winding up and down coal wagons??.Earlier victorian shafts may have only wound up coal buckets and accomodated ladders. If the structure next door is a winding engine then what goes up and down would be bigger and heavier.Seems 39 years is not long, but the mine may have been abaondoned for Brown Moor to accomodate access with WYC remaining a ventilation shaft?If the shaft head had heavy stuff up and down, brick circles would not be enough to support the surface gear??No doubt GT will blow away my conjecture.

Barwicker · Post by **Barwicker** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 9:03 pm

More Blushes!!Mr Hudson's book ( The Aberford Railway and the History of the Garforth Collieries) gives a date of 1850 for the sinking of West Yorkshire Pit but unfortunately no date for its closure. In the bibliography Mr Hudson refers to colliery records held at NCB Allerton Bywater, presumably now held at the National Archives at Kew. No doubt definitive information can be found there.

Barwicker · Post by **Barwicker** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 9:09 pm

I should have added that the book also mentions " massive foundation walls of engine house"

Phill_dvsn · Post by **Phill_dvsn** » Mon 03 Aug, 2009 9:13 pm

I think a nice little explore in those woods sounds good if anyone fancies a look?