Harehills Colliery

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Mon 28 Jan, 2008 6:23 pm

chameleon wrote: 'asimov or wells,asimov or wells! 'wiggy, I'd be delighted to look for shafts or wells, as well ....Or well, you asked for that! DOH! i did...i did

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 29 Jan, 2008 10:15 pm

chameleon wrote: Right on th very edge of map No2 - darn it, isn't hand sight a wonderful thing? if someone had thought to tell me to expect Secret Leeds then in 30 years time, I'd have bought more. Still If anyone had said we'll all have a puter or two - I'd probably have told them they were reading too much Asimov!Yes you're right. Opposite the houses between Back Chatsworth Road and Sandhurst Road. That site was a brickworks which helped build harehills and so the shaft may have mined fireclay more than coal. Previous to the need for brick in great quantity (there were several brickworks around - Dolly Lane, Hudson Road etc) the previously mentioned Lee Pit was at the back of the site where the Mosque is now.I don't think it is Harehills Colliery though - see my next post.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 29 Jan, 2008 10:27 pm

rikj wrote: Do you think it's likely that Harehills Colliery referred to a collection of pits, rather than just one site? Park Pit would have been at the western end of Coldcotes Avenue.I'm gradually plotting all the old pits and shafts onto a google earth file, which I'll put up for people to download when it's a bit more complete. Park Pit looks to me to be in the corner of the harehills Lane and Foundry Lane junction on the 1854 map, if you take the cenetary lines as a reference.By the 1893 map it is marked as a "Colliery". What's in a name? Well I only assume a pit to be just that - digging down to the coal via a big hole. A Colliery conjours up shafts and levels and some element of dressing at the surface.Pits could be sunk and abandoned pretty quickly - e.g. bell pits but this Colliery worked for a long time as the record shows (in existence 1854 mined to the next century), so I would guess park Pit was developed into a significant working collieryThis is what i find intriguing about it all - you can ride around Crossgates, Halton, Gipton, Harehills etc and not realise the whole shebang was once littered in coal mines!!I will put my money on Park Pit being Harehills Colliery.And if so after closure they seem to have just plonked a load of terrace houses on the site.Can the Mighty Chameleon possibly superimpose Park Pit shaft on Google earth?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sat 02 Feb, 2008 11:32 pm

I believe Harehills Colliery is Park pit.As you go past the compton as was and cross Harehills Lane on toward foundry lane (Fairway now), that "corner" on the left was where the Park pit was and that was marked as a colliery on several maps.The tight knit housing on Godfrey's map that was built on th colliery site is there (Broughton Avenue), but the streets were marked out and not fully built on.I'd guess the avoided building on top of the park pit shaft head and left that until last. The houses there are a historical mix.Godfrey also shows the corner of the brickworks where the mosque is today and I felt that could have been harehills colliery, but it is marked as GIPTON brick works.Good old Godfrey....

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 03 Feb, 2008 3:52 pm

Parksider, Chameleon & RikjGreat work ....... but (yep, of there had to be a but) I am begining to doubt that this is the right neck of the woods.Why?1. The colliery was abandoned August 16th 1921 having flooded in 1920 (source: Mike Gill's list 'Mines of coal and other stratified minerals in Yorkshire from 1854', Northern Mines Research Society ....... more of which later)The areas listed above appear to be fully developed in the OS Maps of 1909 and 19212. A snippet from a 1916 Railway Engineer found on Google Books appears to imply a tramway link to Harehills Colliery ( http://books.google.com/books?id=_FrZb4 ... lay&pgis=1 ) suggesting the haulage of coal and clay to the Leeds Fireclay Company works at Wortley and Elland Road. This suggests a conection to the Leeds & Selby Railway3. The collieries on & about Harehills Lane are all situated in the immediate vicinity of the Better Bed Coal outcrop. In a 1920 Memoir of the Geological Survey, I bought for 25p from a sale of books at Dundee Uni library, entilited "Special Report on the Mineral Resources of Great Britain - Vol XIV - Refractory Materials Fireclays" a table summarising the activities of the Leeds Fireclay Company reveals some useful information:Name: HarehillsMine or Quarry: Mine (shaft)Situation (Potternewton)Maps1 inch new series:706 inch: Yorks 203SE geographical position LAT:53deg48min53sec LONG:1deg29min50secDepth in feet: 255 [78m]Approximate gradient of seam: 1 in 12Approximate height above sea level: 210 feet [64m]Seam Worked: Better Bed Coal and FireclayAverage SectionRoof: ShaleSeam: Coal 1'2"Fireclay: 2'6" to 3'Floor: Fireclay and IronstoneManufactures: Refracrory Sanitory and Glazed GoodsI conclude from that a number of clues:(a) Shaft must have been approximately 1km down dip of the outcrop (shaft 78m deep and coal dipping at 1 in 12 = 936m)(b) Shaft collar level is 64m above sea level (chances are collar level was above original ground too) which suggests a location much closer to York Road(c) The clay excavated is clearly too high a quality for use in brick production (and the hint about a rail link suggests that the clay was hauled to LFC works on Elland Road and Wortley)I cannot fathom how to convert accurately the lat/long to a grid reference ........ anyone? (for reference Gipton No2 mine is given the following location Lat 53deg49min0sec Long 1deg30min28sec at 250' above sea level)I wonder if there is any relationship between Harehills Colliery with the marked clay pits to the immediate north of York Road heading down towards the big clay pit in Burmatofts? or even the iron works on York Road?I also wonder if the tramway hinted at in the Railway Engineer that is shown on the 1909 OS 1:10560 (see Old-maps) running from Osmonthorpe Colliery (by Neville Hill junction) north of Osmondthorpe Old Hall, crossing Osmondthorpe Lane before heading NW to meet York Road near the Harehills Lane Junction at what the map titles "Coal Depot"? Obviously it could have been used as depot for Osmondthorpe Colliery (which didn't close until 1928 )Sorry just more questions!

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 03 Feb, 2008 6:32 pm

Oh dear, someone who knows their onions gives alot of research to do - if I start on that now, never mind no tea, won't even see the table for all the paper and maps!Just very quickly though, the co-ordinates you give indicate an open area to the north of St Wifreds avenue shown by the red square. My old map shows this to coincide with Beeston Bed with a dip of 1:6and 'coal 27".

wiggy · Post by **wiggy** » Sun 03 Feb, 2008 7:07 pm

chameleon wrote: Oh dear, someone who knows their onions gives alot of research to do - if I start on that now, never mind no tea, won't even see the table for all the paper and maps!Just very quickly though, the co-ordinates you give indicate an open area to the north of St Wifreds avenue shown by the red square. My old map shows this to coincide with Beeston Bed with a dip of 1:6and 'coal 27". yep! thats the old rail line alright,if you follow the coarse of easterly mount to the junction with st wilfrids avenue,thats where gipton farm was,there is a small ginnel just there also.the open area on the avenue is where a few blocks of those old 4 to a block flats were,me and my missus lived there at no59,form 84 till 86 when we were kids,the rail line can still be walked as a ginnel that takes you down to just above the ffordey.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 04 Feb, 2008 12:44 am

grumpytramp wrote: Parksider, Chameleon & RikjGreat work ....... but the areas listed above appear to be fully developed in the OS Maps of 1909 and 1921. A snippet from a 1916 Railway Engineer found on Google Books appears to imply a tramway link to Harehills Colliery suggesting the haulage of coal and clay to the Leeds Fireclay Company works at Wortley and Elland Road. This suggests a conection to the Leeds & Selby RailwayThe collieries on & about Harehills Lane are all situated in the immediate vicinity of the Better Bed Coal outcrop. In a 1920 Memoir of the Geological SurveyName: HarehillsMine or Quarry: Mine (shaft)Situation (Potternewton)Manufactures: Refracrory Sanitory and Glazed GoodsI wonder if there is any relationship between Harehills Colliery with the marked clay pits to the immediate north of York Road heading down towards the big clay pit in Burmatofts? or even the iron works on York Road?I also wonder if the tramway hinted at in the Railway Engineer that is shown on the 1909 OS 1:10560 (see Old-maps) running from Osmonthorpe Colliery (by Neville Hill junction) north of Osmondthorpe Old Hall, crossing Osmondthorpe Lane before heading NW to meet York Road near the Harehills Lane Junction at what the map titles "Coal Depot"? Sorry just more questions! The questions are fine - intriguing!Dickinson points out an Industrial tramway for hauling fireclay to the works in Wortley. It is not linked to the main line (but had a bridge over it) and it links Busk Pit in Wortley Rec and manor Pit in Holbeck to the fireclay works.I found Potternewton Pit on the 1854 map and that is just next to Compton Road, nowhere near Potternewton Village, but on the victorian maps POTTERNEWTON is emblazened across Harehills and Gipton.Tramways from Osmonthorpe and Gipton pits simply seem to stop at coal staithes where one assumes the coal was sold in bags and distributed by cart. No map I have seen seems to make any link up that could end up at Wortley. Dickinson states the osmondthorpe tramway was for local sales on york Road. He also states "Development of (housing in the) Harehills lane area was delayed by Gipton Colliery's workings in the black bed and better bed which in that area ceased in 1882"Just more confusion I know!!!!All I can suggest is that we can't take names for granted as Seacroft Colliery I believe is Brian pit. Stoney Rock pit could be Potternewton Colliery, If Harehills colliery is in harehills and is not Park pit, could it be the Bywater pit on Harehills lane near the junction of Lupton Avenue today?That is shown as a coal mine in 1854 and a brick works in 1906.However both were mined together as we know.Park pit was not built directly on by 1906 although houses surround the probable pit head. I also wonder about workings linking underground - could park pit on the hill link to Gipton below. Could it be that the colliery was worked underground and fireclay taken out at Gipton thus leaving the land up at the top of the hill for development?The Gipton brickworks also carry a coal and fireclay shaft which I suggested could be called "harehills colliery" as it is on Harehills lane. That seemingly wasn't built on?Intriguing.......

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 04 Feb, 2008 1:28 am

grumpytramp wrote: Parksider, Chameleon & Rikj1. The colliery was abandoned August 16th 1921 having flooded in 1920 (source: Mike Gill's list 'Mines of coal and other stratified minerals in Yorkshire from 1854', Northern Mines Research Society ....... more of which later) There are four pits at least in Harehills - Crosslands (down toward spencer place) Lee Pit (Ashton Road) Bywater pit (Top of lupton avenue) park Pit (corner harehills lane/foundry lane).These are clearly marked on OS mapping. They do not however appear on Mike Gills list.Mike Gill lists Harehills colliery, but that name does not appear on the maps???So are we talking an exact location for a colliery or can it be an area in which several pits are sunk??

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 04 Feb, 2008 1:33 am

Bleachground pit is pictured in Edward Docherty's Middleton book.It is not listed by the NMRS.It is an extension of the Middleton Colliery.So Harehills Colliery could be the same - a series of pits across an area.