Coal Mines in Leeds

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 23 Apr, 2008 11:57 pm

dervish99 wrote: My dad told me about a tunnel which opened up in the hillside beneath Beeston Hill Cemetry which is located next to Noster Terace (where he grew up) in Beeston, he said it came from miggy coal mine, does anyone have anyother info?cheersRuss In that position it will be part of beggars hill colliery or older workings closer the surface. Some workings were bell shafts that dug down to coal measures near the surface. On a hillside you could drive a tunnel into the coal outcrop where it showed at the surface. I think these were "day holes".It won't have connected to Middleton Colliery it's simply too far away and too near the surface......

bigpants · Post by **bigpants** » Fri 25 Apr, 2008 3:02 pm

garforth pits. Trench pit was on what is now ninelands lane. a substantial brick building still remains in the yard of stocks blocks which occupies the site. sisters pit was in the field behind my mothers house, and as kids we played all the time on the spoil heaps. the spoil heaps are still very much there and the top of the shaft was at one time visible. when some houses were built about 5 years ago behind tesco (on the old pit yard) a beam pumping engine was uncovered along with various structures. i believe the pumping engine was removed and taken to a museum somewhere. the isabella pit was located along ash lane. the spoil heaps and shaft head were still there last time i was down there but there has been alot of development since so they may now have dissapeared. there are a few of the old isabella pit buildings still in existence in and around the yard of proctors fencing.the cutting for the narrow guage railway from peckfield pit to ledston luck is still there - i can remmebr the track in the cutting when i was a kid but its generally full of tat now so track may have been removed. ledson luck still has most of its buildings in situ including the winding house which is a lovely building.the story re- garforth is that all of garforth is mined out underneath except for the church which has a large "pillar" of coal left under it.when they opencasted on barwick lane a few years ago one of the main objections was that if they hit one of the old workings the water could escape and cause subsidence elsewhere.when primrose pit was closed they had a brand new shearer down at the face and it was decided the cost of dismantling it and bringing it up was more than it cost and so it was abandonned down there. guess this happened quite a bit.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Thu 01 May, 2008 10:47 pm

bigpants wrote: garforth pits. Trench pit was on what is now ninelands lane. a substantial brick building still remains in the yard of stocks blocks which occupies the site. sisters pit was in the field behind my mothers house, and as kids we played all the time on the spoil heaps. the spoil heaps are still very much there and the top of the shaft was at one time visible. the isabella pit was located along ash lane. the spoil heaps and shaft head were still there last time i was down there but there has been alot of development since so they may now have dissapeared. there are a few of the old isabella pit buildings still in existence in and around the yard of proctors fencing. Cheers Nick.Was in the area today and noted the Trench Pit building in Stocks yard and various bits in the area of Ash lane belonging to Isabella Pit including a row of pit cottages still housing people.Sisters pit - I just passed on the roadiide and din't have time to go beyond - there seems to be a lot of fencing there.Looking at how large gascoigne's Sisters Pit was I now know exactly why the two pubs are called the Gascoigne and the Miners!

isambard01 · Post by **isambard01** » Wed 21 May, 2008 11:40 am

There was a coal mine at Farsley (west Leeds) but it was closed in the early 1900s. However, Coal Hill is still there as a reminder - presumably a slag heap (?). My neighbour's son is a pot-holer and he recently said that he went down some shafts that are still there - but were very "difficult" . . .

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Fri 13 Jun, 2008 8:25 pm

The Parksider wrote: rikj wrote: The Seacroft pits are mentioned in "The Aberford Railway" book, Arguably Brianside Pit is well more in Seacroft than Crossgates?? It's very near the end of seacroft Village and opposite Seacroft Hall and Park. Crossgates Lane runs behind but as the name indicates it's a lane TO crossgates and not In crossgates A la Wetherby road is leeds road in wetherby and so on. In the absence of an answer that could be it??????. here's me answering my own post (with Riks).I have now applied the co-ordinates of the seacroft colliery and they seem to land bang on Brianside pit which is where Brian Crescent is on the York Road.The source they came from states the area from York road opposite seacroft park was seacroft moor and the moor runs right across to Manston.Hunslet moor, Holbeck moor, woodhouse moor and now seacroft moor!!Over at Garforth at Sturton Grange the sturton colliery is just south of the railway in the field by ermine street. It is said at ploughing the grey/black rings of the old shaft spoil shows.So I googled it and my word they do show loud and clear. in these old mines which have several shafts sunk all in one area, they dug down, then out a bit getting the coal. The started again further away. It was easier to sink more shafts then that drag coal to the shaft bottom.Hope Rik and Chameleon ses this, and BTW Barwicker's a gent!

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 13 Jun, 2008 10:41 pm

The Parksider wrote: The Parksider wrote: rikj wrote: The Seacroft pits are mentioned in "The Aberford Railway" book, Arguably Brianside Pit is well more in Seacroft than Crossgates?? It's very near the end of seacroft Village and opposite Seacroft Hall and Park. Crossgates Lane runs behind but as the name indicates it's a lane TO crossgates and not In crossgates A la Wetherby road is leeds road in wetherby and so on. In the absence of an answer that could be it??????. here's me answering my own post (with Riks).I have now applied the co-ordinates of the seacroft colliery and they seem to land bang on Brianside pit which is where Brian Crescent is on the York Road.The source they came from states the area from York road opposite seacroft park was seacroft moor and the moor runs right across to Manston.Hunslet moor, Holbeck moor, woodhouse moor and now seacroft moor!!Over at Garforth at Sturton Grange the sturton colliery is just south of the railway in the field by ermine street. It is said at ploughing the grey/black rings of the old shaft spoil shows.So I googled it and my word they do show loud and clear. in these old mines which have several shafts sunk all in one area, they dug down, then out a bit getting the coal. The started again further away. It was easier to sink more shafts then that drag coal to the shaft bottom.Hope Rik and Chameleon ses this, and BTW Barwicker's a gent! Seen indeed. The present boundry between LS14 and LS15 is the centre of the A64 here. Seacroft Hospital on the same side of the road is considered LS14 though, with the other structures such as the Blood Transfusion Service, within the grounds, are LS15!I suspect all are boundries suiting the modern day.

Chris D · Post by **Chris D** » Wed 25 Jun, 2008 12:31 pm

I bought one of the houses on the Silkstone Court/Silkstone Way estate in the early 1990s. I noticed a large concrete area on part of the development and the builder advised me that it was a capped off mine shaft – he assured me that the whole site had been “pump grouted” and there would be no problems with subsidence (and there weren’t). Does anyone know anything of the history of the mine there?

spudoil · Post by **spudoil** » Wed 25 Jun, 2008 1:02 pm

The Parksider wrote: peterg wrote: In the late 40's there was an area off the Selby Road known as Three Wells Wood. I can't remember exactly where it was, but I assume the three shafts must have been related with a mine. Can anyone enlighten me on the matter? I got your last question wrong with the genius that is Chameleon answering more accurately, but I will have another stab!!Off Selby Road leaving Leeds is Barrowby Lane at the end is a wood that was the site of the west Yorkshire Colliery. When the colliery was sunk I don't think there were trees there - nothing is shown on the 1854 may. By 1893 the map shows a wood on the abandoned colliery. Brown Moor Colliery appears as a wood after abandonment.Strangely Prince Arthur pit has some tall mautre trees on the site today as does Mary Pit.How on earth pits became Woods in some cases i don't know???The 1854 map is interesting as it shows a railway running up church Lane manston to the colliery, and both West Yorkshire and Brown Moor had railways running the coal to main line.Miggy Railway wasn't the only colliery railway in Leeds - and of course Gipton pit had a railway and Busk pit in wortley rec has a railway - the track bed was still showing a few years ago..... Re/ Gipton pit..Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 25 Jun, 2008 11:22 pm

spudoil wrote: Re/ Gipton pit..Remember playing on the fields where Fearnville sports centre is now and the bed of an old railway track running all the way down to wyke beck. Don't like "correcting" people, but the Gipton pit at the bottom of the fairway had a tramway running off to Hovingham avenue behind the Fforde Grene where there was a depot to distribute the coal. I don't think it ran to Wyke Beck but nice to hear your memory of the track bed!

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 25 Jun, 2008 11:30 pm

Chris D wrote: I bought one of the houses on the Silkstone Court/Silkstone Way estate in the early 1990s. I noticed a large concrete area on part of the development and the builder advised me that it was a capped off mine shaft – he assured me that the whole site had been “pump grouted” and there would be no problems with subsidence (and there weren’t). Does anyone know anything of the history of the mine there? I don't know of any major mine in that exact area.North there were the manston mines. The crossgates mine was the other side of the railway where the arndale is. mary pit was down at the other end of the estate opposite you. Up Hollyshaw lane you can see traces of Prince Arthur and up austhorpe lane west yorks pit.But there were odd isolated shafts all over. Down farm road there's a break in the houses and a fenced of bit of rough that was a shaft and no reason there may not have been one where you were. I have not seen any historical reference to it.They may have dug a shaft of some depth and simply found nowt, or it flooded out, or they abandoned it pretty quickly.The old beeston club land opposite the old white hart had mine shafts under that were due to be pumped with concrete to prevent subsidence. I have not seen any records of mines in that exact area either, but workings can go back before anyone ever bothered recording anything, and workings may have lasted only a few years if that.