Coal Mining in East Leeds

Post by **chameleon** » Wed 08 Jul, 2009 4:39 pm

stutterdog wrote: Having only just joined this website, and unaware as to wether it's been discussed before, does anyone know where in Leeds the Waterloo Main pit was?My Dad worked there prior to 1950.he also worked at Middleton Broom. You might find this of use - grumpytramp has listed a lot of pits in one post, including Waterllo Main.http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... Message=25

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Wed 08 Jul, 2009 4:57 pm

Thanks chameleon,It was at Temple Newsham which surprised me as I thought it was On Pontefrat Ln. for some reason.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sun 12 Jul, 2009 1:30 pm

stutterdog wrote: Having only just joined this website, and unaware as to wether it's been discussed before, does anyone know where in Leeds the Waterloo Main pit was?My Dad worked there prior to 1950.he also worked at Middleton Broom. Waterloo Main colliery was (as is often the case) a series of pits. In searching for Harehills Colliery it is believed (by me anyway) that gipton "pit" was part of that colliery.Waterloo Main Colliery was Bride Pit just south of Ponte Lane at the NW side of the sewage works. Nursery Pit was just on the south edge of halton moor's nursery wood and didn't draw coal but ventilated the workings. Parks pit - "half a mile south of Skelton House" and Temple Pit "half a mile SE of Temple Newsam house" (ref Dickinson).So your old man may have worked from one of these and may have worked all over Ponte Lane and Temple Newsam estate - just underground!!Middleton Broom was the biggest pit and there was New Pit about half a mile back up the Miggy Railway to Leeds, these making up Miggy Colliery.Anyone half interested go on Google and put in "BBC Weather, Leeds, main summary" and go to the left of the 3 hour by 3 hour weather map and click "mining history" for some history of Coal mining ,mainly south of Leeds City.It mentions the mysterious Moortown Colliery - "Leeds Northenmost Pit". Did the writer nick that thought of us???

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Sun 12 Jul, 2009 1:32 pm

stutterdog wrote: Thanks chameleon,It was at Temple Newsham which surprised me as I thought it was On Pontefrat Ln. for some reason. The Waterloo Main colliery Railway linked the pits and coal depots and linked to mainline. The various lines and branches ran alongside Ponte Lane and crossed it at various points. In actual fact your idea waterloo main colliery and Pontefract Road go together is spot on.

grumpytramp · Post by **grumpytramp** » Sun 12 Jul, 2009 4:02 pm

The Parksider wrote: Anyone half interested go on Google and put in "BBC Weather, Leeds, main summary" and go to the left of the 3 hour by 3 hour weather map and click "mining history" for some history of Coal mining ,mainly south of Leeds City.It mentions the mysterious Moortown Colliery - "Leeds Northenmost Pit". Did the writer nick that thought of us??? Cheeky monkeysThe link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/arti ... e.shtmlNow compare to my post of 210108 at http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... age=25More than a coincidence?

Post by **chameleon** » Sun 12 Jul, 2009 5:39 pm

grumpytramp wrote: The Parksider wrote: Anyone half interested go on Google and put in "BBC Weather, Leeds, main summary" and go to the left of the 3 hour by 3 hour weather map and click "mining history" for some history of Coal mining ,mainly south of Leeds City.It mentions the mysterious Moortown Colliery - "Leeds Northenmost Pit". Did the writer nick that thought of us??? Cheeky monkeysThe link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/arti ... e.shtmlNow compare to my post of 210108 at http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... age=25More than a coincidence?

I suppose they'll say they did their research and this was in the Public Domain - non the less, a source credit costs nothing does it?But then, I see nothing pointing towards the other source clearly used (and copyrighted), the book Remembering How it Was. More than a little cheeky.

LS1 · Post by **LS1** » Mon 13 Jul, 2009 12:53 am

grumpytramp wrote: The Parksider wrote: Anyone half interested go on Google and put in "BBC Weather, Leeds, main summary" and go to the left of the 3 hour by 3 hour weather map and click "mining history" for some history of Coal mining ,mainly south of Leeds City.It mentions the mysterious Moortown Colliery - "Leeds Northenmost Pit". Did the writer nick that thought of us??? Cheeky monkeysThe link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/content/arti ... e.shtmlNow compare to my post of 210108 at http://www.secretleeds.com/forum/Messag ... age=25More than a coincidence?

mate I cant beleive you wrote that 18 months ago. It seems like I was only reading it for the first time a few weeks ago. Doesnt time fly!

Hector · Post by **Hector** » Mon 13 Jul, 2009 2:07 pm

Brilliant, sorry cannot avoid saying this but what a mine of information. Never expected this thread to be as good as this. I have a query perhaps some one knows, I came across a reference to railway lines for the pit from Temple Newsam to statithes in the 1770s. I assume these would have been horse drawn wagons on the line coming down to somewhere in Cross Green. anyone have any ideas on this one.

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 13 Jul, 2009 9:15 pm

Hector wrote: Brilliant, sorry cannot avoid saying this but what a mine of information. Never expected this thread to be as good as this. I have a query perhaps some one knows, I came across a reference to railway lines for the pit from Temple Newsam to statithes in the 1770s. I assume these would have been horse drawn wagons on the line coming down to somewhere in Cross Green. anyone have any ideas on this one. Waterloo Main Colliery originated in the area between Knowsthorpe old hall and Skelton Grange. In the mid 19th century it was producing from "Dam Pit", and it appears Bride pit and Park Pit were not yet sunk let alone Temple Pit which came years later.So the link betweem Waterloo Main and Temple Newsam is very tenuous.Without doubt the mansion would have gobbled up coal, but it is far more likely to have come from the shallow pits at Colton and later Prince Arthur pit on Hollyshaw Lane. The carriage by cart from these locations up the driveway would have been easy and convenient.Carriage was of course very important. No point digging the stuff if you cannot get it from A to B and so mines did indeed invent "railways" although the better term is waggon ways or tram ways.The first such waggon ways appeared in Germany in medieval times so this would be nothing new for Waterloo Main. Of course Middleton Colliery had the most famous wagon way of all dated 1758 so 1770 for waterloo main is no problem!In 1755 Middleton had sent coal on wagon way to staithes on the river Aire and similar lines were running all over Tyneside and shropshire.Without further research I have no idea whether a waggon way was in place for Dam Pit in 1770 but it was there by 1850, no longer horse drawn on wooden rails but probably a proper iron railed railway with steam trains.The line it took was to curve up and paralell to Snake Lane and then across the side of the bridgefield and around to coal staithes at Easy road/cross green lane (named as waterloo main colliery depot) to supply the inner east Leeds trade of cross green and Richmond hill. The bit that curved around the back of the Bridgefield pub on cross green lane is still there in terms of the land.It may be therefore that this colliery line lasted a heck of a lot longer than Middleton Railway's actually did.

stutterdog · Post by **stutterdog** » Mon 13 Jul, 2009 9:44 pm

Anyone know if there was a pit in Armley off Winchester Rd? when I was a kid we used to play on an Area which now has houses on it that were built about 1958. We called this area the Pit and it was full of old brick rubble.There is a photo of what looks like the old winding house chimney being demolished in1938 on Leodis This area was right behind what was Marston Radiators factory now called Densa. I know this area is not in East Leeds but I would be interested in finding if there was a mine on this spot.I only lived 2 streets away from this area.