Coal Mining in East Leeds

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Mon 05 Oct, 2009 11:40 pm

chameleon wrote: Parksider: I've mentioned this before but, looking at the map again, it's worth going back to.Look at an old map, to the east of the beck and just north of the circular 200' contour, a field line runs east-west. From this another field line runs north following the line of the beck.A very clear print I have of the 1895 map dlearly shows that at what is now Easterly Road, this field line joins directly onto the end of a pair of parallel lines which represent a wide channel which is Wyke Beck running from Roundhay. Only just before this juncture, is a thin line runningSW which ajoins an other ver straight line which is what we see today as Wyke Beck as it runs past Foxwood Farm.There is a spot-height noted a little further south of 168'; a Bench Mark adjacent to the Mill shows 168'. Scope for thought? Steve Burts map is based on field walks with an expert in medieval iron founding. The elevations you mention, he mentions and it seems possible that a watercourse was run from Asket Hill to the foundry mill as they say and as you say - because the elevations may just about create a level watercourse.The expert view was a dam at Asket hill was just about the right place, and would not be out of line with similar schemes of hundreds of years ago including Fountains abbey, much better preserved.Yes the double line was interpreted by Burt and his expert as an old channel and then field boundaries/walls obscure the path somewhat, but they feel it may also follow it.What has dawned on me now is that the A-B line of Burts map - the proposed tudor watercourse, would tangle with Ross Gill anyway, so the idea that the Ross Gill "cut" around the hillside was a new later cut may as you intimate be wrong. It could be the original course from 1577, with the first section - from the dam to Rossgill - being abandoned.The other source I had, suggested Roundhay Park lake would finally naff up the water feed from Wyke beck thus that may well have been abandoned as above, but no need to abandon that second section. From Ross Gill to the mill.Iron slags apparently abound around the area of the dam even today, so worth a little jaunt out to see.Agonising about the water feed has been fun, it may help if I can find out more about the mill itself and it's ponds.

Post by **chameleon** » Mon 26 Oct, 2009 9:24 pm

Parksider:Cnosni has come up with an interesting site involving Tithe maps. http://locateit.leeds.gov.uk/tithemaps/It's still developing and has some problems but parts are working -Have a look at this map, it shows two heavy lines running towards a certain old Mill which must be water! One is from the top side Seacroft which we deduced quite conclusively, the second is from Asket Hill and (as seems to be suggested on other maps) stops abruptly. http://www.tracksintime.wyjs.org.uk/tra ... ft.htmThis is the most persuasive drawing I've seen to almost confirm the second channel along Wyke Beck. Thoughts?

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Tue 27 Oct, 2009 8:56 am

chameleon wrote: Parksider:Cnosni has come up with an interesting site involving Tithe maps. http://locateit.leeds.gov.uk/tithemaps/It's still developing and has some problems but parts are working -Have a look at this map, it shows two heavy lines running towards a certain old Mill which must be water! One is from the top side Seacroft which we deduced quite conclusively, the second is from Asket Hill and (as seems to be suggested on other maps) stops abruptly. http://www.tracksintime.wyjs.org.uk/tra ... ft.htmThis is the most persuasive drawing I've seen to almost confirm the second channel along Wyke Beck. Thoughts? I've only a minute before I dash for work, but THANKS for that brilliant link.As clear as you like Rossgill, recognisable by the way it cuts through the edge of Fox Wood, is clearly cut around the hillside to feed the Mill Ponds.And yes a second channel on the rise above Wyke Beck just off the map stops. I can imagine that as a ditch by 1841, and feel enclosure and agriculture has obliterated the rest of that defunct elizabethan channel.A comment that the original watercoursethat it was still in use hundreds of years later is clearly wrong. There was a switch at some time to Ross Gill.I have just read some papers on swaledale lead mines and watercourses cut along hillsides from dammed up streams, some are far longer than anything at Foundry Mill and are often carried by leats across minor valleys. The technology of water engineering for Foundry Mill must have been simple stuff for our more industrious ancestors.I'll have another look and enjoy later.....THANKS

Si · Post by Si » Tue 27 Oct, 2009 10:43 am

Great stuff! Following this thread is fascinating. It's like watching a documentary. Keep digging lads!

Post by **chameleon** » Tue 27 Oct, 2009 8:16 pm

Si wrote: Great stuff! Following this thread is fascinating. It's like watching a documentary. Keep digging lads! Great thing is Si, as soon as you think you have it sussed - or come to a dead end, something pops up - Im still sure this will happen with the skulls one day....

Si · Post by Si » Tue 27 Oct, 2009 10:23 pm

chameleon wrote: Si wrote: Great stuff! Following this thread is fascinating. It's like watching a documentary. Keep digging lads! Great thing is Si, as soon as you think you have it sussed - or come to a dead end, something pops up - Im still sure this will happen with the skulls one day.... Me too!

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 28 Oct, 2009 9:05 am

chameleon wrote: Parksider:Cnosni has come up with an interesting site involving Tithe maps. Have a look at this mapThoughts? The tithe map is 1841 and therefore after the building of the lake at Roundhay Park. It provides wonderful clarity as you say.The 1821 map in Burts book shows Ross Gill feeding the ponds as well so that's pretty much confirmed as you say.Go back to that 1821 map and look in the area south of the main lake in the park, in the land south of the road and you will see what looks like a long body of water below Asket Hill (the hill itself not the house) to the right, and across from Elam's house on the left. Today you would look down on that area from the old house where you got the goats milk from on wetherby road, looking south along the beck.Do you think that is a dam??The construction of the lake is said to have affected the wyke beck anyway, and I would guess that in building the lake they really stuffed up the water supply for the dam and consequently the watercourse.So possibly when they dug the lake (1815?) Rossgill had to be diverted to feed the mill ponds. By 1820 Thorpes map shows a dam????????? but does not show a watercourse because it will have dried up to a ditch???? The Tithe map being kind to the ditch and showing it still with significant water up to a field wall. Beyond that maybe the farmers had filled the rest in to claim more land in the fields.Onto a pre-roundhay park lake map - Taylors 1803 map. Asket Hill and wyke beck are there, but no field is marked "Ellers close" where the dam supposedly was built in tudor times. The field called "Paddock" may be it and consistent with the dam of water that Thorpes map may show.Taylors map does not show such a body of water. His map was done for Nicholson and Elam and may not have bothered with features that were not any use to the maps purpose which may have been to sort out what land would be taken for the park.Interestingly it does show what looks like a lake north west of asket hill above "bank close" where a stream runs. This to me corresponds with todays upper lake?But that is no matter to Foundry Mills watercourses and dams and sadly Taylors 1803 map confirms nothing but I am keen to hear what you think about that lake like feature south of the park??What older maps survive I'll ask when I have my day in local history.As the water feed and ponds thing "dries up" the next question may be when was the foundry mill built and were there older mills in different positions. In the famous hard level gill in Swaledale the Old gang and surrender mills stand (fabulous day out!) along that stretch were six older mills, in that technology advanced such from the 1600's to 1800's that metal mills were regularly pulled down and new ones built.The "cynder hills" shown in burts book is alongside the wyke beck several hundred yards from the foundry mill. It is evidence of iron founding. If this is slag from the foundry process in such a great pile, then did an older mill exist closer to the wyke beck, and was that the one fed by the tudor dam and watercourse?????

parlington · Post by **parlington** » Wed 28 Oct, 2009 6:33 pm

I think someone referred to the mines in Garforth way back in this thread, I have added a section on my Parlington Hall site about the Garforth mines and have included two plan overlays of the Sisters Pit and Isabella; showing the site as today, with the earlier mines overlaid in white. Both small pictures are accompanied by links to larger versions.There are also some details of the flood that occurred in 1883 and an accident in 1884 which killed two miners.Link: http://www.parlington.co.uk/mines.lasso?process=10

The Parksider · Post by **The Parksider** » Wed 28 Oct, 2009 10:06 pm

parlington wrote: I think someone referred to the mines in Garforth way back in this thread, I have added a section on my Parlington Hall site about the Garforth mines and have included two plan overlays of the Sisters Pit and Isabella; showing the site as today, with the earlier mines overlaid in white. Both small pictures are accompanied by links to larger versions.There are also some details of the flood that occurred in 1883 and an accident in 1884 which killed two miners.Link: http://www.parlington.co.uk/mines.lasso?process=10 Great stuff. Isabella pit is easy to pictire because the current site retains one of the colliery buildings doesn't it?

parlington · Post by **parlington** » Wed 28 Oct, 2009 11:02 pm

The Parksider wrote: parlington wrote: I think someone referred to the mines in Garforth way back in this thread, I have added a section on my Parlington Hall site about the Garforth mines and have included two plan overlays of the Sisters Pit and Isabella; showing the site as today, with the earlier mines overlaid in white. Both small pictures are accompanied by links to larger versions.There are also some details of the flood that occurred in 1883 and an accident in 1884 which killed two miners.Link: http://www.parlington.co.uk/mines.lasso?process=10 Great stuff. Isabella pit is easy to pictire because the current site retains one of the colliery buildings doesn't it? No, the one you are thinking of is Trench Pit, which was down Ninelands Lane, where Stocks now manufacture building blocks. the main colliery building is still intact. Isabella Pit was on the Flyline, at the bottom of the new industrial estate. Where the concrete fence manufacturer is!