Jump to content

Tinsley Park Colliery


Guest Flyinglensman

Recommended Posts

Guest Flyinglensman

The image here is one which I salvaged from the extensive archive which used to repose in the photographic department of Firth Brown Ltd. When this company closed it's doors for good, Kelham Island museum had the opportunity to take important old material for their records, but I don't know if this one ended up in their hands. It is of the rather impressive Cornish engine house which once stood on a shaft of Tinsley Park collieries. It appears to have been taken in about the 1930s and it seems some sort of work is being carried out here in the shaft, judging by the gear suspended over the collar. Almost certainly this is to do with this old shaft's later use as a water supply for the adjacent steel works. There is no sign of the boiler house or a stack, which, by this time, must have been long demolished. As to the occupant of this house, Denys Bradford Barton, in his excellent book "The Cornish Beam Engine" (D.B.Barton, Truro 1969 p 67 )might give us a clue. F.W.Mitchell of Redruth, sold many second hand engines 'up country' following the depression in copper mining locally in the 1860s. One of these is listed in 1873 as being sold to the Tinsley Coal Company. It was a 70" 11'x10' engine, built by Copperhouse Foundry, near Hayle, and was sold for the price of £1,800 (including two boilers), plus the sum of £120 for taking down the engine from Wheal Seton, near Redruth, and haulage to Camborne station. How long it operated on this Tinsley shaft I have no information. I would suspect that the shaft is still there, although covered over, of course, and may still be used as a convenient water supply for the Outokumpu works now on the site. The reason this picture was in the Firth Brown archives is that Firth Vickers plate mill and Shepcote Lane Rolling mills were a part of the FB group at one time and the department undertook their photography also. The 6" map here shows (Yorks Sheet CCXCV.NW 1924) shows a number of shafts on the colliery and it may be this engine house stood on No 7 shaft. Any further information would be of welcomed. And, for interest, the National Library of Scotland has a wonderful on-line resource for maps of many vintages which can be found here: http://maps.nls.uk/geo/find/#zoom=7&lat=52.53676&lon=-2.10931&layers=39

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it is later than the 1930's because the car in the foreground looks like a Jowett Javelin to me. The Jowett Javelin was around in late 1940's and early 1950's if my memory of them is correct

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The car registration indicates it was new in the late 1930s. BUS was issued by Glasgow around 1938 (Glasgow Corporation used BUS 101-200 in that year and had moved onto CUS by 1939.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Maddanie 77,

The car is a Standard Flying Ten which was manufactured in March 1936 and up to the motor show of that year only,so the photograph is sometime after that date. Tinsley Park Colliery closed in 1943.

The car has similarities to the Jowett Javelin.

Sorry I can't give you any information regarding the the work being done on the shaft top!

KEN.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dear Flyinglensman,

The 1924-6" map clearly shows several very old pre commercial shafts dotted around the site along with Five numbered shafts from the commercial era starting in 1852 when the first shaft was sunk. My own personal thoughts would be that it would be feasible for the beam engine to have been employed at this location. It appears from the amount of buildings shown around it that the only working shaft in 1924 was No7 which one would assume was the one that continued in use until the collieries closure in 1943; This one therefor would presumably not have the Cornish beam engine in operation at this time, but a more recent steam engine.

No's 5,6,and 9 are all in areas where there are no buildings, only spoil heaps ,but no 2 shaft is shown with several buildings around it,so it seems to me that one of these may have been the engine house shown in your photograph circa 1936, sometime after the manufacture of the Standard Fliying Ten motor car in this photograph.

Obviously this is only my personal interpretation but I think that it seems a reasonable assumption .

Best Regards

KEN.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have found a couple of images on the "Britain from Above" historical, air photography site, the link to one of which is given below.

http://britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw020097?search=tinsley&ref=45

Further images can be tracked both forwards and backwards from this image.

The disused Tinsley Park Colliery winding engine house can clearly be seen in the bottom left hand quarter of the image, and is identified as an item of interest, although, in the attached image, it is identified, "according to OS map legends" as no. 8 pit, but they are clearly "edging their bets".

The image is dated 19/10/1948, so clearly post closure.

From the original, ground level image that was posted earlier, it would seem however, that some activity was still taking place at Tinsley Park Colliery at that time. De-watering activities for adjoining collieries maybe? High Hazels Colliery, or Orgreave Colliery perhaps?

The apparatus in front of the engine house would suggest as much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They certainly were 'hedging their bets'.......................... 'cos I put the pin there!!! lol

I wasn't sure about the closure date, but the OS map of 1948 clearly shows it as No.8 Pit (disused). Look at the previous maps on the same area and the '(disused)' legend appears between the 1924 and 1935 editions. Hence my comment.

http://maps.nls.uk/view/100950113

Match up the landmarks and it clearly is one and the same building?!

Don't see any hedges though???........................

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...