Woodthorpe Colliery

[southside]

These 1850 & 1890 maps of the colliery show an inclined plane running between the two locations.  Which was the upper colliery? History dude.

 

[MartinR]

The more northern pit lies on the 525' contour, the southern lies between the 625' and 650' so clearly the southern pit is a bit over 100' higher.  Look also at the reservoirs, one has an embankment around its northern end, the other has a straight dam.

[History dude]

There was a third pit just off the top of the map, which seems to have stopped quite early.  The Incline track was a link to take coal from the lower pit to the Coke Ovens at the top. The top pit also stopped working before the lower pit. And you can see no trace of the track in the 1927 pictures. The tunnel under Mansfield Road was still visible from the Woodthorpe side in the 1970s and was bricked up. The other side was completely covered by the slag heap. The bridge abutments were still there, till the construction of the road to Applegarth. That destroyed three quarters of it, but left a small bit and the end stone with the caping. Which I think might be still there. The road filled in the rest.

I assume the reservoir was to provide water for the steam engine to lift the pit cage. It was lined with cube shaped sandstone blocks, some of which went into the adjacent Boot house gardens for rockery purposes. Including that of 387, my house. I remember one had a fossil indentation of Cyclades on the front!

[MartinR]

Quote

a third pit just off the top of the map, which seems to have stopped quite early ... top pit also stopped working before the lower pit

Something isn't seem right in that summary.  Ever since the Hartley Colliery disaster of 1862 and the subsequent "Act to Amend the Law Relating to Coal Mines of 1862", all collieries must have at least two shafts.  The top pit may have stopped raising coal and men travelling in it, but it would have to be retained for ventilation and escape purposes until the whole colliery closed down.

[History dude]

An old chap who was still living on the Manor and an ex collier told me in the 1980s that he went down the Woodthorpe pit shaft and walked to the Nunnery end and came up that.  Plus, the shaft that was present on the first map is now covered with slag. 

[MartinR]

That solves the two shafts then.  Thanks HD.

[southside]

Durham Mining Museum:  Mine Ventilation.

http://www.dmm.org.uk/educate/burns070.htm

[MartinR]

Thanks Southside, an interesting link.  Before fans were introduced the usual manner of inducing circulation was a furnace low down in the upcast pit.  Hot air rises (the stack effect) drawing the exhausted air out of the colliery.  Prior to 1862 it was common in the northeast to have single pit collieries.  The shaft was divided in two by a brattice of wood and cloth.  One side of the brattice acted as upcast, the other as downcast.  however at Harley the only shaft became blocked by a broken pumping engine beam and the men below suffocated before they could be rescued.  Hence the 1862 act I mentioned above.