Coal Mining in East Leeds

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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

Certainly slurry pits were the washings from the raw coal would drain were common but I no little of the detail - I suspect grumpytramp may be best placed to inform us here?It intrigues me how we can all become so inspired by the different threads which arise on here - then you realise how little you know and how much there is to learn still - poor arry isn't the only one to get a cold tea!

grumpytramp
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Post by grumpytramp »

The Parksider wrote: The old resevoir as it was called on the 1890's maps was not there in 1854 and it's hard not to associate it with the mines due to position and date.Looking on Google and my old maps I see it still has a bit of water in!! Brown Moor was the first colliery and it had a railway to it, West Yorkshires line branching off. On google you can see the curvature to main line - you can see the stump of the brown moor line cut off by Thorpe Park development which has obliterated Brown Moor colliery. Mmm that is interesting ......... I think you are correct to assume a connection with Brown Moor/West Yorkshire Collieries as the reservoir appears to be at the confleunce of the raillinks to the pits.In the first instance it is likely that both pits would have required some form of water storage, specifically for power. Winding engines, stationary engines, pugs, pumps and compressor would have been dependant on water to produce vast quantities of steam. The position of this reservoir for that purpose appears wrong, as far as I can determine from the 1894 OS map the reservoir sits at approx 250' above sea level and the pits approximately 300' above sea level. The old timers would have probably relied on gravity to supply their boilers and therefore I suspect have used an alternative source (? minewater pumped to a holding pond adajacent to the boiler house)Is it possible that pumped minewater was gravitated down to this reservoir to supply alternative industries (? gas works at Crossgates or railway) or even local domestic supplies?

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Post by grumpytramp »

chameleon wrote: Certainly slurry pits were the washings from the raw coal would drain were common but I no little of the detail - I suspect grumpytramp may be best placed to inform us here? The nature of slurry filled holes in the ground at collieries is a remarkable complex subject (or at least it can be if you are interested!!)In the modern era (say post 1920) collieries have used lagoons for two primary purposes:1) collect water contaminated with suspended solids (normally clay or fine coal) and detain within the lagoon system for a sufficiently long time that the solids settle and the water can be discharged to a receiving water in a condition that doesnt pollute it. It may also be treated with chemicals to speed the settlement (in the crudest form blocks of aluminium sulphate to complex flocculents) or reduce the water acidity (by adding lime) Acid minewater is a huge problem with water discharging from old coal mines, sulphur in the coal oxidises disolves and turns the water acidic which then when it comes into contact with oxygen oxidises again and percipitates out coating the watercourse in orange gunge and killing the stream (simplest way to deal with it is cascade the water then let it run into a lagoon so all the gunge can be caught before discharged)(2) to collect fine coal from processing and washing. Water run to a lagoon and the coal is allowed to settle out. Latterly it occured to many that some of these lagoons contained vast quantities of valuable coal and the lagoons were drained and the coal slurry removed. Depending on the quality the coal may have been processed with filter presses (typically high value coals such as South Wales anthracite and undertaken by specialist companies such as Ryan International, Ogdens, etc) or by heaping up with a dragline and allowed to dry. In Scotland up to 10 years ago Methil Power Station in Fife burnt nothing but recovered coal slurry from all over Scotland (latterly mostly coming from vast lagoon complexes in Fife at Bowhill, Lumphinnans and Westfield). During the victorian age such concerns were very low. Very little attempt was made to recover fine coals as there was no market for them and there were certainily little interest in protecting the freshwater environment. However I would have expected that most pits would have a pond or reservoir for holding water for the boilers or for receiving water from the pumps. In time I am quite certain that these will have become 'slurry filled holes'!

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Post by grumpytramp »

If you delve deep into the history of the University of Leeds you will find its inception came from the merger of the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and The College of Science (established in 1874) in 1887What is this to do with Coal Mining in East Leeds I hear you ask?Well the College of Science had three founding departments Physics and Mathematics, Chemistry, and Geology and Mining .The first student to enrol was, the fabulously named, Shadrach Stephenson on 26th October 1874 as the sole student, a student of mining and it was a further 48 hours before another student enroled. He was born in Methley 6th July 1850, leaving school at the age of 10 to work on the family small holding. At 16 he went down the pit, and with his father began to supervise groups of miners in piecework and managed to save sufficent money to enroll for his first two years of study at the College of Science. He then went to become Undermanger at Bowers Allerton Main Collieries for additional funds before returning to the College to complete his studues in 1878. Thereafter he worked at Brown Moor Colliery in Whitkirk, Bowers Pit in Swillington and at Rawmarsh, Denaby and Cadeby Collieries. He still found time to become a Methodist preacher, small holder, father 10 children and run classes in scripture and geology. He died at Mapperly near Nottingham on 10th June 1913 a few days after his leg had been amputated (at home!) the rather grim consequence of broken bone suffered in a pit accident at Cadeby a dozen years previously.

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Post by The Parksider »

All snippets are welcome to any thread for a score of snippets probably makes up a bit of a story.Anyway we have the "Coal Road" at seacroft and I came across some reminices from a guy whose father was a farmer in the seacroft area and after the harvest he would turn to being a coal haulier as the market for coal increased as the winter approached. His run was from Barnbow Colliery to Harewood via the "coal road" and he was charged a halfpenny a wheel in toll charges along the way. I assume his (and others) farm carts and horses were thus gainfully employed perfectly out of the agricultural season!!

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chameleon
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The Parksider wrote: All snippets are welcome to any thread for a score of snippets probably makes up a bit of a story.Anyway we have the "Coal Road" at seacroft and I came across some reminices from a guy whose father was a farmer in the seacroft area and after the harvest he would turn to being a coal haulier as the market for coal increased as the winter approached. His run was from Barnbow Colliery to Harewood via the "coal road" and he was charged a halfpenny a wheel in toll charges along the way. I assume his (and others) farm carts and horses were thus gainfully employed perfectly out of the agricultural season!! Happy New Year to you This may be the same item as the one you've seen - I'll post the link again for anyone new who may be interested.http://home.freeuk.com/seacroft/documents/noblea.htm

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Post by The Parksider »

chameleon wrote: Happy New Year to you This may be the same item as the one you've seen - I'll post the link again for anyone new who may be interested.http://home.freeuk.com/seacroft/documents/noblea.htm Happy new year to you too sir.Yes it is.I was basically trying to check on foundry Mill. I have the idea the last mill was a corn mill but stood on the site of an earlier foundry!Sorry if you had already brought this knowledge to the sites attention.I seem to often trail in your wake!!!!!!!!Anything to add on the Ironstone mining - not just facts but thoughts and opinions as these are always welcome and most interesting!

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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

The Parksider wrote: chameleon wrote: Happy New Year to you This may be the same item as the one you've seen - I'll post the link again for anyone new who may be interested.http://home.freeuk.com/seacroft/documents/noblea.htm Happy new year to you too sir.Yes it is.I was basically trying to check on foundry Mill. I have the idea the last mill was a corn mill but stood on the site of an earlier foundry!Sorry if you had already brought this knowledge to the sites attention.I seem to often trail in your wake!!!!!!!!Anything to add on the Ironstone mining - not just facts but thoughts and opinions as these are always welcome and most interesting! Always nice to refresh that which has gone before - I suspect many of the newer readers fail to find or sometimes simply don;t appreciate how much there already is on SL - a shame really, perhaps the promised new configuration will make things, and finding them (!) a little easier.And following you are in another way - I've been trying for years to pin-point in today's terms, where the mill stood but have never been satisified that I have succeded. Much is written and photographs are there on Leodis, but as I often find, definitive descriptions of things can by rare - please let my know what you find     

The Parksider
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Post by The Parksider »

chameleon wrote: I've been trying for years to pin-point in today's terms, where the (Foundry) mill stood but have never been satisified that I have succeded. Much is written and photographs are there on Leodis, but as I often find, definitive descriptions of things can by rare - please let my know what you find     Burt also refers to a watercourse being cut from the Wyke Beck to feed the mill pond.......

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Post by grumpytramp »

The Parksider wrote: I was basically trying to check on foundry Mill. I have the idea the last mill was a corn mill but stood on the site of an earlier foundry! You are correct regarding the mill being a corn mill. Take a look at the OS 1:10,560 sheet of 1851 on old-maps.co.uk and the Foundary Mill is identified as being a Corn mill

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