Coal Mining in East Leeds

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somme1916
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Post by somme1916 »

The Parksider wrote: somme1916 wrote: bricks:Mine(pun) are kept at top of cellar head.....interesting to hear of fellow brickies !Not many of 'em about and becoming scarcer so worth hanging on to I guess.............. "Armitage" is very prolific. Also see LBC (leeds brick company - not sure where they were??????).This week I had a bit of work done in which some bricks were removed from my garage wall and they said BRIGGS. I think these were from the Horsforth Brickworks on the Railway. There's no fireclay in Horsforth so looks like briggs shipped it in to make their own bricks to build Cookridge....BRIGGS were as prolific as the MONE BROS today. I wonder what happened to them? Good question me old mate.........i don't know.Will keep hold of me old Ackton Hall's though............in a few years nobody will have a clue what they represented.That's just way things are..........Industria Omnia Vincit
        I'm not just anybody,I am sommebody !

Jogon
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Joined: Wed 21 Dec, 2011 1:28 pm

Post by Jogon »

[quotenick="The Parksider"] grumpytramp wrote: Sorry water from Wyke Beck from the weir at Eastfield Cottage .............]Thanks for the reply.The weir at Easterly Road on maps supplies a Mill Leat that heads for the Foundry Mill along the western rises of the Wyke beck valley in a channel............. no water from Roundhay was ever used by Smeaton who engineered a new water power system for Foundry Mill.I do still hold the idea that we must consider what the first water power system was in 1725 to see if we have a solution. The Easterly Road weir was built to deliver a mill leat in the direction of Foundry Mill in it's first incarnation. The power system failed at Foundry Mill and had to wait for Smeaton to re-engineer it considerably.To me the weir at Easterly Road, the redundant length of channel heading from it towards the Foundry Mill, and Foundry Mill itself struggling for Water power pre-smeaton says one of the following.1. A badly botched job in which after building a weir and starting a leat it was realised it simply would not get to the first wheel arrangement they had in 1725.2. A less badly botched job in which they cut a leat all the way to the mill but it just didn't deliver the power.3. No connection between the weirl and a dead end (on maps) Mill leat and the Foundry Mill.The level at which the Easterly Road weir discharged water into the mill goit and the level at which the pre-Smeaton first waterwheel received it are the levels we need to have, to have a firm conclusion on the matter of whether they were ever related?????? Sorry if it is already been seen.Just found a image of the waterwheel of "an old flour mill on Foundry Ln", demolished 1938 for the Seacroft Housing Scheme. The mill closed 1912 (text beneath image)."..Water from Wyke Beck had been brought here via a channel and a short wooden trough to power the mill.."    
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Jogon
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Post by Jogon »

The Parksider wrote: somme1916 wrote: If you class rothwell's......................................... in Featherstone.Just a bit of prob useless trivia.......I still have those bricks though. I too always give a look at old bricks to see the source. Several names of large post victorian brickyards recurr profusely.Nice to find more obscure makers! Also I always look for "Middleton" and "Wortley" being a Leeds lad.Sadly the wife won't let me have a brick collection on the mantel piece or window sill. Brick News:-The Blue Lagoon (as was) at Golden Acre has 'Wooley Bramley' and 'Whitaker Leeds' bricks, others with just capital 'J W'.

BigSteveF
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Joined: Sun 28 Mar, 2010 9:20 pm

Post by BigSteveF »

The Parksider wrote: chameleon wrote: There's some debate about the likely source of the water running to the place.This shows where the ponds (large square) and the mill/foundry (smaller square) were.......... I guess the picture of the Mill position hasn't popped up again only Chameleons quote, but those interested in this matter can find his excellent transposition of the old mill ponds and the Foundry mill onto the seacroft estate today on page 6 of the thread.It's hard through Google or old maps to work out levels for deducing wether the proposed path of a watercourse from the weir at easterly Road to Foundry Mill is feasible so there's only one way to find out.....FIELD TRIPOff to the 194 feet bench mark on foundry Lane that is higher than the 188 feet bench mark by the weir. Water does not flow uphill.However standing at that benchmark and looking to the mill site at the junction of Foundry Mill Street and Foundry Mill cescent one is actually looking downhill to the mill.There is a short path dropping steeply to foundry mill walk in the direction of the mill site. Halfway down that path my head is level with the benchmark, once on Foundry Mill Walk I'm about 12 feet below the benchmark, and there's a further drop of several feet or more to the Mill.I may be "level headed" but I'm not an expert at surveying levels, but I would sugest the mill lies at a very rough guess, 182 feet at the most. The weir looks therefore to be several feet higher than the base of the Foundry Mill so it seems conceivable that the Roundhay Weir could have fed the original 1725 Foundry Mill waterheel (unsure about smeatons wheel) by a "mile long leat" in 1725, albeit it would seem the arrangement didn't work too well.If this "works" in everyones mind then we possibly now know the sites of the Foundry Mill, Corn Mill and Bloomery, and the history and arrangements of the two watercourse systems that replaced the original wyke beck, and the third system that Smeaton inspired.      It will depend on the levels of benchmarks being A.O.D or B.O.D, above or below ordnance datum. The underground workings at Ledston Luck colliery were Above Ordnance Datum despite being far below the surface. If B.O.D a datum mark of say 200ft would be 50 ft lower than a 150ft mark, as levels B.O.D are worked in reverse, hope this helps solve the water running up hill mystery.
Leeds born n bred and DJ'd in several Pubs Clubs between 1977 and 1985. ie The Cherry Tree, great times and great people. (Now living in Somerset).

The Parksider
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Joined: Sat 10 Nov, 2007 3:55 am

Post by The Parksider »

BigSteveF wrote: It will depend on the levels of benchmarks being A.O.D or B.O.D, above or below ordnance datum. The underground workings at Ledston Luck colliery were Above Ordnance Datum despite being far below the surface. If B.O.D a datum mark of say 200ft would be 50 ft lower than a 150ft mark, as levels B.O.D are worked in reverse, hope this helps solve the water running up hill mystery. Sorry Steve, missed this post, thanks for the help.

The Parksider
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Post by The Parksider »

Jogon wrote: Nice to find more obscure makers! Also I always look for "Middleton" and "Wortley" being a Leeds lad.Sadly the wife won't let me have a brick collection on the mantel piece or window sill. Brick News:-The Blue Lagoon (as was) at Golden Acre has 'Wooley Bramley' and 'Whitaker Leeds' bricks, others with just capital 'J W'. Latest new for the Secret Leeds brick club.Dismantled wall in Weetwood reveals original HORSFORTH bricks from the works on Butcher Hill.School Lane Headingley WHITTAKERS ELLAND ROAD LEEDS rare variation used to surface unmetalled track.

somme1916
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Joined: Fri 02 Mar, 2012 7:39 pm

Post by somme1916 »

You can't beat the SL brick club ! there was an article in YEP recently about an old collier who lives in East Ardsley (Neil Brittlebank) who worked at several pits in the area.He has 'undreds on 'em......
        I'm not just anybody,I am sommebody !

The Parksider
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Re:

Post by The Parksider »

chameleon wrote:I found this, not much but more than we have so I'll add it
Worth digging this up again

The Parksider
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Re:

Post by The Parksider »

chameleon wrote:I found this, not much but more than we have so I'll add it
Worth digging this up again for the picture in question that won't reproduce here it's of the Foundry Mill and at page 22......

Credit the mighty Chameleon....

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uncle mick
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Re: Re:

Post by uncle mick »

The Parksider wrote:
chameleon wrote:I found this, not much but more than we have so I'll add it
Worth digging this up again for the picture in question that won't reproduce here it's of the Foundry Mill and at page 22......

Credit the mighty Chameleon....
This one Parksider ?
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