Coal Mines in Leeds

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The Parksider
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Post by The Parksider »

There were of course hundreds!!We know of the Middleton and Waterloo mines but many smaller ones existed.If you go along Farm Road Crossgates between 42-44 there's a gap and a mound of earth with trees built on it. That's an old coal mine - any more?As a kid I used to wonder why there was a Coal Road on the north side of the city, when all the mines were south. Of course that was not true and I assume Wetherby was supplied with coal by this road from mines in Crossgates.

Barwicker
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Post by Barwicker »

There is quite a bit of info on collieries in and around Crossgates on a thread entitled BARNBOW in the Buildings and Structures section. It was running about last July and is now in the "last year" archive.

The Parksider
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Post by The Parksider »

Barwicker wrote: There is quite a bit of info on collieries in and around Crossgates on a thread entitled BARNBOW in the Buildings and Structures section. It was running about last July and is now in the "last year" archive. Thanks for that. I must look up Hudson's book. I do know it but probably half read it 35 years ago!!I didn't know of the Adelaide Pit, although Brown Moor and the overgrandly named "West Yorkshire" mines I did.If you go far enough out manston lane it eventually turns north and in a field just up there on the right is a spoil heap. No sign of anything else just a spoil heap.Dickinson reckoned there was a siding running north to the sandbeds pit in manston from the Main line?? That there were mines in suburban Manston is fascinating. I cannot find the exact location of Manston and Sandbeds in relation to what's there now - albeit I haven't tried that hard!! He also reckons the low shops just before the Arndale centre were miners cottages. The area was riddled in mines and miners and you would not think it today!

rikj
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Post by rikj »

I've the Hudson book out of the library at the moment Parksider! Great read and some ace maps as well. Ask away if you've got any questions as it isn't due back for a while!I hadn't realised until a couple of weeks ago about the coal mining over the Pudsey side of Leeds, Farnley, Fulneck, around there. Out towards Tong there was Charlie Pit, as well as all sorts of other bell pits and adits.Even the Godfrey maps have a surprising number of old shafts etc marked. I don't think it was until after the 1850s that abandonment plans had to be made when mines closed. Even then, mine owners weren't too keen as it wasn't a profit earner. What's more surprising is how readily a lot of these sites get built on. I suspect that "advances" in civil engineering techniques mean that old workings can be built over more safely. Or that's what the developers say anyhow! It's a shame that here in Yorkshire nearly anything to do with mining is wiped off the face of the earth.Flip side I suppose is we have the Caphouse Colliery Mining Museum.At the peak of coal mining I think 1 in 16 workers was involved with mining in the UK.

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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

The Parksider wrote: There were of course hundreds!!We know of the Middleton and Waterloo mines but many smaller ones existed.If you go along Farm Road Crossgates between 42-44 there's a gap and a mound of earth with trees built on it. That's an old coal mine - any more?As a kid I used to wonder why there was a Coal Road on the north side of the city, when all the mines were south. Of course that was not true and I assume Wetherby was supplied with coal by this road from mines in Crossgates. Mentioned in the other thared, the Shaft on Farm Road collapsed, I think it was in the 70's.It was common practice to simply cap these redundant shafts with a timber raft and cover rather than fully back-fill. The reports at the time said som 700 wagons of hardcore where used to fill it in!There are two more shafts close to the community centre on what is now Maryfield (? road) at the end of what was the Bridle Path, belonging to - no surprise - Mary Pit. The area used to be a large spoil heap, fenced of with iron railings as seemed to be the way they were secured, but still accessable. The top couple of feet of the brickwork lining of one shaft was clearly vissible.There were also shallow workings close by in the adjacent field behind Seacroft Hospital and Killingbeck Colliery was situated behind the corner of the Sutton Trust Housing Estate off York Road, just at the end of the old bridge over the railway track. The old maps show a couple of shafts ther on the edge of what I remember to be a very large spoil heap which came to a very abrupt end with a heck of a drop down the side!Unfortunately both these sites have undergone considerable landscaping so there is no trace on Google Earth.

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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

rikj wrote: I've the Hudson book out of the library at the moment Parksider! Great read and some ace maps as well. Ask away if you've got any questions as it isn't due back for a while!I hadn't realised until a couple of weeks ago about the coal mining over the Pudsey side of Leeds, Farnley, Fulneck, around there. Out towards Tong there was Charlie Pit, as well as all sorts of other bell pits and adits.Even the Godfrey maps have a surprising number of old shafts etc marked. I don't think it was until after the 1850s that abandonment plans had to be made when mines closed. Even then, mine owners weren't too keen as it wasn't a profit earner. What's more surprising is how readily a lot of these sites get built on. I suspect that "advances" in civil engineering techniques mean that old workings can be built over more safely. Or that's what the developers say anyhow! It's a shame that here in Yorkshire nearly anything to do with mining is wiped off the face of the earth.Flip side I suppose is we have the Caphouse Colliery Mining Museum.At the peak of coal mining I think 1 in 16 workers was involved with mining in the UK. This happened at Colton towards Garforth rikj. The Geological Survey maps show dozens of old shafts throughout that area and there are believed to be many not recorded. Certainly the area used to be prone to extensive subsidence; the old Bullerthorpe Lane used to be re-aligned regularly, only to return to a roller-coaster once again after just a few months. We considered moving up there when built - but decided caution might be wise....!

Brandy
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Post by Brandy »

when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps
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Trojan
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Post by Trojan »

[quotenick="chameleon"] The Parksider wrote: There were of course hundreds!!It was common practice to simply cap these redundant shafts with a timber raft and cover rather than fully back-fill. The reports at the time said som 700 wagons of hardcore where used to fill it in!. The Lofthouse Pit disaster which occurred in 1973, actually happened under a field on the borders of Kirkhamgate and Ossett (there's a memorial at the side of the road) when the miners were swamped by water when they broke through to old workings. My father in law who at the time was editor of the Ossett Observer, asked a guy from the NCB why they didn't know it was there. He said the whole of the area was riddled with old workings and day holes so no he didn't know. My father in law then said that people's homes could be built upon old workings, the NCB man's response - he put a finger to his lips and said "Shh!"When I worked at Levertons on Gelderd Road Gilderson, the coal seam was plain to see in the exvated land behind the workshops - you could literally get the coal out with your hands.The coal is still there and they way energy prices are going I'd bet that sometime soon someone is going to start getting at it!
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chameleon
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Post by chameleon »

'when i was younger my grandad used to tell me that below us(on the gipton estate) there used to be miles of old mine shafts and he told me that the hills circled in red are actually slag heaps 'Bandy - My map shows two shafts here as Gipton Pit. One is next to the letter 'T' of Thorn Mount in the bottom left of your circle, the second in a straight line to the right, on the grass, just to the left of the 'T' ofThorn Walk.The notes say:'Crow coal at 11ft Black bed at 141 ft Better bed at 246ft Pit bottom at 250ft'Let's hope these were properly filled when this pit closed!Interestingly, these are the only ones showing in that area until you reach Crossgates to the east and the railway track to the south.

Barwicker
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Post by Barwicker »

I believe that the subsidence mentioned above affecting Bullerthorpe Lane may have been caused by the workings of Temple Pit which was certainly in this area. The pits at Colton I understood to be mostly "Bell Pits", still possibly dangerous but less likely to cause that sort of subsidence. There were of course at least three deep mines at Garforth, all at one time owned by the Gascoigne family and when I lived in Crossgates many years ago the house was very close to what had been Brianside Colliery, somewhere in the triangle outlined by York Road, Crossgates Road & Crossgates Lane, again giving a reason for many road names.

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