Wollaton Colliery.1890.

[John]

Two shafts 200 yards deep working the Deep Soft and Deep Hard seams.
Downcast 14ft diam, upcast 12ft diam.

Winding Engines.
Two pairs of coupled horizontal, 30inch Cyls, 5ft stroke. 14ft drums.

Ventilation by a Guibal Fan 44ft diam by 12ft width.

[John]

1896, Manager Mr Lot Hodgkinson U/M Mr James Grainger.
837 men U/G 193 surface.
Seams worked Deep Soft and Deep Hard.

1923, Manager Mr J.E. Jones.
764 men U/G 140 surface.

1933 Manager Mr J.E Jones who also managed Radford Colliery..
580 men U/G and 120 surface.

1940 Manager of both Wollaton and Radford, Mr W.A. Jones.
300 men U/G and 80 surface.

1947 Manager of both Wollaton and Radford Mr W.A. Jones.
160 men U/G and 60 surface.

[bulwellbrian]

In its last years Radford was working the Tupton seam. There was no washery at Radford just some screens, the small coal went direct to power stations and the plus one and a half inch coal was taken by rail to Linby and put through the washery there. Radford's shaft was a downcast, the ventilation was from Wollaton.

Wollaton was working three seams, Deep Hard, one of the Piper's and the Tupton. It had a small Grieves box washery.

I went to the surface of both pits but never underground.

Brian

[John]

Not sure without checking the plans, but I think Wollaton's last face was in Tupton.

They worked a few narrow faces with large pillars left between them under the University to reduce damage to the Uni buildings.

[John]

Brian, twice in the last two weeks I have read Wollaton was sunk with three shafts, any idea what happened to the third shaft???
I was only ever aware of two shafts, and all the photos I've seen only show two shafts.
Nobody I knew ever mentioned a third shaft, so presumably it was filled in sometime in the early 1900's.

This is part of some text I copied.

No. 1 Shaft was completed on 30 November 1874 and reached a depth of 212 yards 1 foot 1 inch. No. 2 Shaft was completed on 4 August 1874 and reached a depth of 207 yards 0 feet 2 inches. No. 3 Shaft was dug until 28 November 1873, and then recommenced from 6 September 1875 to 25 December 1876, reaching a depth of 472 yards. Wollaton Colliery closed in 1965.

[bulwellbrian]

I am not sure if all three shafts at Wollaton survived till closure, I only visited the pit once and don't remember it very well. I am sure you are correct that the last faces were in the Tupton seam.

I remember houses being shored up on Western Boulevard due to subsidence, also a big dip in the "Seven Mile Wall" opposite the university on Derby Road.

I was working in the laboratory at Cinderhill and I remember that the ash from Wollaton coal was much darker than the other collieries in the Area.

[John]

It was listed as having two shafts only and pre nationalisation was listed as Wollaton 1 & 2 colliery much like Clifton was.
First time I've come across mention of a third shaft the last few weeks, and both state when the the 3rd shaft was commenced, stopped, then restarted and finished.
I know Babbington had a shaft that was filled in, it was used for pumping purposes first, then filled in and capped.

I have parts of the Wollaton Colliery abandoned workings on my Cliftons Deep Hard, Tupton and Piper plans.
It shows some old workings from the 1700's, must have been a shallow mine pre the modern Wollaton we knew and would have been a true colliery against the bell pits called Wollaton Colliery of the 1600's. It also shows the historic slough that caused some legal problems for the Duke of Newcastle who tried draining his workings through the slough without paying... ;D

[John]

Partly solved the mystery of Wollatons shafts, the two shafts were numbered No2 which was the downcast shaft, sunk 1873 to 1874 and was 194.15 m deep, and No3 shaft, upcast the westerly shaft sunk to 556.26 m sunk between 1873-6.

Although the mystery of why no No1 shaft still remains, and now we have one shaft many feet deeper than the other, why???

The above information was from the shaft sinkers notes and logs.

Although they had been updated to metric measurements, I think the 556.26 was a typo mistake by whomever changed Imperial to Metric, as Deep Hard, the fist seam Wollaton would have worked, at a guess, was at 594 feet 2 inches.

The other one, 194.15M would work out at the deep soft seam at Wollaton, which was found at 554ft 9ins.

[John]

The mystery is solved, three shafts were sunk, two 14ft diam shafts sunk to 210 yards, both were downcast shafts and one 12ft diam shaft sunk to 500 yards but drilled to 600 yards to explore the bottom seams. It was the upcast shaft. When it was filled and capped I have not found out yet.

They were called the west or No3 shaft the east or No1 shaft and the middle or No2 shaft.
Sinking of No1 and 2 shafts was begun in June 1873 and completed August of 1874, No1 and 2 shafts were 40 yards apart and the No3 shaft was sunk 70 yards from the middle or No2 shaft.
No3 was sunk to the Piper seam.

[Wheldale]

Great bit of research.

[fortythreesflyer]

Very interesting and informative, any info on Glasshoughton and it's three shafts would be grateful,My father in law worked there along with many of friends and the lads I played rugby league with.

[John]

Jan 29, 2017 21:03:39 GMT -5 fortythreesflyer said:

Very interesting and informative, any info on Glasshoughton and it's three shafts would be grateful,My father in law worked there along with many of friends and the lads I played rugby league with.

I'll see what I can find.

[John]

Jan 29, 2017 21:03:39 GMT -5 fortythreesflyer said:

Very interesting and informative, any info on Glasshoughton and it's three shafts would be grateful,My father in law worked there along with many of friends and the lads I played rugby league with.

Not going to be easy, using the search criteria "Glasshaughton Colliery History" does bring up a lot of sites, but very little useful information. I have some old out of copyright coal mining books I've downloaded over the last few years, I'll see if I can locate any info from them. Meantime I'll keep search as time permits using other search criteria. Meanwhile, here's a load of photos I found.

Links don't work for some reason, so go to Google and type in Glasshaughton Colliery photos.

[fortythreesflyer]

Thanks John much obliged, I'am disabled and don't get out any more, so I don't see any of my mates to reminisce. Once again thank you.

[John]

Jan 30, 2017 9:35:01 GMT -5 fortythreesflyer said:

Thanks John much obliged, I'am disabled and don't get out any more, so I don't see any of my mates to reminisce. Once again thank you.

That's what the sites here for.