Workings West of Wollaton Colliery.

[John]

Again, we are pretty much on the edge of the coalfield, a lot of seams crop at or close to the Derbyshire border, I believe the old Stanton Ironworks sits on the Top Hard seam outcrop.

[bulwellbrian]

Cossall, and all the Shipley collieries near Ilkeston such as Coppice, and Woodside. These were all on the outcrop of the coal measures but the deeper seams outcropped further west.

[dazbt]

Off topic, but maybe of interest, I noticed a while back mention of a drainage sough at a Wollaton coal mine documented as early as 1316.

[John]

Jan 13, 2012 5:06:13 GMT -5 dazbt said:

Off topic, but maybe of interest, I noticed a while back mention of a drainage sough at a Wollaton coal mine documented as early as 1316.

Fully on topic Daz, Lord Middleton had that driven, it's still there and water , so I'm told, comes out of it into tottle brook.
It drained the fields where Lord Middleton had coal mined from shallow workings just to the west of the sough. There was a legal case settled by the House of Lords over that sough.
Lord Newcastle made use of it without paying a penny, to drain his pits, (bell pits) in the Strelley area.

[John]

Here is a map clearly showing the sough Daz.

The "Old Mans Level" to the right of those workings is a drift between seams at the old Wollaton Colliery, there are a line of boreholes from north to south an the left side of that level, that's as far west as Wollaton got due to breaking into very old workings.

[dazbt]

Jan 13, 2012 6:59:32 GMT -5 John said:

Jan 13, 2012 5:06:13 GMT -5 dazbt said:

Off topic, but maybe of interest, I noticed a while back mention of a drainage sough at a Wollaton coal mine documented as early as 1316.

Fully on topic Daz, Lord Middleton had that driven, it's still there and water , so I'm told, comes out of it into tottle brook.
It drained the fields where Lord Middleton had coal mined from shallow workings just to the west of the sough. There was a legal case settled by the House of Lords over that sough.
I think that particular sough was probably developed much later than the 1316 one, there was mention of other much later soughs in the area, it just seemed suprisingly early, I try and dig out the piece that refers to those soughs.
Lord Newcastle made use of it without paying a penny, to drain his pits, (bell pits) in the Strelley area.

[dazbt]

Jan 13, 2012 7:17:28 GMT -5 dazbt said:

Jan 13, 2012 6:59:32 GMT -5 John said:

Fully on topic Daz, Lord Middleton had that driven, it's still there and water , so I'm told, comes out of it into tottle brook.
It drained the fields where Lord Middleton had coal mined from shallow workings just to the west of the sough. There was a legal case settled by the House of Lords over that sough.
I think that particular sough was probably developed much later than the 1316 one, there was mention of other much later soughs in the area, it just seemed suprisingly early, I try and dig out the piece that refers to those soughs.
Lord Newcastle made use of it without paying a penny, to drain his pits, (bell pits) in the Strelley area.

found the link, mainly relating to lead mining sows/soughs;

www.pdmhs.com/PDFs/ScannedBulletinArticles/Bulletin%207-5%20-%20The%20Earliest%20Lead-Mine%20Soughs%20in%20Derbyshire.pdf

[John]

I found the history of the sough in an old mining book I found on line and downloaded. The workings to the top left marked "believed worked" I'm sure were open cut during the 70's, and they uncovered old bord and pillar workings just a few feet from the surface, probably were worked by the Duke of Newcastle, well his employees.... It could have been those workings that Newcastle was draining through Middleton's sough.

[John]

Jan 13, 2012 4:24:05 GMT -5 bulwellbrian said:

Cossall, and all the Shipley collieries near Ilkeston such as Coppice, and Woodside. These were all on the outcrop of the coal measures but the deeper seams outcropped further west.

There are a fair few old shafts on Bramcote Moor to Brian on the east side of the M1. The original Cinderhill and Turkey farm mines sunk by Thomas North.

I believe Cinderhill, not to be confused with Babbington, was the first "deep colliery" sunk in the concealed coalfield of Nottingham, by Thomas North. The two shafts are still shown on maps as disused workings a little over half a mile north west of where Babbington Colliery was.
Yep, Babbingington was called Cinderhill at first and was probably changed to Babbington to save folks getting mixed up with Norths first Cinderhill....
It was odd that, when I went for my medical it was at the main medical centre at "Cinderhill Unit" at side of Babbington Colliery..

[John]

Jan 13, 2012 7:30:40 GMT -5 John said:

I found the history of the sough in an old mining book I found on line and downloaded. The workings to the top left marked "believed worked" I'm sure were open cut during the 70's, and they uncovered old bord and pillar workings just a few feet from the surface, probably were worked by the Duke of Newcastle, well his employees.... It could have been those workings that Newcastle was draining through Middleton's sough.

Just to save confusion here Sir Thomas Willoughby was give the title of Baron in 1711, hence the name I used which was used right up to Wollaton Hall being sold in the 1920's.

Sir Thomas built Wollaton Hall and the Park from profits from his coal mining interests on the family land.
He loved his workers so much he banned all house building for his workers on the family land!! They had to walk from Radford to the mining operations.

So that the family wouldn't have to put up with seeing the City "grow" and see the "peasants" in the fields surrounding the area, he had a high wall built around the Park, which is still there today.

[smshogun]

Between Ilkeston and Belper many people outcropped coal from their back gardens as it was only 12" deep.