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Post by colly0410 on Nov 15, 2016 17:49:59 GMT -5
I've been wondering how coal seams got their names. I can understand some like Top Hard = a hard coal at the top. Deep Soft & Deep Hard = they were soft & hard & deep. High Main, Low Main & Main Bright = they were main seams & were high low & main. Black Shale = it was black & er shaley. Then you've got Waterloo, Piper, Hazels, Barnsley, Parkgate, Clowne, Ashgate & others that seem to have random names, or are they? Maybe they do make sense, but just not to me...
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Post by dazbt on Nov 15, 2016 18:07:57 GMT -5
I've been wondering how coal seams got their names. I can understand some like Top Hard = a hard coal at the top. Deep Soft & Deep Hard = they were soft & hard & deep. High Main, Low Main & Main Bright = they were main seams & were high low & main. Black Shale = it was black & er shaley. Then you've got Waterloo, Piper, Hazels, Barnsley, Parkgate, Clowne, Ashgate & others that seem to have random names, or are they? Maybe they do make sense, but just not to me... Many of the seams are named after the areas that they outcrop, such seams are Barnsley Bed, Parkgate, Melton, Haigh Moor, Swinton, Shafton, Cudworth, Silkstone, Beeston, Wath Wood and many other such place names. Some are descriptive of the coal quality, its properties, its thickness or its appearance, the one that has always made me wonder is the 'Ragman Seam'. |
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Post by colly0410 on Nov 15, 2016 18:59:15 GMT -5
Ah-ahh Daz I didn't think of place names where the seams outcrop, I can be a bit thick sometimes. Remember seeing a sign post for Tupton & thinking "that's another name for the Low Main seam!" I presume that's where it outcrops. When I went down the NCM the seam was Main Hard, or was it New Hard, (I can't remember & it was only a few weeks ago, oh heck my brain is fading lol) so would be hard & main or new, lol...
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boaz
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Post by boaz on Nov 16, 2016 11:08:55 GMT -5
The pit I "worked" at appeared to change the names of the seams to whatever the power stations were paying a premium price for at the time. Thus the Haig Moor became the Swallow Wood.etc.
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Clive
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Post by Clive on Nov 19, 2016 12:31:50 GMT -5
Up here it is associated with the strata. Little limestone, firestone,four fathom limstone ect.
Aot of high main and low mains.. 3 quarters, 5 quarters. Half yard, yard. In case of 5 quarter it must be remembered a yard is a whole.
Burnley union mine ( coal seams are called mines in Lancashire) union was lower mountain and upper foot coming together making one seam. Doghole was apparently lowering a dog down shafte to see if it got blacked out. Doghole being shallow at Burnley. Sandrock mine...sandstone roof. Upper mountain lower mountain...found high up in pennine hills around Rossendale, even though they are found within the lower coal measures
Some names can be obscure to a dialect we no longer know. For example the welsyke coal of midgeholm was known as the coom roof in Coanwood, half a mile as the crow fly. It was apparently...if I can remember because there was a soft stone associated with it that could be cut with a knife. The bassy of rossendale is also known the salts..why? If we were alive in 1880 we would know why...we wernt and nobody wrote it down. So sometimes we can work it out and sometimes we never will
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Clive
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Post by Clive on Nov 19, 2016 12:37:51 GMT -5
The ladt poster had a point regarding what the price was. In the 1800s Wallsend coal was worth a lot..even though Wallsend colliery wrought many seams. likrwise in Carlisle Howard coal could be bought in the 30s...even though the pit closed in 1895. It's good coal so like Wallsend, the name was kept and transfered to sell another product.
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Post by oldgit890 on Dec 19, 2016 8:33:10 GMT -5
I've been wondering how coal seams got their names. I can understand some like Top Hard = a hard coal at the top. Deep Soft & Deep Hard = they were soft & hard & deep. High Main, Low Main & Main Bright = they were main seams & were high low & main. Black Shale = it was black & er shaley. Then you've got Waterloo, Piper, Hazels, Barnsley, Parkgate, Clowne, Ashgate & others that seem to have random names, or are they? Maybe they do make sense, but just not to me... |
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bob737
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To read about my recent book on the history of Daw Mill Mine, check out my recent activity
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Post by bob737 on Dec 27, 2016 8:31:53 GMT -5
I've been wondering how coal seams got their names. I can understand some like Top Hard = a hard coal at the top. Deep Soft & Deep Hard = they were soft & hard & deep. High Main, Low Main & Main Bright = they were main seams & were high low & main. Black Shale = it was black & er shaley. Then you've got Waterloo, Piper, Hazels, Barnsley, Parkgate, Clowne, Ashgate & others that seem to have random names, or are they? Maybe they do make sense, but just not to me... The Warwickshire 'Thick Seam', as worked at Daw Mill, Coventry and Newdigate mines, was actually made up of 7 separate seams which ran together to make up the 'Warwickshire Thick' which was up to an amazing 9 metres thick! Starting at the top they were: Two Yard (the very best coal), the Bare Coal (the most friable and most prone to spontaneous combustion), the Ryder Seam (also known as The Spires), the Ell Seam (also known as 'Blue Coal' and the thinest seam in the section), the Top Nine Foot (a grey slatey coal), the Bottom Nine Foot (or 'High Main' as it was also known and similar to the Top Nine Foot and separated from it by a thin dirt band), and The Smithy at the bottom. Above the seam was mostly mudstone with bands of sandstone and ironstone while beneath the Smithy were beds of fireclay (seatearth). There were other seams both above and below the Warwickshire Thick but Daw Mill certainly didn't need to exploit these with the Warwickshire Thick to go at. Until we had supports capable of allowing a 5 metre seam section to be taken the habit was to take a lower 'leaf' from the seam first then later take a second lift above with a narrower face and this was done many times before we had Joy 2 X 850 shields which face men exploited to the full often taking a 5 1/2 metre section from the face and yet still leaving a coal roof and floor! The coal wasn't particularly gassy either producing only around 1 cubic metre of CH4/tonne produced (at NTP) but because we were producing about 2,500 tonnes/shear, gas in the 'gob' could be a problem and had to be strictly controlled. In the best year we produced fractionally short of 3 1/4 million tonnes from a single face - then they told us we had to close... |
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merlin
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Post by merlin on Jun 27, 2022 11:46:47 GMT -5
I've been wondering how coal seams got their names. I can understand some like Top Hard = a hard coal at the top. Deep Soft & Deep Hard = they were soft & hard & deep. High Main, Low Main & Main Bright = they were main seams & were high low & main. Black Shale = it was black & er shaley. Then you've got Waterloo, Piper, Hazels, Barnsley, Parkgate, Clowne, Ashgate & others that seem to have random names, or are they? Maybe they do make sense, but just not to me... Many of the seams are named after the areas that they outcrop, such seams are Barnsley Bed, Parkgate, Melton, Haigh Moor, Swinton, Shafton, Cudworth, Silkstone, Beeston, Wath Wood and many other such place names. Some are descriptive of the coal quality, its properties, its thickness or its appearance, the one that has always made me wonder is the 'Ragman Seam'. |
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merlin
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Post by merlin on Jun 27, 2022 11:52:04 GMT -5
in north wales we smiths powell quaker brassy two yard ruabon yard cefn seam wall and bench main coal queen seam lovely names
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