Re-entering old mine workings

[Wheldale]

Has anyone any experience of being at a colliery that has re - entered old mine workings for example Thoresby re-entered part of the closed Ollerton colliery. I was just wondering what the old tunnels were like, ie flooded, collapsed. Or if old machinary etc was found etc?

[inbye]

I remember speaking to a bloke who was an official at the then Barnsley Main pit. I think part of his duties were overseeing the pit bottom reconstruction, by contractors. Apparantly, it was possible to get thro' to the bottom of one of the "Oaks" shafts, where there was clear signs of burning/heat. Of course, that could have been related to furnace ventilation.

In the late 1960's, I helped with the demolition of some redundant air doors, in a worked out area of Park Mill. There was a disused narrow guage rope-paddy, stood in the station, looking like you could have just climbed in & rung the bell. The area was dry & dusty, grease on the axles & rope & sheaves, looked like it had been applied that day.........I don't doubt it's still there (albeit underwater).

[onotoman]

Whilst training at Seaham, we were in the lowest, oldest (worked out) level of the pit.

One day, one of the instructors took us into a part of the mine not used since the 1950s (he just bent back the mesh closing off the roadway!)

He gas tested at regular times, so wasn't being irresponsible (at least we didn't think so)

We saw a coalface where the floor and roof had reduced the hydraulic supports to half the original height - I presume that the rock just melded around the supports rather than actually crushing them?

Also, we went into a stable not used since 1930s and there was still hay in the feed troughs and straw on the floor. He also pointed out the charred wooden lintle over the doorway burned in the 1880 explosion.

The roadways were still in good order though.

Really fascinating and eerie too.

[spanker]

I had the pleasure of re entering workings from Ireland into Markham colliery in the early eighties,as Daz will remember it was later accessed by the threequarter drift known locally as cardiac drift.
Silly things you do as a young fit lad was to run up it as your older work colleagues would ride the belt coaxing you on, never quite beat them to the top but wasnt far away having given them your belt and rescuer, got to the top warwicks and me heart was coming out me forhead.
Don't remember the gradient but should do as it was bloody steep and i was part of the development team boring and firing all the way
I think the old workings were 54s and we went through with a dosco mk11a the roadway was in pretty good order really just lots of floor lift.
There was also another area i was lucky enough to be involved in redeveloping which was the campbell district which ran under the old Staveley works (no longer there now) towards Barrowhill via 2 roadways.
Tales from old miners when i first started in 75 was of water laden strata which ran down the sides of roadways years prior in
the campbell and that it would never be developed again ,well we did in the early eighties we started degassing, we cleared all the old engine house out reused it and installed a new paddy to convey us in, it was like being in a sweet shop to be able to admire the craftsmanship of others that had gone before me and to be able to take a walk back in time is memorable,scrounging around finding old bacca wrappers and dates
on rings are memories i will never forget,to see the old shuttle cars with their tyres still in tact was amazing having listened to years of story telling from older guys.
It was now 85 and i had seen out the strike with the num and had now realised my dreams and gone on the brainy side i was now official and it had taken us 10 yrs to develope the campbell seam reusing the 2 old roadways and reaching the 1st panel j40s,we took off around a dozen strips before the rain came in and soon after that campbell was once again abandoned despite attempts to carry on from all, big wigs from area came and went and decided enough was enough, we pumped water onto the newly laid paddy road and alas it surrendered and closed up.

Just another memory before i go to bed as it is getting late now here in Chesterfield and the wife is shouting me into the boudoir the kids are in so i can now lock up is of exploring with a friend of mine called J.Raynor who was also a deputy at Markham and he has lots of pictures of local mines stored around somewhere he also worked previously at Arkwright colliery,one Saturday i decided to take him from Markham no2 down the 2 to 4 drift into Ireland colliery,our task that day was to take readings at the demarcation point, i had always wanted to see the pit bottom stables at Ireland and we had walked past them for years only being mteres away as they had been sealed up.
At that time Ireland had been closed for some years filled and capped off,we walked down 54s along the snake pit as we called it which was full of switches and cables and up the cardiac drift,it was as if it had never been closed everything was still there except the workforce oh and of course ventilation !
As soon as we reached the deep hards /soft drift can't remember now i could smell the stables and it was wonderful we explored them and saw the different bays including a larger one for when they were sick,the name boards,the troughs and the leathers where still there but alas they were perished when we tried to grab them,i do have acouple of shoes which i brought out hanging in me garage
We did go to the pit bottom and touched the hard core which had filled in the shaft and we did want to go further but time had beaten us and i am pleased as mr.Raynor was quite an explorer and we would have ended up at Hartington and that is another story i will share as a young deputy travelling those lonesome roads at a later date.
Yours truely Spanker.

[dazbt]

I certainly do remember that Threequarter Drift, on my very first visit to Ireland I was shown by an expert electrician how to ride/slide down the empty but wet conveyer belt on my caplamp battery, laid flat and feet first, just like the Cresta Run without the ice and curly corners, I also recall having to walk up it quite a few times which didn’t seem to have the same factor of excitement. I was at the pit the day that the lad got pulled into the Threequarter Drift roller and was trapped wrapped around its ten inch diameter for ages , word was that he had died after being cut out, but miraculously he was resuscitated and apparently made a full recovery.
I also remember having to come out of Ireland via Markham on two occasions, a ‘short walk’ that seemed like fifty miles at the time, then getting ferried back in the pit van, the same classic high speed journey that earned “Stuntman” his nickname when he survived being flung out of the back doors of the moving van.

[spanker]

Eh Daz memories are like a sky full of stars they just keep coming back, stuntman he was a big tall lad a craftsman who i think was a Bowsa lad he really did earn his name as he was very unlucky he ended up riding the cresta and was either found in the bottom transfer point in a heap unconcious /with broken bones.
I remember well when we were riding out from Markham and being ferried back by the vans, names you may remember Willy,Britt,Croftsy all craftsman, the cresta was quite a ride !
In the late 70s we developed the threequarters j8os was the first panel which was an exploratory panel with lots of machinery on our 1st bekorit installed,advanced headings with RH22 in the air gate and bore n fire in the main gate,we had a contraption on the stage loader which was a boring rig that would move forwards and back by the use of metal pins in the holes along the loader not very useful, at the time i was a daykler which was a very sought after position and with the right overman a very nice chap called Dave Mellors you could access early rides regularly as we were (cream buns),
This panel ran for a good few years and for about 2000m with loads of problems, we were gate end lads who would take out the legs and secure the gate end in advance by wood dowelling and bolting,the machine would cut into the gates.
Not long after i went with a heading team and we developed 81s which was also a problematic panel as the air gate that we drove and the x gate were within a few m of an old Markham working which you may have worked on, our team transported an RH 22 down the old workings 10s and 12s plain pre cardiac and we had never seen machinery as big before the tracks were a bugger to transport and was done on nights and parked up old gates several times took us about a week to get on the job.
Lots of excellent haulage driving 3 6s and a 2 steady as we go all bloody shift on a button with a sore palm and lots of hailer cusing from fellow workers as the belts were stood.
Developing 81s i was spotting one day for waggy weston when i had to inform him that the RH22 head had come of and was resting in the sump hole, when we relayed the message to our fitter Graham who was getting ring legs and bows up the heading for us the usual way bottom belt he thought we were jesting on inspection he had to report that the head had sheared off,calls made to the surface and a stampede of management including area next day to come and witness this very uncommon site.

[John]

Nov 8, 2011 4:58:17 GMT -5 dazbt said:

I certainly do remember that Threequarter Drift, on my very first visit to Ireland I was shown by an expert electrician how to ride/slide down the empty but wet conveyer belt on my caplamp battery, laid flat and feet first, just like the Cresta Run without the ice and curly corners, I also recall having to walk up it quite a few times which didn’t seem to have the same factor of excitement. I was at the pit the day that the lad got pulled into the Threequarter Drift roller and was trapped wrapped around its ten inch diameter for ages , word was that he had died after being cut out, but miraculously he was resuscitated and apparently made a full recovery.
I also remember having to come out of Ireland via Markham on two occasions, a ‘short walk’ that seemed like fifty miles at the time, then getting ferried back in the pit van, the same classic high speed journey that earned “Stuntman” his nickname when he survived being flung out of the back doors of the moving van.

How about this drift leading right into No2 pit bottom Daz, 1:4 all the way, only ever walked down it, never had the pleasure walking up.
It's "sister" the "Stone Head Drift " ranged 1:4 through 1:6 and was 3/4 mile long going through a major fault to the south west of the pit.
Pit bottom was in deep hard, bottom of the drifts was deep hard. The Stone Head Drift was the main intake, with a Cable Belt installed and an endless rope haulage.
Now THAT one I have walked many a shift when the Cable Belt was stood.

The South Main Return was just short of 3/4 mile in length and when that picture was taken had a ski lift in it.

[John]

Oh, one last point, those stairs didn't exist when I worked there nor the hand rail, there was one section that had wooden steps, the rest was just plain dirt floor. Scary looking isn't it!!
The other picture is 15's centre gate, a double unit face , one of the last "handgot" faces.

[spanker]

Quite impressive the pictures John being an ex official i can see a couple of ring bolts missing a maybe a strut !
Maybe should have posted on improvisation,unbeleivable tho that it was a hand got face,pleased i didnt work on it ,We did have a unit at Markham that headed to the stars in the piper seam amd we did break records on it in the 80's under Arkwright Town but cannot remember the panel will av to get me old Coal news's out.

[John]

It didn't matter too much on the South Main Return drift, most of it had no support whatsoever!! It was driven through the Bunter Sandstone in the latter part of the 19th century into the early 20th century.
The whole of the Stone Head drift from pit bottom to the outbye bunker had been backripped and re rung throughout except for one short section about half way down. It still had wood chocks either side with heavy hardwood timbers across the road, must have been 18 inches square!! I never did ask why, should have done, but now suspect it was where some old roads joined the drift from workings prior to the 1920's.

The double unit main gate photo, 15's ran for many years, started almost at the bottom of the Stone Head Drift and must have been well over three miles taken out before it finished. That's a lot of years of hand filling!! I'll take a look at the abandonment plans for the dates.