Hill Top Colliery

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Hill Top Colliery
General information about the mine
Information about the mining company
Operating company National Coal Board or Grimebridge Colliery Co Ltd
Start of operation 1948
End of operation 2014
Funded raw materials
Degradation of coal
Geographical location
Coordinates 53 ° 43 '40.6 "  N , 2 ° 10' 2.2"  W Coordinates: 53 ° 43 '40.6 "  N , 2 ° 10' 2.2"  W.
Hill Top Colliery (England)
Hill Top Colliery
Location Hill Top Colliery
District ( NUTS3 ) Lancashire
county Lancashire
Country United Kingdom

The Hill Top Colliery in Sharneyford between Bacup and Todmorden was the last coal mine still in operation in Lancashire until 2014 .

history

founding

The Hill Top Colliery first opened in 1948. In 1948, the National Coal Board dug two tunnels there, sloping downward into the Union coal seam, which is about 1.40 m high on average . Under the National Coal Board she worked from 1950 to 1965 an average of 101 men under day and 9 above ground . At its peak, there were about 200 pals working there.

Gallery and funicular

The steep entry tunnel ( Intake Drift ) with a gradient of 1 to 1½ (66%) was 78 meters long and the less steep exit tunnel ( Return Drift ) was 339 meters long with a gradient of 1 to 4 (25%). Later the longer adit was up to about 450 meters (500 yards) long. The rails consisted of L-shaped steel profiles with a gauge of what appears to be 3 feet (914 mm). The trams of the funicular had rimless metal disc wheels and were also used for the transport of people because of their low height. They were pushed by hand on the level and driven with cable winches on inclines . The large number of trams that existed were probably obtained second-hand from the disused Old Meadows Colliery .

Employee numbers

The nearby Moorfield Colliery in Accrington closed shortly after nationalization in 1947, after which many of the miners previously employed there worked at the Hill Top Colliery. In almost 20 years they mined around 400 tons of coal a week before the mighty Union seam was exhausted in 1966. The coal had a comparatively high sulfur content and was therefore mainly sold to the chemical industry in Widnes .

drainage

Powerful pumps that ran day and night were supplied with electricity via an overhead line belonging to the colliery . They pumped almost 1000 liters (250 gallons ) per minute from the Hill Top Colliery over the watershed of Heald Moor into the River Irwell valley and not over Greens Clough into the Yorkshire Calder , which would have been the much cheaper alternative.

Temporary closure and reopening

In 1966 the mine was closed after the coal deposits appeared to be exhausted. The Grimebridge Colliery Co Ltd, which was run by the miners William (Billy) Clayton and his business partner Rodney Mitchall, received the license for the Hill Top Colliery and reopened the colliery. In the summer of 1997 she dug two tunnels in a large seam between the previous tunnels and an open pit mine on Heald Moor.

Planning permission for the construction of two new tunnels was granted in August 1989. However, the start of construction was delayed, so that in 1997 an application for an extension of this permit was submitted and approved. In September 2005, a permit was granted to continue mining until August 2011.

Coal deposits

The coal reserves extend underground over a working area of ​​approximately 9 hectares . In 1997, the coal authority granted a license to mine 110,000 tons of coal. Although there are still around 150,000 tons of coal available, in 2003 only less than 50 tons were mined due to the shortage of employees. Four miners who only worked in the colliery in the mornings had only extracted 2900 tons of coal by October 2011.

Change of ownership

Billy Clayton died unexpectedly of a heart attack on May 16, 2008 while taking his grandson to school. His son of the same name, Billy Clayton son, then took over the operation of the colliery until it was closed in 2014.

Safety requirements

In December 2016, the state Health & Safety Executive issued a cease-and- desist directive on the risk of water ingress and submitted a suggestion for improvement with regard to the regular expert assessment of the compressor.

Peat dolomites

In Lancashire, particularly in the Burnley area , there are peat dolomites , which they call Burnley Bobbers . They are particularly common in the seams of the Upper Foot Mine and Lower Mountain Mine in East Lancashire, but also in the mines in Todmorden Moor on the eastern edge of this coal field. Because of their hardness, they often led to damage to the mining machinery as well as to the recovery iron and the chisels of the jackhammers in the coal mines in north-east Lancashire. The peat dolomites were common in the mines of Todmorden Moor. Some were collected from the spoil heaps by the locals because of the fossilization , others are still there.

Web links

Commons : Hill Top Colliery  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Magill: Reassurance over East Lancashire's coal mine safety. Lancashire Telegraph, November 9th 2011.
  2. ↑ AditNow: Hilltop coal mine and Billy Clayton.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Alex Potts and Thomas Imgrund: Hill Top Colliery, Forest of Rossendale, Lancashire. 2004
  4. ^ A b Northern Mine Research Society: Hill Top Colliery.
  5. ↑ The End of an Era: Hilltop Colliery - Bacup, 1997-2014, The Last Coal Mine in Lancashire, b3tarev3, Youtube, April 15, 2014.
  6. ↑ Old Meadows Colliery, Bacup 1968. Deputy traveling the district on his manriding cart, disc wheels, angle iron rails, iron turning plate. Still in use at Hilltop Colliery, Bacup a couple of years ago.
  7. ^ Alan Davies: Old Meadows Colliery, 1968. A deputy travels his district. In: Coal Mining in Lancashire & Cheshire. Amberley Publishing Limited, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b Hill Top Mine. Craven & Pendle Geological Society.
  9. ↑ a b c Burnley Borough Council 12/11/0368: Variation of condition 1 of permission 12/04/0813 to allow continuation of coal mining and associated operations until 2 August 2018 at Hill Top Colliery, Sharneyford, Bacup. October 19, 2011.
  10. ↑ Rachael Hardstaff: In memory of Bill Clayton - Three peaks challenge.
  11. ↑ Mr H's Hot Pot: End of an era at Hilltop Colliery, Lancashire's last coal mine. October 2, 2018.
  12. ↑ Notice 307666898 served against Grimebridge Colliery Company Limited on 12/12/2016.
  13. ↑ b3tarev3: Burnley bobbers / coal balls.