Tag: coal mining
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Clitherbecks — Coal, Cottages and Calamity
Clitherbecks, a very lonely and remote place on the moors near Danby, yet attaining a certain picturesque quality beneath the blanket of snow. The dale is renowned for its coal mining legacy. Modest, isolated shafts were operated using a ‘horse gin.’ Upon reaching the seam, horizontal headings were dug in various directions until deemed too…
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Coal Mining in Baysdale: success or failure?
The North York Moors might not be the first place you think of when it comes to coal mining, but it was actually a thriving industry at the end of the 18th century. Most of the mining areas were located along the high watershed to the south of the Esk valley, like Rudland Rigg and…
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Cuddy Trail — Tods Loup
On 12 March 1840, the Fife Herald carried an advertisement: LAMBERTON COLLIERY TO LET. To be Let, for such a number of years as may be agreed upon, with entry thereto at Whitsunday 1840, THE COAL FIELD situated on the Farm of LAMBERTON, in the parish of Mordington, and county of Berwick, as formerly occupied…
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Causey Arch
Prior to the late 17th-century, transportation of materials across the country was slow and difficult. Either by horse drawn carts or teams of ponies. More forward thinking industrialists were developing wagon-ways, horse-drawn first with wooden rails and rollers, then with flanged iron wheels. In the 1720s, when coal-owners were considering exploiting the coal fields below…
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Armouth Wath
When Baysdale Abbey was sold in 1803, the sale included a “supposed very considerable” coalmine. This would have been at Armouth Wath at the head of Baysdale, one of the furthest tributaries of the River Esk, although mining activity by this time would have been on the decline having reached its peak in the 18th…
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Friar’s Goose Pumping Engine, Gateshead
Within a stone’s throw behind the Gateshead International Stadium stands this ruin, well away from the sight of visitors to the stadium. The remains housed a steam engine built by Robert Stephenson for pumping water from the many coal mines that operated below the ground in the 19th century. Coal mining along the River Tyne first…