Mines, mining and quarrying

This shot shows the portal area of the Surface Drift under construction. The steel arch girders are being encased in concrete. Eventually this near-surface portion will be covered in colliery spoil and landscaped.

Thurcroft Colliery, near Rotherham. No.1 (downcast) Shaft for coal and fresh air to the left of centre; and at the extreme right, No.2 (upcast) Shaft, also known as the 'Shonkey' shaft for some strange reason, for men, materials, and return air.

A view of 'Pithouse West' opencast coal site taken on 12th March 1993 looking northwards roughly in the area where Brookhouse Colliery (deep mine) used to be. The opencast mining was carried out to recover shallow coal from the site of the former colliery: coal too thin and shallow to have been mined by conventional underground methods. The former colliery site also included waste tips, slurry lagoons and coke ovens, all of which were removed and their remains buried deep within the backfill of the opencast site. The picture shows the Clowne coal seam with the overburden removed, ready for lifting and loading into trucks. The white scar in the middle of the picture is a fault - a natural fracture in the rocks displacing the coal seam down to the right-hand side of the picture. After the opencast site was finished in the mid-1990s, the site was restored to form part of the Rother Valley Country Park. Scanned from Kodachrome 64 transparency film.

Coal from Brookhouse Colliery was made into coke at the adjacent coke ovens. Rams push the red-hot coke into a hopper mounted on rails. The hopper is electrically driven (via the pair of overhead wires in the centre of the picture) and is transported a few tens of metres away to the cooling area where jets of water are sprayed onto the coke to cool it. It is then loaded into lorries to go to the steel works. The coke ovens were closed and dismantled in the late 1980s. The land was opencasted to recover the shallow coal and then restored to make the Rother Valley Country Park.

Coal from Brookhouse Colliery was made into coke at the adjacent coke ovens. Rams push the red-hot coke into a hopper mounted on rails. The hopper is electrically driven (via the pair of overhead wires in the centre of the picture) and is transported a few tens of metres away to the cooling area where jets of water are sprayed onto the coke to cool it. It is then loaded into lorries or wagons to go to the steel works. The coke ovens were closed and dismantled in the late 1980s. The land was opencasted to recover the shallow coal and then restored to make the Rother Valley Country Park.

Coal from Brookhouse Colliery was made into coke at the adjacent coke ovens. Rams push the red-hot coke into a hopper mounted on rails. The hopper is electrically driven - you can see the locomotive and its electric pickup - and is transported a few tens of metres away to the cooling area where jets of water are sprayed onto the coke to cool it. It is then loaded into lorries or wagons to go to the steel works. The coke ovens were closed and dismantled in the late 1980s. The land was opencasted to recover the shallow coal and then restored to make the Rother Valley Country Park.

Waste tip with Brookhouse shaft in the background. The mine was closed in the late 1980s. The land was opencasted to recover the shallow coal and then restored to make the Rother Valley Country Park.

Brookhouse Shaft was the main coal winding shaft for Brookhouse Colliery and was also the downcast shaft for fresh air to enter the mine. The upcast shaft (Beighton shaft) was unusually distant - about 3/4 mile away. The mine was closed in the late 1980s. The land was opencasted to recover the shallow coal and then restored to make the Rother Valley Country Park.

This greeted everyone who came to the main colliery office entrance at Brookhouse.

Evening sun over the waste tips around the old slate quarries near Chapel Stile See where this picture was taken. [?]

Someone has been living rough among the old Bolehill quarries near Padley Gorge.

This is the top of the old incline which was used to transport stone from the Bolehill Quarries down to the Derwent Valley where it was then taken by narrow-gauge railway to be used in the construction of the Howden and Derwent Dams. See also here: www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/DBY/Grindleford/BoleHi... See where this picture was taken. [?]

The remains of the engine-house (?) at the top of the old incline which was used to transport stone from the Bolehill Quarries down to the Derwent Valley where it was then taken by narrow-gauge railway to be used in the construction of the Ladybower and Derwent Dams. See also here: www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/DBY/Grindleford/BoleHi... See where this picture was taken. [?]

There are quite a few ochrous discharges from abandoned mine workings in and around the City. This one is the culverted drainage outfall from the abandoned Moss Mine (ganister and coal) in Ryecroft Glen, Dore, Sheffield.

First of all, I did not take this picture. It was taken by the National Coal Board South Wales Area Photographer, but I was with him at the time. I have posted this here by request to show the technique of 'painting with light' to capture images underground in a hazardous, gassy environment, where electronic, or flash equipment cannot be used. The camera was set up on a tripod, all lights were turned out and the the shutter opened on the 'B' setting. The photographer then used his cap-lamp to paint the entire area with light, starting at the top and working downwards in a series of sweeps from side-to-side. Then the shutter was closed. The entire exposure was about 30 seconds. The picture shows the results of an outburst of coal and gas which has overwhelmed the shearer (just visible to the left of where the chain disappears into the debris). South Wales, Cynheidre Colliery, BV24 face, 5th May 1983.

First of all, I did not take this picture. It was taken by the National Coal Board South Wales Area Photographer, but I was with him at the time and I am in the photo (see note towards upper left of photo). I have posted this here by request to show the technique of 'painting with light' to capture images underground in a hazardous, gassy environment, where electronic, or flash equipment cannot be used. The camera was set up on a tripod, all lights were turned out and the the shutter opened on the 'B' setting. The photographer then used his cap-lamp to paint the entire area with light, starting at the top and working downwards in a series of sweeps from side-to-side. Then the shutter was closed. The entire exposure was about 30 seconds. The picture shows the results of an outburst of coal and gas which has overwhelmed the shearer (the coal cutting machine). South Wales, Cynheidre Colliery, BV24 face, 5th May 1983.

The old Copperas House in the Limb Valley near Ringlinglow. Copperas was a concentrated solution of ferrous sulphate used in the tanning industry. It was made in rectangular ponds behind the house, from the highly pyritic Ringinglow Coal, which was mined nearby.

Abandoned millstone near Over Owler Tor and Millstone Edge quarries. There is a maker's identification mark (an 'x') just to the right of the centre hole. This millstone possibly dates from the 18th century and was probably abandoned before completion, due to a flaw in the stone becoming apparent.