I just registered - hoping to make contact with anyone who worked in/remembers this mine. My late Dad, Norman Aspinall, started there in 1944 (war service), but I understand the mine closed soon after & he then went to Park Mill. He was then at Park Mill until sometime between 1953 & 1956.
In his first week at sally Wood a man called John Kaye was killed & Dad had to help bring him out. I believe John is buried at Jackson Bridge - there is a grave of a John Kaye died May 11th aged 42.

I was there last Friday taking photos. There are two passage entrances close together, I have as yet only found one. I have the abandonment plan for this mine. The coal board know it as Meal Hill. The two shafts run for quite a distance before they reach the workings. The one edit I found has a slab of concrete over the entrance which has had a small aperture cut into it. It looks like a crawl. If you follow up the metalled road adjacent to it to Short Horns there is a covered shaft at the side of the stables opposite Short Horns House. In the third field on the road between the stables and house there is another covered shaft to the left side of the field with a power cable post in the middle of the hump. Most of the mine is up the hill to both sides from Short Horns.
It is linked to Meal Hill mines and those up the hill side above it. Also Snowgate Head Colliery and adjacent shafts. There is a chap at the Huddersfield Local History Society whose father worked down the mine if you would like me to contact for you.

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I got such a surprise today when I got an email notifying me of your post - had almost forgotten about the site -really interesting! As you can see I joined here 2 years ago & was very doubtful I would ever make any contact with anyone. Thank you so much for the info & yes I would like to make contact with the person you mention. I will PM you my email address to forward to him. Unfortunately I never asked my Dad about his time there - the details I gave above were told to me by my aunt (his sister) only a few years ago after Dad had died. Do you have some personal connection to this mine?

Hi
I am looking into mines round Huddersfield to set up a lecture so I have been trying to find information of local mines and quarries. I then have to start putting the info onto this site. There must be twenty or more shafts and adits linked to this complex of mines. Some fields up behind it have been site stripped and the coal removed.
A local owner has some land which was stripped for coal in the 1940 and stripped again in the 1950 for fire clay. He did not know of the two adits

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Hi
I have emailed you.

This is how the building remains at Sally Wood,looked in 1982.
Excuse the quality, it's a photo of a snapshot. I have a few others, both above & below ground, I'll post when my web connection works properly...


🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-73158[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-73158[/linkphoto][/link]

This shows the bricked drift mouth, behind the rendered wall, to the right of the tree. Access was via a metal milk crate, used as a vent, which can just be seen at ground level.

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-73176[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-73176[/linkphoto][/link]

Next view is in the mine, looking back towards the drift mouth. Ground level outside is about two thirds up the wall.

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-73177[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-73177[/linkphoto][/link]

View from the same spot, looking into the mine.

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-73178[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-73178[/linkphoto][/link]

After about 50yds, the end of the road...

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-73197[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-73197[/linkphoto][/link]


Hope this is of interest...

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Whoever bricked the adit, placed an old fashioned galvanised metal milk crate in the brickwork, to act as an air vent. There were a number of steel bars passed thro' the crate & into the joints between the bricks. The erm' "explorer" 😉 had to lay in front of the entrance, dressed in camo gear & cut thro' the bars, with a hacksaw blade. I imagine it took a fair bit of effort.
The crate had done it's job tho', there was no trace of gas in the workings.

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Hi John
Did you find the other drift entrance which is adjacent to the one shown. I have met a chap who had his step father work there when he was young. He told me he played in the entrance when it was working and you could go in so far and the tunnel forked and you could come back down the other one.
LeeW has recorded the Old Sally Wood mine which is in the wood on the opposite side of the track from the old buildings you have shown. There is another shaft further up the wood towards the Soverign just below the road. The field to the top side of the wood has a further two shafts in it but all you can see is flat areas

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Hi John
Did you find the other drift entrance which is adjacent to the one shown. I have met a chap who had his step father work there when he was young. He told me he played in the entrance when it was working and you could go in so far and the tunnel forked and you could come back down the other one.
LeeW has recorded the Old Sally Wood mine which is in the wood on the opposite side of the track from the old buildings you have shown. There is another shaft further up the wood towards the Soverign just below the road. The field to the top side of the wood has a further two shafts in it but all you can see is flat areas

Hi Roger, no, bearing in mind all this was back in 1982, I wasn't aware there were any other parts to the workings, at that time (although I did wonder about ventilation).
Presumably, the Old Sally wood workings went the opposite way, towards Fulstone, is that right?

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Hi John
The old workings presumably went towards Fulstone as you sugest. The dip in the valley stops them going towards Jackson Bridge.
There are other mines at New Mill and up Cold Hill Lane which run towards the Sinking Wood Mine and Thurstonland/Fulstone.

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Interesting to see those pictures & the additional information. Hard to imagine my Dad crawling into there!

If he did crawl in there,they must have had small drams.

Interesting pictures there ....

And believe me the crawl into there is a bit tighter still now :angel:

Interesting pictures there ....

And believe me the crawl into there is a bit tighter still now :angel:

Cheers 😉 Did it look 'owt like the pics? Could you get as far as that "ironstone" fall?. One look at that suggested it was pretty final...

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Hi
There was an old ironstone mine above Woods Pit.
When the old mine owners came together to form "The Hepworth Iron Company" you can see where the iron came from before it run out and eventualy they went to clay to make the pipes etc. Then they went to plastic.

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