Hi there does anybody have any information on the West Nab Coal pit?

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/mines/West-Nad-Pit-Coal-Mine/ 

It's below a hill called West Nab above Meltham in West Yorkshire, near Huddersfield. I live in the area but I've never found a mine entrance there (not looked very hard though). I've heard that exploring coal mines can be dodgy as the ventilation wont work any more so gasses can build up, so is it best left alone if it is there anymore?

Thanks for the help, I'm new to mine exploration but have done a bit of caving so excuse my ignorance.

Sorry, can't help on this one, but I think I know a man who can. I'll give him a shout....he may have missed this. I'm thinking access in this area is unlikely but don't let that put you off. Old coal workings need that bit of extra care, as well as a safety lamp.

Welcome to the forum, by the way...

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Hi Welcome to the forum.
Inbye may mean me.
West Nab Colliery. Walk down public footpath from Wesenden Head Road towards Brow Grains.
There is a road/drive on the left up to West Nab Cottage. To the left of this road is a pond. Look behind the pond and you will see a shale exposure, slag heap. The colliery is behind the slag heap in a vee in the hillside. There is not much to see but a small stone partial built wall set in an 'L' shape. in each face of this you can see just the entrance to the two drifts. You can see slag heaps all down the down the hill side to Brow Grains. All the hillside was mined with drift mines. At Brow Grains there was two shafts which have been capped by the CA. The shafts are about 8 m deep. I believe all these are on private land. The CA have colapsed all the drifts I was informed.
Contact if you want more info

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Thanks for the reply and the welcome. Sounds llike that mine's a no go then, just a couple of small shafts, but thanks for the info. I had no idea that area was ever mined, didnt think there was anything to mine in the Dark Peak.

There were several coal mines around the Whaley Bridge/Goyt Valley area, and bell pits for coal at the back of Stanage Edge.

We, a small contingent from PDMHS, have been surveying coal mine sites on the gritstone/shale - both to east and west of the Peak District. On the west side, between Gradbach and Ollersett Moor some 1000 coal mine sites have been surveyed. This work should be published in Mining History in the next few years. There is also much information in the 'Notes and Observations' published over the last 10 years in the PDMHS Newsletter.

I would also suggest that you also take a look at various articles in copies of British Mining which cover gritstone/shale/limestone areas of coal mining from Bradford and Keighley right up to Penrith and Carlisle and which also include the Jurassic coalfields of the North Yorkshire Moors.

David Kitching is also carrying out a great deal of fieldwork on the western edge of the Peak District from the Poynton Coalfield down towards Macclesfield.

Hey Forum!!!

This is fascinating stuff!

The Brow Grains/Shooters Nab area is local and has greatly interested me since I happened to notice two 'shafts (dis)' annotated on the old Explorer 021 sheet. At the time I had no idea there was any mining at all in the Linthwaite/Slaithwaite/Marsden/Meltham quadrangle. Since then I have learned about 'Golcar Cave' and something called 'linfit pit', despite never finding them.

So far as the Meltham area goes, I dragged my VERY long suffering best friend and his missus out to Brow Grains one Saturday afternoon in early autumn to give the place the once over. As it happens; between the shafts, the water borehole and the reservoir conduit that little fold of land is very busy with lots of industrial archaeology to see for folks who are interested in that sort of thing. Sadly I believe the pump-house itself is marked as 'mothballed' on the Yorkshire Water drought plan, but I would have loved to see it working.

We took quite a few photos, but never did manage to find the disused coal shafts - despite walking right up to the terminus of Brow Grains Road where it drops off under the high moor. I DID locate the largest of the muck heaps though. Annoyingly on that trip I had no idea there were additional adits to be found or 'cropworks' as the GS memoirs put it. At the time the cottage was up for sale and so we could have had a really good hunt around without putting anyone's nose out of joint. Looking back over my photos it IS possible I have a picture which shows the right area, but only as accidental background without any detail in the blur.

There is almost no information on the 'Net about these workings. In fact Isabel's post supplies in one go more details than I have found in ten years of Googling! So far as my own very un-scholarly research goes; from old OS sheets I guess the shafts were sunk between 1840-50 as they are not marked before the 1854 1-10,000 sheet. Of course that could just mean up until then the OS had not bothered putting them on! Also, from what I have read I think all the workings at Brow Grains were on a very small scale, pretty much for domestic use only with individual families buying or leasing the rights to dig out their own requirements. in fact I have heard rumours there are quite a few similar family-owned shafts and drifts in Meltham village centre itself, unmarked and gently subsiding close by the church.

As a slight digression - there is another, presumably coal shaft marked on the 1854 sheet in the locality of Brow Grains, around the right-angle corner of Shooters Nab (roughly: SE 061 111) and fairly close to the path that leads up to the quarries there. You have to brave the wrath of the Rifle Club who - reasonably I suppose! - tend to not want walkers or climbers on their land for fear of accidentally hitting them with a ricochet. Nonetheless, the incredibly dramatic quarry-workings are worth making the effort to see even if the disused pit seems to have totally vanished.

Anyway, I would greatly like to read as much information as anyone has on the Brow Grains Colliery. Indeed, if anyone can pinpoint 'linfit pit', supply details on the shaft at Shooters Nab or 'Golcar Cave' that would be fascinating also.

Hi
The two shafts at Brow Grains I think are now in the recently enclosed land the West Nab Cottage. At the end of the path you can see the spoil heap at the side of the new fence. One of the shafts has access for bats.
The shafts I have heard were about 8 m deep down to the lower Meltham coal. There is another shaft at the side of the track round to Deer Hill Reservoir. Not found yet but shown on OS.
The mine near Shooters Nab again not found but there is a brick ramp and loading area which behind it has an area that has been worked. What for I do not know. Locals say Ganister but I did not find any. The NCB plans show a shaft. I have yet to go and search this area properly.
Regarding Golcar Cave this came up previously on this forum. It is in a small wooded valley behind I think it is Heath House Mill. It is sited under a stone outcrop.
The mines in Meltham. There are two shafts off Colders Lane just off the footpath adjacent to a house on the left, from Church that adjoins a grassed field. There has been a large area enclosed by a stone wall about a year ago it is in the entrance to this area. The shafts go down to the upper and lower Meltham coal.
From bore holes I have found there is mine workings at the bottom of Wesenden Head Road on the right as you leave Meltham, possibly there was workings on the land behind the fire station.
If you know of others could you let me know

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Some photos of Golcar Cave on ME:

http://www.mine-explorer.co.uk/mines/Golcar_1172/Golcar.asp 

though it looks to be a trial adit, not a cave.

If you come to the "See how they run" event at Caphouse I suspect there might be a few local mine researchers and explorers from this forum there. And some not so local ones as well.

Welcome to aditnow.

Hey Isabel!

Many thanks for replying so soon! You have actually touched on ANOTHER item of shooters nab/brow grains that I find extremely interesting and enigmatic - the brick loading area you mention.

It is not annotated on the explorer 021 sheet but situated pretty much exactly under the label 'Hind Hill' at SE 05932 10560. There is also a clearly marked road or path that runs directly into the 'brick thing'.

When I first saw it in the distance from the quarries I wondered if it might not be a ruined winding house or gateway into some chamber within the mound. On close inspection there is no shaft in the floor and no sign of one being capped off despite a fair amount of rubble and the structure is fairly shallow. The place actually looks to have been partially demolished with a good part of the upper walls now collapsed inwards.

You think it may be a loading area of some kind? Like perhaps a coal shunt except for Gannister? That does make sense.

The mound that runs up behind it is definitely artificial I would say, but I could not make out any source for all the muck. At the time I was up there I did wonder if it was perhaps linked to the first and second word war use of the army rifle range - perhaps an ammo bunker distant from the main complex for safety. Also, the thing has a sort of concrete plinth on top of the mound. There are what could feasibly be rails set in to it - I wondered again if it was some sort of wartime radar post, a AAA battery or even perhaps a Starfish site. Then again it is also possible the 'rails' are just reinforcing bars, exposed due to weathering.

Thinking about it now i wonder if that patch of concrete is not perhaps the capping to a shaft? That would certainly make a lot of sense. It also leaves me pretty uncomfortable as the concrete is in pretty bad shape and I spent quite a while photographing and standing around on it!!!

As you can tell it perplexed me hugely at the time and I do have quite a lot of photographs I could upload if there is any interest.

After posting here yesterday by sheer chance I managed to run down the Coal Authority web site and had a look at their post-2011 online maps. They do give at least some information on the workings at Brow Grains - if only how they have ruined them for 'safety'. It seems the 'shafts (dis)' have indeed been capped off and recently too. The northern one as you say has a bat vent set in to local stone but only two meters of the actual shaft remain anyway. The infill could have been done in the past though, perhaps even by the land owner as all the other sites have been sealed by the CA with concrete blocks.

Down in Meltham I heard from a lady in the huddersfield geological society there are subsiding workings which make it impossible to build - thankfully!!! - in certain areas of the village and are indeed specifically responsible for the clear area around SE 09749 10455.

I don't like all this enclosure that is going on. Up on the tops it is supposed to be National Trust access land. I am not an absolutely rabid right-to-roamer and I understand why the rifle range want to keep people away from the fall of shot. However our industrial heritage is vanishing constantly and even the out of the way places are now being ruined by capping and collapse for some short-sighted idea of 'safety'. Mark the site well on maps, certainly sign post the general area but leave the workings heavily fenced off and alone for future generations to investigate. That is what I say.

Many thanks for the welcome rikj!!

Those photos of Golcar Cave are VERY interesting! It looks to be a really solidly constructed thing. It is always nice to see the old pick marks in the wall - not dissimilar in fact to sections of standedge tunnel.

I wonder what they were digging for? And how long ago? Maybe it was not coal/Gannister but perhaps some kind of water project? I have read there are similar-sounding adits over at berry brow.

The Caphouse event does sound pretty enticing!

The only area at Meltham where they aren't building is Colders Lane, the rest is built on.
You mention Berry Brow and the tunnels, where are these? There is a lot of coal mining at Berry Brow with the Hard Ground Colliery from Damside coming part way down Newsome Road South to below the school.
There are mines at Stirley Hill and Berry Brow
roger

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http://www.huddersfield1.co.uk/huddersfield/tolson/water_supplies/local_waterworks.htm . Scroll down to the berry brow and upper and lower parks section.

Supposedly there are a couple of adits that were dug into the hillside to aid water gathering and are still there in the woods. In 1999 the then-current farmer turned over his tenancy to Kircklees council who used the water supply to construct a nature reserver with pond. I have never been but from the description I would judge the old drift and new pond are are around: SE 14556 12921 - between upper and lower park Berry Brow.

New to this site but I've always had an interest in local history and coal is part of it. The Meltham pit you mentioned I came across 20 years ago as I saw 2 shafts marked on a 1920s OS map. I actually almost fell down one as they were just left open. I have also been inside the drift mines, stupid to do and very scary. There was a building at the top that was a bath house obviously used for the pits. I have some photos somewhere, pre-digtal so I will dig them out when i have time.

Hi Minerdetails and welcome to the 'madhouse'
There are a few members of this side live in the Huddersfield area.
It would be very interesting to see the photos you have whatever the condition. I have yet to find any others. I met a chap in Meltham from Helm who had also played in the mines when he was young.
I assume the bath house was at the top left opposite the road up to West Nab Cottage, I believe the mines shut down in the mid 1800 as the Coal Board have no plans. Bath houses started about 1932 ish. Very interesting
There is a film being made about Meltham and I hope to be covering the Mining in this area in the film. At Royds Edge mines they look to have been getting Coal, Ganister & Fire Clay.

Linfit Pit has been mentioned earlier on this 'Forum' I worked at 'Hoyle House' in the early sixties and I repaired a hut which I am sure I was told belonged to the mine. This was up the road/dirt track from the toilet block opposite the road down to Bargate canal length/Titanic Mills. Can anybody confirm this?
roger

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I have just received the abandonment plans for the above which goes as " Meltham Colliery". OS maps show it as "West Nab Colliery"
This will solve the problem of which is Meltham Colliery. Uriah Tinker employed 10 men and 10 boys in 1851 at Meltham Colliery. Records also show Meltham Colliery open 1864-73.
The plans don't show a link to Brow Grains. The drift lower down Brow Grains track links to Meltham Colliery.
'Greens End Mine' on Colders Lane, Meltham would not be Meltham Colliery as some records sugest. Also GEM only covers the area of the adjoining field at two levels which was worked 1903-14.
roger

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Re comment on bath house, judging by the dates of closure it doesn't seen correct unless someone had a go in a small way last century. The building was up a track from Wessenden head Road and clearly visible. In it were steam pipes and shower heads so I assume it was to do with mining. There is some kind of drain adit to the left of the track a few hundred yards from the road but I was told to get out of the area the last time i was there. Interesting to note that I found an unexploded rocket grenade projectile near a ruined building at the end of Brow Grains road, which obviously had the charge rotted out. A few weeks after finding it, the Huddersfield Examiner in an article "50 years ago today" two schoolboys found one in the same area and took it home. It went off and killed them both! The area was used as a SAS training ground during the war so there's probably all sorts lying around. Has anyone any info on Peace PIt or New Pit at Leeds Road Huddersfield as I live just across the road and would like to see any photos relevant.

Very Interesting
As you go down to Brow Grains from Wessenden Head Road the West Nab Colliery is to the left just before the track to West Nab Cottage. Where exactly was the bath house was it off the footpath from Wess.Head Rd. to Brow grains.
The mine might have been opened up in the last war?
There is no building there now or at Brow Grains.

Re Peace Pit and New Peace Pit.
New Peace Pit had two shafts, on is to the back side of the new sports centre the other is in the old road adjacent. Both were part of the Fieldhouse Collieries which ran from Whitaker Street to the Old Town Ground, from the river , in places, to Fartown. Dug out coal and fireclay for the brickworks. Would have linked underground to the Lane Colliery off Hillhouse Lane, now Council refuse centre. There were several shafts linked to this.

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Hey Roger!!!

Many apologies for not replying sooner - I have been dealing with issues at home. It is not easy to find a good nursing home for one's parents. It is even less easy to actually send them off to it... A miserable business.

Then I find AditNow won't let me PM!!!

Anyway, yes - I am local to the Colne Valley/Huddersfield area. I live just short of Slaithwate above Manchester Road. I know the Hoylehouse/Linthwaite area intimately - which is why I am so astounded to read your mention of the hut above Bargate! WOW!!!

I had absolutely NO IDEA there was anything up there in that 'Birdcage' house area or towards Hoyle Ing. Is that where the pit was? There were huge quarry workings behind Malinson's mill and up towards Causeway Side. They were filled in at some point before the mid seventies though. I wonder if it was not for coal but for fireclay? There was a large brickworks in the area adjacent to the old mill around the start of the century.

Hi
I am going from memory on this. But there must be something round there I think. Bargate is the likely spot. Don't know about the Quarries, but there is exposed stone all up that valley.
Up at Hey Green, Marsden there used to be a gas works where did they get the coal? If you stand just before Hey Green Hotel and look straight forward up to Pule Hill, half way up there are diggings on the hill side showing signs of black shale ?.
In your area also there are old mine workings at Merrydale etc. for you to check
roger

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