Historic Photographs Of High Skears (album)

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Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

Might they be the same two people showing on a photo from Marlbeck you posted a few weeks ago?

[photo]104192[/photo]

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legendrider
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9 years ago

Yes, they look the same to me too.

I think he might be Ralph Raine, JP, who mined at Coldberry on a small scale in the 1920/30's before ELME surveyed the area

The woman is likely his daughter Mary Phyllis, for whom he named his 43' level in Coldberry.

Educated guess only, though!!!

MARK

festina lente[i]

PeteJ
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9 years ago

Yes, I agree with legendrider. There are some more pics with the same people. I am uploading them as I get round to tweaking the original images. I called in at Low Skears yesterday - wonderful site with well preserved dressing floors and building remains. Spoilt by the sheep dip fencing round the level, but this is gradually falling down and fading away. The threat to the site is the river which is starting to erode the mine dump. Hopefully, if funding is available in 2016-7, there may be some defences built at the toe of the dump.

Pete Jackson
Frosterley
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Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

I have some underground pics of Low Skears and some of the flowstone in Firestone Level to upload in a while and 3 of Coldberry North Level (not accessible now?).

As an additional point did the various firestone levels get mined for firestone as well as lead etc or was the sill outcrop mainly an indicator of likely mineralisation? Sorry if that's a dim question.

PeteJ
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9 years ago

The title Firestone is a historic dales term going back to at least 1800. The stone is usually free of joints and bedding and can be shaped into larger pieces. Presumably it was used in fireplaces. It is also a favourable bed for mineralisation.

Pete Jackson
Frosterley
01388527532

legendrider
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9 years ago

I don't think the Firestone level(s) were specifically mined for stone, although some use may have been made of the muckings for arching/packwalling stone etc. I doubt many large, commercially valuable chunks of Sandstone would have remained after blasting. I understand that the Fire- was the spark which steel tools produced when the stone was struck, and to which I can attest!

Skears FSL runs through hard sandstone for 2000 ft before shale appears in the roof beam, with the inevitable consequences.

I would love to see any underground pics of Coldberry; I'm sure I've plenty of Skears to upload, just need a wet weekend - alright ANOTHER wet weekend!

MARK

festina lente[i]

royfellows
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9 years ago

"legendrider" wrote:

I would love to see any underground pics of Coldberry;

MARK

Be careful what you wish for!
;D

My avatar is a poor likeness.

Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

The reason I asked is that firestone/ganister was quarried for use (outside the Dales re PeteJ's point) as a furnace base (and fireclay was specifically taken in many coal mines for refractory brick) and the number of smelt mills in the Pennines I was wondering if it had also a value for that purpose. As you say if it was just driven through it would have little remaining value but is/was there any evidence of more extensive workings to extract it? Perhaps yet more wet weather musings.

legendrider
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9 years ago

I think it unlikely that this type of sedimentary rock would be useful in refractory applications other than for secondary structures not directly exposed to high temperatures.

There is evidence of quarrying sandstone on the fells, and if you have a look near the portal of Richardsons Level behind Coldberry Shop, there is a large pile of rough-hewn sandstone piled up still waiting to go in. There's no evidence of stone mining in Skears FSL drive; the outcrop of this sill is buried by glacial boulder clay at this location.

In Arkengarthdale, Moulds Old level was quarried for chert after lead working ceased, I believe this was used for kerbstones and cobbles, and in Great Eggleshope and Stang, roofing 'slates' were mined (as opposed to quarried).

Seems to me that roofing material was worth mining, walling stone was only worth quarrying.

still raining....

MARK

festina lente[i]

PeteJ
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9 years ago

#10

Westgarth Forster wrote " "strikes fire with steel plentifully." "It is sometimes used as hearth-stones for fireplaces....".

Pete Jackson
Frosterley
01388527532

Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

#11

Still raining here as well and that over 30 miles north of you!, I also have a couple of Moulds Old Level pics from early 70's I think.

If you look at AN info on Godstone quarry, firestone was mined for refractory stuff (for the glass industry) as well as building materials and the BGS website has some info on Namurian deposits including firestone in the North Pennines which mentions refractory uses , I'll find the link later (I cleared all the browers links yesterday so I'll have to dig a bit)

Mind you the rugby's quite interesting as well.

Re PeteJ point firestone and hearthstone deposits seem to be related but different in sedimentary deposits.

legendrider
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9 years ago

#12

"PeteJ" wrote:
Westgarth Forster wrote " "strikes fire with steel plentifully." "It is sometimes used as hearth-stones for fireplaces....".

Can't argue with The Man! And gives credence to both naming conventions too!!

The Godstone quarry photos are interesting. The rock looks a lot less finely bedded than the Teesdale FS, probably much easier to work, more suited to hearth/lintel-sized blocks.

Thanks for the pointers

Mark

festina lente[i]

PeteJ
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9 years ago

#13

Gannister quarries at Harthope between Langdon Beck and St Johns, and probably others elsewhere. These quarries are in a massive bedded sandstone - see the aditnow entry for Harthope. This material was crushed and used to make refractory bricks. The quarry above Stanhope at Bolts Law was ( I think) for moulding sand. "English Rock Terms", Arkell and Tomkeieff, OUP, 1953, lists Firestone - common term in the Lower Lias of Dorset and Somerset. Firestone of Surrey etc. "A fine grained siliceous stone that resists fire..."

Pete Jackson
Frosterley
01388527532

Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

#14

By the by, chert (and flint) generate sparks when struck, are firestone layers rich in chert? and is there firestone in Moulds Old level?

Additionally chert makes a mess of wetsuits.

legendrider
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9 years ago

#15

I've not personally seen any chert banding in the FS, its probably the high silica content facilitating sparks.

I've not been in Moulds for years now, we had a look in 1986, then again a few years later, the chert workings had suffered major collapses where the timber props had rotted away.

br MARK

festina lente[i]

christwigg
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9 years ago

#16

"legendrider" wrote:

I've not been in Moulds for years now, we had a look in 1986, then again a few years later, the chert workings had suffered major collapses where the timber props had rotted away.

Decidedly 'iffy' but still accessible when I visited in 2010.#
[photo]56456[/photo]

Jim MacPherson
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9 years ago

#17

I raise your Westgarth-Forster quote with a slightly longer one about Old Booth Edge quarry in Derbyshire, I think.

Westgarth-Forster 1821 treatise

"It has long furnished Mill-stones, of pretty good quality, of which, formerly, there ... It affords also Fire-stone for the hearths of iron-furnaces, since it endures heat remarkably well. The upper beds are very thin; these are used for paving stones, and ..."

Additionally when two cementation furnaces were excavated at Coalbrookdale the chests were, in part made from silica-rich sandstone which would have operated at temperatures around 1000 degrees C.

Yorkshireman
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9 years ago

#18

Interesting,

the German word for flint and chert is "Feuerstein" (firestone)