inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Wondered if anyone could shed some light on this Colliery, on the outskirts of Leeds.
I'll try to describe it's location. Take the A62 from the M62 at Gildersome. Follow the road past the "Ring" works on the left & over the brow. In a few hundred yds the road goes over a railway bridge, immediately before this bridge, on the left, is an industrial estate. This was the site of the pit.
This is a pic of what was left of the fan house, about 20 yrs ago.

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-72954[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-72954[/linkphoto][/link]

Looks like it housed an axial type fan, possibly a Sirocco?. If you look closely the radial grease stain can be seen on the brickwork, where it's been shielded from the elements.
Second pic shows the view from the pavement...that's how close it was to the A62.

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-72955[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-72955[/linkphoto][/link]

I've reason to think this pit was working under NCB ownership but can't find any details, can anyone help, are there any photo's of the pit working?
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
Lister
  • Lister
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
13 years ago
'Ravells Pit' or 'Raffles Pit' depending on which map you look at.
There is some info via Google but not a lot

Hope this helps

...Lister;~)
'Adventure is just bad planning' Roald Amundsen
Yorkshireman
13 years ago
Hi,

It's actually on AN. I posted it about 2 minutes ago 😉

Raffles Pit:
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/photo/Personal-Album-8946-Image-73008/ 

Cheers
D.
inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
"Lister" wrote:

'Ravells Pit' or 'Raffles Pit' depending on which map you look at.
There is some info via Google but not a lot

Hope this helps

...Lister;~)



OK, thanks Lister, I've heard this name before but didn't connect... :zzz:
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
"Yorkshireman" wrote:

Hi,

It's actually on AN. I posted it about 2 minutes ago 😉

Raffles Pit:
http://www.aditnow.co.uk/photo/Personal-Album-8946-Image-73008/ 

Cheers
D.



Thanks Yorkshireman, I'll print that map if that's OK?

Can anyone say when the pit closed?. The reason I think it was under NCB ownership, is because at the very edge of the pavement (I didn't take a photo) was the remains of a wall that had clearly been a non-loadbearing structure, like an office or store. It was built from those sandy textured lightweight bricks that the NCB used for such projects. On top of this wall was the remains of a wood window frame, or similar, painted in the light blue NCB type paint.

Here's another pic that shows the open shaft (it had been filled but the fill had slumped by several feet).

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-72956[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-72956[/linkphoto][/link]

And lastly, a view from the back, showing the entire structure & it's proximity to Gelderd rd. The muckstack to the left had clearly been dozed to fill the air shaft.
Sorry about the quality of the pics, they are photo's of photo's...

🔗Personal-Album-1583-Image-72957[linkphoto]Personal-Album-1583-Image-72957[/linkphoto][/link]

From memory, I'd say the shaft was about 5 to 6 feet diameter but the fan housing is another matter, could anyone work it out, say from the brick courses?

All of these remains have now gone...
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
rikj
  • rikj
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie
13 years ago
Nice pics John. Looks like there was an airshaft to start with, and a later winding shaft. Also, a substantial chimney, I guess from the fireclay works.

I think a large area above the pit buildings to the north and east was open casted at some point. It's marked on environment maps as landfill now.

Photo on the leodis photographic database from 1943:

UserPostedImage

Photo from 1952 looks like the headgear has gone:

UserPostedImage

The day hole workings were a lot further up the hill from here, so several seams must have been worked. The CA have been grouting old workings.

ladder monkey
13 years ago
I,ve driven up the A62 hundreds of times and never seen this will have alook tomorrow as I will be going down Geldard road at about 2pm 😢
just blundering about
inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
Hi rikj, thanks very much for those photo's, brilliant. It's great to see how things looked before the initial demolition. I take it that odd looking "chimney" on top of the fan house is the fan evasee, it's so out of scale with the building, it can't really be anything else.
The angled shape of the "fan wall" can clearly be seen & what I took to be spoil from a muckstack, dozed into place, is shown to have been there all along.
You can probably tell I'm really chuffed with those...thanks again :thumbsup:
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
"ladder monkey" wrote:

I,ve driven up the A62 hundreds of times and never seen this will have alook tomorrow as I will be going down Geldard road at about 2pm ;(



Hi ladder monkey, have a look by all means, but as I said above those remains I photographed are long gone. It's now just another modern industrial estate. As rikj says above, the site was a council landfill in the 1980's & it was around this time I had occasion to visit it many times. It must have been reaching the end tho', as they were only accepting subsoil. Sadly, none of the workers employed on site had a clue as to what the pit had been called
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
ladder monkey
13 years ago
Pulled earlier today and could see all the stone/brick work but there are a few warning signs(which doesn't deter me one bit) then a van full of pikeys pulled up (the local council site is 300m away) asking if I could do a job for them with my ladders, I gave a duff phone and fecked off down the road . :surrender: :surrender: :surrender:
just blundering about
ladder monkey
13 years ago
I will have another go next week :sneaky: :sneaky: :sneaky:
just blundering about
inbye
  • inbye
  • 50.2% (Neutral)
  • Newbie Topic Starter
13 years ago
"ladder monkey" wrote:

I will have another go next week :sneaky: :sneaky: :sneaky:



OK, & if possible, could you get an upto date image of the site? Would make a good wrap to the thread...
Regards, John...

Huddersfield, best value for money in the country, spend a day there & it'll feel like a week........
rosewhite
13 years ago
I lived at Mirfield and travelled into Leeds on the A62 many timein the 50/60s and watched the pit buildings being demolished and the site being used for other purposes.
Like lots of us we never thought of taking pix as we were surrounded by mines, pits, factories etc.
We had Garforth's Brickworks and quarry 100 yards away from home, little glass works next to the brickworks, hundred yards the other way was Kitson Hill pit heap and open shaft - danger? what danger?, down the road was the Three Nuns colliery site with the old gate stones, 😞 - Kenworthy Colliery shaft and air shafts in the local wood. My brother worked at Gregory Springs, then Waterloo collieries before going south to try a Cornish tin mine but that was so deep and wet and such a long trail to the face that he gave it up,
my uncle worked at Caphouse, Shuttle EYe and the day hole a little further along, my other uncle worked at dayholes around Mirfield, Cleckheaton until black lung got him, my cousins' husband worked the 18 inch seam at Emley Moor? colliery, my neighbour worked at various Dewsbury area pits until they all shut down, etc etc.
I once bought a motor bike from a mines rescue guy near Barsnley and worked at mills in Gomersal where coachloads of girls were brought from Upton and South Elmsall.
We had the malt kilns, mills, iron works, chemical works, barge yard, stoneyard with giant beam stone saw - all gone now but so sommon then that we never really took much notice of them all.

Disclaimer: Mine exploring can be quite dangerous, but then again it can be alright, it all depends on the weather. Please read the proper disclaimer.
© 2005 to 2023 AditNow.co.uk

Dedicated to the memory of Freda Lowe, who believed this was worth saving...