Local Coal mining

This Foldout looks at some aspects of coal mining in the district

Contents:

• General Points
• Local coal mining
• Coal mining in Clifton
• Coal mining in Judy Woods

General Points

In the 13th & 14th centuries, coal mining was recorded in the North-East of England, the Midlands and South Wales.

Early mines were

• Adits
• Drift Mines
• Bell Pits

In 1274, Richard the Nailer was given permission to mine coal at Hipperholme for use in forging.

Coal had long been used as a fuel for heating, and also for industrial uses such as lime burning and bleaching cloth.

Some was open-cast mining. In 1608, the manorial court required that coal pits along Wakefield Road be filled in because they presented a danger to man and horse.

In 1615, cheap coal became a popular fuel as firewood became scarce and expensive. Much of the woodland had been reduced by assarting.

The advent of stone and brick chimney flues encouraged the used of coal as fuel.

With the Industrial Revolution and the introduction of steam power, there came a huge demand for coal to drive the engines of the mills.

There are several coal measures, mines and quarries in the district – mainly east of the Hebble in a narrow strip of land running from Ainley Top to Queensbury, where the geology is that of the Lower Coal Measures or the Westphalian series.

Locally, coal deposits are often found together with clay and sandstone strata.

In general, the coal seams in the district were thin and did not produce large-scale quantities. The Calder & Hebble Navigation brought cheaper coal from outside the district.

At one time there were 33 local collieries, including

• Ainley Main Colliery
• Ambler Thorn – one of the last places in the Halifax area to have a coal mine – until 1942
• Brighouse
• Cinder Hills Colliery
• Clifton – recorded in 1307 and continued until 1928. There was a railway to take the coal down to the Calder
• Elland
• Fixby
• Ford Hill Colliery
• Four Lane End Colliery
• Hartshead
• Hipperholme
• Northowram
• Norwood Green Colliery
• Ovenden
• Rastrick
• Shelf – with the thickest seams up to 3 ft wide
• Shibden in the early 18th century. Anne Lister had several coal mines in and around the Shibden Hall estate
• Simm Carr
• Soil Hill
• Southowram
• Stainland
• Swan Bank Colliery – where coal mining was carried out from the 13th century. Christopher Rawson had coal mines here and elsewhere in the district
• There were many mines – mainly drift mines – in the Todmorden and Inchfield area

but there is no longer any local coal production.

Names such as Coal Pit Lane and Sough Lane suggest places where coal was mined in the past.

In 1947, a coal seam was discovered during roadworks on the Halifax-Queensbury road, and the coal was given to local residents.

There were deposits of copperas shale in the Ainleys area, and this was used as a substitute for coal, especially during the coal strike of 1912.

Coal measures are associated with shales, clay, sandstones and millstone grit.

The local Coal Measures stretch from Penistone, through Huddersfield and Halifax, to Denholme and Shipley. But these were less productive than the collieries in the thicker seams around Wakefield and Doncaster.

Local coal mining

The Haigh family of Inchfield 36 yard band coal Adit Ainley Main Colliery Ainley Top Bank Bottom Colliery, Halifax Bankwell Colliery, Cornholme Richard Batte Beggarington Pit, Hartshead Bell Pit Binns Bottom Mine, Southowram Black lung Blackburn & Sugden Colliery, Shelf Boothtown Colliery Boyes Bank Pit, Northowram Bradley Woods Bradshaw Lane Mine Breast 'ees Brow Pit, Ambler Thorn Cinder Hills Colliery, Southowram Joseph Clarke Clifton: Coal Mining Clough Head Mine, Todmorden Cloughfoot Coal Mine, Todmorden Coal Dike, Midgley Coates Pit, Hartshead Cockhill Farm Colliery, Shelf Cold Arbour Coal Pit, Boothtown Cold Harbour Mine, Boothtown Coolham Drift Mine, Todmorden Copperas shale Copy Pit Colliery, Todmorden Croft Pit, Hartshead Dam Head Colliery, Northowram Day hole pit Dearden Coal Mine, Todmorden Demain Coal Mine, Todmorden Dove House, Shibden Drift mine Dual economy Fenny Farm, Hipperholme Flat Field, Shibden Ford Hill Colliery, Queensbury Foul Clough Coal Mine, Todmorden Four Lane End Colliery, Shibden Hanging Hey, Shibden Hard Bed Pit, Siddal Hard coal Hartshead Colliery Hartshead Moor Pit Highfield Coal Pit, Southowram Holmes & Holt Holmes & Stocks Holt & Hebblethwaite Holt's Pit, Shibden Inchfield coal mines Judy Woods: Coal Mining

Jumble Pit, Norwood Green Kidnapper Coal Mine, Todmorden Knowl Top, Lightcliffe Light hole pit Limed House Soft Bed Colliery, Northowram Listerwick Colliery, Shibden Maiden Cross Colliery, Todmorden Mineral line Mines Act [1842] Mountain End Colliery, Northowram Mytholm, Shibden Nab End Mine, Boothtown Richard Naillour Norwood Green Coal Company Limited Norwood Green Colliery Norwood Green Pit Open-cast mining Pheasant Pit, Hartshead Quarry House, Northowram Rattan Clough Pit, Cornholme Red Gin Mine, Boothtown Richard the Nailer Rookes Colliery, Hipperholme Royds Hall, Low Moor Saunders Clough Colliery, Todmorden Seventeens Pit, Hartshead Shibden Hall Colliery Shoot Pit, Boothtown Simm Carr coal mine, Shibden Soft Bed Pit, Siddal Soft coal Soil Hill Sough South Grain Coal Mine, Todmorden Stone quarrying Swales Moor Pit, Northowram Swan Bank Coal & Brick Company Limited Swan Bank Colliery Temperley & Son Limited Thornhills Pit, Brighouse Three Nuns Pit, Hartshead Todmorden Moor Coal Mine Todmorden Moor Colliery Company Trough Edge, Walsden Trough-a-Bolland wood Tunnel End Coal Mine, Todmorden Turner's Pit, Boothtown Upper Coal Bed, Halifax Viewer Walker pit Walterclough Pit, Hipperholme Waterloo, Elland Wilson's Pit, Northowram

Page Ref: MMC141

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