clockworklozenge
007
Hedleyhope colliery closed around 1960 as part of the NCBs disposal of uneconomic pits, its closure was anticipated by the mines managers and they saw an oppurtunity in this. In the decade preceeding closure the mine managers employed a number of their miners to drive a drift south of the site under farmland into a shallow unworked coal seam ,upon the miners accessing the seam of coal the drift was abandoned and the miners sent back to winding down the old districts.
The Hedleyhope managers hoped that after the main colliery site was closed by their employers the NCB , they would be able to buy the small wedge of land incorporating the site access road ,the above bridge across the river and their drift which had already been built for them at the NCBs expense,and work out this last section of untouched coal as a sort of nest egg.
What they were not aware of, is that the very coal seam the drift they had installed a decade earlier to access was already earmarked for opencast extraction,farmland just south of the site was extensively opencasted in the 60s and 70s and the seams completely removed rendering the drift useless,interestingly their work survived intact until around 1992 when the modern concrete and steel lined inclined drift was finally backfilled and landscaped.
007
Hedleyhope colliery closed around 1960 as part of the NCBs disposal of uneconomic pits, its closure was anticipated by the mines managers and they saw an oppurtunity in this. In the decade preceeding closure the mine managers employed a number of their miners to drive a drift south of the site under farmland into a shallow unworked coal seam ,upon the miners accessing the seam of coal the drift was abandoned and the miners sent back to winding down the old districts.
The Hedleyhope managers hoped that after the main colliery site was closed by their employers the NCB , they would be able to buy the small wedge of land incorporating the site access road ,the above bridge across the river and their drift which had already been built for them at the NCBs expense,and work out this last section of untouched coal as a sort of nest egg.
What they were not aware of, is that the very coal seam the drift they had installed a decade earlier to access was already earmarked for opencast extraction,farmland just south of the site was extensively opencasted in the 60s and 70s and the seams completely removed rendering the drift useless,interestingly their work survived intact until around 1992 when the modern concrete and steel lined inclined drift was finally backfilled and landscaped.