Having stopped at the campsite numerous times, I would suggest that it
is not a coal mine site. The coal mines are spread out along the
anthracite seam which is quite a way above Alston, and tend to consist
of adits spread along the outcrop of the one seam. They can be well seen
around Clarghyll and Ayle about a couple of miles out of Alston on the
A686 heading north towards Hexham.
My recollection of the tank/tunnel would be that it has been salvaged
and used as such. The campsite also doubles as a scrap yard cum
engineering works (not quite as bad as it sounds) and there is live and
dead plant strewn about all over the place.
My supposition (although I have no way of proving it) is that the site
is something to do with the railway terminus. Presumably someone with
access to old maps of the area should be able to give a correct answer.
In message <02030808584804.30098@linux6>, Harald Finster
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Hello,
>
>this might be a bit of a strange request, but anyways...
>
>A few years ago I happened to come accross the town of Alston
>and was looking for a campground to stay for a night.
>I found the place in walking distance from the town centre.
>If I remember correctly, there was a railway museum nearby and
>something looking like an abandoned filling station.
>When I entered the showers in the morning, I noticed two
>strange things:
>The entry into the building (a relatively big brick-building)
>lead through some kind of 'tunnel' made of corrugated steel.
>The tunnel looked as if it would have been an 'entry into the
>underground' but ended after about 5 metres. The shower
>building was accessible through a 'hole' in the tunnel wall.
>The second strange thing was the fact, that there ** was **
>a shower building with plenty of showers, which did not look
>like 'ordinary' camp ground showers (much older, but not
>with the usual modern 'quick-and-cheap-to-install' technique).
>
>As I did not know, that Alston used to be a coal mining area
>(shame on me), the idea, that this unusual camp ground shower
>might have been part of an abandoned small coal mine, did
>not come to my mind until I read about small mines in Alson in
>one of John Cornwell's books.
>
>So, is there anyone, who can confirm (or not) my assumption?
>
>Thanks and greetings
>
>Harald
>
>--
>Harald Finster, Aachen, Germany
>http://www.finster-stahlart.de industrial history and architecture
>http://www.astrid-aix.de gallery: watercolours and oil paintings
--
Dave Williams - [log in to unmask]
Visit the Mining History Network at
http://info.exeter.ac.uk/~RBurt/MinHistNet
for information on PDMHS Ltd., the active Mining History Society.
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