Thanks Gavin (and others)
I had not come across Open Library site. What an excellent resource.
There are loads of references to bord and pillar working, which I
shall spend some time looking through. (And I was particularly
impressed by the concept of "subterranean farming" in the Google book
source you gave. And I thought that today's "wind farming" was a
modern euphemism!)
Mike
---
On 12 Sep 2008, at 19:50, Gavin McLelland wrote:
> I have found the Open Library and Google books useful in finding
> information on old mining practices.
>
> Available on Google books is the rather snappily titled
>
> http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xz4JAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA199&dq=Journal+of+a+Tour+and+Residence+in+Great+Britain+During+the+Year+1810+%26+1811+by+a+French+Traveller+Volume+2&lr=&as_brr=1#PPA75,M1
>
> "Journal of a Tour and Residence in Great Britain During the Year
> 1810 & 1811 by a French Traveller"
>
> 2nd Volume
>
> Published in 1815
>
> On page 58-60 (70-72 of the PDF file) he describes descending a coal
> mine near Newcastle and how the miners remove the pillars and allow
> the strata to settle and rather optimistically states that the
> properties above are unaffected.
>
> Available in the Open Library is
>
> http://openlibrary.org/
>
> "Coal Mining" by TC Cantrill published by Cambridge in 1914
> This has a description of what he describes as "whole working" where
> the gates and bords are driven through the seam and then broken or
> pillar working where the pillars are worked. There is also a
> diagram showing whole and pillar working. He does not describe the
> pillar removal in depth as he says there are so many ways.
>
> "The History and Description of Fossil Fuels, the Collieries and
> Coal Trade of Great Britain" Published by Whittaker in 1835
>
> In chapter 12 "Getting the Coal" page 232 the author describes
> pillar working in the North East and states that it was first
> performed in 1795 at the Walker Colliery near Newcastle. He
> describe a couple of methods of pillar working with diagrams and
> also the problems caused by creep (the floor of the mine lifting)
> and how this was sometimes exploited by the miners to allow them to
> work the pillars. ( I won't try to explain, it's easier to look at
> the diagram)
>
> I found these by searching using terms like coal mining and coal
> mining and england etc.
>
> I suspect that the reason that the mine you describe with shallow
> seams it may have caused too many problems with surface subsidence
> to rob the pillars
>
> Hope this helps
>
> Gavin
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Syer" <[log in to unmask]
> >
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 11, 2008 9:59 PM
> Subject: Working the pillars
>
>
> Please can some one advise about the practice of working pillars left
> in coal that had first been mined some time earlier?
>
> The following is an extract from an 1848 report by the Bishop of
> Durham’s agent, who was assessing the value of remaining coals in the
> Quarrington royalty, in order to place a value on it prior to the
> renewal of its lease. It refers to one of the coal mines in that
> royalty. The original workings had been in the 18th century.
>
> “What is left is small pillars not workable to profit if workable at
> all. The Seam being near the surface, the Pillars left are of
> extremely small dimensions.”
>
> That suggests to me that there had not just been two processes, namely
> (1) hewing out the roads & bords and then (2) removing the pillars,
> but also an intermediate one (or the final one, if some coal was left
> permanently unworked), namely (3) the PARTIAL removal of the pillars.
> I have read elsewhere of this practice being called “robbing the
> pillars” and that it led to creep - making the rest of the coal either
> less workable or, perhaps, just less worth working, in the days when
> small coals were not valued.
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike
>
>
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