On a related matter, can anyone advise whether square or rectangular
shaft fittings (whatever the shape of the shaft itself) might have
been deliberately oriented in a standard direction, in relation to the
compass?
Evidence of most coal shafts in County Durham, where I live, has
mostly disappeared. However I think I've noticed that at more than
colliery the winding gear seems to have been oriented pretty well
North-South or East-West.
I can guess at reasons for doing this deliberately. But was it?
Mike
---
On 24 Jan 2009, at 08:08, TONY BREWIS wrote:
> I remember reading articles by Nellie Kirkham in "Mine and Quarry"
> in my student days
> around 1950-52. I could afford to buy it then because the then
> owners had an offer - if you
> started to subscribe while you were a student, you could have it for
> half price for life.
> Sadly, a new company bought it some years later, and that offer was
> withdrawn!
>
> Much as I admired and was interested in Nellie's articles, I think
> she may have been wrong
> to say that while Derbyshire men sank square or rectangular shafts,
> Cornish men sank
> oval ones.
>
> As I recall the thinking, the shape of a shaft depended on the
> strength of the ground you
> sank it through. Thus most coal mine shafts are circular, so you can
> line them with a ring
> of brickwork or sections of cast iron cladding which, bolted
> together, made a circle. The cage
> guides in these would be suspended steel ropes weighted at the bottom.
>
> In hard rock which didn't need lining, on the other hand, square
> (or even better, rectangular)
> shapes were the norm so they could be divided into compartment using
> a framework of
> timber beams. In these, the cage guides would be vertical wooden
> beams.
>
> I guess that in Cornwall, shafts which were mainly in granite would
> be rectangular (I seem
> to remember that Robinson's shaft at South Crofty is this shape),
> while if it started in
> weathered killas, and the ground was softer, a Cornish shaft might
> well start off oval, if it
> needed a lining near the top.
>
> Tony Brewis
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