Sorry, for 'Mark' read 'Mike'
Stafford
On Thu, Aug 29, 2013 at 7:14 PM, Stafford Linsley <[log in to unmask]
> wrote:
> Mark will have to give us his definition/understanding of a 'bell pit' if
> we are to make good sense of his query.
>
> I have long believed that the term 'bell pit' is not appropriate to vein
> mining, and should be confined to the mining of stratified deposits.
>
> There have been previous discussions on this question on this mining
> history mailbase, and Mark should refer to them
>
> Stafford.
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 11:28 PM, Mike Lenzie <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>
>> I have looked extensively at available information on the surface
>> signature of bell pits. Most appear to be a deep depression. In a few
>> isolated cases (from Germany), the surface signature is a mound with a
>> central depression.
>>
>> - I don't understand why some bell pits have mounds - but most do not. Is
>> this a question of the time available for settlement? Is this a peculiarity
>> of the geology/mining technique?
>>
>> - The old drawings appear to show round shafts. I have examples which
>> appear to be squares. Is there any significance to a square pit - rather
>> than round?
>>
>> - can anyone point me in the direction of examples of bell pits which
>> appear as mounds with off-centre shafts rather than big craters or mounds
>> with central shafts?
>>
>> The reason I ask is because I am an amateur archaeologist and have about
>> 10 mounds up to 2m high and 10m across. They occur in a line about 15m OR
>> 30m apart - i.e. quite regular. On one I can see a 1.6m square depression
>> about a foot deep. Another has two 1.6-2m square depressions. None of these
>> depressions are central to the mounds.
>>
>> There is coal in the area - however the mounds appear to follow a layer
>> called the "orchard" limestone.
>>
>> There is NO ... and I mean NO ... record of these mounds except my own.
>> They are not on any ordinance survey nor any mining record nor any other
>> historical record (and I have looked high and low) and since well before
>> 1945 the area has been wooded ... so no aerial photographs.
>>
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