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Dear Mike, This is really useful information - thanks. The overiding verdict now seems to be that the mine must have been extracting coal from the Grit. The slag may have been brought in as hardcore; it is impossible to tell. Rob Vernon got in touch and found us another mine / shaft immediately uphill of ours so it looks as though the whole operation may have been more complex, or more extensive than is now obvious from the surface. There were also a couple of "wells" again immediately adjacent so who knows...? We have reason to doubt the origin of a couple of "springs" there; one at least may originate in a choked adit under / within a farm below the site. There is also a suspicious hole under the cellar of one of the cottages! It's certainly getting more and more intriguing! Best wishes, Martin ******* > The hills around Keighley are full of coal pits, dating from late > mediaeval times to the 1850s. One was worked for a time in the mid > 1920s. > > Within three or four miles of the town centre (ie including Oakworth) > you can forget about Coal Measures seams; which are found near > Baildon, Denholme and Laneshawbridge. There are no non-ferrous > metal mines and all the coal seams belong to the upper strata of the > Millstone Grits. Some, for example at Howden Clough near Silsden, > were associated with iron ore and were worked for the same. Heaps > of scoria can still be found - probably dating from the monastic period > to the early 17th century. You may have something similar at > Oakworth. At Denholme, iron-pyrites in the coal was used for > making copperas, which was used as a mordant in wool dying. > > The most likely person to know about the site is:- > > A.(Ann?) Armstrong, > Keeper of Geology > Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, West Yorkshire. > > Best wishes, > > -------------------------------- > Mike Gill > > President and Recorder of the NORTHERN MINE RESEARCH SOCIETY > > Britain's foremost mining history society at:- > http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~RBurt/MinHistNet/NMRS.html > > -------------------------------- %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%