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In message <[log in to unmask]>, Martin Roe <[log in to unmask]> writes >Probably the best description of "Bell Pit" mining is a paper on ironstone >mining in Derbyshire by Lynn Willes in the PDMHS journal for 1997. This goes >a long way to dispelling the myth of the bell pit. My only criticism is that >there is not a discussion of how bell pit mining is represented on the >surface. > Might I suggest a consideration of Goyt Moss Colliery near Buxton. It has been written up in: The Coal Mines of Buxton by A.F. Roberts and J.R. Leach (Scarthin Books, 1985) The Goyt's Moss Colliery, Buxton by John Barnatt and John Leach (Journal Derbys. Arch Society, 117, 1997) and was discussed by a guy at last autumns NAMHO meeting in Bradford. The DAS article, in particular, looks at the colliery from an archaeological viewpoint, and specifically dates most of the 160 shafts and 50 opencasts. The chronology of the development of the colliery is excellently demonstrated. The colliery is what might by called a classic "bellpit" colliery, but nowhere do the authors use this term. >You are quite right to saw that the term is usually applied without any >thought to what might be happening underground and once again shows how the >underground landscape is often disregarded. Bell pit is a term which should >only be applied where a horizontally bedded deposit is being mined, coal and >ironstone being the most common, and then only when it can be convincingly >proven that shafts are discrete units with no connection to other shafts. >That im afraid discounts Grimes Graves where there is superficial >connectivity between some of the shafts, probably for ventilation. It also >discounts shafts sunk onto vertical mineral veins but the term is still >applied. I don't believe that a bell pit, by your definition, exists. If you have invested money and effort to sink a shaft to a horizontal bedded deposit you are going to extract as much mineral as you possibly can. The obvious way to do this is to drive headings out from the bottom of the shaft. Then, when you have run out of fresh air and light, you sink another shaft. You then go back to pillar robbing and extract as much mineral as possible, before the lot falls in. I don't believe that anyone would sink a shaft, work round the base of it, and then sink another shaft without trying to extract as much mineral as possible. And the way to do this is to connect the two shafts. You can also aid your ventilation this way. > >I have a brief discussion of bell pits on my website at >http://www.mroe.freeserve.co.uk/bellpit.htm > >Martin Roe > >Lead Mining in the Yorkshire Dales >http://www.mroe.freeserve.co.uk > >_________________________________________________________________ >Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com -- 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.