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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