Something relevent to Mines & Rails!!
In one of the spoil heaps at Cromhall a piece of "Plate Rail" is said to
have been found.
In previous discussion David Bick has suggested to me that rails were more
likely to have been used underground than on the surface. A comment I
tended to agree with at the time although in this case, why the rail was
found above ground is a bit of a mystery.
Subsequent research however has suggested this may not be the case, at least
not in the South Gloucestershire area where passsages were usually not more
than three feet in height " and often several inches lower". The method of
hauling tubs was by rope girdle, a method used throughout Bristol and
Somerset even into the twentieth century. The Commission Report on Children
in the mines 1842 (see Ian Winstanleys web site -
http://wkweb5.cableinet.co.uk/ian.winstanley/child.htm) states that one of
the lads working in Cromhall at that time called John Pick hauled 40 tubs a
day "unassisted: neither wheels nor plates".
I am fairly sure that the spoil heap in which the rails were found predates
the report (possibly commenced circa 1819, I am not however sure when this
shaft ceased to be used. The Cromhall coal works (both New Engine and Old
Engine) appear to have ceased work completely in the mid 1850's. It seems
unlikely that rails were introduced below ground between the date of the
commission report and the mines closure. The shaft in question was almost
certainly not the main shaft being used at that time in anycase.
The Commission Report also describes in detail the protection at the pit
mouth of mines in the South Gloucestershire coalfield although it does not
state this was the method used at all pits nor which pits it was used for.
The description includes "..sliding traps, or stages......for effectively
covering the shaft whilst the coal is landed. The top man, standing on the
sliding stage, has merely to lay hold on the loaded tub as it swings over
the pit, and by that action draws the stage, which runs on wheels and iron
plates, across the pit's mouth."
Could these be the plate rails found? Is this a common approach at the pit
head? any comments?
Regards
DAVID HARDWICK
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