75 replies to this topic

[Dicky D]

winchman, on 07 June 2008 - 01:12 PM, said:

About 1994 I worked with an old Hungarian guy, he was a really nice chap and was in his late 50s, he came to the UK in his late teens / early 20s.
He told me work was very tight and he spoke little english so he had to take any work they could get.
Now to get to my point, he was employed with a team of men who capped shafts off.
He told me they where lowered in to the shaft, they then drove rods sleepers etc in to the sides of the shaft and used this as a rough platform this was then back filled to save filling the whole shaft as it was far quicker and cheaper.
A tapered concrete block was then cast on top.
He told me the work was very dangerous with no safety gear, they got the jobs as the locals wouldnt touch it.
I have no reason to dis believe him, and I feel this may have gone on as a quick back hander type job as it would look the part but be far cheaper.
It stuck in my mind as I allways wondered how it was done, and I used to walk the dog past the one by the old nursery behind Thatto Heath Labour club very near the Cleg and I was amazed when a housing estate was built on it, I cant decide exactly which house it is!
What pit was this?

This was Radley's colliery after which the street was named which joins Elephant Lane opposite Dorothy Street.
Before the houses were built the shafts, (there were two) were properly stabilised along with some of the very shallow workings using a modern anchoring method which is based on drilling and grouting. The work took a good six months before building began. In my youth, Pilkingtons owned this old pit shaft and pumped water from it which ran via a underground culvert to Lugsmore Lane Dam then on to Carriage Drive Dam which in turn was pumped into the Ravanhead works for cooling purposes.

Handsome Johnny, on 01 October 2010 - 08:18 AM, said:

my daughter used to live in french street and there is a capped shaft in the grounds of the methodist church

This was the old Royal Colliery after which Royal Grove was named.

Stoka, on 28 July 2011 - 02:40 PM, said:

Am I to presume that this is a capped air shaft?

http://maps.google.c...128.56,,0,15.73

This was another shaft belonging to the Radley mine but is sometimes referred to as the Greengate mine. There was another old shaft opposite this site which was exposed when the old terrace houses were demolished in the 80s but properly anchored before the new houses were built.

jinx, on 02 October 2010 - 08:30 PM, said:

H J I can verify the shaft in the Methodist area,as lads we use to throw stones over the top of the tall wall

that surrounded it, local story was that it was an air shaft if this was possible. No mention was made of a mine on

that site, has this shaft been capped?

HJ/ I intended to ask when was it capped?

This shaft to my knowledge was never properly capped but filled in which is not a secure method of closing an old mine shaft as the spoil can move out, (spread) into the underground roadways.
Capping is only a temporary measure. Where a shaft is relatively shallow, contractors will attempt to bottom it. One shaft on the Burtonhead site was bottomed like this during the open casting, Shafts that or too deep for this method will be dealt with in another way, usually, Grout filled then capped with reinforced steel and concrete.

Edited by Dick Dastardly, 29 July 2011 - 09:06 PM.