A Descrlpiion of Heafon Colliery in Norihnmlerland. 4-37 



mcnt of these important Concerns : and without which aids, the 

 repre>'^ntati(<n> or vohuiteer suggestions of persons unknown Vj 

 most of the parties, could be expected to have little attention 

 given them. 



With these views I would beg to occupy the necessary p^g^s 

 in your very nseful miscellany, for descri!)ing the leading circum- 

 stances of Hi^aton Colliery, from the materials kindly furnishp.l 

 by vou: Correspondent N. at page 36-4, and from other souree.i, 

 aiid wliich will be best done, I conceive, by beginning with a 

 clear idea of the situation of tlie seayn or stratum of Coal which 

 is xur-iiiizhl or dug in this Colliery, where the same formerly ap- 

 proached near to the surface. 



The Tyne River has its course nearly from W to E, where it 

 passes close on the S side of Newcastle Town, between it and 

 Gateshead ; about f of ^ mile below the Bridge of Newcastle, 

 a small stream or rivulet falls into the Tyne, from tlie North :— 

 if from the Tyne we go northward up the bottom of the sudden 

 Tailey or hum in which this rivulet runs, we shall pass Useburn 

 oxi the N Shields Road, and leave Keaton-Hall and its grounds (the 

 seat of Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart.) on the rising ground 

 E of tliis Burn, at about 1| m. distant from the Tyne: and 

 along the surface in the bottom of this Burn, or at no great dr- 

 stance below it, all the length, the Heaton seam of coals, about 

 six feet thick, may be conceived by tlie Re^ader, to range, nearly 

 level in a S and N direction, but the plane of which Coal-seam 

 (imbedded between two hard argillaceous stoney strata or beds^ 

 called its >oo/and its floor) has a considerable declension or dip 

 to the eastward, causing it to descend deeper and deeper, the 

 further it may be followed in that dircetion, under other strata and 

 Rocks *^, dipping in like manner to the eastward. 



The first Colliery mentioned in this Estate, was wrought many 

 years ago, and was called Healon- Bank CoWieiy, its deep or En- 

 gine-pits were each situated so far to the eastward of this Burn, 

 that the Coal was not reached in these perpendicular pits untjl 

 near 1 10 yards deep: — according to the usual practice of Col- 

 li -rying, two parallel and level passages or Gates were excavated 

 in the Coal, in both N and S directions, from the bottoms of tha 

 Engine-pits wherein the pumps were situated for draining the 

 vorks ; and by means of which Gates, and others branching from 



* By coiisiiltinir pa'jes 145 nnd 14'3 of Mr. VV>sti::irtli I'oibtcr's " Trca- 

 -■se on a Sictioii of the Stnita," publibliwJ at Newcastle, or Plate ]I in your 

 i-rebriit volume, and coiiceivinp; alioiit 15 yard-, of strata siirmoimtcd by 

 • ilinial Rubbiijli, to be added on tfic top of the "Hrown I'ost" or N(!vv- 



!-tlc (irinihtonc Rack, mentioned at the hcjiinning of his Section, insteal 

 '■f the 10 yards of" Clay and Soil " there sliown, the Header may obtain ii 

 I retty arcnriife idea of the niiiulicr and succes-.ion of the strata in the dei-p 

 L\i of JUiiluii Colliery, whcroin the" flij-d, main Cu^il, i;nTyne"is wrou^-,''* 



ii e 3 . t'v 



