438 A Description of the Heaton Collieries in Nor thumler land. 



them W, as will be further described respecting the new or pre- 

 sent Colliery^ jjl the Coal lieing up the slope or rise of the 

 stratum to the W, from these Level Gates, was wrought out, 

 almost to the lasset or near appearance of the stratum of Coal 

 on the surface in the Burn, 1 believe, as already described. 



The reason of Engine-pits being mentioned above, arises, from 

 a vertical fissure or crack of some width, breaking through all 

 tl'.c strata from the surface to a great and unknown depth (and 

 ranging SW and NE, I believe) called a Fmdl or Dike, which 

 divided this old Colliery into two parts ; in the novtiicrn part of 

 which, the Coal-seam and all the strata above and below it, were 

 found raised or thrown up, with respect to those in the southern 

 part, 16 yards in height, and this fault or natural barrier, so- 

 lidly filled with water-iig/it clay and earth called Faidt-stujf\ 

 the old Colliers were careful ne\er to penetrate, so as to con- 

 nect the waters in the underground works of these northern and 

 southern parts of the old Colliery. 



On the abandonment of the old Colliery, it should seem, that 

 the vertical ])its of the northern part were closed or filled up with 

 earth or rubbish, but some of those of the southern part, in 

 front of Heaton-Hall, were strongly floored or scaffolded over, at 

 10 yards below the surface, and the pit only filled up \v\t]\ Earth 

 above this flooring, leaving the lower part open to the hollans 

 or excavated chambers, whence all the Coal had been taken, that 

 it was judged safe to remove, without letting down the roof on 

 the heads of the workmen. And by the soakage of rain-water 

 through the strata (and by their edges) from the surface, these 

 old hollows soon became quite full of water, resting against the 

 unwrought or zvliole Coal of the seam, below the Level Gates, on 

 all the E or deep side of this deserted Collierv, rising several 

 yards up the open pits, and thcrcl)y giving a hydrostaliv pres- 

 sure, equal to this column of water in the vertical pits, to great 

 part of the body of water in these Coal-hollows, 



On the opening of the new or Heaton Colliery in 1790, a si- 

 tuation was chosen for sinking the Engine-pit, so much further 

 to the E, or in the deep of the former Engine-pits of Heaton-Bank 

 Colliery, that the Coal-seam was not reached therein till the 

 depth of 164 yards; and in order to avoid the expense of sinking 

 two Pits, one for the pumping and the vp-cast or ascending cur- 

 rent of light and contaminated air, and another for the drawing 

 of Coals and the doivn-cast or descending column of fresh air 

 (as would in most other districts of Britain have been done, where 

 the Coals lay at no greater depth than here) one wide pit, se- 

 parated i)y a boarded partition from top to bottom, was made to 

 answer both these essential purposes. 



From the bottom of this Heaton Pit^ two parallel level Gates 



were 



