A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



every 48 hours, the coking process occupying 

 nearly one half the time taken by the bee- 

 hive oven. 



All coal used for coking is now washed by 

 means of special machinery for that purpose, 

 the Sheppard and the Copp6e washers being 

 chiefly used. In 1890 a Luhrig washing 

 plant was erected at Ellenborough Colliery 

 at a cost of upwards of ^4,000, exclusive of 

 the buildings, but it was removed in 1892 

 when the owners of the colliery went into 

 liquidation. 



Mode of Working, Until the introduction 

 of the 'long-wall' system within recent times, 

 when the thin seams came to be worked, the 

 method of working the coal was exclusively 

 by ' bord and pillar.' 



In the early days of coal mining, when 

 the coal was worked near the outcrops or at 

 very shallow depths, the coal pillars were left 

 very small, in some cases only 4 or 5 yards 

 square, and in others 1 5 yards long by 2 yards 

 wide ; but as seams were worked at greater 

 depths the sizes of the pillars were increased. 

 At Whitehaven at the present day the pillars 

 of coal left in the first working, under the 

 sea, are 25 yards square, and the workings 

 are generally 6 yards wide. Thus 35 per 

 cent of coal is obtained in the first working 

 and 65 per cent of coal is left in the pillars. 



Before the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century none of these pillars were removed, 

 and it may be said without exaggeration that 

 in some of the old collieries fully half of the 

 coal has been left and may never be recovered. 

 On the other hand, at many of the old pits 

 at Whitehaven the pillars have been left suffi- 

 ciently large and will undoubtedly be worked 

 at some future day when a scarcity of coal 

 arises. 



Underneath the sea at Whitehaven some of 

 the pillars have been removed * where the cover 

 was 100 fathoms or more ; but during the 

 continuance of the Crown lease, from 1860 

 to 1880, the pillars were only allowed to be 

 'split' in the second working, and thus in 

 most of the districts where the pillars were 

 ' robbed ' probably 30 per cent of the coal 

 has been irretrievably lost. 



Since 1890 a system of working in panels 

 underneath the sea has been adopted, and 

 enables the coal to be almost entirely got. 



Under the sea, at Harrington, the Main 

 Band has been worked 'bord and pillar' at 21 

 fathoms, the pillars having been left in ; and 

 the Six Quarters seam is being worked long- 



1 Evidence of Mr. G. B. Forster, Report of 

 Cod Commission, 1871, vol. ii.; also Trans. North of 

 Eng. Inst. of Mining Engineers, xiii. 97. 



wall at 45 fathoms. At St. Helens, the Ten 

 Quarters seam at 70 fathoms, and the Cannel 

 and Metal Band at 105 fathoms, are being 

 worked long-wall under the sea. 



A method resembling long-wall is said to 

 have been introduced probably about the middle 

 of the eighteenth century at Warnell Fell, 

 Sebergham, where a seam of coal 16 in. thick 

 was worked ; but long-wall, on any extended 

 scale, was not adopted till about 1870, when 

 it was applied in the Rattler Band, No. 2 Pit, 

 St. Helens. 



Long-wall means the extraction of all coal 

 in one operation, the full length of a long 

 ' face,' the roof settling down behind as the 

 ' face ' advances. There are many modifica- 

 tions of long-wall, but what is generally fol- 

 lowed in West Cumberland may be thus de- 

 scribed. The coal is worked against the line 

 of ' cleat,' and brought out by ' gateways ' 

 made 12 yards apart through the goaf, and 

 supported on each side by pack- walls a few 

 yards wide, built either of stone ' brushed ' 

 from the roof, or of ' metal ' out of the seam, 

 or of ' bottom ' that has been lifted in the 

 ' gateways.' It is only in the ' gateways ' 

 that height is made for the conveyance of 

 the coal by ponies or hand-trailing. 



Between the ' gateways ' nothing but the 

 coal is worked. These gateways are cut off 

 by cross-gateways which are made every 60 

 yards so as to lessen the length of roadway 

 to be maintained. 



Since 1870 the thin coals, e.g. the Yard, 

 Little Main and Lickbank seams, have been 

 invariably worked by long-wall ; but at Buck- 

 hill Pit, Clifton, in the first instance, and 

 afterwards, in 1895, at No. 3 Pit, St. Helens, 

 that method has been successfully applied 

 to getting the Cannel and Metal Band 

 where that seam is divided by a stratum of 

 ' metal ' several feet thick. The Cannel Band 

 (the lower portion of the seam) is worked 

 long-wall first, the ' metal ' dividing the seam, 

 and the Metal Band being left up in the first 

 working. The Metal Band is afterwards 

 worked long-wall. 



Pumping, binding, Haulage and Ventilation. 

 Inasmuch as coal was first worked in this 

 county to the rise, or along the level from 

 ' day-holes ' made from the outcrops or where 

 the seams were exposed on the surface, no 

 machinery was requisite, even if it had been 

 known, in those early times. The water 

 naturally flowed from the workings ; and the 

 coal was probably borne out, in the earliest 

 days, in baskets carried by women and girls 

 on their backs. The places still known as 

 'bearmouths' at Whitehaven were the en- 

 trances to the roads (made from the outcrops 



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