Newcastle, Nuns Moor, pillar-and-stall mine shaft

HER Number:
5914

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Nuns Moor, pillar-and-stall mine shaft

Place:
Newcastle

Map Sheet:
NZ26NW

Class:
Industrial

Site Type: Broad:
Mine Drainage and Ventilation Site

Site Type: Specific:
Mine Shaft

General Period:
Post Medieval

Specific Period:

Form of Evidence:
Earthwork

Description:
A much flattened ring-bank measuring 22 metres in diameter surrounds a central hollow. The feature is on the boundary of the motorway corridor and has been damaged by subsequent landscaping. However, its form and position support its interpretation as a mining feature. The use of pillar-and-stall mining (cutting horizontal headings out of the bottom of the shaft, leaving pillars of coal to support the roof) meant shafts could be spaced wider apart. The best example of a widely spaced grid pattern of shafts on the Town Moor is on Nuns Moor, where four shaft heads form a square pattern. These shaft heads have larger spoil heaps than the Bell Pits, indicating deeper shafts and a later mining episode. A diagnostic feature of the landscape indicating pillar-and-stall mining is the subsidence of the surrounding ground surface, due to the caving in of the galleries especially after the removal of the roof supports. Such areas of mining subsidence effect large areas of the Moor.

Easting:
2319

Northing:
6619

Grid Reference:
NZ23196619

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 5914 >> RCHME, 1995, Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeological Survey Report, p 27