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Tyne and Wear HER(5915): Newcastle, Nuns Moor, pillar-and-stall mine shaft - Details

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5915


Newcastle


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


Newcastle


NZ26NW


Industrial


Mine Drainage and Ventilation Site


Mine Shaft


Post Medieval



Earthwork


A large well formed ring-bank 23 metres in diameter and measuring 9.5 metres wide and up to 1 metres high; the central hollow is 11.2 metres in diameter and 0.6 metres deep. 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.


2325


6623


NZ23256623



<< HER 5915 >> RCHME, 1995, Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeological Survey Report, p 27

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