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Tyne and Wear HER(5930): Newcastle, Town Moor, pillar-and-stall mine shaft - Details

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5930


Newcastle


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


Newcastle


NZ26NW


Industrial


Mine Drainage and Ventilation Site


Mine Shaft


Post Medieval



Earthwork


A low mound measuring 18 metres across has been severely damaged by drainage channels and cattle trod. 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.


2376


6616


NZ23766616



<< HER 5930 >> RCHME, 1995, Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeological Survey Report, p 29

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