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

HER Number:
5931

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Newcastle, Town 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 large hollow, measuring 8 metres by 5 metres and 0.3 metres deep, situated on the sloping ground of Race Hill; this could be a shaft head or a quarry scoop for the race track. 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:
2378

Northing:
6630

Grid Reference:
NZ23786630

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
<< HER 5931 >> RCHME, 1995, Town Moor, Newcastle upon Tyne, Archaeological Survey Report, p 29