The Coalfields of Farleton and
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IntroductionThis article deals with two coalfields in which Hornby Castle Estate had colliery interests: Farleton and Smeer Hall – Stauvin. A third, the Tatham Coalfield, is described in detail elsewhere.1 All involve thin coal seams occurring in sandstones deposited in a near coastal delta top environment in the Carboniferous Period, c. 350 million years ago. Intervals above sea level are represented by the coal seams formed from peats laid down in swamp forests. The vegetation then was dominated by trees and ferns propagated by spores not seeds, which are now extinct, although with modern distant relatives in the UK, i.e. club mosses and horsetails (fig. 1).2
Historically, Hornby Castle would be the landowner holding mineral rights enabling coal mining for the whole Estate, but subsequent sales of land could either include or exclude these rights. When other landowners in the area then held mining rights they could mine the coal themselves or rent it out to other miners. Typically, the local coal pits had a shaft dug down to the coal seam which was extracted around the shaft bottom, e.g. bell pits, or more usually, from horizontal levels driven from the shaft along the seam. Whilst the former could be worked by a team of two colliers, a hewer at the coal face and a banksman at the surface hauling up the coal, with levels, an additional person was needed to haul the coal from face to shaft bottom. Hoisting to the surface of coal or mine water would be by hand windlass in shallow pits or by horse gins in deeper pits. Where water was a particular problem, water powered or steam driven engines could be used.12 The banksman was a key element in the business, recording the number of loads raised and also supervising the sale of coal from the pit bank to local individuals or dealers who came in their one-horse, two-wheeled carts. All of this being regularly recorded by George Smith (see quotes in italics), secretary to the Hornby Castle Estate steward, George Wright, and reported to him.4 In these thin seams, the workings and levels would be dug at a minimum crawl height (~2 ft 6 in) with the hewer lying on his side below the seam. Thus, John Newby (miner) in 1866 paid 8d for a shoulder board to lie on from a local joiner in Wray,6 which would be padded with straw. The working coal face would be ~ 6 ft wide. The coal was loaded into a large wicker basket loaded on a sledge, i.e. a corf (corves, also "curves") 2’ x 3’ x c. 2’ high, carrying ~1-2 cwt.6 They were typically dragged by a boy attached to the sledge by the waist. "Curves" were still being made in Wray in 1866-1878, and John Newby (miner) in 1872 and 1874 bought new curves @ 3/6d.6 Where possible waste rock was shovelled into worked out areas of the mine. A mine could be developed by opening a new face from a level by working the coal face up dip (slope), since these rocks were typically moderately sloping due to folding. This allowed water to drain from the face, since water was always present in mines, seeping from fractures in the rocks. A sump to collect the water would be dug at the shaft bottom. Farleton Coalfield and Colliery
This small area of outcrop of the Ward’s Stone Sandstone lies on the doorstep of Hornby Castle. Consequently, there is a long history of mining by the Estate from 1564-1847.5 In the 1581 survey of the Hornby Castle Estate, it had 17 tenants at Farleton, occupied land itself and, in addition: "my Lord … hath a Quarry or Mine of coal".7 Surprisingly, Yates' 1786 map does not show any pits, but does show a water wheel (and windmill). BGS records 48 pits with evidence of working on two different coal seams.3 To the east of Manor House lane, on the Ward’s Stone outcrop, are densely spaced shallow bell pits, with little lateral development, which are probably the earliest workings perhaps of the Crow Coal. In contrast, on the Caton Shale outcrop north of Farleton Beck, the shafts are relatively evenly spaced about 50 m apart, probably indicating systematic mining of the Smeer Hall Coal, with levels linked underground. By 1884, the tithe map shows that the Estate was still the main land owner and would have controlled the coal mining in the area. The Estate records for the 1500s and 1600s show that they rented mines to individuals to work for their own benefit.5 However, in 1815 it is recorded "no work for last 10 years as site flooded ... needs a fire engine to pump out … (had) produced 500 Winchester bushels daily".1 Presumably this is the area north of Farleton Beck, where apparently a water wheel powering a whim gin (for drainage) proved to be ineffectual. Smith records that the Estate took action in 1831 and built a stone house for a steam engine which worked for a year before the pit was dry.4 In 1832 "old pit cleared and 6 men hired to work below ground … new shaft sunk".4 At this stage it is clear that the Estate is operating the mine as a commercial venture with Smith checking its productivity: "1834 Making up Farleton books". In 1834 the mine was further developed: "9 men & 2 horses and lads sinking New Engine pit night and day" and mining continued into 1836: "finished 10 weeks in Farleton Colly books". There is no further record of mining after that date and presumably the coal was exhausted. Smeer Hall – Stauvin Coalfield and CollieriesThis coalfield on the ridge between
the Roeburn and Hindburn rivers, cut by Hunts Gill Beck, and is in the township
of Roeburndale, except for a small area in the Botton division of Wray township.
The main coal worked was the Smeer Hall Coal in the Ward’s Stone Sandstone (Fig.
4). The outcrops are cut by two major faults, Smeer Hall & Stauvin Faults, which
successively displace the outcrops eastwards, seen from the south, (i.e. right
lateral faults).
ManagementThe survey of the Hornby Estate in the 1580s, which probably represented most or all the township, lists 24 farms in Roeburndale in the hands of the Estate’s tenants.7 In contrast, by 1848 virtually all these farms had been sold off in small parcels and the Estate only owned one small property (Nan Hill).9 Of the rest, five were owner occupied and 23 were owned by a number of small landlords and tenanted. Nevertheless, some mining rights were retained. In which category, a coal mine could be operated by the Estate or rented out to the occupier or another to extract the coal. In the alternative situation, another holder of rights could undertake the mining, e.g. the Edmondsons of Outhwaite, who mined at Wraywood Moor Colliery on their own land. Where the Estate had an interest, the mining would be overseen by the Hornby Estate’s steward (George Wright) but be managed on daily basis daily by his clerk, George Smith. The latter kept a diary, which provides much useful information about the operation of the Estate’s collieries from 1819-1837.4 The Smeer Hall Colliery, the principle one on the coalfield (often phonetically spelt Smearhaw in records), initially fell into the first category. Thus, Thomas Bowskill (also Bouskill), tenant of Smeer Hall owned by Reverend John Wilson, participated in the mining by paying rent to Hornby Castle Estate, e.g. "1819 Settled with Thomas Bouskill for his share of Smeerhaw Colliery for 1817 & 1818" and "1819 Thomas Bouskill called and left £30 on account of Smearhaw Colliery".4 This arrangement seems to have ended on the death of Thomas Bowskill in 1822 with his similarly named son and inheritor not continuing it, i.e. the Hornby Castle Estate took over its management. Until then the banksman apparently reported to Bowskill and received pay for the work force. Henceforth, the Estate took on those roles through the regular visits of a new banksman: "1822 Rd Brown called with his accounts as banksman at Smearhaw".4 The workers would be paid on a bargain basis, so much per corf, or per yard for development work such as shaft or level digging, e.g. "1828 I went to Smearhaw Colliery & let a pit to sink … to Anthony Howson for 9/- a yard" and "1829 Let Wm Sharples part of level … to drive at 50/- per yard".4 This compares with the average agricultural labourer wage of 11/- week in 1830. The wage rate per corf was unspecified, but judging from elsewhere was probably around 1d for hewer and drawer and 1d for the banksman, which gives a comparable weekly wage.1 In the 1860s, the sale price was 4d a load, with sales recorded to farmers and to Low Bentham Cotton Mill. The sales were on account and George Smith records regular visits to collect payments. However, there is variation in what was represented in terms of weight, with a corf load varying between 1 to 2 cwt in this area. The memories of colliers John Singleton and Reuben Clarkson of Wray recall that in 1890s a corf carried ~ 1 cwt and was sold at the pit for 4d,6 whilst a newspaper advert by Mr Kayss in 1855 lists coal for sale at 9d a load of about 2 cwt which may or may not be in agreement, depending on the meaning of "load".13 Detailed production figures (gathered by J. Bassenden from Estate records) are available for several collieries, collected by miner Joseph Gill for Hornby Castle Estate in 1830-32, although he was not an appointed bansksman and his status is ambiguous.10 However, they are extremely interesting as they illustrate the productivity of the pits, as well as emphasising the sustained hard labour involved. For Smeer Hall and adjacent Bellhurst collieries the average each for up to 16 months was: ~ 800 loads/month (cwt/month), i.e. 33 loads or (or if 1cwt loads) 33 cwt per 6-day week, or say 4 cwt/h (51 kg/h). Working the same coal at Scale, it was reduced to a 1/10th presumably because of the near tenfold increase in shaft depth. The apparent revenue for Hornby Castle was £67/month each for Smeer Hall and Bellhurst. Another product for sale was cinders, i.e. coke – a smokeless sulphur free fuel used especially for malt kilns, e.g. sold to Wennington Corn Mill. This was produced by roasting coal in a kiln with a limited air supply (like charcoal burning). Typically, this was a circular stone beehive-shaped kiln, or just an earth covered mound, or could be square shape (e.g. one at Fountains Fell).1 John Wildman was the cinder burner for Smeer Hall Colliery.4 Several sites have been suggested for the Smeer Hall Colliery kilns,5 but diagnostic remains have not been found. Whoever the mine operators were, they would have to pay compensation to landowners for damage to land and roads by mining operations, e.g. Hornby Castle Estate paid damages to Scale, Lanedyke, Stauvin etc.4 Miners43 men associated with mining in this coalfield are named in various records covering 75 years of the 19th century, including three generations of one family (see Appendix) (but only three at Farleton Colliery). In the 1841 census, seven lived locally, two were sons of Anthony Howson, farmer of Stauvin (East), and five lived in cottages – now abandoned: Scuttle Hill and Laneditch (and Nan Hill in 1851) (Scuttle Hill is identified from the name of a wood on the tithe map).9 This pattern of a local source of workers was probably true for most of the early mining period. The later ones came from Wray. Mine historyThe detailed history of coal mining at Farleton goes back to the 1500s and this may be the case here.5 However, the earliest known record for Roeburndale is on a sale plan of a Wray property for 1773 which labels a road "To the coale pit".6 Also, Yates' 1786 map of Lancashire shows six pits near Smeer Hall.8 In the central sector 23 pits are shown between the two major faults (i.e. recorded on published maps11 or from field evidence), including two that were sunk on the wrong side of the northern boundary fault. Probably only a few were open at any one time. Their life would be limited by collapses (as recorded), or by losing the coal seam because of small faults, or by enhanced water ingress in fractures, etc. Also, new shafts were dug when underground haulage distance became uneconomic, e.g. c. 50 m half distance between pits on the Moor. As the pits on and near to Wray Wood Moor were worked out, a new series was opened across Hunts Beck, with the depth dug increasing as pits were opened in sequence, from opposite Smeer Hall progressively up the hill to Scale, i.e. the shaft depth increasing from 28 to 100 yd. Another pit was opened at the north end of the line by Thomas and Daniel Gill for Smeer Hall Colliery in 1833, close to the Botton road, named a Dib Pit which probably indicates it was for drainage purposes.4 For the deeper pits, at least, horse drawn winches would need to be used for hauling both coal and water, i.e. a gin (short for engine). References to repair of wheels in the colliery may concern gins. However, there are no clear sign of circular horse tracks here (maybe destroyed by shaft infilling). In 1834, it was proposed to install a steam engine: "George Smith with John Hodgson looked over ground in regard to a new breadth to be got with a steam engine",4 i.e. a beam engine to be used especially for pumping, as well as coal raising (maybe at the Dib Pit). However, there is no evidence that it was actually installed (Note: this was wrongly concluded by me elsewhere)1. However, steam beam engines were definitely installed at the Hornby Castle Estate collieries of Farleton (1831) and Clintsfield (1839) and much of the engine house at the latter still exists.12 South of the Stauvin Fault, the Ward’s Stone Sandstone and its Smeer Hall Coal outcrop lower down the slope of the Roeburndale valley. The coal was visible in the wood there in 1956 when it was mapped by a geologist and when it was probably seen by coal prospectors although not exposed now.1 Consequently the land was bought by the Smeer Hall Estate as a colliery venture. George Smith records: "1822 Thos Charnley, Joseph Gill & John Hodgson bored thro (sic) the coal in Troughton Pasture. Thickness of the coal estimated at 19 inches, depth to it 50 yards".4 Because of the dip of the seam towards the hill, it was decided to dig a drainage adit (level or sough) below the seam to the river. It was up to 400 m long and took five years to dig (1824-29).4 The adit is shown on the 1892 Abandonment Plan (fig. 5). In 1826 a new shaft was dug to intersect the adit. Logically this would be the pit furthest east. Remains of three pits in a line and one further SE are present in this field now. Two other pits lie on the N side of the boundary wall, on Outhwaite land, They and three others further north were probably all mined by the Edmondson owners. They presumably post-dated Smeer Hall Colliery’s proving of the coal. Further south along Roeburndale, at Harterbeck, coal was discovered in 1830 and mined in Lower Salter High Close, by the tenant of Lower Salter, Thomas Procter, on behalf of Smeer Hall Colliery. It was later abandoned by him and then reopened by the Colliery itself: "1831 W Johnson and Thos Berry trying for coal".4 The Bassenden productivity records from Hornby Castle Estate show 1371 loads mined in 1832-1833 on Salter Fell by J Johnson, presumably here.10 However, the pit site has not been identified yet. Also, south of the
Stauvin Fault but further east is the outcrop of the Accerrhill Sandstone within
which there is a coal seam (Clintsfield Coal) known elsewhere to be 14-16"
thick.3 It was presumably discovered here by hand auger boring. It was mined by
Smeer Hall Colliery on the Stauvin estate, then owned and occupied by Thomas
Parker. The principal pits are named as Deep and Rise pits, indicating they were
connected underground and worked together, with Rise for hoisting coal and Deep
for raising water, as it is was further down dip. These were perhaps the last
pits mined by miners living locally in Roeburndale.
However, the last mining on the coalfield was north of the Smeer Hall fault in a small colliery on the Ward’s Stone outcrop in the Botton division of Wray, on Birks Farm tenanted (1848) by John Brown and owned by Elizabeth Thornton. It was still described as Smeer Hall Colliery on the 1882 abandonment map for the Colliery. It consisted then of two pits, 13 and 16 yds deep, and two adits working an 18 in. coal, associated with a stone quarry (figs. 4 & 5). The map identifies an early miner there as John Newby (miner in 1860s/70s)9 and a later one as Thomas Bainbridge Kayss (mine owner and substantial business man) and his executors 1877–1882? (d. 1878), both persons living in Wray or Millhouses. Thomas Kayss rose from being a silk worker (1851) to business man, flagstone and coal merchant, farmer and overseer of the poor. He fulsomely advertised his colliery locally: "Mr Kayss Begs to inform the public that he has recently opened the Smeer Hall Colliery, where he has constantly on hand a large quantity of excellent coals, suitable for Farmers, Kitchen, or general use. No other coals will compare with them for stoves and hot-houses".13 Mining restarted again after "abandonment", possibly at the shaft shown on the 1891 OS map, firstly in 1889 by Thomas Johnson (supposedly of Knott Hill, Tatham but not in the census records) and then by Robert Clarkson and sons of Wray (1891 census and 1896 national list of mine owners, but not a miner in 1901 census).6 There is also a reference to Edward Dixon commencing sinking of a coals shaft on the adjacent Parkhouse land in 1898.6 It is likely that ownership of these small scale mines was of the business but not necessarily of the land, which they could rent. In any case Hornby Castle seemingly no longer held the mineral rights. Wray Wood Moor DisputeBetween April 1824 – January 1826 a major dispute broke out between Smeer Hall Colliery and the Edmondsons of Outhwaite, who were working adjacent pits in the area. This revolved around claims and counter-claims of damage being caused to their workings by the other party, for which recompense was required. It hinged on the plans of the workings made by surveying them underground ("dialling"), and on the fact that the Edmondsons would not let Hornby Estate survey their mine, Wray Wood Colliery. After a court injunction was obtained, independent surveys were agreed in Dec 1825. There is also some uncertainty about the location of the pits involved. It has been suggested that the disputed pits were (in the Troughton Pasture area,5 but with the benefit of the field names from the tithe map, it is clear that the pits are actually on Wray Wood Moor, on either side of the Scale road. The first dialling by Hornby Castle, conducted over a Saturday night, was in a shaft of Smeer Hall Colliery on Wray Wood Moor nearest Bowskill’s Barn and again, on Sunday night, the works in a shaft on Wray Wood Moor (Edmondsons?), opposite Howson’s house. William Howson (aged 50), coal miner, lived in Scuttle Hill House in 1841, which is now identified as the house remains opposite Scuttle Hill Wood. Edmondsons later dialled in Scuttle Hill Meadow and apparently had taken down and replaced a wall across Smeer Hall Colliery’s gate (level) under Scuttle Hill Meadow (i.e. on Scale land). However, the matter did not end in court but its resolution is not recorded. References1 Kelly, M 2008: Geology of the Lune and Upper
Ribble coalfields. British Mining, 83 pp. AppendixPersons associated with Farleton (3) and Smeer
Hall – Stauvin (43) Coalfields Bateson, Anthony banksman (later
Greystone Gill) 1822, 24 [Edmondson’s banksman] |
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