Wallsend Colliery Drift. Forest of Dean.
This old coalmine is thought to have started sometime around 1875-ish and had a very chequered history ….due at various times to either water problems, faulting of the coal seams or financial trouble or a combination of all three at once. Despite probably being closed as much as it was open over the years it was however in production in 1979 but not long after that, the age old problem of The Forest of Deans Coalfield struck….too much water and a diminishing coal seam finally forced closure for good around 1981/82. This was a real shame as the last owners put in a lot of effort and money with many substantial underground improvements being carried out including opening up a new coal district but..... sadly all to no final avail…
…The surface buildings were completely cleared by the middle 80s and with the entrance to the drift barricaded and partly buried nature swiftly reclaimed the site. For many years only the old loading wharf was barely discernable amongst the brambles but knowing the old entrance was just about accessible ……. with torch in hand I decided a mooch was in order…
…Underground this colliery was connected to another old pit about ½ a mile away on the other side of the valley known occasionally as the ‘Findall Drift’…(as opposed to the ‘Findall Colliery’ which is about 2 miles further away … confused yet?) …this second entrance is also still open although gated and presumably there is still a through flow of air.
The entrance……
The way in…slimlines only
Looking down the main haulage road (note concreted roof and also dirt that has slid out of one of the man refuges in the wall)
Looking back toward the entrance
Further down the main road the roof is brick
The first major fall….it was a bit misty down there…
Close up of the fall….no way around this one…..
Turning into the next roadway…
This road had a lot of water coming down through the roof but although it was draining away somewhere the road was unfortunately also blocked by a heavy fall after about 40 feet or so (And just at this point my camera went ‘plop’ into the mud… duh! Sorry! I did manage to clean it up and get it working again once I was back on the surface but….Grrrrhhh! Ah well… )
The fall was vaguely passable if you’d fancied a bit of digging though and there was a strong flow of air coming through the slight gap…..this roadway would lead in generally the right direction to the
‘Findall Drift’ entrance across the valley…..
Well that’s it really folks…I’ll just finish off with a few more details of the area for you………..
This is another old drift entrance in the same area (blocked by a heavy fall about 30 feet in) originally part of another coal drift called Morses Level (covered in a report on here recently)……
..The spoil visible immediately above the old brick lined entrance has been dumped from the emergency way out of Morses Level……I don’t know if the original Morses Level is still possibly connected underground to this old drift but the small mine I worked in ( which is just along the bank from here and was occasionally known as ‘Morses Number 3’ but also sometimes as ‘Willets Pit’ …or to the more unsubtle amongst the local Freeminers as ‘Willets Rabbit Hole’…………bet yer confused now?!) did, towards the end of its life, connect into one of the old roadways running to/from this entrance in an attempt to aid with water drainage ……
…….Also just visible on the hillside amongst the trees is a small brick built but roofless explosives store used by one of these old mines.
and this is an old shaft known to some as Morses Engine right next to the old drift……
and
……….This whole area has been heavily mined for many years. Within well less than half a mile are (or were) 7 reasonable sized collieries and 6 smaller ‘freemines’. Again, the Coal Authority has been busy in the area and only last year 2 shafts known as Howbeach Engine Colliery (closed approx 1921) were filled and capped just a few hundred yards through the woods from here. These particular remains are only safe from complete destruction by the CA as long as the Gale (the ‘rights to the coal’) remains ‘held’ on the existing Morses Level which is currently mothballed…Should the holder of that gale decide to surrender it to the Crown then that’ll almost certainly be the signal for the CA to move in with the bulldozer ……
This old coalmine is thought to have started sometime around 1875-ish and had a very chequered history ….due at various times to either water problems, faulting of the coal seams or financial trouble or a combination of all three at once. Despite probably being closed as much as it was open over the years it was however in production in 1979 but not long after that, the age old problem of The Forest of Deans Coalfield struck….too much water and a diminishing coal seam finally forced closure for good around 1981/82. This was a real shame as the last owners put in a lot of effort and money with many substantial underground improvements being carried out including opening up a new coal district but..... sadly all to no final avail…
…The surface buildings were completely cleared by the middle 80s and with the entrance to the drift barricaded and partly buried nature swiftly reclaimed the site. For many years only the old loading wharf was barely discernable amongst the brambles but knowing the old entrance was just about accessible ……. with torch in hand I decided a mooch was in order…
…Underground this colliery was connected to another old pit about ½ a mile away on the other side of the valley known occasionally as the ‘Findall Drift’…(as opposed to the ‘Findall Colliery’ which is about 2 miles further away … confused yet?) …this second entrance is also still open although gated and presumably there is still a through flow of air.
The entrance……
The way in…slimlines only
Looking down the main haulage road (note concreted roof and also dirt that has slid out of one of the man refuges in the wall)
Looking back toward the entrance
Further down the main road the roof is brick
The first major fall….it was a bit misty down there…
Close up of the fall….no way around this one…..
Turning into the next roadway…
This road had a lot of water coming down through the roof but although it was draining away somewhere the road was unfortunately also blocked by a heavy fall after about 40 feet or so (And just at this point my camera went ‘plop’ into the mud… duh! Sorry! I did manage to clean it up and get it working again once I was back on the surface but….Grrrrhhh! Ah well… )
The fall was vaguely passable if you’d fancied a bit of digging though and there was a strong flow of air coming through the slight gap…..this roadway would lead in generally the right direction to the
‘Findall Drift’ entrance across the valley…..
Well that’s it really folks…I’ll just finish off with a few more details of the area for you………..
This is another old drift entrance in the same area (blocked by a heavy fall about 30 feet in) originally part of another coal drift called Morses Level (covered in a report on here recently)……
..The spoil visible immediately above the old brick lined entrance has been dumped from the emergency way out of Morses Level……I don’t know if the original Morses Level is still possibly connected underground to this old drift but the small mine I worked in ( which is just along the bank from here and was occasionally known as ‘Morses Number 3’ but also sometimes as ‘Willets Pit’ …or to the more unsubtle amongst the local Freeminers as ‘Willets Rabbit Hole’…………bet yer confused now?!) did, towards the end of its life, connect into one of the old roadways running to/from this entrance in an attempt to aid with water drainage ……
…….Also just visible on the hillside amongst the trees is a small brick built but roofless explosives store used by one of these old mines.
and this is an old shaft known to some as Morses Engine right next to the old drift……
and
……….This whole area has been heavily mined for many years. Within well less than half a mile are (or were) 7 reasonable sized collieries and 6 smaller ‘freemines’. Again, the Coal Authority has been busy in the area and only last year 2 shafts known as Howbeach Engine Colliery (closed approx 1921) were filled and capped just a few hundred yards through the woods from here. These particular remains are only safe from complete destruction by the CA as long as the Gale (the ‘rights to the coal’) remains ‘held’ on the existing Morses Level which is currently mothballed…Should the holder of that gale decide to surrender it to the Crown then that’ll almost certainly be the signal for the CA to move in with the bulldozer ……
