Local collieries

[Fisherman 2]

Anyone know of any history of local pits in the parish?

There used to be one at Preesgwene and I think there may of been one at Trehowell chirk bank.Also the sand pit at the end of the long wood anyone know what that was used for? There is a lot of info about for the chirk area but not much for our village.It would be nice to find out so it is not forgotton.

[leebarnfield 30]

Fisherman.....

found this bit of information,

Lodge or Preesgwyn, Furnace, Hall. Listed in 1860, also in 1891 (shafts 525ft and 354ft deep), furnace ventilated, used ponies and donkeys for haulage. Connected to the railway, closed about 1890

Moreton Hall Nos.1 & 2, Hall, Preesgwyn. Connected to canal and railway by tramway. 160yds deep to Main Seam

Quinta or Trehowell. Listed in 1860, 37yds down to Main Seam.

Chirk Bank. Believed to be the scene of a canal embankment collapse in 1816, it dammed the river downstream causing the flooding of many pits in the valley. No lives were lost but the horses perished.

Hopefully some of our local historians will be along soon to give some more info...........

[Simple Simon 36]

There are a number of local bridges in the area that could have been used for coal transport by rail. There's a bridge that crosses a lane in Lower Hengoed. Sarn Lane that goes from St. Martins Road almost down to the Gledrid Roundabout crosses the canal, a stream, and what looks like an overgrown section of railway line (maybe linking up to Ifton Colliery).

[Maggie 65]

I put my geologist's hat on and trawled google for some linkable information about collieries. The North Wales mines Site has a list of collieries, including ones in our area, http://www.northwalesminers.com/sites/sites_coal.htm but I am a bit dubious of it's accuracy, certainly they have got the site and information wrong for Chirk Bank.

There isn't much else so you have to go to good old fashioned books!

see. Neville Hurdsman 'A History of the Parish of Chirk' 1996 , Neville Hurdsman 'A History of St Martins and Weston Rhyn' 2003

I think both are still in print so try Booka in Oswestry, and are definitely in the Library.

The Geol Survey of 'The Country around Oswestry' 1929 by Wedd et.al. has loads of sections through strata at local mines, and is a good source of where the mine shafts were then. There is a copy in Oswestry Library. This gives sections from collieries at Chirk Bank, Preesgwyn, Moreton Hall, Daywall, Gobowen, Penylan nr Oswestry, Coed y go nr Oswestry, Trefar-Clawdd nr Oswestry, (these might be over near Sweeney, I'm not sure so have included them).

Coal Mining is first recorded in the St Martins area in 1602 in Coad-yr-Allt and Flannog, but was obviously active some time before then. These were small 'bell-pits' worked for coal and clays, You can just about make out where some early pits were in Pen-y-banc behind Ifotn Meadows, above Glyn Morlas, as hummocks on a lawn. The first records in Weston Rhyn is a pit at Berllandeg (Rhosweil) in 17th century. The lump of land behind the farm is the remains of the spoil heap.

Once the canal came through around 1800 then lots of horse drawn tramways developed from collieries down to the canal and you can make out a lot of these across our countryside. They connected to collieries in Upper Chirk Bank, Quinta and Trehowell. The Quinta/Trehowell colliery also extracted clays for bricks, and these were particularly fine, cream coloured bricks, which can be seen in the terrace of houses in Upper Chirk Bank. You can see the track of a tramway across the field the other side of the railway on Trehowell Ave/lane. It goes into a wood, where there is a spoil heap and pond which are the site of a colliery. I do not know which was Quinta pit and which was Trehowell pit in this wider area. There is loads of information about all these collieries in the Neville Hurdsman books mentioned above.

When Jessop and Telford were digging out the canal in Chirk Bank they hit coal, and there was a coal mine developed by the river below the canal. The National Library of Wales have a brilliant sketch of the mine, whilst Chirk Aqueduct appears to still be in construction. I've put it in the CO Gallery. This flooded on Christmas Eve 1816 when the canal above breached. Luckily it was holiday time and no miners were down it at the time.

There was a big stone bridge across the road in Lower Chirk Bank, just below where Oaklands Rd joins it. Neville Hurdsman has a photo of this and if I can find one online I will put that in the gallery too. This carried coal wagons from Quinta and Trehowell collieries down to the Chirk Bank canal wharf.

The whole area is riddled with old shafts and underground workings. I think that the ponds over the fields from Oaklands Road are subsidence and also probably where thin upper coals was extracted well before Victorian times.

The more you look the more you see!

[Guest]

Lots in our area:

Pen y Banc, Beeches, FFlannog St martins as well as Ifton Colliery.

Also Ifton Rhyn Colliery St Martins.

Chirk Bank Colliery which I believe flooded

Preesgwynne colliery which employed 1400 men and boys, I have seen a photo of this.

There's also Brynkinnallt Chirk and Black Park which became upcast shafts for Ifton Colliery.

All of these pits were in the North Wales (Denbighshire) coal field which extends into North Shropshire.

There were many more some of which are not recorded, particularly the early "Bell pits".

[Maggie 65]

Sorry, I left the more recent and obvious collieries out. The Chirk Bank Colliery which flooded is the one I have posted a picture of in the 'Gallery'. Ifton Meadows Mngt Committee have a good display of info. about the Ifton Pit, which is usually in Oswestry Museum.

Beeches is the only other site I haven't recorded, where was that?

I have just posted a picture in 'Gallery' of Ifton Pit in 1940's. I haven't come across a picture of Preesgwynne .

The Romans were using coal in Shropshire, so suspect that coal has been 'quarried' from the surface where it outcrops for a very very long time.

[Fisherman 2]

Thanks all it has been a great help.

[Guest]

You will find the following publication of help:

A History of the Parishes of St Martins and Weston Rhyn by Neville Hurdsman, published by Bridge Books.

Chapter 4 is about coalmining.