Broomhill Colliery
 

Broomhill Colliery seems to be mentioned a lot , thought I'd upload an old photo . Not one of mine but a capture from a few years ago .I remember going into the old manor house over 20 years ago with an 2 piece video camera and recording unit just before it was pulled done to make way for the new housing development .

Broomhill Colliery
 

Nice picture. I have no recollection of the pit unfortunately. I guess that is a view looking NW. You could go down that shaft and walk to Hauxley or Bondicarr underground. If I recall the Ellington colliery maps correctly Hauxley workings extended to just off the pier ends at Amble. Imagine - a mile and a half more and they could have reached the eastward workings of Shillbottle colliery, then you would have been able to walk to Shilbottle!

Broomhill colliery.
 

There was no connection between Broomhill shaft and Hauxley. All of Broomhill workings to the N E were from surface drifts namely East Togston,Dawsons and Coldrife, the coal from these was transported overland to the colliery on tubways. There was a connection, in the early 1920's, from East Togston to Newburgh but that was before Hauxley came into being.
The last seam worked at Hauxley was the Brockwell, this was through the Hauxley fault to the North of the colliery and extended as far as Coquet Island to the East, just past the pier ends to the North and as far West as just past the filling station out side Amble. This seam was worked for 10 years before the closure of the pit in November 1966. There was a considerable difference in depths between Hauxley and Shilbottle, Hauxley being just under 500 feet while the Shilbottle shafts were sunk to a depth of 1000.

Didn't know that. Assumed there would be a connection back to the shafts for ventilation/2nd means of egress. So they worked like a series of separate unconnected mines around a drift eastwards.

Broomhill colliery.
 

We are beginning to wander from this site, this should possibly be on the Broomhill site. If you want to move it over I can give you more info ref. the layout of the colliery which would perhaps fit in better there.

Just found the site today and immediately signed on. I was born and bred in Deputys' Row next to the colliery yard. My father was back overman at Broomhill Colliery until it closed, then he was supply overman at Hauxley and Whiittle. I never went down the pit, I went to sea instead.
Amble is Amble, Broomhill is Broomhill, different :D

Welcome to the forum rovert98, the pit was, I bet, the most influential industry by a long chalk on our area. It's nice to have family connections to it.

Broomhill colliery.
 

My dad worked at Broomhill colliery and he drove the haulage engine at Coldrife Drift where he hooked the line of tubs up to the wire rope which stretched from Coldrife Drift to the colliery at Broomhill. As a family we used to visit him at his work, watching him drive the engine. I used to be sent to pick up his wages at the colliery on a Friday, which came in a small brown paper envelope. Many times was called out in the early hours of the night to go to work to assist to clear the snow from the rolleyway which stretched accross a few fields, before getting to Broomhill. When the pit closed he was sent to Whittle from where he retired.

Broomhill Colliery
 

My first job was at the Broomhill Colliery. Born and raised in Six Cottages, now gone and rebuilt as semis and bungalows. Six Cottages ran down the south wall of the Co-op store. My family were allocated a new 3 bedroom semi council house at Hadston in 1954. In 1955 I got a job at the colliery but had to travel to Ashington Mines Training School for six weeks. I was then assigned to a underground gang who were responsible for guiding airflow underground. Sometimes I got into old workings, perhaps closed for thirty or more years after air was found escaping into them. Some of the colourful sights I saw will remain with me though it wasn't always safe. Following that I had spells in the Prince seam, going underground at Moorhouse near Radcliffe, going down quite a number of steps to reach the level the seam was on. I used to think of it as 'The Stairway to Heaven' at the end of my shift. I was working there the day Man. Utd had the aircrash in Munich. A sad day. I worked at various jobs underground - conveyor belt heads, with ponies leading roof supports to the coal face, landings where you handled all coal out and empty tubs in at the end of a hauler run. Tubs were changed from one line to another and were the lifeblood of the underground world. Without tubs to fill miners couldn't earn money. Not a lifetime career for me though. I saw so many men with fingers missing, eyes out, skin covered in the blue scars of coal getting into cuts and leg injuries. I decided that I would be healthier in the forces and so it has been, despite everything. 1959 and out.

Hi Derilda, welcome to the forum. Does this mine plan ring a bell? can you remember why there was there a dog-leg at the bottom of the Moorhouse drift?

Image from the Alan J. collection.

I've inked out everything but the deep mine workings, there's some opencast shown which just overlaps the old workings from the south. The blue circles are Radcliffe shafts.

The years are marked 1950 - 1959, surface contour of the coal in feet referenced from ordnance datum is shown - numbers like 9850 (= 150 feet below sea level), even the coal seam composition is shown such as C 19" B 1" C 18" (19" of coal, 1" band, 18" coal)

Moor House drift.
 

As I was never down there I would guess that the dogleg was where the drift bottom met the end of the haulage road from the East Togston drift. The squared area would possibly be the loader where the tubs were filledfrom the conveyor which came from the faces.You'll notice tha last faces are 1959, that was when the North side of Broomhill finished, the South side went on until 1961.

Any idea where the roadways to the west going deeper, 1 in 36 (dated 1950) end up Alan ? - those must connect with another seam but can't find them on the other plans. They head back to the East Togston drift incline near where it cuts the Acklington Dyke.

Roadways to West.
 

Due to the incline and length I would guess at them bisecting other seams on the way down which would be then worked and the coal brought up to the East Togston engine plane to come to the surface that way. I don't know the seams in descending order at Broomhill.

Re Moorehouse Drift
 

Remember that Moorhouse was the entry to both the Prince and Albert seams. If my memories are correct the Prince landing was almost at the bottom of the drift steps, turning left. The Albert was a little further in then turned right through old workings then fell away. Prince had one active coalface and Albert, I think, had two. The only miners who didn't use Moorhouse to enter/exit thier work were two timber laddies, one worked in Prince , the other in Albert. They entered via Coldrife Drift with thier ponies (Gallowa's) because the stables were on the surface on the east side of the colliery. As I mentioned yesterday I worked with ponies for a while and went to work that way, via Coldrife. I never did like following the full set up the gradient to the surface as it wasn't unknown for a hauler rope to snap.
Other ponies worked in both North and South sides with stables underground. They only came to the surface for the pit holiday fortnight, or if they were unwell.

I've got it now. This seam illustrated above, the 'Prince', has the NCB letter G1. the Albert is G2 ( next deeper). On the G2 plan there are loads of workings in the area of that 1 in 36 roadway to the lower seam (your right turn off the East Togston arterial) those Albert seam faces were being worked 1944 - 1951.

Re Albert seam-Broomhill colliery
 

Maybe they were 'stealing' coal but the Albert was still drawing coal when I left in 1959.(Unlikely that they were doing anything untoward as there were surveyors putting in detailed plans. When the colliery was privately owned there were some illegal draws from unmapped coal faces and old roadways)
Albert was a reasonably wet workplace. If the water didn't drip onto your neck you were already standing in a couple of inches!! Prince was dry but both seams were good quality coal but not economical to work,with seams below 24 inches each. New mechanical loaders were being introduced but were too large for any seam at Broomhill, and probably Hauxley too.

I am of a later generation and find all this fascinating, a lost history from only 50 or so years ago. This forum is becoming a very valuable resource to record the rich heritage of this area.
As an aside, I was able to have a few hours on a "Marion" in 1982 deep down in the hole just west of the Moorhouse drift. It was very interesting to see a 100 metres of coal seam exposed with rubble from above filling the old mine workings. It was striking how little coal had actually been extracted by the underground mining. Pit props and metal etc were very evident, as was a circular metal shaft further west past Hope House farm.
Wish I had taken more pics now!!

For you mining enthusiasts, here's a Broomhill Colliery teaser. The attached photo is of my uncle, at Dawsons Drift Broomhill. It would have been taken early to mid 1930s as he had left the pit before the war.

Sounds very interesting. I feel the site operators should be obliged to record a representative selection of what the opencast uncovers for posterity. Just photographs would be better than nothing.


Could have been a staple shaft. That's a shaft wholly underground between two working levels. We had one at Ellington that had a spiral staircase in it, Although its primary function was storage. That is it had large hydraulically operated metal doors at the bottom that allowed the shaft to be closed and filled from the top with coal (more correctly 'run of mine') during stoppages on the conveyor system.

Nice photo.

Broomhill Colliery Fire. Heapstead Destroyed. 1899
 

Another fire from the newspaper archives. From reports after this one it looks like they managed to quickly bring another shaft in to operation for transport of coal and men, so the effects weren't as dire as suggested here.

date is Saturday 25th November 1899, Shields Daily Gazette.


SERIOUS PIT FIRE NEAR AMBLE.

HEAPSTEAD DESTROYED.

2,000 HANDS LAID IDLE.

Our Amble correspondent wires-
About 2 o’clock this morning a fire was observed near the shaft of the colliery at Broomhill.
The alarm was immediately given, and a large crowd hurried to the scene of the conflagration.
Owing to the inflammable nature of the heapstead, the whole structure was within 30 minutes
one sheet of flame. Nothing could be done to stop the fire, and the whole structure was raised
to the ground in a short time. The cage ropes were also burned, and the cages fell into the bottom
of the shaft. No coals will be drawn for some time, and the fire will cause nearly 2,000 men and
boys to be laid idle for a considerable time. How the fire originated is unknown.





.

It is, but where's Dawsons Drift?

My uncle left the pits, took up being a chef in Middlesborough, volunteered for the army same time as my dad (1940), got put into cooking :) Not what he had in mind as my dad was a gunner in RA, got a transfer and was killed at Tobruk in 1941. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

I think this is Dawson's Drift. 600 yards South of Togston Barns? (green text is mine)

Nice one Coquet, thanks.

Dawsons drift.
 

Spot on Coquet, as you can see it used the same tramway to the colliery as East togston did.
The fire on the heapstead at Broomhill was assisted by the fact it was constructed of wood apparently, the replacement, which I would think would be still there at the end , was steel framed and covered with corrugated steel sheets as was the one at Hauxley.

bromhill colliyer
 

the spiryrel staircase at ellington i remember running down them and being dissey when i got out. the stapel for holding coal had a chewer at the top so coal to big didn't get though it was two drums with picks on spining around it was said in some mines some men didn't get off the belt in time and went into the picks ,nothing left just a mess.

Never knew the name of this Drift entrance as it was all sealed off when we were kids.There was also a stable block about a hundred yards from this drift.also another drift was located up at the end of the other tramway.

Re Togston Barns
 

Just been on good old Google Earth following Morph up-loading overlays. I followed the road from Broomhill to Togston Barns. Although a lot has changed over the years because of opencast mining,they did a good job putting everything back, I was delighted to find something very familiar.
Most of the Amble/Broomhill railway had to go, but, as you approach Togston Barns from the west the bridge stonework and safety barriers under which the railway went, are still visible. I wonder, does that mean that below the earth which levelled the area, is the bridge still intact beneath?
There were some brilliant blackberries grew in that area!!

I have often wondered about that bridge and how it was filled in as the spoil underneath must have settled? and consequently there must be a small void underneath. Therefore, was the bridge a stone arch or a metal span construction? if it is the later will it not rust and the road collapse eventually?

From what I remember (in the distant past), it looked very similar to Mark's Bridge in Amble, just a bit smaller. It doesn't seem to look like that now, so perhaps it's been replaced at some point to stop that happening?

Togston Barns Bridge
 

Hi Hollydog. My memory may have been altered by old age but I think it was of brick construction, the same as Broomhill bridge. If I am correct then any settling would not change the strength of the bridge. (But I think I will use the High Road, just in case!!!)

I wish you had taken more pictures too! I remember going along the old railway line from Amble out past Hope Farm with my granda and seeing at least one brick structure sticking up out of the ground. I think there were two of them, but its very very fuzzy in in the old memory.

He said that they were the old colliery shafts. I was only about 6 or 7 at the time and thats about all i can remember.

They looked like they were square at the top. I have never found them on any old maps and there is nothing remaining now as its all been opencasted like you said. It would be intersting to see if anyone knows anything else about them.

Colliery shafts.
 

Those were the shafts of Togston Colliery, just a bit past the Hope Bridge, on the right, from Amble. There were two, one surrounded by brick the other a stone wall. This is covered at length in another thread.

Fire - Broomhill Colliery
 

COQUET - Broomhill Colliery had a fire district near the shaft bottom. Does anyone know if that was caused by pressure on coal columns after mining, other pressure such as beneath the pit heap, or some other cause such as a carry over from the shaft fire, which you mentioned, of 1899? It wasn't a particularly deep shaft.
The stables at the shaft bottom were quite near so the gallawa's were never exactly cold!

Underground fires in coal are caused by spontaneous combustion, often in the 'goaf' (waste area after the bulk of the coal has been extracted) it can spread into the coal seam proper and is very difficult to extinguish.

Low level oxidation of coal and timber underground goes on all the time, and can produce pockets of CO2 which you can wander into blissfully unaware and drop down dead.

At Ellington I carried a CO2 detector when sent into old workings to check on pumps etc. I say CO2 detector but they were in fact oxygen detectors - when the oxygen level falls below a certain percentage it would alarm and that was time to turn around and head in the other direction an inform an official. (Reducing oxygen levels in the mine environment means rising CO2)

So in a mine you have this full range of oxidation right up to full blown coal seam fires. An intermediate stage is called a 'heating' signalled by higher levels of combustion gases in the mine atmosphere telling us that runaway combustion is imminent, and action must immediately be taken. The general strategy in fighting these fires is to isolate the area by building concrete "stoppings" in all the access tunnels to cut off the air supply. The area is lost - and sometimes the mine! (Lynemouth Colliery fire).


Broomhill must have had a heating or fire at one time, and it's this sealed off district you recall?

Re: Fire
 

Thanks Coquet. When I first went underground at Broomhill I 'Travelled the Waste'. That is, with a deputy, I took airflow measurements in all working areas. This also at the shaft bottom area, measuring to see if air was being drawn into or escaping from the fire district. It is fair to say that I helped take readings but was never privvy to the results of what we had handed in at the end of each shift. For all I knew we could have found that we could spontaeneously combust!!! That was 1955/56. I suppose things moved on from there safetywise. I suppose the same information is still extracted from mines but probably in a more sophisticated manner.

Thanks Alan, I'll have a look. For years I thought I had imagined them!

Morph, your info' is on the Togston/ Broomhill site complete with map showing your shafts just above the Hope bridge.

Thanks Alan, I read the other post you mentioned where you used to play around them as a child! I had never realised they were the shafts on the map. It always seemed they were nearer to Amble than that and I had never realised they were part of those workings. The information on here is amazing and its great that people like you remember all this and post it. Thanks again.

!944 ?
 

Anyone remember these guys