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Old 04-12-2015, 11:19 AM
jumpy shore jumpy shore is offline
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Join Date: May 2015
Location: London & Durham
Posts: 79
Default Old Whittle Drift and stone spoil

The entrance to the old drift was between the land sale and and the screens as I remember, half way up the hill it was covered by stone but you could see a ventilation pipe sticking out from a drystone wall which was covered with spoil. There was a concrete foundation there which I assumed was for the conveyor drive head. There were men at Whittle who had used the old drift and and often recalled the 'bad old days' on the way home from fore shift on Smiths bus. Jonny Raine, Salty Sam to name but two! I walked passed the old pump house on a couple of occasions but never reached the old drift, the roof looked quite precarious and it was very low in places.
I seem to remember a large fall of stone just inbye of Shillbtottle Grange shaft not long after it closed when we were still doing maintenance on the shaft and pumps. The Overmans cabin at the shaft bottom was the only refuge from the gale of ice winter wind coming down the shaft!
Very little stone came from Whittle screens, only the caunches from the gates and winnings and a little from the shearers. Winnings stone was large and loaded by MC3 Gathering Arm Loaders so it was easy to deal with at the surface. DOSCO and shearer stone was small and easily washed out in the screens so there wasn't much to deal with, maybe thats why we don't remember it.
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