I have spoken to an engineer directly involved. The pump was originally put in as Northern Light stated, to keep the opencast dry. It was sunk just behind the pit shaft down to the roadways below. Initially, when the pump was fitted, the water did not go down and my engineer friend looked into it and pointed out that actually about 110 million gallons were down there! as it was drawing water from not just Radcliffe but Togston, Broomhill and across beyond Red Row. They therefore had to install a much larger pump. I presume that when the opencast finished at Maidens Hall a couple of years ago UK Coal decided it was no longer necessary.
Hope his sheds some light on the subject, and makes sense, considering the earlier threads on inter-connection between the various pits.
Last edited by hollydog; 01-05-2013 at 12:07 PM.
Reason: spelling
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