1.
Coal mine
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Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its content, and, since the 1880s, has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore, in the United Kingdom and South Africa a coal mine and its structures are a colliery, a coal mine a pit, the above-ground structures the pit head. In Australia, colliery generally refers to a coal mine. In the United States colliery has been used to describe a coal mine operation, Coal mining has had many developments over the recent years, from the early days of men tunnelling, digging and manually extracting the coal on carts, to large open cut and long wall mines. Mining at this scale requires the use of draglines, trucks, conveyors, hydraulic jacks, small-scale mining of surface deposits dates back thousands of years. For example, in Roman Britain, the Romans were exploiting most of the major coalfields by the late 2nd century AD. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in the 18th century and later spread to continental Europe, international trade expanded rapidly when coal-fed steam engines were built for the railways and steamships. Until the late nineteenth century coal was mined using a pick and shovel. Coal-cutting machines were introduced in the 1880s, by 1912, surface mining was conducted with steam shovels designed for coal mining. The most economical method of extraction from coal seams depends on the depth and quality of the seams. Coal mining processes are differentiated by whether they operate on the surface or underground, many coals extracted from both surface and underground mines require washing in a coal preparation plant. Surface mining and deep underground mining are the two methods of mining. Coal that occurs at depths of 180 to 300 ft are usually deep mined, for example, some western U. S. coal that occur at depths in excess of 200 ft are mined by the open pit methods, due to thickness of the seam 60–90 feet. Coals occurring below 300 ft are usually deep mined, However, there are open pit mining operations working on coal seams up to 1000–1500 feet below ground level, for instance Tagebau Hambach in Germany. When coal seams are near the surface, it may be economical to extract the coal using open cut mining methods, open cast coal mining recovers a greater proportion of the coal deposit than underground methods, as more of the coal seams in the strata may be exploited. In this mining method, explosives are first used in order to break through the surface or overburden, the overburden is then removed by draglines or by shovel and truck. Once the coal seam is exposed, it is drilled, fractured, the coal is then loaded onto large trucks or conveyors for transport to either the coal preparation plant or directly to where it will be used
2.
Clifton, Greater Manchester
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Clifton is a small town within the metropolitan borough of the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies alongside and in the Irwell Valley in the part of the City of Salford. Clifton, a centre for coal mining, once formed part of the Municipal Borough of Swinton. Clifton is derived from the Old English clif and tun, and means the settlement near a cliff, Clifton was mentioned in the Pipe Roll of 1183–84. Clifton Hall Colliery was situated a few yards to the west of Lumns Lane on a site occupied by a domestic refuse and recycling site. It is thought that the colliery was operating by 1820, and its tramway is shown on a plan from 1830. On 18 June 1885, an explosion at the colliery killed 178 men. It is thought the explosion was caused by firedamp igniting on contact with a candle, blacksmith George Hindley and fireman George Higson, were part of a band of men who descended into the mine immediately after the explosion. They received an Albert Medal in recognition of their heroism, wet Earth Colliery was another early coal pit located in Clifton. The Pilkingtons Lancastrian Pottery was established in 1892, the Chloride Electrical Storage Company opened its battery factory at Clifton Junction in 1893. Magnesium Elektron Ltd built a factory at Clifton Junction to produce magnesium metal in 1936. Clifton was a township in the parish of Eccles in the hundred of Salford in Lancashire. Clifton lies five miles north west of Manchester on the A666 road to Bolton, the township covered 850 acres in the valley of the River Irwell, which forms the north east boundary. The Manchester-Preston railway line passes through and there was a junction with the line to Bury, the highest land rises to over 300 feet above sea level in the west of the township near the Worsley boundary and is moss land. The underlying rocks are New Red Sandstone between Clifton and Ringley while the rest of the lies on the Middle Coal Measures of the Manchester Coalfield. Much of Cliftons boundary with Pendlebury is defined by Slack Brook which flows eventually into the Irwell not far from where Agecroft Power Station once stood, Slack Brook has been largely culverted for many years under landfill tipping since the 1950s. Clifton is served by Clifton railway station on the Ribble Valley Line, in earlier times, the station was known as Clifton Junction from its location at the junction of the Manchester and Bolton Railway and Manchester, Bury and Rossendale Railway lines. The Bury line left the station/junction and passed over Clifton Viaduct, Clifton Junction was important in bringing workers to the three large factories in the area, Magnesium Elektron Ltd, Chloride Batteries and Pilkingtons Tiles
3.
Wet Earth Colliery
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The Wet Earth Colliery was a coal mine located on the Manchester Coalfield, in Clifton, Greater Manchester. The colliery site is now the location of Clifton Country Park, the colliery has a unique place in British coal mining history, apart from being one of the earliest pits in the country, it is the place where engineer James Brindley made water run uphill. The colliery is situated in the valley of the River Irwell which flows north to south along the Pendleton Fault. Many other coal mines were situated on major fault which threw up the underlying Carboniferous coal measures by some 1,000 metres making them accessible for mining from early times. To the east of the fault is the red Triassic sandstone, to the west are the coal measures, the area around Nob End in Kearsley, a few hundred metres to the north of the Wet Earth Colliery shows evidence of early bell pit working and small ladder pits. The first deeper working was by the owner of the Clifton Estate, Heathcote sank two shafts, which were about 50 feet deep to the Doe mine. This seam was 9 ft 7½ in thick and dipped at a gradient of 1 in 3½ to the south-west, jacob Fletcher, a mine owner from Bolton, had several mines in Harwood, Breightmet, Bolton and Atherton. He had two sons, John and Matthew, John was responsible for sinking a pit in Atherton whilst Matthew took up mining engineering. John Heathcote was having problems with the pit and called on Matthew Fletcher to help sink a new shaft, the new shaft was sunk 262 feet to the seam at a point which became the central focus of the Wet Earth complex. The shaft was deepened to 328 feet to connect with the Five Quarters mine which at this point was 37 thick, the workings were plagued with water, which entered from the River Irwell via the Pendleton Fault. Heathcote asked Matthew Fletcher to advise him on how to solve the flooding, John Heathcote closed the pit in 1750. Heathcote and Fletcher were at a loss as how to remove the water from the pit until it came to the attention of James Brindley. Brindley, a relative of John Heathcote, was an engineer whose feats included the Bridgewater Canal and he initially suggested a scheme whereby a Newcomen atmospheric pumping engine could be used to dewater the mine but the Newcomen engine had been plagued with problems in dewatering deep mines. His revised scheme relied on water power and it had to overcome several obstacles, not least that there was no flowing water on the site to power a pump and that the pithead was 23 feet above the level of the River Irwell. The problem of water level was solved by building a weir upstream on the Irwell as it flowed southeast at Ringley Fold to create a head of higher than the pithead. Drawing water from the east side of the Irwell, Brindley then drove a tunnel 800 yards long through shale and sandstone across a large bend in the river as far as Giants Seat. By this point the river had crossed the Pendleton Fault, where it curved 180 degrees to flow northwest, at Giants Seat, Brindley drove two shafts into the sandstone, one each north and south of the river. An adit was driven from the northern shaft to the river bank allowing the tunnel to be flushed when needed
4.
Manchester Coalfield
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The Manchester Coalfield is part of the South Lancashire Coalfield, the coal seams of which were laid down in the Carboniferous Period. The Coal Measures lie above a bed of Millstone Grit and are interspersed with sandstones, mudstones, shales, the Lower Coal Measures occupy the high ground of the West Pennine Moors above Bolton and are not worked in the Manchester Coalfield. The most productive of the measures are the lower two thirds of the Middle Coal Measures where coal is mined from seams between the Worsley Four Foot and Arley mines. The deepest and most productive collieries were to the south of the coalfield, the coalfield is affected by the northwest to southeast aligned Pendleton Fault along the Irwell Valley and the Rossendale Anticline. The Coal Measures generally dip towards the south and west, numerous other smaller faults affect the coalfield. The Upper Coal Measures are not worked in the Manchester Coalfield, the early coal pits were dug to the shallow seams where they outcropped, particularly in the Irwell Valley and in Atherton. The early collieries were adits or bell pits exploiting the Worsley Four Foot Mine, deeper mines were sunk when steam engines were developed to pump water from the shafts. Most collieries to the east of the Pendleton Fault had closed before 1929, a group of independent companies formed Manchester Collieries in 1929, to work the reserves of the coalfield. In this part of Lancashire a coal seam is referred to as a mine, the beds of coal in the Coal Measures are separated by layers of rock, gritstones, sandstones, shales and mudstones of varying thicknesses. The mines were named after their thickness – Yard, Three Quarters – or given local names in the areas in which they were first worked. The eastern part of the coalfield under Manchester is isolated from the rest, the sequence of coal seams corresponds more closely with that of the Oldham Coalfield than the rest of the Manchester Coalfield. Workable seams are close to the surface and coal from the deep Roger mine was considered to be of the highest quality. The Upper Coal Measures above the Worsley Four Foot mine, known as the Parker mine, are worked in part of the coalfield and known as the Bradford Group. The coal seams of the Bradford Group are the Two Foot, Doctor, New, Yard, Bradford Foor Foot, Three Quarters and Charlotte mines, the Openshaw mine above the Charlotte was worked for fireclay. Below the Bradford Group and the Parker mine are the Top, Middle and Deep mines and 60 feet below them, the Top, Middle and Deep mines correspond to the Major, Bland and Ashton Great mines in the Oldham Coalfield. The Crumbouke mine in the coalfield is the Roger mine in central Manchester. List of collieries in Astley and Tyldesley Notes Bibliography
5.
Historic counties of England
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The historic counties of England were established for administration by the Normans, in most cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires established by the Anglo-Saxons and others. They ceased to be used for administration with the creation of the counties in 1889. They are alternatively known as ancient counties or traditional counties, where they are not included among the modern counties of England they are also known as former counties. Counties were used initially for the administration of justice, collection of taxes and organisation of the military and they continue to form the basis of modern local government in many parts of the country away from the main urban areas, although sometimes with considerably altered boundaries. The name of a county often gives a clue to how it was formed, either as a division took its name from a centre of administration. The majority of English counties are in the first category, with the name formed by combining the central town with the suffix -shire, for example Yorkshire. Former kingdoms, which became earldoms in the united England did not feature this formulation, so for Kent, Counties ending in the suffix -sex are also in this category and are former Saxon kingdoms. Many of these names are formed from compass directions, the third category includes counties such as Cornwall and Devon where the name corresponds to the tribes who inhabited the area. County Durham is anomalous in terms of naming and origin, not falling into any of the three categories, instead it was a diocese that was turned into the County Palatine of Durham, ruled by the Bishop of Durham. The expected form would otherwise be Durhamshire, but it was rarely used, there are customary abbreviations for many of the counties. In most cases these consist of simple truncation, usually with an s at the end signifying shire, some abbreviations are not obvious, such as Salop for Shropshire, Oxon for Oxfordshire, Hants for Hampshire and Northants for Northamptonshire. Counties were often prefixed with County of in official contexts, such as County of Kent and those counties named after central towns lost the -shire suffix, for example Yorkshire would be known as County of York. This usage was sometimes followed even where there was no town by that name, the -shire suffix was also appended for some counties, such as Devonshire, Dorsetshire and Somersetshire, despite their origin. There is still a Duke of Devonshire, Great Britain was first divided into administrative areas by the Romans, most likely following major geographical features such as rivers. Before their arrival there were distinct tribal areas, but they were in a constant state of flux as territory was gained, the areas that would later form the English counties started to take shape soon afterwards, with the Kingdom of Kent founded by settlers around 445. Once the Kingdom of England was united as a whole in 927 it became necessary to subdivide it for convenience and to this end. The whole kingdom was divided into shires by the time of the Norman conquest, robert of Gloucester accounts for thirty-five shires and William of Malmesbury thirty-two, Henry of Huntingdon, thirty-seven. In most cases the counties or shires in medieval times were administered by a sheriff on behalf of the monarch, after the Norman conquest the sheriff was replaced and the shires became counties, or areas under the control of a count, in the French manner
6.
Lancashire
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Lancashire is a non-metropolitan ceremonial county in north west England. The county town is Lancaster although the administrative centre is Preston. The county has a population of 1,449,300, people from Lancashire are known as Lancastrians. The history of Lancashire begins with its founding in the 12th century, in the Domesday Book of 1086, some of its lands were treated as part of Yorkshire. The land that lay between the Ribble and Mersey, Inter Ripam et Mersam, was included in the returns for Cheshire, when its boundaries were established, it bordered Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. Lancashire emerged as a commercial and industrial region during the Industrial Revolution. Liverpool and Manchester grew into its largest cities, dominating global trade, the county contained several mill towns and the collieries of the Lancashire Coalfield. By the 1830s, approximately 85% of all cotton manufactured worldwide was processed in Lancashire, Accrington, Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Colne, Darwen, Manchester, Nelson, Oldham, Preston, Rochdale and Wigan were major cotton mill towns during this time. Blackpool was a centre for tourism for the inhabitants of Lancashires mill towns, the detached northern part of Lancashire in the Lake District, including the Furness Peninsula and Cartmel, was merged with Cumberland and Westmorland to form Cumbria. Lancashire lost 709 square miles of land to other counties, about two fifths of its area, although it did gain some land from the West Riding of Yorkshire. Today the county borders Cumbria to the north, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south and North and West Yorkshire to the east, with a coastline on the Irish Sea to the west. The county palatine boundaries remain the same with the Duke of Lancaster exercising sovereignty rights, including the appointment of lords lieutenant in Greater Manchester, the county was established in 1182, later than many other counties. During Roman times the area was part of the Brigantes tribal area in the zone of Roman Britain. The towns of Manchester, Lancaster, Ribchester, Burrow, Elslack, in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal in 410AD the northern parts of the county probably formed part of the Brythonic kingdom of Rheged, a successor entity to the Brigantes tribe. During the mid-8th century, the area was incorporated into the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria, in the Domesday Book, land between the Ribble and Mersey were known as Inter Ripam et Mersam and included in the returns for Cheshire. Although some historians consider this to mean south Lancashire was then part of Cheshire and it is also claimed that the territory to the north formed part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. It bordered on Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, and Cheshire, the county was divided into hundreds, Amounderness, Blackburn, Leyland, Lonsdale, Salford and West Derby. Lonsdale was further partitioned into Lonsdale North, the part north of the sands of Morecambe Bay including Furness and Cartmel
7.
City of Salford
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The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. The city has a population of 218,000, and is administered from the Salford Civic Centre in Swinton, the current city boundaries were set as part of the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972, and cover an amalgamation of five former local government districts. It is bounded on the south east by the River Irwell, which forms its boundary with the city of Manchester and by the Manchester Ship Canal to the south, the metropolitan boroughs of Wigan, Bolton and Bury lie to the west, northwest and north respectively. Some parts of the city, which lies directly west of Manchester, are highly industrialised and densely populated and this is because the western half of the city stretches across an ancient peat bog known as Chat Moss. Salford has a history of human activity stretching back to the Neolithic age, there are over 250 listed buildings in the city, including Salford Cathedral, and three Scheduled Ancient Monuments. With the Industrial Revolution, Salford and its neighbours grew along with its textile industry, the former County Borough of Salford was granted city status in 1926. The city and its industries experienced decline throughout much of the 20th century, since the 1990s, parts of Salford have undergone regeneration, especially Salford Quays, home of BBC North and Granada Television, and the area around the University of Salford. Salford Red Devils are a rugby league club in Super League. Although the metropolitan borough of the City of Salford was a 20th-century creation, Neolithic flint arrow-heads and tools, and evidence of Bronze Age activity has been discovered in Salford. In 1142, a cell and priory dedicated to St. Leonard was established in Kersal, Salford became a free borough in about 1230, when it was granted a charter as a free borough by the Earl Ranulph of Chester. The cell in Kersal was sold in 1540 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a 16th-century manor house, called Kersal Cell, was built on the site of the priory. In the English Civil War between King Charles I and parliament, Salford was Royalist, during the Industrial Revolution, Salford grew as a result of the textile industry. Although Salford experienced an increase in population, it was overshadowed by the dominance of Manchester, on 15 September 1830, Eccles was site of the worlds first railway accident. Although Huskisson was taken to Eccles for treatment he died of his injuries, in 1894, the Manchester Ship Canal was opened, running from the River Mersey to Salford Quays, when it was complete it was the largest navigation canal in the world. Along the route of the canal, it was necessary to create an aqueduct carrying the Bridgewater Canal over the Ship Canal, the Barton Swing Aqueduct, designed by Sir Edward Leader Williams, is 100 metres long and weighs 1,450 metric tons. At the start of the 20th century, Salford began to due to competition from outside the UK. A survey in 1931 concluded that parts of Salford were amongst the worst slums in the country, Salford was granted city status in 1926. During World War II, Salford Docks were regularly bombed, in the decades following the Second World War there was a significant economic and population decline in Salford
8.
Greater Manchester
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Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million. Greater Manchester was created on 1 April 1974 as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, Greater Manchester spans 493 square miles, which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. It is landlocked and borders Cheshire, Derbyshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire, for the 12 years following 1974 the county had a two-tier system of local government, district councils shared power with the Greater Manchester County Council. The county council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts became unitary authority areas. However, the county has continued to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference, and as a ceremonial county, has a Lord Lieutenant. A further devolution of powers to Greater Manchester is set to place upon the election of the inaugural Mayor of Greater Manchester scheduled for 2017. Before the creation of the county, the name SELNEC was used for the area. Since deindustrialisation in the century, Greater Manchester has become known as an exporter of media and digital content, for its guitar and dance music. Although the modern county of Greater Manchester was not created until 1974, there is evidence of Iron Age habitation, particularly at Mellor, and Celtic activity in a settlement named Chochion, believed to have been an area of Wigan settled by the Brigantes. Stretford was also part of the believed to have been occupied by the Celtic Brigantes tribe. The remains of 1st-century forts at Castlefield in Manchester, and Castleshaw Roman fort in Saddleworth, are evidence of Roman occupation. Much of the region was omitted from the Domesday Book of 1086, Redhead states that this was only a partial survey was taken. During the Middle Ages, much of what became Greater Manchester lay within the hundred of Salfordshire – an ancient division of the county of Lancashire, Salfordshire encompassed several parishes and townships, some of which, like Rochdale, were important market towns and centres of Englands woollen trade. The development of what became Greater Manchester is attributed to a tradition of domestic flannel and fustian cloth production. Infrastructure such as rows of terraced housing, factories and roads were constructed to house labour, transport goods, however, it was Manchester that was the most populous settlement, a major city, the worlds largest marketplace for cotton goods, and the natural centre of its region. In the 1910s, local government reforms to administer this conurbation as an entity were proposed. In the 18th century, German traders had coined the name Manchesterthum to cover the region in, however, the English term Greater Manchester did not appear until the 20th century. One of its first known recorded uses was in a 1914 report put forward in response to what was considered to have been the creation of the County of London in 1889
9.
Irwell Valley
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The Irwell Valley in North West England extends from the Forest of Rossendale through the cities of Salford and Manchester. The River Irwell runs through the valley, along with the River Croal, shallow seas covered most of south-east Lancashire in the Upper Carboniferous period when deposits of mud and sand were laid down. These later became beds of shales and sandstones alternating with layers of gritstone, there are also beds of New Red Sandstone and Manchester Marls. Ashclough is a site of importance for interpreting the coal measure paleogeography of Great Britain. Wet Earth Colliery was located in the valley at Clifton, along with a number of bleach, a number of canals were built to transport goods through the valley, the largest of which is the Manchester Ship Canal. In 1891 the Mersey and Irwell Joint Committee was formed and this body ordered local authorities to provide sewage treatment facilities, and industrial concerns were told to use the best practical means of preventing pollution. In 1939 this body was superseded by the Lancashire Rivers Board, in 1951 the Rivers Act was passed and this board disappeared to be replaced by the Mersey River Board, which was replaced in turn by the Mersey and Weaver River Authority in 1965. In 1974 all the authorities were merged into the Regional Water Authorities. Since then there has been an improvement in water quality. Some industrial waste products, such as spoil from mining, or alkaloids from other industrial processes were disposed of locally, caustic waste from the Leblanc process was dumped on at least two sites - Nob End, to the south of Bolton and Lower Hinds in Bury. These plants, along with non-indigenous garden escapees such as Giant Hogweed, Nob End was designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1988 and a Local Nature Reserve in 2000. The M60 passes through the valley and the bridge at junction 16 in Clifton is used as a summer roost for over 100 Daubentons bats, the Irwell Sculpture Trail is one of the largest public art initiatives and the longest sculpture trail in the UK. The trail consists of a varied, 30-mile walking route based on the well-established Irwell Valley Trail stretching from Salford Quays to the moors above Bacup. Since 1987 over 30 pieces of art have been commissioned from regional, national and international artists
10.
London and North Western Railway
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The London and North Western Railway was a British railway company between 1846 and 1922. In the late 19th century the L&NWR was the largest joint stock company in the world, the company was formed on 16 July 1846 by the amalgamation of the Grand Junction Railway, London and Birmingham Railway and the Manchester and Birmingham Railway. This move was prompted in part by the Great Western Railways plans for a railway north from Oxford to Birmingham, the company initially had a network of approximately 350 miles, connecting London with Birmingham, Crewe, Chester, Liverpool and Manchester. The headquarters were at Euston railway station, as traffic increased it was greatly expanded with the opening in 1849 of the Great Hall, designed by Philip Charles Hardwick in classical style. It was 126 ft long,61 ft wide and 64 ft high, the station stood on Drummond Street. Further expansion resulted in two platforms in the 1870s, and four more in the 1890s, bringing the total to 15. The LNWR described itself as the Premier Line, as the largest joint stock company in the United Kingdom, it collected a greater revenue than any other railway company of its era. With the Grand Union Railway acquisition of the North Union Railway in 1846, in 1858 they merged with the Chester and Holyhead Railway and became responsible for the lucrative Irish Mail trains via the North Wales Main Line to Holyhead and handled the Irish Mail. On 1 February 1859 the company launched the limited mail service, the Postmaster General was always willing to allow a fourth coach provided the increased weight did not cause time to be lost in running. The train was timed to leave Euston at 20.30 and operated until the GPO instituted its own post train, wholly of Post Office vehicles, on 1 October 1873 the first sleeping carriage ran between Euston and Glasgow, attached to the limited mail. It ran three nights a week in each direction, on 1 February 1874 a second carriage was provided and the service ran every night. In 1860 the company pioneered the use of the water trough designed by John Ramsbottom and it was introduced on a section of level track at Mochdre, between Llandudno Junction and Colwyn Bay. At the core of the LNWR system was the main line network connecting London Euston with the cities of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester. This route is known as the West Coast Main Line. The LNWR also had a line connecting Liverpool and Manchester with Leeds. At its peak just before World War I, it ran a route mileage of more than 1,500 miles, in 1913 the company achieved a total revenue of £17,219,060 with working expenses of £11,322,164. With this, the LNWR achieved a route mileage of 2,707.88 miles, the LNWR became a constituent of the London, Midland and Scottish railway when the railways of Great Britain were merged in the grouping of 1923. Ex-LNWR lines formed the core of the LMSs Western Division, nationalisation followed in 1948, with the English and Welsh lines of the LMS becoming the London Midland Region of British Railways
11.
Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal
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The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford, seventeen locks were required to climb to the summit as it passed through Pendleton, heading northwest to Prestolee before it split northwest to Bolton and northeast to Bury. Between Bolton and Bury the canal was level and required no locks, six aqueducts were built to allow the canal to cross the rivers Irwell and Tonge and several minor roads. The canal was commissioned in 1791 by local landowners and businessmen, originally designed for narrow gauge boats, during its construction the canal was altered into a broad gauge canal to allow an ultimately unrealised connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The canal company later converted into a company and built a railway line close to the canals path. In 1987 a society was formed with the aim of restoring the canal for use and, in 2006. The canal is navigable as far as Oldfield Road, Salford. Financial unrest and British involvement in the American Revolutionary War restricted local transport investment to road improvements, with the arrival of more favourable conditions, including the end of the war, a proposal for a canal to link the towns of Manchester, Bolton and Bury was mooted. Matthew Fletcher had in 1789 been employed as an advisor and had surveyed the route of the proposed canal. The initial proposal probably came from a group in Bolton, with the support of the Mersey, a further meeting on 16 September, held in Bolton, appointed a committee of six Boltonians chaired by Lord Grey de Wilton to attend at Manchester. Hugh Henshall was asked to survey the route of the canal. For local industries along the route of the canal, whose operations relied on water from local rivers and brooks which the canal might also use. At a meeting in Bolton on 4 October 1790, it was resolved that proper clauses be inserted in the bill to prevent injury to owners of mills. He suggested that owners could be protected by a suitable clause in the bill. Businesses in Bolton were concerned with the location of the canal terminus, ralph Fletcher, spokesman for those concerned, reported on this proposal to the committee, although no tunnel was built. Many of the 95 investments on the list appear to have made by proxy. The largest is £3,000, and the smallest £100, the total sum of investments is £47,700
12.
Tramway (industrial)
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Tramways are lightly laid railways, sometimes worked without locomotives. In New Zealand, they are known as bush tramways, while in parts of Australia where American experts were influential. They generally do not carry passengers, although staff may use of them. Tramways can take many forms, sometimes just tracks temporarily laid on the ground to move materials around a factory, many, if not most, are narrow gauge railway technologies. At the other extreme they could be complex and lengthy systems, such as the Lee Moor Tramway in the county of Devonshire, England, motive power can be manual, animal, cable hauled by stationary engine, or utilize small locomotives. The term was applied to wagons running on primitive tracks in early England. The name seems to date from around 1517 and to be derived from an English dialect word for the shaft of a turn from Low German traam, literally. The tracks themselves were known as gangways, dating from before the 12th century. In south Wales and Somerset the term dramway is also used, the alternative term is Wagonway which originally consisted of horses, equipment and tracks which were used for hauling wagons. Usually the wheels would be guided along grooves, in time, to combat wear, the timber would be reinforced with an iron strip covering. This developed to use L-shaped steel plates, the track then being known as a plateway, the origin of the word railway is uncertain, but Benjamin Outram was referring to his lines as railways in the early 19th century. The fact that many of these lines were built for horse-drawn vehicles, an alternative appeared, the so-called edge-rail where the wagons were guided by having the wheels flanged instead of running in grooves. Since these rails were raised above the ground they were likely to be blocked by debris. They were, however, the forerunners of the modern railway and these early lines were built to transport minerals from quarries and mines to canal wharves. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom the term became the term for passenger vehicles that ran on tracks in the public highway. Initially horse-drawn, they developed to use power from an overhead line. A development of the tramway in the United Kingdom dispensed with tracks, in 2000 the CarGoTram began operating as a cargo tram for the Volkswagen factory in Dresden. In Australia, most tramways were in practice heavy railways, or equivalent to British light railways and these include, Kerang–Koondrook Tramway, a 5 ft 3 in gauge private railway which junctioned with the Victorian Railways at Kerang
13.
Mine shafts
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Shaft mining or shaft sinking is excavating a vertical or near-vertical tunnel from the top down, where there is initially no access to the bottom. Shallow shafts, typically sunk for civil engineering projects differ greatly in method from deep shafts. When the top of the excavation is the surface, it is referred to as a shaft. Small shafts may be excavated upwards from within a mine as long as there is access at the bottom. A shaft may be vertical or inclined, although most modern mine shafts are vertical. If access exists at the bottom of the shaft and ground conditions allow then raise boring may be used to excavate the shaft from the bottom up. Shaft Sinking is one of the most difficult of all development methods, restricted space, gravity, groundwater, historically mine shaft sinking has been among the most dangerous of all mining occupations and the preserve of mining contractors. Today shaft sinking contractors are concentrated in Canada and South Africa, the most visible feature of a mine shaft is the headframe which stands above the shaft. Depending on the type of hoist used the top of the headframe will either house a hoist motor or a sheave wheel, the headframe will also contain bins for storing ore being transferred to the processing facility. Collars are usually massive reinforced concrete structures with more than one level, if the shaft is used for mine ventilation, a plenum space or casing is incorporated into the collar to ensure the proper flow of air into and out of the mine. Beneath the Collar the part of the shaft which continues into the ground is called the Shaft Barrel, at locations where the Shaft Barrel meets horizontal workings there is a Shaft Station which allows men, materials and services to enter and exit the shaft. From the station tunnels extend towards the ore body, sometimes for many kilometers, beneath the lowest Shaft Station the shaft continues on for some distance, this area is referred to as the Shaft Bottom. Shafts may be sunk by conventional drill and blast or mechanised means, the industry is gradually attempting to shift further towards shaft boring but a reliable method to do so has yet to be developed. In North and South America, smaller shafts are designed to be rectangular with timber supports, larger shafts are round and are concrete lined. The material of choice for shaft lining is mass concrete which is poured behind Shaft Forms in Lifts of 6m as the shaft advances, shotcrete, fibrecrete, brick, cast iron tubing, precast concrete segments have all been used at one time or another. Additionally, the use of materials like Bitumen and even squash balls have been required by specific circumstances, in extreme circumstances, particularly when sinking through Halite, composite liners consisting of two or more materials may be required. The shaft liner does not reach right to the bottom of the shaft during sinking and this distance is determined by the methodology of excavation and the design thickness of the permanent liner. To ensure the safety of persons working on the shaft bottom temporary ground support is installed, usually consisting of welded mesh and rock bolts
14.
Headgear
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Headgear, headwear or headdress is the name given to any element of clothing which is worn on ones head. Some styles of bonnets had peaks so large that they prevented women from looking right or left without turning their heads. Bonnets worn by men and boys are generally distinguished from hats by being soft, caps are generally soft and often have no brim or just a peak. For many centuries women wore a variety of head-coverings which were called caps, an ochipok is part of traditional Ukrainian costume. Some headgear, such as the crown, coronet, and tiara, have evolved into jewelry and these headgear are worn as a symbol of nobility or royal status. Kokoshnik is part of Russian traditional dress, often worn by nobility, a fillet or circlet is a round band worn around the head and over the hair. Elaborate and costly versions of these evolved into crowns, but fillets could be made from woven bands of fabric, leather. Fillets are unisex, and are prevalent in archaic to renaissance dress. Hairnets are used to prevent loose hair from contaminating food or work areas, a snood is a net or fabric bag pinned or tied on at the back of a womans head for holding the hair. Scarves are used to protect styled hair or keep it tidy, shower caps and swim caps prevent hair from becoming wet or entangled during activity. Hats often have an all the way around the rim. Depending on the type of hat, they may be worn by men. Helmets are designed to protect the head, and sometimes the neck and they are usually rigid, and offer protection from blows. Helmets are commonly worn in battle, on sites and in many contact sports. In most of the United States they are required by law for operating a range of vehicles including motorcycles. Modern hoods are generally soft headcoverings which are a part of a larger garment, like an overcoat. Historically, hoods were either similar to modern hoods, or a form of headgear. In medieval Europe hoods with short capes, called chaperons in French, were extremely common, a mask is worn over part or all of the face, frequently to disguise the wearer, but sometimes to protect the face
15.
Underground mine ventilation
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Underground mine ventilation provides a flow of air to the underground workings of a mine of sufficient volume to dilute and remove dust and noxious gases and to regulate temperature. The source of gases are equipment that runs on diesel engines, blasting with explosives. Flow-through ventilation is the main ventilation circuit for the mine, air enters the mine from surface via a shaft, ventilation raise or adit. The air is distributed through the mine via internal ventilation raises and ramps, auxiliary fan and duct systems may be either forcing systems, where fresh air is pushed into mine headings, or exhausting systems that draw out contaminated air. Sufficient volume of air is required for proper ventilation, a bulk of electric power is required for driving fans. By installing variable speed control air quantity can be optimized hence the power, in most countries minimum requirements are outlined by law, regulation or standards. As per CMR 130-2- in every ventilating district, not less than six metres per minute of air per personemployed in the district on the largest shift or not less than 2. This will make the environment more hospitable for miners, and prevent freezing of workings. In Arctic mines where the horizon is above the permafrost heating may not take place to prevent melting the permafrost
16.
Pendlebury
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Pendlebury is a suburban town in the City of Salford, in Greater Manchester, England. The population of the town taken at the 2011 Census was 13,069 and it lies 4.1 miles to the northwest of Manchester city centre,3.4 miles northwest of Salford, and 5.9 miles southeast of Bolton. Historically in Lancashire, Pendlebury together with the settlements of Swinton and Clifton, formed the municipal borough of Swinton. A centre for coal mining for years, Pendlebury saw extensive coal extraction from several collieries until the closure of Agecroft Colliery in the 1990s. Pendlebury is formed from the Celtic pen meaning hill and burh a settlement, in 1199 King John confirmed a gift of a carucate of land called Peneberi to Ellis son of Robert. He had made the grant when he was Earl of Mortain, Ellis was described as Master Sergeant of Salford and a benefactor of Cockersand Abbey. In 1201 Pendlebury was linked to the manor of Shoresworth to the south before Shoreworth became part of Pendleton, the manors of Pendlebury and Shoresworth were held of the king in thegnage by a rent of 12 shillings in 1212. Ellis died in or about 1216, and his son Adam succeeded to his manor, in 1274 Ellis, son of Roger came to a violent death, and Amabel, his widow claimed dower in various lands against Roger de Pendlebury. A short time afterwards, Amabel having received her dower, she and Roger de Pendlebury had to defend a suit brought by Adam de Pendlebury, Ellis had a brother, William and daughters Maud, Lettice and Beatrice. Maud married Adam son of Alexander de Pilkington of Pilkington, and had a daughter Cecily, the manor was sold before 1300 to Adam de Prestwich. The new lord of Pendlebury married Alice de Woolley daughter of Richard son of Henry de Pontefract and her heir was her daughter, Joan, who married Richard de Langley, and the manor descended with the Langleys until the end of the 16th century. Robert Langley died 19 September 1561, leaving four daughters as co-heirs, on the division of the estates, Agecroft, and lands in Pendlebury, became the portion of Anne, who married William Dauntesey, from Wiltshire. Building probably began towards the end of the reign of Henry VII, in 1666, of the thirty-five hearths liable for tax in Pendlebury, Agecroft Hall the only large house had eleven hearths. At the end of the 19th century, industrialisation swept through the Irwell Valley, collieries were sunk around Agecroft Hall, railway tracks cut across the manor and a dirty lake formed on the edge of the estate. The house fell into disrepair and was sold at auction in 1925 to Mr, the structure was dismantled, crated, shipped across the Atlantic, and painstakingly reassembled in Windsor Farms, Richmond, Virginia, USA. Agecroft Hall is re-created as a tourist attraction on the banks of the James River, the Langley name is remembered locally by having several streets, Langley Road, Langley Mill, and Langley housing estate in Middleton named after the family. Agecroft Hall Estate is a recently built housing estate on Agecroft Road, Pendlebury saw extensive coal extraction until the closure of Agecroft Colliery in the 1990s. The Wheatsheaf Colliery was on Bolton Road between Carrington Street and City Walk on what is now the Wheatsheaf Industrial Estate and Newtown Colliery
17.
St Augustine's Church, Pendlebury
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St. Augustine’s Church is an active Anglican church in Pendlebury, Greater Manchester, England. Dedicated to St Augustine, it is part of the benefice of Swinton and Pendlebury along with St Peters Church in Swinton, the church is in the Eccles deanery, the archdeaconry of Salford and the diocese of Manchester. The church was granted Grade II* listed status in 1966 but has since upgraded to Grade I. Called the Miners Cathedral, due to its almost cathedralesque stature, in the heart of a one time coal-mining community, the church is situated on Bolton Road and has a connected primary school. Manchester banker, Edward Stanley Heywood of Heywoods Bank commissioned G. F. Bodley to design the church in March 1870 and its foundation stone was laid in the following September and it was consecrated in May 1874. Heywood paid for its construction, decoration and furnishings, the church was constructed to the design of Bodley and Thomas Garner between 1871 and 1874. The cost, £3,300 was largely borne by Heywood, Bodley designed a bell tower for the south-east side, higher than the main roof, but it was not built. The church is built of red brick and has clay tile roof and it was inspired by the Gothic cathedrals in Albi and Toulouse in France. Its nave and chancel occupy ten bays under a continuous roof, the church has a door at the west end, a porch on the south side and vestry on the north. The bays are separated by shallow weathered buttresses that terminate in triangular gablets above the parapet which has pierced quatrefoils above the chancel. The nave and chancel are differentiated by their windows, the nave has three-light windows below blank arches while the chancel has four-light windows with reticulated tracery. The east window between angled buttresses topped by crocketted pinnacles has seven lights decorated with flowing reticulated tracery, the west window has five lights. The church has large buttresses that are pierced by passage aisles. The barrel roof is painted above chancel. An elaborately carved rood screen separates the nave from the chancel, the reredos is decorated with painted figures. The organ case, rood screen and sedilia were designed by Bodley, the ornate font on a carved stone is raised from the ground by several steps, and above it is a carved wooden hood suspended from the walls. The first vicar, Doctor Alfred Dewes, was vicar from the consecration of the church in 1874 until his death in 1911 and he worked unceasingly throughout the smallpox and cholera outbreaks, helping the poor and afflicted. Both vicar and church were the point for the mourning following the Clifton Hall Colliery explosion on 18 June 1885, in which 178 men
18.
Firedamp
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Firedamp is flammable gas found in coal mines. It is the given to a number of flammable gases. It is particularly found in areas where the coal is bituminous, the gas accumulates in pockets in the coal and adjacent strata, and when they are penetrated, the release can trigger explosions. Historically, if such a pocket was highly pressurized, it was termed a bag of foulness, damps is the collective name given to all gases found in coal mines in Great Britain. The word corresponds to German Dampf, the name for vapour, firedamp is explosive at concentrations between 4% and 16%, with most explosions occurring at around 10%. It caused much loss of life in coal mines before the invention of the Geordie lamp, the invention was prompted by the Felling mine disaster near Newcastle upon Tyne claiming 92 lives on 25 May 1812. Davy experimented with iron gauze, determining the size of the gaps. If a naked flame was thus enclosed totally by such a gauze, then methane could pass into the lamp and he did not patent his invention. Even after the safety lamps were brought into use, firedamp explosions could still occur from sparks produced when coal contaminated with pyrites was struck with metal tools. The presence of coal dust in the air increased the risk of explosion with firedamp, a continuous flame was produced at Whitehaven some time before 1733, described as being a yard wide and two yards long. The miners dealt with it by piping it to the outside, rather than the Davy lamp, Tyneside miners used the Geordie lamp, a similar safety lamp designed by George Stephenson. After the widespread introduction of the safety lamp, explosions continued because the early Davy lamps were fragile, the iron gauze for example only needed to lose one wire to become unsafe. The light was very poor, and there were continuous attempts to improve the basic design. The height of the cone of burning methane in a safety lamp can be used to estimate the concentration of the gas in the local atmosphere. It was not until the 1890s that safe and reliable electric lamps became available in collieries. google. com/books. id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT21
19.
Candle
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A candle is an ignitable wick embedded in wax or another flammable solid substance such as tallow that provides light, and in some cases, a fragrance. It can also be used to heat, or used as a method of keeping time. A candle manufacturer is known as a chandler. Various devices have been invented to hold candles, from simple tabletop candle holders to elaborate chandeliers, for a candle to burn, a heat source is used to light the candles wick, which melts and vaporizes a small amount of fuel. Once vaporized, the fuel combines with oxygen in the atmosphere to ignite, as the mass of solid fuel is melted and consumed, the candle becomes shorter. Portions of the wick that are not emitting vaporized fuel are consumed in the flame, the incineration of the wick limits the exposed length of the wick, thus maintaining a constant burning temperature and rate of fuel consumption. Some wicks require regular trimming with scissors, usually to about one-quarter inch, to slower, steady burning. In early times, the wick needed to be trimmed quite frequently, special candle-scissors, referred to as snuffers were produced for this purpose in the 20th century and were often combined with an extinguisher. In modern candles, the wick is constructed so that it curves over as it burns and this ensures that the end of the wick gets oxygen and is then consumed by fire—a self-trimming wick. The word candle comes from Middle English candel, from Old English and from Anglo-Norman candele, the earliest surviving candles originated in Han China around 200 BC, and were made from whale fat. European candles of antiquity were made from various forms of fat, tallow. In Ancient Rome, candles were made of tallow due to the prohibitive cost of beeswax and it is possible that they also existed in Ancient Greece, but imprecise terminology makes it difficult to determine. In the Middle Ages in Europe, tallow candles were the most common candle, by the 13th century, candle making had become a guild craft in England and France. The candle makers went from house to house making candles from the kitchen fats saved for that purpose, or made, Beeswax, compared to animal-based tallow, burned cleanly, without smoky flame. Rather than the foul and terrible odor of tallow, it emits a fresh smell, Beeswax candles were expensive, and relatively few people could afford to burn them in their homes in medieval Europe. However, they were used for church ceremonies. In the 18th century, spermaceti, oil produced by the whale, was used to produce a superior candle. Late in the 18th century, colza oil and rapeseed oil came into use as much cheaper substitutes, the manufacture of candles became an industrialized mass market in the mid 19th century
20.
Blacksmith
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A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut. Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, grilles, railings, light fixtures, furniture, sculpture, tools, agricultural implements, decorative and religious items, cooking utensils and weapons. The black in blacksmith refers to the black fire scale, a layer of oxides that forms on the surface of the metal during heating. The origin of smith is debated, it may come from the old English word smythe meaning to strike or it may have originated from the Proto-German smithaz meaning skilled worker. Blacksmiths work by heating pieces of iron or steel until the metal becomes soft enough for shaping with hand tools, such as a hammer, anvil. Heating generally takes place in a forge fueled by propane, natural gas, coal, charcoal, some modern blacksmiths may also employ an oxyacetylene or similar blowtorch for more localized heating. Induction heating methods are gaining popularity among modern blacksmiths, color is important for indicating the temperature and workability of the metal. As iron heats to higher temperatures, it first glows red, then orange, yellow, the ideal heat for most forging is the bright yellow-orange color that indicates forging heat. Because they must be able to see the color of the metal, some blacksmiths work in dim, low-light conditions. The key is to have consistent lighting, but not too bright, the techniques of smithing can be roughly divided into forging, welding, heat-treating, and finishing. Forging—the process smiths use to shape metal by hammering—differs from machining in that forging does not remove material, instead, the smith hammers the iron into shape. Even punching and cutting operations by smiths usually re-arrange metal around the hole, drawing lengthens the metal by reducing one or both of the other two dimensions. As the depth is reduced, or the width narrowed, the piece is lengthened or drawn out, as an example of drawing, a smith making a chisel might flatten a square bar of steel, lengthening the metal, reducing its depth but keeping its width consistent. Drawing does not have to be uniform, a taper can result as in making a wedge or a woodworking chisel blade. If tapered in two dimensions, a point results, drawing can be accomplished with a variety of tools and methods. Two typical methods using only hammer and anvil would be hammering on the anvil horn, another method for drawing is to use a tool called a fuller, or the peen of the hammer, to hasten the drawing out of a thick piece of metal. Fullering consists of hammering a series of indentations with corresponding ridges, the resulting effect looks somewhat like waves along the top of the piece. Then the smith turns the hammer over to use the face to hammer the tops of the ridges down level with the bottoms of the indentations
21.
Albert Medal for Lifesaving
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The Albert Medal for Lifesaving was a British medal awarded to recognise the saving of life. It has since replaced by the George Cross. The medal was named in memory of Prince Albert and originally was awarded to recognise saving life at sea, the original medal had a blue ribbon 5/8 wide with 2 white stripes. Witnessing the accident, Popplestone paused only to raise the alarm before setting off alone for the wreck and he clambered out onto the rocks and although swept off several times, he eventually managed to lift four men out of the water and drag them up the cliff to safety. In 1877, the medal was extended to cover saving life on land, the land version was enameled in red, with a red ribbon. The titles of the changed in 1917, the gold Albert Medal, first class becoming the Albert Medal in gold. The event that led to the introduction of the Albert Medal for Gallantry on Land was the Tynewydd Colliery disaster which occurred on 11 April 1877. In many ways, although it was tragic the disaster at Tynewydd was, by the standards of the time when mining accidents often claimed hundreds of lives. The Albert Medal in gold was abolished in 1949, being replaced by the George Cross, in 1971, the Albert Medal was discontinued and all living recipients were invited to exchange the award for the George Cross. From the total of 64 eligible to exchange,49 took up the option, the medal was made of gold, which was enameled blue. Miniatures of all four types are known to exist, with the gold awards believed to be gilt, Albert Medal and Edward Medal George Cross and Albert Medal at Sea in World War 2
22.
Buile Hill Park
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Buile Hill Park is a Grade II listed public park and hall in Seedley, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The park and mansion are currently owned by Salford Borough Council, the mansion house is currently vacant and up for sale to bring it back to life. The Friends of Buile Hill Park are a society which contribute to the activities in the park. Salford schools xcountry holds a couple of the race mets there over the end of the year from Oct-Jan. In 1590, victims of the plague had been buried in Hart Hill Meadow, John Potter of Tadcaster was firstly a draper and had a shop in Tadcaster. All his children were born in this shop, John also took on a farm at Wighill and then one he rented from Sir Walter Vavasour at Wingate Hill. Two of his sons, William and Richard, opened a warehouse at no 2, Cannon Street and they were joined there on 1 January 1803, by their brother, Thomas. They created the firm of William, Thomas and Richard Potter, William left the firm in 1806. Thomas and Richard Potter formed a band of free traders and reformers which lasted for more than a quarter of a century. They used to meet in Thomas and Richards plotting parlour situated at the back of their Cannon Street warehouse, in 1825 Thomas Potter commissioned Sir Charles Barry to build him a mansion at Buile Hill. This is the only house where Barry used Greek revival architecture. Thomas was elected first Mayor of Manchester in 1838 and was re-elected in 1839 and he was knighted on 1 July 1840. Sir Thomas, who had born in Tadcaster in 1774. His widow, Lady Potter, née Esther Bayley, continued to live at Buile Hill until her death there on 19 June 1852. P. for Rochdale after the death of Richard Cobden. In 1877 Thomas Bayley Potter sold Buile Hill to John Marsland Bennet, timber merchant and local landowner, Salford Corporation purchased the estate in 1902 for £20,000. A further £7,000 allocated for conversion to a park under the supervision of the Parks Superintendent. Local residents subscribed £2,500 towards the project, Buile Hill Park was opened on 22 July 1903 by the mayor of Salford, Alderman Stephens, and was subsequently joined to Seedley Park by the closure of the Dog Entry path which divided them. In 1906, the former Buile Hill House opened to the public as a history museum
