Old pit could mine new coal

By [pcorrigan]

VOLUNTEERS have been digging deep to uncover a piece of mining history.

JCB and Keele University are involved in a project at Apedale Heritage Centre aiming to rediscover the entrance to a pit – almost 10 years after it was sealed up.

Volunteers at the centre believe the old number seven shaft is causing stability problems at the site, so they have come up with a plan to dig it up.

A lack of funds threatened to derail the project, but Rocester-based JCB came to the rescue by donating machines and lending members of its display team.

Members of Keele University's geology department have also volunteered their time and expertise in locating the entrance to the drift mine.

While the initial plan was to fill in the shaft to prevent future subsidence, it may be that it will become productive once again, due to the recent surge in demand for coal.

Heritage centre volunteer Peter Johnson said: "It's taken two or three years to get to this stage. This drift was the last to be closed in 1999, but now it seems to be causing stability problems.

"There were two ideas. One was to fill it in with quick-drying cement, and the other to bring it back into use. I thought we could just go and have a look at it, and then decide."

Russell Amos, mining and site manager at Apedale, said: "Once we find the entrance we won't actually be able to go in ourselves, and so we'll probably have to ask a mine rescue team to go and have a look for us.

"We don't have a licence to extract coal but that might be something we would look at in the future."

Throughout the week, the JCB team is expecting to shift up to 600 tons of earth as it digs straight through the debris covering the drift.

Yesterday afternoon, the team was coming close to breaking through into the shaft.

JCB demonstrator Duncan Weekes said: "This is on the charitable side of what we do.

"It's something we want to do because it will help this museum keep going."

While maps of the pit complex and former miners helped suggest a general location for the shaft entrance, the task of pinpointing it fell on Keele University's geology department.

Geology masters student Steve Banham said: "If the mine does become productive again it could also provide an ideal location for other students to learn geological surveying techniques."