C A T The Newsletter of the Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society Coniston Copper Mines, by W G Collingwood No. 116 August 2014 Cumbria Amenity Trust Mining History Society Newsletter No 116, August 2014. Contents: News Membership Page 2 CATMHS Development Plan Page 2 HLF Grant application for Coniston Page 3 Shafts of Light Page 4 A New Coal Mine for West Cumbria? Page 4 Force Crag mine water treatment scheme Page 4 Information board for Newland furnace Page 5 Mines Forum, 12th June Page 5 Meets and Activities Hodbarrow, 11th June 2014 Page 8 Greenside Mine trip with the LDNPA, 13th June Page 9 Tilberthwaite mines, 28th June Page 11 Woodhead Pit, 14th May Page 15 Tilberthwaite Horse Level dig report Page 18 Articles The Goldscope Cup Page 19 Wakefield v Buccleuch, ‘Chapman’s Lot’ Page 21 Society Officers and Committee Members Back cover Cover picture Coniston Copper Mines, by W G Collingwood. This is one of four Coniston watercolours owned by our late Patron, JWB Hext. They were sold at the auction of his effects in May 2010. W G Collingwood lived at Lanehead, Coniston, and was a friend and companion of John Ruskin. He was a notable artist, archaeologist, historian and author. He was interested in the Coniston mines and published ‘The Book of Coniston’ as well as several articles, including ‘The Keswick and Coniston Mines in 1600 and later’, CWAAS Journal V20, and ‘The Leavings of the German Miners’, CWAAS Journal, Vol 8. News Membership We welcome new member Fred Rattray, from Kirkby Stephen. Fred is an active member of Bradford Pothole Club. He builds and uses radio location equipment for pinpointing positions for survey points and for locating possible entrances. He is also an active cave digger with experience of shoring up digs as well as the art of using plug and feathers. AGM & Dinner Just a reminder that, as for the past four years, our AGM and Dinner will take place at Rydal Hall on Saturday 13th December. To ensure our reservation, it would assist the Treasurer if members would book early. CATMHS Development Plan The purpose of this exercise was to sample member’s opinions and to seek endorsement of the committee’s approach to the future development of the Society. All 90 current CATMHS members were contacted with a copy of the Development Plan and asked to respond via the questionnaire. Some 22% of the membership responded. This has helped the committee to understand the numerous differing perspectives members hold. A compilation of anonymous comments was collated and made available to the committee. From the results a forward plan is being evolved to reflect member’s views and to show how we can move forward in preparation for the next AGM. Our stated aims have proved acceptable and we have a mandate to carry forward our proposals. Clearly the web site and the archive situation are major issues which we have highlighted and will need some careful thought. The objective to pass archives to the CRO with appropriately preserved access seems to be accepted as a necessary. The issues of formal merger and closure plan, although recognised as an ultimate possibility, are not something that members seek at this time but many understand that it may become necessary if efforts to improve the active committee membership fail. Unfortunately in the survey elements “standing for office and delivering walks and talks” have not revealed additional resources over and above those currently involved. In the interim, while a plan is formulated, it was agreed to take the following steps to move forward and to try to understand the issues and explore potential options. 1. It was felt that the Newsletter should remain the same and by default an email version to members. Paper copies would be available for those who prefer this media. To cover the need to offer greater precision of detail for maps, photographs etc. current newsletters would be made available on the members section of the website. It was felt that historic copies should be made available to all via the website after an agreed period. 2. It was felt that a very low young person (<25 years?) rate of membership should be offered with an electronic newsletter default to encourage any younger members. 2 3. The chairman will approach members to try to increase the active committee membership. 4. The chairman will start informal discussion with the CWAAS and CIHS to see if there would be mutual benefit in CATMHS aligning some activities with their membership. This would of course need to meet the Charity Commission requirements for collaboration with another charity but would help our public benefit objectives under the new Charities Act of 2011. 5. Hold discussions with the Archivist to scope outstanding work to fully list all material and arrange for transfer to a final depository. Newsletter After considering the response to the Secretary’s questionnaire, the Committee has decided to distribute the Newsletter to members by email as a pdf, but will continue to post paper copies to members who prefer to have it that way. I go to some trouble to print the Newsletter on good quality paper and to produce glossy cover. It is not intended that members who receive it by email should need to print their own copies. However, most photographs, diagrams and plans are brighter and clearer when seen on a good quality computer screen, and it is also possible to zoom in to examine fine detail. For this reason each issue of the newsletter will be put on the Members’ page of the website so that everyone with the appropriate equipment can, if they wish, study it that way. Our newsletters contain lots of articles and information which could be of interest to anyone carrying out research. In order to promote our interests we think that this information should be in the public domain. In future we hope to place a pdf of past newsletters on our website, free of charge and with a searchable index. Those for the current year will be restricted to the members’ page. Heritage Lottery Fund grant application In NL 115, it was reported that CATMHS was supporting the HLF grant application for conservation work at Coniston Copper Mines and Penny Rigg Mill which would also involve the LDNPA, The Ruskin Museum, Rydal Estates (landowner) and Mr P Johnstone (landowner). There are two phases to the process and it has just been announced that the application for £400,000 has got through the first stage which decides whether it meets the criteria of the scheme. There is no guarantee that all applications get through this first stage. The second stage involves providing greater detail of the grant application and this work will be starting shortly. It is a great credit to the society and members who over many years have pressed for conservation work to both sites to be carried out and also a huge thank you, should go to John Hodgson (LDNPA Archaeologist) for all the work he has done to help get the application through the first stage. A fuller account will be published in future newsletters. Warren Allison Shafts of Light An exhibition of Mining Art in the Great Northern Coalfield 3 A salute to a once essential and powerful workforce, this exhibition illusy=tratesthe hard working conditions in and around the North East, through the eyes of miners, including Norman Cornish and Tom McGuiness The exhibition is at Bowes Museum, and runs from 17thMay until 21st September A new coal mine for West Cumbria? West Cumbria Mining has started a project to open a new mine off the coast of West Cumbria to extract coking coal, which is used in the production of steel and is currently imported. There are believed to be over 750 million tonnes of coking coal resources, and the company is aiming to develop a mine that would produce between two and three million tonnes of coking coal per year. It will be an offshore mine and it is anticipated that it will be accessed from a site between Whitehaven and St Bees, next to the mine worked by Haig Colliery that closed in 1986. Discussions will start soon on the location of test boreholes. Two drop-in events were organised by West Cumbria Mining to explain their plans for a new offshore coking coal mine, likely to be accessed from between Whitehaven and St Bees. Work will start with a limited program of onshore drilling this year and in 2015 an offshore drilling program will be undertaken to confirm the coking coal quality and mineability of the seams. The Company is only planning to extract coal from an offshore mine. It is envisaged that coal would be transported by existing rail links and by ship from Whitehaven port. Road transport will not be considered. About 20% of the material extracted would be waste rock, which would be disposed of by backfilling or perhaps deposited in the old anhydrite workings nearby. There would be no spoil tips on the surface. Force Crag Mine Water Treatment Scheme April 2014. The construction of the Force Crag Mine Water Treatment Scheme has been completed and the scheme is now operational. Funded by Defra, the project is a partnership between the Coal Authority, Environment Agency, National Trust and Newcastle University. This is the first full-scale passive treatment scheme for an abandoned metal mine in the UK. It will help to clean up at least 10 km of river, and prevent 3 tonnes of zinc, cadmium and lead being discharged to Bassenthwaite Lake every year.