Preston Colliery, North Shields
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Description
An old newspaper cutting showing the demolition of the chimney at the closed Preston Colliery, North Shields on March 9th 1931. The Edwina shaft is behind the chimney and to the right the colliery power house. The 120 foot chimney was brought down with 18 ounces of gelegnite. Preston Colliery has a very interesting history. It was an old pit and was completely modernised in the late 1890s by a Dutch syndicate led by Mr JB Van Heek. A new shaft 14 feet in diameter was sunk to the Beaumont seam. During the sinking in 1903, work had to be suspended briefly due to a sudden inrush of water. It was named the "Edwina" pit after Mr Van Heek's fiancee. The old pit produced about 600 tons daily - the new pit was expected to produce 1,500 tons . A very large washing plant was also built near the pit which was served by a new railway leading to staithes on the Tyne. A brickworks was also constructed during the modernisation. The mine was sold to UA Ritson about 1904. A large ridge of stone near Preston Cemetery stopped coal production. Five or six years before closure, boring operations were tried on the east side of the 90 fathom dyke - a huge obstruction to the coal measures - the boring took place on the west side of the local golf course but came to a disappointing result. Preston Colliery closed on October 26th 1928. Attempts were made again in April/May 1929 to restart the pit with more boring operations but these failed. The shafts were filled with refuse by North Shields Corporation and the only remaining building left on site after closure was the old power house which was used as a factory for the manufacture of paving slabs. This was demolished in July 1958 and the site cleared for housing. As far as I know nothing remains now. -
Owner
Chris 802 -
Source
Flickr (Flickr) -
License
What does this mean? All Rights Reserved (Seek permission to reuse)
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Further information
Link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/71785753@N05/52881565349/
Resource type: Image
Added by: Simon Cotterill
Last modified: 6 hours, 35 minutes ago
Viewed: 8 times
Picture Taken: 2023-05-08T18:39:01 -
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