Aspull Pumping Pit, Aspull, Sep 2010.
The Aspull Pumping Pit was built for the purpose of draining Cannel & King Coal mines and to concentrate the several pumping establishments at work for that purpose.
The pit shaft was 21ft diameter and a wagon road had been laid to it from the sidings at No5 Moor Pit. A waterway was constructed in the King Seam from Scot Lane Pits, past Woods No4 Cannel Pit to the new pump lodges in the King Coal at the pumping pit.
In December 1872 it was stated that ‘the quantity of water has been greater than we anticipated’. Three large, direct acting steam engines with inverted cylinders were erected to work the 20-inch diameter ram pumps at this pit.
The water in the Cannel was good clean water suitable for steam boilers and it was pumped to the surface by the ram worked from an offset on the spear rods. It was used for the locomotives and for the boilers at the pit.
By December 1876 the whole job had been completed, including the engine houses, the winding, the capstan engine, the head frame, the gantries and all the boiler plants. The latter in 1895 consisted of 5 Lancashire boilers. A mining engineer with the Wigan Coal & Iron Company, Ernest Holt, said that these great pumping engines made a big noise when working, snorting, groaning and shaking everything when the pistons came to the end of their stroke.
The Pumping Pit ceased in 1932, along with the Kirkless Workshops and the New Springs stretch of the Springs Branch Railway. It is known that many local coal mines suffered excess flooding due to the Pumping Pit closing.
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The Aspull Pumping Pit was built for the purpose of draining Cannel & King Coal mines and to concentrate the several pumping establishments at work for that purpose.
The pit shaft was 21ft diameter and a wagon road had been laid to it from the sidings at No5 Moor Pit. A waterway was constructed in the King Seam from Scot Lane Pits, past Woods No4 Cannel Pit to the new pump lodges in the King Coal at the pumping pit.
In December 1872 it was stated that ‘the quantity of water has been greater than we anticipated’. Three large, direct acting steam engines with inverted cylinders were erected to work the 20-inch diameter ram pumps at this pit.
The water in the Cannel was good clean water suitable for steam boilers and it was pumped to the surface by the ram worked from an offset on the spear rods. It was used for the locomotives and for the boilers at the pit.
By December 1876 the whole job had been completed, including the engine houses, the winding, the capstan engine, the head frame, the gantries and all the boiler plants. The latter in 1895 consisted of 5 Lancashire boilers. A mining engineer with the Wigan Coal & Iron Company, Ernest Holt, said that these great pumping engines made a big noise when working, snorting, groaning and shaking everything when the pistons came to the end of their stroke.
The Pumping Pit ceased in 1932, along with the Kirkless Workshops and the New Springs stretch of the Springs Branch Railway. It is known that many local coal mines suffered excess flooding due to the Pumping Pit closing.
