So much has been written at various times on the Wallsend pits since 1781, when the first or A pit was sunk, that the writer does not propose to ton h more upon their history than that part which relates to the G and H pits, where the work of re-opening has been going on.

About the year 1863, when the late Tyne Coal Company, Limited, took over the Wallsend and Hebburn collieries, there existed only the G (or Church) pit on the site of the present operations, and the Hebburn pits were then drowned. Steps were immediately taken to drain the Hebburn pits, and at the same time operations at Wallsend were commenced, not only to pump the water down in the G pit, but towards sinking a new and larger shaft (17½ feet in diameter) some 105 feet distant to the south-east.

Two horizontal pumping-engines were erected at the G pit, each driving two lifting-sets (21 inches in diameter), with a stroke of 6 feet. At the H pit, a large engine-house was erected for the accommodation of two sister cornish engines with cylinders 100 inches in diameter, and a stroke of 11 feet, each capable of pumping 2,000 gallons per minute from a depth of 942 feet. One of these engines only was erected, and was attached to a forcing-set, 26 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 11 feet.

On the water in the G pit being lowered to a depth of 824 feet from the surface, and the H pit having reached a depth of 878 feet (Fig. 1, Plate V.), a drift A was driven between the two pits at the higher level and the main-feeder was allowed to flow to the top-set of the then new cornish engine. When matters went thus far, the work of sinking was discontinued, but the cornish engine continued to be worked, and the G pit engines, which were still available to pump to the surface, were employed when required to keep the water down during the changing of the clacks of the H pit pump. From this date (1878), practically nothing more was done till the early part of 1892, when the concern was taken over by the Wallsend and Hebburn Coal Company, Limited, with the object not only of carrying on the Hebburn pits, but in conjunction with them of re-opening the Wallsend G pit and continuing the sinking of the H pit, with a view to restart the colliery.

Operations were at once commenced to lower the water in the former pit, while arrangements were being made to resume sinking in the latter. A second cornish engine, exactly similar to the original one was erected in the same engine-house, and commenced to work on May 2 1st, 1894 the new pumps being placed on the wrought-iron box-girder which was provided when the first engine was erected (Fig. 2, Plate V.). In the meantime the water, in the G pit, was being drained at the rate of 1,800 gallons per minute, and the rubbish cleared out. Owing, however, to the uncertain nature of the ground in this shaft, the pumps had to be slung with ropes. These ropes were attached to horse-crabs, and taken through ground-blocks hung from buntons in the pit, and fastened near the bottom of each of the four sets (Figs. 3 and 4, Plate V.). The sinkers also had to be provided with belts and a chain fastened to a secure part of the shaft, in case the rubbish on which they were standing should give way beneath them, as indeed sometimes it did ; such then was the method of clearing the road down to the High Main coal-seam, which was reached in May, 1894. To the level of this seam, 672 feet from the surface, the G pit had originally been constructed as an open shaft, some 12 feet in diameter, and was divided by a wooden brattice into three equal divisions (Fig. 5, Plate V.), one being used for pumping and the other two for drawing coals; the ventilating-furnaces being at the A and B pits, about 1 mile westward. Between the High Main and Bensham coal-seams the brattice was discontinued, and almost within the area of the shaft, three staples about 6 feet in diameter formed the communication not only between these two seams, but had been sunk a distance of 60 feet lower in order to win and utilize as water-standage a tract of coal lying to the south beyond a dip-trouble of 54 feet (Fig. 6, Plate VI.).

During this period the H pit sinking had been begun, but after the shaft was carried down a few feet below the top girders, feeders of water were encountered in such quantities as to suggest the advisability of putting down a borehole to the High Main coal-seam; a drift was accordingly driven from the G pit to a point immediately below the new shaft into which (on the completion of the borehole) the water was conducted, the hole being kept clear in the usual way by inserting a chain. The sinking of the pit was then proceeded with until the High Main coal seam was reached, at 672 feet from the surface, in February, 1895. Slightly below this point a second set of girders had to be placed on which the No. 2 sets of pumps were to stand. These girders (one being 26 feet and the other 22 feet in length) were, like the higher ones, built of iron of box form, and weighed 19 tons and 15 tons respectively.

Unfortunately, however, the ground immediately below the High Main coal-seam (at the very point where they had to be placed, and a large water-lodge excavated) proved to be of a very soft nature, so soft, indeed, that the writer has seen, on more than one occasion, a spike driven with ease a distance of 4 feet into the solid bottom of the pit. This stratum of soft blue stone extended for a distance of 72 feet below the seam, and it was not till then that a bed could be found sufficiently good to commence walling from. It will be readily understood that no reliance could be placed on rock, if such one might term it, of this nature to resist any considerable superincumbent weight, estimated, with the pumps when full of water — and any shock that reasonably might be anticipated through the admission of air — to be not less than 150 tons ; consequently, this portion of the shaft had to be lined with walling 2 feet in thickness, or just double that used under ordinary circumstances. The extra thickness of masonry, of course, required an extra foot of stone to be cut out all round the shaft, beyond the backing-deals, as the walling advanced; and, to add to the trouble and labour while this work was being carried out, the soft stone began to run from beneath the seam above, till, for two-thirds round the pit, the space behind the backing-deals measured no less than 7 feet in the widest part. It was subsequently ascertained that the run had taken place at a slip or back. Heavy timber or baulks had to be temporarily set across the pit, as well as double cribbing resorted to, in order to keep the unwalled portion safe. It might be here noted, that the space left by the stone falling from the sides was filled up with concrete behind the walling, in the proportion of 1 of cement to 5 of sand and stones, the stones being broken to a size such as would pass through a screen having a mesh 2 inches square. When the masonry had reached the level at which the girders had to be placed, it was found impossible to lower them into their seats on account of the numerous baulks of timber reaching from one side of the shaft to the other. To admit of their removal, it was at once evident that the only course to pursue was to complete the walling and make all secure up to the good stone 9 feet above the High Main coal-seam. In carrying this out, provision had to be made for the insertion of either ends of the girders into the sides of the shaft, so as to obviate the necessity of having to break or interfere with the construction of this masonry; and to meet this the following method was adopted. Elliptical arches were formed of ordinary hard bricks at each point where the ends of the girders had to be let into the sides of the shaft, except the lower portion, which had to take the weight; and here specially hard burnt bricks of superior quality were used, their crushing resistance being equal to 100 tons per square foot. Within these arches a combination of brick and timber stoppings was built, and chocks adjusted between them and the stone-face to prevent further run of stone. Four of these arches were turned for the girders, and another, of much larger dimensions, for the water-lodge room immediately above.

Considering the weight to be resisted it was thought highly advisable that it should be spread over as large an area as possible, and cast-iron bed-plates or shoes were provided on which either ends of the girders rested, and thus reduced the weight on each square foot of brick and concrete work. After being carefully adjusted in their proper places, the remaining space within and behind the arch-rings was filled with concrete of the same consistency as that mentioned above and faced with brickwork flush with the sides of the shaft.

The water-lodge room was then dealt with in a similar way, its dimensions being 11¼ feet wide by 22 feet long by 17 feet high, and to ensure its being water-tight it was lined out with brickwork and cement, both floor, sides, and part of the roof.

At this stage, the sinking in the G pit (a little below the High Main coal-seam) had to be suspended, on account of the column of water on the pumps, which had become too great. All hands were therefore taken to the H pit to perform the work of setting the two second sets of pumps of the permanent engines. These were completed and set to work on November 11th, 1895.

The pumps in the G pit were then taken off down to the High Main coal-seam, and the sinking was again resumed, or rather the removal of the stone existing between the staples within the area of the pit.

There being now no borehole in the H pit, it was deemed advisable to avoid any pressure of water against the working-bottom of this shaft, and, with this end in view, the water in the G pit was regularly kept 12 feet in advance, till the H pit had reached a depth of 72 feet below the Bensham coal-seam, or 948 feet from the surface, and slightly below the under-level drifts leading from the low tract of coal previously referred to as lying to the south beyond the dip-trouble of 54 feet.

At this depth the H pit is stopped. Wrought-iron girders (Figs. 7 and 8, Plate V.) were again employed (in case the pit should ever be required to be sunk further), and the third or low sets of pumps placed thereon which deliver at the High Main level (Figs. 9 and 10, Plate VI.).

During the time occupied with this work in the H pit, attention was directed towards the clearing of the old under-level drifts from the G pit side, and the driving of a new one to form a connexion with the H pit; on these being lined with brickwork throughout and finished, a dam was constructed at the H pit end and furnished with a sluice-valve 2 feet in diameter. From this valve, a rod is taken up to the Bensham coal-seam some 72 feet above, so that the water being delivered at the shaft can be controlled at will, even should it be high in the pit-bottom.

The whole of the feeders of water being thus delivered at the main-engine pumps in the H pit, those of the G pit being now no longer of use were taken out, and the engines dispensed with. A bed was then formed at the same level as the H pit-bottom, and cast-iron tubbing with internal webs (to admit of each segment being bolted together both in the horizontal as well as the vertical joints) was put in up to the Bensham coal-seam, and wedged in the usual way. The reason why fastening the segments by means of bolts was resorted to, was on account of the tubbing being only carried up to the fiat-sheets of the Bensham landing, and there being nothing immediately above it to wedge against or, in other words, it is open-top tubbing, and since the G pit is connected with the old under-level drifts as before stated, this tubbing prevents the water from flowing down to the Low Main coal-seam, until it has risen over 54 feet above the standage-level. All the water being taken off this pit, the further sinking in solid ground was carried on, practically dry, to the Low Main coal-seam, which was reached on December 27th, 1897, and a communication made into these workings which had been, for some years, carried on from the Hebburn pits only. The pillars which had all along been left, on account of the water above, are now available to be worked off.

It might be here mentioned that the idea, entertained by so many, of an underground lake existing in the High Main and Bensham coal-seams proved to be a complete fallacy, since in passing the former seam in the old shaft the floor of the very shaft-sidings was found to be squeezed up to the roof in a compact mass, and in the latter the roof had fallen close.

A heapstead, with spreading and picking or cleaning-belts and shaking-screens on the latest principle, has been erected.

Shipping-gears of a unique description have also been constructed, and are described in Mr. Moncrieff's descriptive notes.*

The time taken to execute the work thus far may seem at first sight somewhat lengthy, but when we take into account the large feeders of water to contend with, the many unforeseen difficulties to be overcome in opening the old shaft, and the extraordinary precautions to be adopted, we can realize what has to be faced in a work of this description.

* Trans.. Fed. Inst., vol. xv., page 75.

Mr. J. B. Simpson (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) said that the thanks of the members were due to Mr. T. E. Forster and Mr. H. Ayton for their papers describing one of the most interesting collieries in the world. Wallsend colliery had the reputation of being not only the most difficult of collieries to manage in the early days, but it also produced the very best coal in the world ; and he believed that it was then the most commercially successful. It had one great advantage in its favour — that it was managed by Mr. John Buddle, jun., who was probably the leading mining engineer, in his time at any rate, and, he believed, the first who opened the sunless caves of their coal-mines to the light of science. He was the first man who applied scientifically all that he knew towards the regulation of mines. The notes written by Mr. Forster comprised a complete resume of what took place at that early period.

He (Mr. Simpson) happened to have some of Mr. Buddle's manuscripts and notebooks of his Wallsend visits. They were most painstaking, and, he thought, an example, especially to young men, for the minute way in which he described the daily working of the mine. Everything that took place he had noted at great length. No doubt Mr. Buddle carried on the Wallsend colliery very successfully, but he laboured under very great disadvantages, and Mr. Forster had referred especially to the difficulties that he had encountered in respect to the ventilation of the mine. The quantity of air, of course, was very small — only 4,000 or 5,000 cubic feet per minute — and creep frequently took place. The pillars of coal were left perhaps not containing 50 per cent., as they had adopted the same system in the deep mines as they had in the outcrop mines. The 50 per cent. — and in fact it was sometimes only 30 per cent. — was not adequate to keep up the surface; creeps were frequent, and a creep often had the effect of altering and reversing the current of air, so that one day the upcast shaft was an upcast, and the next day it was a downcast. On one occasion, about the year 1815, there was a very severe creep, and they found the current of air reversed. All kinds of means were tried to get it right and steam was put down without effect; ultimately they lowered heated boiler-plates into the upcast shaft, and that had the desired effect. Mr. Buddle always got to the end of his difficulties, and there was a note next day that they had "got the pit to work." That seemed always to be the great point — to get the pit to work.

He (Mr. Simpson) was connected with the colliery in 1867, and he was extremely glad to find that some of the proposals which he made 30 years ago for the draining of the mine had now been carried out successfully. It was always thought, as Mr. Ayton had said, that there was an underground lake in the Tyne basin. At Hebburn colliery, which he had drained, it was expected that when they got to the High Main coal-seam they would have very great difficulty with the water-feeders. But the difficulties were nothing like what they had anticipated, as they lowered the water at the rate of 2 feet a day. A similar occurrence had taken place at Wallsend, and the High Main coal-seam was passed through in a very short time, showing that a heavy creep had taken place in the workings, that there were no openings and no cavities into which the water could enter, and that the feeder was almost the only thing against which they had to contend.

They must congratulate Mr. Ayton, and also Mr. G. B. Forster, who was managing director of the present company, on the carrying out of the drainage of the Tyne basin. There was no doubt that it would continue to afford coal for a great many centuries, and although the 6 feet seam of Wallsend coal, which was the synonym for all good coal, had disappeared, yet they hoped that there was still good coal left which would warm the shins of the present generation.

Mr. H. C. Embleton (Leeds) said his recollection of Wallsend would not carry him back as far as Mr. Simpson had stated, but probably he could remember it 30 or 35 years ago, when his uncle (Mr. J. Easton) was connected with the colliery. He would like to ask Mr. Ayton whether, if he had another colliery to open out, he would prefer to do it by opening out an old shaft or by sinking a new shaft from the surface?

Mr. M. H. Mills (Mansfield) said that, as a south-country member, he would not like this opportunity to pass without congratulating his north-country brethren on the carrying out of so important a work. It was an accomplishment which Prof. Louis would no doubt note with pleasure in view of his apprehensions as to the competition of foreign engineers. Mr. G. B. Forster and Mr. H. Ayton were to be congratulated on being able to carry out such difficult work, and after they had had an opportunity of reading the papers carefully through they would no doubt learn a great deal about the engineering work.

Mr. A. L. Steavenson said that the members would all agree that it had been a very stiff job very well done, and he did not believe that either Continental or American engineers could have done it any better.

Mr. Ayton said that there were no questions to which it was necessary to reply except that of Mr. Embleton, and he would have no hesitation in saying that he would rather sink a new pit than open out an old one.

The President moved a vote of thanks, which was cordially accorded to Messrs. Forster and Ayton for their papers.