OLDHAM SIXTH FORM COLLEGE REPORTING FOR

JUBILEE COLLIERYN E W S L E T T E R

THIS NEWSLETTER will serve as an insight into the Jubilee Colliery. This newsletter was written by students at Oldham Sixth Form College who have been volunteering at the Colliery with the Preserving the Past project during October 2014. The student volunteers helped to make films, displays and this magazine about Jubilee Colliery and the Preserving the Past heritage project.

STUDENTSDIG THE

COLLIERY

THE JUBILEE COLLIERY was built in 1845 and closed in 1932. The site is one of the last few remaining examples of Oldham’s industrial mining heritage and is the most accessible one in the area. Since the colliery closed, nature has moved back into the site. Trees, ferns, mosses, fungi and flowers have colonized the colliery remains and rubble, in turn attracting local wildlife to the area.

INTRODUCTION TO THE JUBILEE COLLIERY SITE

JUBILEE COLLIERY: PRESERVING THE PAST was a project that saw a group of volunteer heritage trainees help to create a local heritage legacy. The project was delivered in 2014 by local charity Groundwork with support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The group worked with experts to rediscover Jubilee Colliery and inform others of their findings through community events and activities. The volunteers developed new skills and a greater understanding of their local heritage.

INTRODUCTION TO JUBILEE COLLIERY:

PRESERVING THE PAST

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:JUBILEE HISTORY: Through the centuries

UNDERGROUND TOIL: The life of a minerDANGER! Grusome accidents and mishaps

UNCOVERING SECRETS: Digging at JubileeVISIT THE JUBILEE SITE: How to get there

JUBILEE COLLIERY: AS IT WAS

This image serves as a visual aid to show what Jubilee Colliery used to look like.

JUBILEE COLLIERY through the centuries

THE AREA now known as Jubilee would have been woodland before Colliery operations started in the 1840s.

Jubilee Colliery was founded in 1845 to gain access to the Mountain Mine coal seam 325 feet (99 metres) below the surface. Originally owned by the Edge Lane and Dryclough Colliery Company, it was bought in 1883 by Platt Brothers & Co. Limited, since the coal was ideal for producing coke for use in the company’s iron works in Oldham, where 500 tons per week were used in 1900.

Although the shaft passed through two higher coal seams, these were of inferior quality to the Mountain Mine coal. Jubilee was one of the major mines of the area, but there were dozens of smaller ones.

When mining ceased, the tunnels flooded and a huge underground reservoir developed. It is thought to stretch from Sholver in the south to Hollingworth Lake in the north, with a volume of about a thousand million gallons, and water is still pumped out near Milnrow and used in the public water supply.

As the colliery closed in 1932 , the chimney and coke ovens were all destroyed or hidden by nature. The colliery is now a nature reserve and wildlife has took over the site, from trees and fern to fungi and flowers.

Its location is ideal in order to explore and share the story of Oldham’s industrial past. In recent years, Groundwork has used the site to carry out volunteer-based work, making it more usable and accessible for the public.

UNDERGROUND TOIL: The life of a miner

CHILDREN

Some children pushed trucks of coal along mine tunnels. They were called ‘putters’.

‘Trappers’ opened and shut wooden doors to let air through the tunnels. A trapper boy sat in the dark, with just a small candle, and no-one to talk to.

Some children started work at 2 in the morning and stayed below ground for 18 hours. Children working on the surface, sorting coal, at least saw daylight and breathed fresh air.

On 4 August 1842, a law was passed that stopped women and children under ten years from working underground in mines in Britain.

Before this law was passed, it was common for whole families to work together underground to earn enough money for the family to live on.

The Victorians saw child labor as a normal part of working life. Most children started work underground when they were around eight years old, but some were as young as five. They would work the same hours as adults, sometimes longer, at jobs that paid far less.

Grusome accidents and mishaps

Mining was a very dangerous occupation and at Jubilee Colliery there was a major accident recorded in the local newspaper.

In other occurrences, it shows the danger of mining. In the mining community of Silkstone; men, boys and girls started work but at about 2 pm a fierce storm started. A warning was sent to the miners, some tried to exit via a drift in Nabbs Wood. Sadly a swollen stream near the entrance burst its banks.

A torrent of water poured into the drift and 26 children aged between 7 and 17 were drowned in seconds.

The children were buried on 7th July 1838. The girls in three graves and the boys in four graves

OTHER WORKERS

Until 1842, one of the most common jobs for women and children working underground was either as a hurrier or thruster.

A hurrier would pull the loaded coal tubs or wagons from the coal face to the bottom of the shaft, while the thruster would push from behind. They would have little time for rest and had to live with the constant fear of explosions or roof-falls. Long hours and poor working conditions affected people’s health and ability to work.

VICTORIAN GETTER: A Victorian getter at the coalface. Illustration from the Report of the 1842 Royal Commission into Children’s Employment (Mines). © National Coal Mining Museum for England.

Disaster: An example of a mining disaster where people have become trapped

JUBILEE COLLIERY Nature Reserve lies next to the Jubilee Inn on the A663 between Shaw and Newhey, entrance next to the Jubilee Inn car park.

BY CAR: Parking is available on the site (car park shared with the Jubilee Inn)

BY TRAM: Approximately 1 mile from Newhey Station, 1.5 miles from Shaw Station.

BY BUS: Regular bus services from Oldham and Rochdale via Royton, Shaw, Milnrow (e.g. Bus: 058: Middleton - Rochdale - First Manchester).

BY FOOT: Jubilee lies on the Crompton Circuit Trail, the Oldham Way and the Beal Valley Way.

WE ASK YOU TO:• Leave no litter• Keep to footpaths on farmland• Protect wildlife, plants and

trees• Fasten all gates• Keep off walls, fences and

hedges• Safeguard against all risk of fire• Keep dogs under control• Respect the life of the countryTHANK YOU!

VISIT JUBILEE

how to get there

As part of the Jubilee Colliery: Preserving the Past project local volunteers carried out an archaeological dig at the Jubilee site during the summer of 2014.

The dig has taken up at least nine weeks at the colliery. During the weeks, the groups found the main chimney, coke ovens, and the boiler house floor plus many more marvelous discoveries. The diggers ranged from local volunteers to heritage experts and people working for Groundwork.

You can find out more about the history of colliery and the recent dig findings by taking a trip around the site or visiting the Jubilee blog.

DIGGING INTO

LOCAL HISTORY AT

JUBILEE

Find out more about Jubilee online - visit the Jubilee bloghttp://jubileecolliery.wordpress.comFollow the project on Twitter @Gw_Jubilee

volunteers become friends

The volunteers who took part in the Jubilee Colliery: Preserving the Past project have decided to form a ‘Friends of ’ group to carry on the positive work at the Jubilee Colliery site.

To find out more about the group please email:friendsofjubileecolliery@outlook.com

Groundwork wishes to thank all the people involved in the Jubilee Colliery: Preserving the Past project. Special thanks go to the core team of volunteers who have been integral to the success of the project and to the students at Oldham Sixth Form College for the production of this newsletter.

Darcy, a recent graduate, is volunteering to help to uncover the Jubilee Colliery boiler house floor.

Jubilee volunteers, Peter and Ed, completing heritage restoration to the base of the chimney stack.