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The Last Pit
Registrace 29. 07. 2015
Videos showing life and mining methods at the North of England's last working coal mine. Situated in Northumberland, close to the town of Alston, at the heart of the North Pennines, Ayle Colliery has been worked by the same family for almost a century, using machinery from the golden age of UK coal mining. This channel aims to record living history before it is gone for ever.
High quality anthracite is extracted from an eighteen inch seam using pneumatic picks and loaded into tubs with shovels. Where conditions allow coal cutters and conveyer belts are incorporated. Locomotives draw the sets of tubs to the surface where the coal is screened and washed before sale.
High quality anthracite is extracted from an eighteen inch seam using pneumatic picks and loaded into tubs with shovels. Where conditions allow coal cutters and conveyer belts are incorporated. Locomotives draw the sets of tubs to the surface where the coal is screened and washed before sale.
The Last Pit. Creating a new airway at Ayle Colliery.
The Last Pit. Creating a new airway at Ayle Colliery.
zhlédnutí: 1 855
Video
The Last Pit. Set exits the drift at Ayle Colliery.
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The Last Pit. Set exits the drift at Ayle Colliery.
The Last Pit. Sump and fire at Ayle Colliery.
zhlédnutí 11KPřed 7 měsíci
Showing the method of driving a roadway at Ayle Colliery, the North's last pit, using pick, drill and explosives.
The Last Pit. 6.30 am at Ayle Colliery, Northumberland Cumbria border.
zhlédnutí 5KPřed rokem
Daybreak at the North's last Colliery. A video showing the surface activities and photographs of underground.
Coal miners at Ayle Colliery, the North's Last Pit.
zhlédnutí 4,9KPřed rokem
Portraits of miners and coal mining at Ayle Colliery,Northumberland,by Nic Broomhead. Still working today, Ayle Colliery has been run by the same family for almost a century and provides the local area with high quality anthracite for domestic heating. It is the last working colliery in the North of England.
The Last Pit. Hewing coal at Ayle Colliery.
zhlédnutí 28KPřed rokem
Mining coal by hand at a UK Colliery. Using pick and shovel in a low seam to load the anthracite into tubs and timber props to hold the roof.
The Last Pit. On the coalface at Ayle Colliery. The scraper box.
zhlédnutí 12KPřed 2 lety
A slusher, or scraper box extracts coal from a low seam at Ayle Colliery in Northumberland.
The Last Pit. Shifting stone at Ayle Colliery.
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The claustrophobic conditions and back breaking work involved in shifting the stone into the goaf in one of the UK's last working coal mines.
The Last Pit. Photo montage with creepy music.
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Coal miners and coal mining machinery in use at Ayle Colliery.
The Last Pit. Low seam manoeuvres at Ayle Colliery.
zhlédnutí 1,7KPřed 3 lety
It's a tight squeeze in a 14 inch seam . Not for the claustrophobic!
The Last Pit. The Hydrox Digger at Ayle Colliery.
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The machine that shifts the stone in the main heading at Ayle Colliery. Originally used for tunnelling the Hydrox Digger has been adapted for use in a colliery setting.
The Last Pit. Junction of 20 West. Ayle Colliery.
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The Clayton locomotive draws a set of coal tubs from deep underground. Each tub holds half a ton of anthracite destined for customers around the North Pennine town of Alston, home of Ayle Colliery,the North's last pit.
The Last Pit. Winter morning at Ayle Colliery.
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An early start on a winter's morning at Ayle Colliery,Northumberland. Raymond Miller battles the freezing temperatures to get the coal to the customer.
The Last Pit.On the coalface at Ayle Colliery. Hand filling.
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Coal mining on an 18inch coalface with a pick and shovel. This video shows conditions of work at the last pit in Northumberland.
The Last Pit. On the coalface at Ayle Colliery. The cutter.
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The Last Pit. On the coalface at Ayle Colliery. The cutter.
The Last Pit.From the darkness. Ayle Colliery.
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The Last Pit.From the darkness. Ayle Colliery.
Czy to polacy ?
NICE!! Greetings from Pennsylvania! I'm right between the Anthracite and the Bituminous fields.
Greetings to you to, Dave.
Good stuff 👍🏻 great to see yous keeping coal mining alive in the UK ⚒️
Coal kutter is thanking this person for a wonderful video. It will reach its fame soon.❤
what is this equipment do you use?
Picks and drills powered by compressed air.
It’s exactly like when they holed through the channel tunnel from France to England…. Exactly.
But why didn't we get any press coverage?
Thank.
Just wonderful. Thank you for keeping us up to date.
How many years of coal is left?
Enough to see us out.
What is the name of the beautiful machine?
It is a Hydrox Digger, generally used in tunneling.
@@thelastpit2152 Can it dig a tunnel?
Not through solid rock. The rock is fired with explosives first.
@@thelastpit2152 then she can dig for soil
Yes, and loose rock.
Great 😍. Glückauf from germany and the pit "Graf Wittekind" ⚒
Gluck auf to you lot too!
Fascinating and fantastic.
Thank you.
Спасибо за видео. Вспомнил себя. С такими операциями знаком😊
И так каждый день. И завтра и послезавтра. Уважение тем кто работает на такой работе.
Интересно. ☺похожую работу я выполнял. Украина смотрит.
I am holding my breath watching. It looks terrifying in those dark small spaces.
It is at first, Frances, surprising how quick you get used to it!
My respect to the lads making a living from conventional mining. A bit hard graft never hurt anyone. Two of my departed marras made a world record ,filling and putting. Jimmy Marly filler and John Ford putting Both gentlemen .
Easy peasy just like that now just 200 or more loads and you have half a train car full
Man’s work
My mate Jimmy Marley filler and John Ford putter 90 tubs a shift world record broken again within a few days later.
Which pit Christine?
Пиздец работка
I have hand filled no helmet no cap lamp or battery on belly on the bottom back on the top no room to turn over
Пиздец работа
This is mens work something you know nothing about.
Long live the family mines, thanks Guys and Kaye. I for one appreciate what you do...
5tonnes
Cool portal entrance!
Am a coal miner from india,now retired enjoyed to the Lee.
Respect !
The last of a kind !💪🏼⛏️🔥
Is the rock strata beneath the seam hard or soft? Do you use it for gobbing or send it out for sale as aggregate? What's the carbon % of the anthracite? At Aberpergwm it's about 92% and the highest heading I roof bolted in was 7/8 meters
The strata is soft enough to drill with a coal borer, we get rid of as much as possible up the goaf, the rest goes for farm tracks mostly. Our anthracite is about 87% carbon. Our highest heading is about 2.5 metres!
I don’t think those 6by 2 would support the roof
I worked my first14 years in a 28 inch seam as a young man. I don't know if I could have stood it much lower. It will definitely make a man out of you. Ended up with 45 years all together I will totally agree that it will make everything sore Much respect.
Crazy to be doing this man
I hadn't realised you guys were still operating. Massive respect from a NE ex-coal miner.
Still hanging on in there!
I no where a big pile of them air lines are on a pit near my house the ends are all rusted but they are the exact same now i no what they are i wonder if theres a actual braker there somewhere buried
You'll have to get digging!
@@thelastpit2152 i will indeed
🏴 Happy New year all at last pit 🥃⚒️
And the same to you!
Wow great stuff I’m in Australia I used to be a miner and have been exposed to lots of shot firing mainly volcanic plugs , stone from roof falls etc My question to you is have you ever had any of the coal dust you use for stemming ignite? We used clay stemming roughly the size of the explosives Any great video as others have said stay safe and keep the black diamonds flowing
Hi Robert, we use stone dust for stemming, but even if we used the coal the chance of it igniting would be very low, as it is anthracite, which has lower volatility than bituminous coal. Thank you for your interest, and happy new year.
I just didn't realise how much of a dirty, dangerous and labour intensive job it really was. Took a special kind if man to live that life 👍
Still living it Gino!
Shame i dont live near otherwise id be asking for a job
Like a step back in time! I operate a small gold mine in New Mexico with a two- or three-man (and one woman) crew. It's fascinating seeing how much our equipment and methods differ. We use jackleg drills, Nonel detonators, and an occasionally-cranky LHD that's older than I am, but still just plain old dynamite.
We have jackleg drills too, but generally our stone is soft enough to use the coal drills, which are lighter and quicker. Would be good to see how you work. Any videos?
@@thelastpit2152 Makes sense! Jacklegs are anything but light. I actually uploaded one this morning, a rough-and-ready LHD hydraulic repair and clearing an underground parking/service area.
I’d love to work for you, shame I’m over in Lancashire
Good stuff! Stay safe!
Thanks, you too!
@@thelastpit2152 many thanks!
It's nice to see the pit is still going my old mate Neville Richarson worked in a pit near Alston and Farmer Jhon we had some laughs in the miner's arms in Nent great days
Started my mining career with Neville at Clarghyll, 1987.
Excellent watch! Thank you for taking the time to record and edit these, I know from experience how much extra effort it takes over and above the job you're actually doing. Already looking forward to the next episode!
Too true. We have to fit the filming in when we can. Safety first, production second, filming third!
My greatest respect for what you are doing! I had the pleasure to meet you in person last September. Thank you very much for the warm welcome. I wish you all a happy new year.
I remember it well, Harald!
I have the utmost admiration for what you guys do. I an era when a percentage don't even want to get their hands dirty, you more than make up for it by working in the muckiest environment possible. well done!
and they only get paid 25 cents an hour minus union dues.... and they got a mule named Betty.
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.
Too true, except Betty has gone,🥲, and we now have a pony called Clayton!
Is it really worth it for a 14 inch seam? A late uncle thought it claustrophobic working a 24 inch, until the roof came down one day, spared him but killed his mate working alongside him. He got a surface job and never went down again. Miners are bloody heroes, every last one of them!
God bless these guys they really work.!!!!!
People know days are afraid to work at anything but a computer keyboard. Not joking.
How do yous advance after the 5 metres from the road way?
We blast the stone ahead of the barrowway and advance it. Watch the "Shifting stone" video, it shows the second part of the process. We are working on a video that will show the first part.
@thelastpit2152 Thanks, lowest seam I worked on 3'retreat longwall face at florence colliery 1970,man what you do is a tight squeeze, cheers from 🇦🇺