 Lithgow State Coal Mine, ca. 1900-27; (Collection of the State Library of New South Wales) | |
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| Location | State Mine Gully Road, Lithgow, New South Wales |
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| Coordinates | 33°27′38″S150°10′08″E / 33.46056°S 150.16889°E |
| Type | Railway and mining museum |
| Owner | The City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum Inc |
| Website | www |
The Lithgow State Mine Heritage Park & Railway is an Australian mining museum, located in the Central Tablelands city of Lithgow, New South Wales.
The museum is principally a museum of coalmining and related industries. The aim of the project is the showcase the industrial history of the western coalfield of New South Wales. [1]
The mining museum contains Australia's most comprehensive collection of coalmining artefacts, including coal cutters, coal loaders, continuous miners and underground transports. A recently developed multimedia exhibit titled "Fire in the Mine" explores the working lives of coalminers in the mid Twentieth Century and the horrific consequences of an underground fire that occurred in the State Coal Mine in 1953. [2] The museum's latest exhibits "Hewers of Coal" and "Lithgow Valley Colliery Fire & Explosion 1886" use photographs, artefacts and digital media to investigate various aspects of coal mining in the New South Wales Western Coalfield.
The museum is owned and operated by The City of Greater Lithgow Mining Museum Inc. The museum was developed from 1990 when the former Lithgow State Coal Mine site was given to the community of Lithgow by the now delisted mining company, Austen & Butta Limited.
The museum is located on the northern outskirts of Lithgow on the site of the State Coal Mine that was closed in 1964 after being damaged by floods. The museum is connected to the Main Western railway line via a 1.5 kilometre branch from Lithgow yard. In 1976 the site was sold to Austin & Butta Collieries who donated the site to the City of Lithgow in 1990 with restoration work commencing shortly after. [3] In October 2001 a fire destroyed the carriage shed and a number of items of rolling stock.
The site is also used by Southern Shorthaul Railroad as a maintenance depot. [4] [5]
Big Pit National Coal Museum is an industrial heritage museum in Blaenavon, Torfaen, Wales. A working coal mine from 1880 to 1980, it was opened to the public in 1983 as a charitable trust called the Big Pit (Blaenavon) Trust. By 1 February 2001 Big Pit Coal Museum was incorporated into the National Museums and Galleries of Wales as the National Mining Museum of Wales. The site is dedicated to operational preservation of the Welsh heritage of coal mining, which took place during the Industrial Revolution.
The South Wales Coalfield extends across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Bridgend, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen. It is rich in coal deposits, especially in the South Wales Valleys.
Southern Shorthaul Railroad is an Australian rail freight services operator in New South Wales and Victoria. The company also provides workshop services, such as rolling stock manufacturing and wagon and locomotive maintenance.
Jharia is a neighbourhood in Dhanbad city in Dhanbad Sadar subdivision of Dhanbad district in Jharkhand state, India. Jharia's economy is heavily dependent on the local coal fields, used to make coke. However, fires in the coal fields have made the city heavily polluted, with several government studies recommending relocation of much of the population to nearby Belgaria.
The Somerset Coalfield in northern Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It is part of a larger coalfield which stretched into southern Gloucestershire. The Somerset coalfield stretched from Cromhall in the north to the Mendip Hills in the south, and from Bath in the east to Nailsea in the west, a total area of about 240 square miles (622 km2). Most of the pits on the coalfield were concentrated in the Cam Brook, Wellow Brook and Nettlebridge Valleys and around Radstock and Farrington Gurney. The pits were grouped geographically, with clusters of pits close together working the same coal seams often under the same ownership. Many pits shared the trackways and tramways which connected them to the Somerset Coal Canal or railways for distribution.
Kiveton Park Colliery was a coal mine in the village of Kiveton Park, near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England.
Mining in Wales provided a significant source of income to the economy of Wales throughout the nineteenth century and early to mid twentieth century. It was key to the Industrial Revolution in Wales, and to the whole of Great Britain.
Cefn Coed Colliery Museum is a former coal mine, now operating as a museum. It is located at Crynant near Neath in the South Wales Valleys.
The North Staffordshire Coalfield was a coalfield in Staffordshire, England, with an area of nearly 100 square miles (260 km2), virtually all of it within the city of Stoke on Trent and the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme, apart from three smaller coalfields, Shaffalong and Goldsitch Moss Coalfields near Leek and the Cheadle Coalfield. Coal mining in North Staffordshire began early in the 13th century, but the industry grew during the Industrial Revolution when coal mined in North Staffordshire was used in the local Potteries ceramics and iron industry.
Chisnall Hall Colliery was a coal mine in Coppull in Lancashire, England. It was the largest coal mine on the Lancashire Coalfield north of Wigan. The colliery on Coppull Moor was owned by Pearson and Knowles Coal and Iron Company in 1896 when it employed 135 underground and 48 surface workers. The colliery appeared on maps in 1908 as a coal mine with two shafts and railway sidings connecting its 1.5-mile mineral railway to the London and North Western Railway's West Coast Main Line. In 1930, Pearson & Knowles merged with the Wigan Coal and Iron Company and others and their collieries became the property of the Wigan Coal Corporation. More than 1,000 people were employed there in 1933 and more than 300,000 tonnes of coal were produced annually.
Coal mining in the United Kingdom dates back to Roman times and occurred in many different parts of the country. Britain's coalfields are associated with Northumberland and Durham, North and South Wales, Yorkshire, the Scottish Central Belt, Lancashire, Cumbria, the East and West Midlands and Kent. After 1972, coal mining quickly collapsed and had practically disappeared by the 21st century. The consumption of coal—mostly for electricity—fell from 157 million tonnes in 1970 to 18 million tonnes in 2016, of which 77% was imported from Colombia, Russia, and the United States. Employment in coal mines fell from a peak of 1,191,000 in 1920 to 695,000 in 1956, 247,000 in 1976, 44,000 in 1993, and to 2,000 in 2015.
The Lancashire Coalfield in North West England was an important British coalfield. Its coal seams were formed from the vegetation of tropical swampy forests in the Carboniferous period over 300 million years ago.
Bedford Colliery, also known as Wood End Pit, was a coal mine on the Manchester Coalfield in Bedford, Leigh, Lancashire, England. The colliery was owned by John Speakman, who started sinking two shafts on land at Wood End Farm in the northeast part of Bedford, south of the London and North Western Railway's Tyldesley Loopline in about 1874. Speakman's father owned Priestners, Bankfield, and Broadoak collieries in Westleigh. Bedford Colliery remained in the possession of the Speakman family until it was amalgamated with Manchester Collieries in 1929.
Astley Green Colliery was a coal mine in Astley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It was the last colliery to be sunk in Astley. Sinking commenced in 1908 by the Pilkington Colliery Company, a subsidiary of the Clifton and Kersley Coal Company, at the southern edge of the Manchester Coalfield, working the Middle Coal Measures where they dipped under the Permian age rocks under Chat Moss. The colliery was north of the Bridgewater Canal. In 1929 it became part of Manchester Collieries, and in 1947 was nationalised and integrated into the National Coal Board. It closed in 1970, and is now Astley Green Colliery Museum.
Gibfield Colliery was a coal mine owned by Fletcher, Burrows and Company in Atherton, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
Cleworth Hall Colliery was a coal mine operating on the Manchester Coalfield after 1874 in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, then in the historic county of Lancashire, England.
Bradford Colliery was a coal mine in Bradford, Manchester, England. Although part of the Manchester Coalfield, the seams of the Bradford Coalfield correspond more closely to those of the Oldham Coalfield. The Bradford Coalfield is crossed by a number of fault lines, principally the Bradford Fault, which was reactivated by mining activity in the mid-1960s.
Acland No. 2 Colliery is a heritage-listed former mine at 2 Francis Street, Acland, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 29 June 2007.
The coal industry in Wales played an important role in the Industrial Revolution in Wales. Coal mining in Wales expanded in the 18th century to provide fuel for the blast furnaces of the iron and copper industries that were expanding in southern Wales. The industry had reached large proportions by the end of that century, and then further expanded to supply steam-coal for the steam vessels that were beginning to trade around the world. The Cardiff Coal Exchange set the world price for steam-coal and Cardiff became a major coal-exporting port. The South Wales Coalfield was at its peak in 1913 and was one of the largest coalfields in the world. It remained the largest coalfield in Britain until 1925. The supply of coal dwindled, and pits closed in spite of a UK-wide strike against closures. Aberpergwm Colliery is the last deep mine in Wales.
Sodepur Area is one of the 14 operational areas of Eastern Coalfields Limited located mainly in Asansol subdivision of Paschim Bardhaman district and partly of Raghunathpur subdivision in Purulia district, both in the state of West Bengal, India.