Northumberland Coalfield

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British Coalfields

The Northumberland Coalfield is a coalfield in north-east England. It is continuous with the Durham Coalfield to its south. [1] It extends from Shilbottle in the north to the boundary with County Durham along the River Tyne in the south, beyond which is the Durham Coalfield. [2]

England Country in north-west Europe, part of the United Kingdom

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north-northwest. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.

Durham Coalfield coal mining region in north east England

The Durham Coalfield is a coalfield in north-east England. It is continuous with the Northumberland Coalfield to its north. It extends from Bishop Auckland in the south to the boundary with the county of Northumberland along the River Tyne in the north, beyond which is the Northumberland Coalfield.

Shilbottle village in United Kingdom

Shilbottle is a village in Northumberland, north-east England, located 3 miles south-east of Alnwick, and 5 miles from the coast and Alnmouth. The village stands close to the A1.

Contents

The two contiguous coalfield areas were often referred to as the Durham and Northumberland Coalfield(s) or as the Great Northern Coalfield. [3]

Coal seams

The following coal seams are recorded from the Northumberland Coalfield. They are listed here in stratigraphic order with the youngest at the top and the oldest/deepest at the bottom. [4] Not all seams are named and not all occur at any one locality.

Pennine Coal Measures Group

(Westphalian)

Upper Coal Measures

Middle Coal Measures

Lower Coal Measures

Yoredale Group

Stainmore Formation (Namurian)

Alston Formation (Visean)

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Cumberland Coalfield coal mining region in North West England

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The Midgeholme Coalfield is a coalfield in Midgeholme, on the border of Cumbria with Northumberland in northern England. It is the largest of a series of small coalfields along the south side of the Tyne Valley and which are intermediate between the Northumberland and Durham Coalfields to the east and the Cumberland Coalfield to the west. Like the other small coalfields to its east, this small outlier of the Coal Measures at Midgeholme occurs on the Stublick-Ninety Fathom Fault System, a zone of faults defining the northern edge of the Alston Block otherwise known as the North Pennines. It is recorded that coal was being mined at Midgeholme in the early seventeenth century. In the 1830s coal trains were being hauled from Midgeholme Colliery along the Brampton Railway by Stephenson's Rocket. The early workings have left a legacy of spoil heaps, bell pits, shafts and adits. There is no current coal production. However in January 2014, Northumberland County Council gave planning permission for the open-cast extraction of 37,000 tonnes of coal at Halton Lea Gate. This may open the way for other applications to mine the coalfield. In 1990 a proposal to mine reserves of 60,000 tonnes of good-quality coal at Lambley, Northumberland was rejected, but the prospect for a successful application has now changed, since the Planning Inspector allowed the development to proceed at Halton Lea Gate on appeal.

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Bristol Coalfield coal mining region in the west of England

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The South Staffordshire Coalfield is one of several coalfields in the English Midlands. It stretches for 25 miles / 40km from the Lickey Hills in the south to Rugeley in the north. The coalfield is around 10 miles / 16km wide; its eastern and western margins are fault-bounded. Numerous coal seams are recognised within the coalfield - the following coal seams are recognised within the Cannock section of the coalfield - an area sometimes separately referred to as the Cannock Coalfield;

Bradford Colliery

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.

The geology of Tyne and Wear in northeast England largely consists of a suite of sedimentary rocks dating from the Carboniferous and Permian periods into which were intruded igneous dykes during the later Palaeogene Period.

This is a partial glossary of coal mining terminology commonly used in the coalfields of the United Kingdom. Some words were in use throughout the coalfields, some are historic and some are local to the different British coalfields.

The geology of Northumberland in northeast England includes a mix of sedimentary, intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks from the Palaeozoic and Cenozoic eras. Devonian age volcanic rocks and a granite pluton form the Cheviot massif. The geology of the rest of the county is characterised largely by a thick sequence of sedimentary rocks of Carboniferous age. These are intruded by both Permian and Palaeogene dykes and sills and the whole is overlain by unconsolidated sediments from the last ice age and the post-glacial period. The Whin Sill makes a significant impact on Northumberland's character and the former working of the Northumberland Coalfield significantly influenced the development of the county's economy. The county's geology contributes to a series of significant landscape features around which the Northumberland National Park was designated.

References

  1. The NorthumberlandCoalfield, Coalmining History Research Centre, archived from the original on 2011-07-19, retrieved 2010-12-05
  2. British Geological Survey 2007 Bedrock geology: UK North 1:625,000 scale geological map, BGS, Keyworth, Notts
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2010-09-19.
  4. British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheet nos 6, 9, 10, 14 (England & Wales series) Alnwick, Rothbury, Newbiggin & Morpeth

Coordinates: 55°09′32″N1°36′09″W / 55.1589°N 1.6026°W / 55.1589; -1.6026

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