Q-pits are kiln sites which were dug for the production of white coal prior to the Industrial Revolution when white coal was largely superseded by the use of coke.
Q-pits are kiln sites which were dug for the production of white coal prior to the Industrial Revolution when white coal was largely superseded by the use of coke.
The white coal produced in Q-pits was largely used in the smelting of lead from about 1550 to 1750, when a process was discovered that used coal. The large sections of white coal had previously been mixed with charcoal to give the right temperature, as charcoal alone was too hot and would have volatilised the lead. [1] Some evidence exists to suggest that some had a secondary use in the charking of coal into coke. [1] [2]
Many Q-pits were located in deciduous woodlands and as such they are an important landscape feature indicating both previous industrial activity and the presence of a woodland at the site or nearby. [3] The pits are often found in association with saw pits.
The pits were created by removing soil to create a depression about 12–13 feet (4m) in diameter, breached by a 'spout' and thus forming a 'Q' shape. The pits were dug from the end of the Middle Ages up to around 1760, the start of the Industrial Revolution. [4] Potash pits were of a similar shape and size, however, they were used to make potash for use in coursing or degreasing wool and were once found in sheep rearing areas.
The pits are a common feature in lead mining districts such as the Leadhills in Scotland and East Derbyshire. [1] Due to their small size, they are not likely to be confused with quarries, although bomb craters from World War II can occasionally lead the landscape historian astray.
In 2007 an isolated example was identified and excavated in Westbury-sub-Mendip near the lead smelting areas on the Mendip Hills in Somerset. [5] [6] Over 200 such pits have been surveyed in Ecclesall Woods, Sheffield.
Coke is a grey, hard, and porous coal-based fuel with a high carbon content and few impurities, made by heating coal or oil in the absence of air—a destructive distillation process. It is an important industrial product, used mainly in iron ore smelting, but also as a fuel in stoves and forges when air pollution is a concern.
Harriseahead is a village in the county of Staffordshire, England, just north of the Potteries and about 2 miles (3.2 km) south-west of Biddulph and close to the border with Cheshire. Population details from the 2011 census can be found under Kidsgrove.
Bocage is a terrain of mixed woodland and pasture characteristic of parts of northern France, southern England, Ireland, the Netherlands and northern Germany, in regions where pastoral farming is the dominant land use.
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. Blast refers to the combustion air being "forced" or supplied above atmospheric pressure.
Beauchief Abbey is a medieval monastic house now serving as a parish church in the southern suburbs of Sheffield, England.
White coal is a form of fuel produced by drying chopped wood over a fire. It differs from charcoal which is carbonised wood. White coal was used in England to melt lead ore from the mid-sixteenth to the late seventeenth centuries. It produces more heat than green wood but less than charcoal and thus prevents the lead evaporating. White coal could be used mixed with charcoal for other industrial uses than lead smelting. White coal was produced in distinctive circular pits with a channel, known as Q-pits. They are frequently found in the woods of South Yorkshire.
Dudd (Dud) Dudley (1600–1684) was an English metallurgist, who fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War as a soldier, military engineer, and supplier of munitions. He was one of the first Englishmen to smelt iron ore using coke.
The Wealden iron industry was located in the Weald of south-eastern England. It was formerly an important industry, producing a large proportion of the bar iron made in England in the 16th century and most British cannon until about 1770. Ironmaking in the Weald used ironstone from various clay beds, and was fuelled by charcoal made from trees in the heavily wooded landscape. The industry in the Weald declined when ironmaking began to be fuelled by coke made from coal, which does not occur accessibly in the area.
Anthracite iron or anthracite pig iron is the substance created by the smelting together of anthracite coal and iron ore, that is using anthracite coal instead of charcoal to smelt iron ores—and was an important historic advance in the late-1830s, enabling a great acceleration of the industrial revolution in Europe and North America.
Wanlockhead is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, nestling in the Lowther Hills and 1 mile south of Leadhills at the head of the Mennock Pass, which forms part of the Southern Uplands. It is Scotland's highest village, at an elevation of around 466.6 m (1,531 ft), and can be accessed via the B797, which connects it to the A76 near Sanquhar and the A74(M) motorway at Abington.
Abraham Darby, in his later life called Abraham Darby the Elder, now sometimes known for convenience as Abraham Darby I, was an English ironmaster and foundryman. Born into an English Quaker family that played an important role in the Industrial Revolution, Darby developed a method of producing pig iron in a blast furnace fuelled by coke rather than charcoal. This was a major step forward in the production of iron as a raw material for the Industrial Revolution.
Seend Ironstone Quarry and Road Cutting is a 3 acres (1.2 ha) Geological Site of Special Scientific Interest at Seend in Wiltshire, England, notified in 1965. The site contains facies of Lower Greensand containing specimens of fauna not found elsewhere.
Ecclesall Woods is an area of woodland in south-west Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, between Abbeydale Road South and Ecclesall. It covers approximately 350 acres (1.4 km2) of mature semi-natural deciduous woodland which was previously used for timber and charcoal, and is currently managed by the city council for the benefit of wildlife and visitor access. There are two roads and over 10 miles (16 km) of public footpaths running through the woods. The Abbeydale miniature railway is also located within the woods.
Cortonwood was a colliery near Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The colliery's proposed closure was a tipping point in the 1984-85 miners' strike. The site is now a shopping and leisure centre.
Mining was one of the most prosperous activities in Roman Britain. Britain was rich in resources such as copper, gold, iron, lead, salt, silver, and tin, materials in high demand in the Roman Empire. Sufficient supply of metals was needed to fulfill the demand for coinage and luxury artefacts by the elite. The Romans started panning and puddling for gold. The abundance of mineral resources in the British Isles was probably one of the reasons for the Roman conquest of Britain. They were able to use advanced technology to find, develop and extract valuable minerals on a scale unequaled until the Middle ages.
A saw pit or sawpit is a pit over which timber is positioned to be sawed with a long two-handled saw, usually a whipsaw, by two people, one standing above the timber and the other below. It was used for producing sawn planks from tree trunks, which could then be cut down into boards, pales, posts, etc. Many towns, villages and country estates had their own saw pits. The greatest user of sawn timber in past centuries was the shipbuilding industry. After falling, without bark, in smaller and more standardized sizes, and not intended as primary members in shipbuilding, the term 'timber' is often replaced by the term 'lumber'.
Henfield is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England between Coalpit Heath and Westerleigh, adjoining the hamlet of Ram Hill immediately to the north.
Potash pits were kiln sites which were dug and lined with drystone walling for the production of potash prior to the Industrial Revolution. The scouring or degreasing of the natural lanolin from wool requires the application of soft soap produced using fat and an alkaline potash solution that contains water-soluble potassium salts such as potassium carbonate and potassium hydroxide.
The Craigends Yew (NS4199566134) is an ancient European layering yew growing next to the River Gryffe in what were the grounds of the Craigends Estate, Houston in Renfrewshire, Scotland. Estimates put its age at around 500 to 700 years old and it is one of the largest and oldest examples of a heritage layering yew in Scotland.
Arn Gill is a ravine or gully containing a beck of the same name, near the village of Muker in Swaledale, North Yorkshire, England. The ravine and beck run steeply downhill from the stream's source in Arn Gill Head, and the beck disgorges into the River Swale below.