Last Slag Heap ?

Galatas, on February 17, 2008, said:

Possibly the last slag heap around Wigan. Reclamation work is well underway (2008) and soon it will be gone.

moscowexile, on May 10, 2008, said:

It was the biggest stuff rook in the world and the tip for colliery waste from several pits belonging to Manchester Collieries Ltd that were situated in Tyldesley, Walkden and Little Hulton, including what was the biggest colliery in the now defunct Lancashire coalfield: Mosely Common.

From a former Lancashire pitman.

Galatas, on May 11, 2008, said:

Owd mon ! It's been a long time since I last heard anybody call it a "stuff rook" LOL Takes me back.

As kids we used to play " on t' rook " at Haydock. It's a housing estate now.

moscowexile, on September 20, 2008, said:

Aye,ah know weer th'art on abeaht, owd mon. Ah bet nobody talks Yick nah in Yick. Ah reckons the rooks as was from Wood Pit in Haydock must be long gone neah an all: they was almost as big as them in the picture and the scene of regular battles between Yickers and Earlestowners.

Greetins from Moscow, owd sorreh!

Galatas, on September 20, 2008, said:

LOL

How long since you were last in these parts ?

moscowexile, on September 27, 2008, said:

Last resident in St.Helens until the pits shut 25 years ago. Moved on to Germany to seek my fortune there and ended up settling in Russia. Wantd to emigrate to Canada but got me bearings wrong somehow! Same climate though.

Galatas, on September 27, 2008, said:

I presume they're treating you well over there or you'd be back.

Did you see this HERE One of several of my pics in Saints

moscowexile, on September 28, 2008, said:

Very rarely return to blighty: on average once every five years over the past 15. Last time I was there was September 2007 and I was very briefly last in my hometown in 2003. I am gainfully employed here, something that I found increasingly difficult to achieve in my native land before I finally decided to up sticks and move to Germany, and I speak the language. My chosen country of residence bears little or no resemblance to "the Former Soviet Union", a place that I cannot find on any map and about which I regularly read horiffic reports in the Western press.

pOb36, on January 9, said:

This was our playground when we were kids, we called it the "Big Slacks" i cant believe its going to go, its a landmark of little hulton, there was a nearby hill which we named "smokey hill" because it constantly smoked from the sulpher...

Galatas, on January 9, said:

It's not going completely but by the summer of 2009 all you should see is a gently rolling and green landscape. Only those who know the history of the area will know what lies beneath.

moscowexile, on March 25, said:

The colliery waste tips of the former UK coalfields were often smouldering: spontaneous combustion of small coal within the tips shale was the cause. The stuffrooks at the back of my grandma's were one of my playgrounds as well. They too were always on fire. They were constantly sprayed from rusty old pipes with water that was pumped up from the pit that had created these rooks but which had closed in the 1930s. The pit served as a pumping pit for other local collieries that were still functioning when I was a child. The water from the pits was usually a bright orangey-yellow colour caused by the iron pyrites in the bands of ironstone that is often found within Lancashire coal seams. We called such water "okreh water", a Lancashire corruption of "ochre water" no doubt. A good example of "okreh water" can still be seen at Worsley where the Bridgwater Canal water is coloured fby the pit water draining out of the coal workings at Worsley Delph. The sulphurous smell of the old tips, mentioned above by pOb36, was because most Lancashire coal did in fact have a high sulphur content. Sometimes the fires within the tips had burned so fiercely over the years that only a thin surface crust of shale was left and it happened not infrequently that people - all too sadly often children - fell through this crust to their deaths. That's why watchmen used to chase us off the smouldering rooks of my childhood. However, the coal companies, and later the National Coal Board, made use of this spontaneous combustion because the bright red shale left after the rook had burnt out was sold as an aggregate that was very useful for road building and making tennis courts. The "Old Man of Parr", a bright red shale outcrop of a burnt out rook was the only remnant of the once extensive Ashton's Green Colliery (closed in the early 1930s)in Parr, St. Helens when the Derbyshire Hill council estate was built around it. It has been long since landscaped. Likewise the "Seven Sisters" at Bryn, which I knew as the "Wigan Alps": they were formerly huge mountains of waste from the Garswood Hall Colliery (closed 1953).

Galatas, on March 25, said:

Thanks Moscowexile for all that info.

My own memories are from the rooks at Haydock , and Vista Rd Newton in the early 50's.

A minor correction to your post , it's Three Sisters not Seven. There were three huge tips which were removed during the time of Harold Wilson amid a bit of media interest in his involvement.

moscowexile, on March 25, said:

Not Seven Sisters, of course! I was thinking of the chalk cliffs of that name on the Sussex coast. I recall now Wilson's involvement in some shady dealings concerning industrially derelict land around Wigan, especcially the waste tips from the Wigan ironworks that was closed in the 1930s during a rationalisation of the British steel industry that took place then and as a result of which rationalisation Lancashire Steel was created, based at Irlam and now also long since defunct. Wigan Ironworks was an integral part of the Wigan coal and Iron Company that owned many collieries in West Lancashire.

Galatas, on March 25, said:

With your extensive knowledge of the mining industry perhaps you can answer something I have wondered about for a while.

Most of the slag heaps I remember were similar to the one in the photo. The 3 Sisters were unusual in that they were distinctly conical in shape. What method of depositing the spoil made them different ?

moscowexile, on March 26, said:

The conical waste tips were formed by tipper buckets that travelled along aerial cables supported on pylons. The large waste tip of Ravenhead colliery (Grove's)had an aerial rope system that led to the formation of a huge mountain of a tip. Likewise in Northern France (Pas de Calsais) and in the former Belgian coalfields around Mons and Charleroi (the "Borrinage") you can still see to the present day huge conical tips formed by tipping buckets suspended on aerial ropeways. The old Manchester Collieries tips between Tyldsley and Walkden were formed by using "mineral railways", hence their flat tops, as were the rooks formed by the waste from Wood Pit,Lyme Pit, Old Boston and New Boston Pits, Princess Pit and Ram Pit, Haydock. In the twilight years of coalmining in Lancashire, big diesel tipper road vehicles dumped the colliery waste.

Galatas, on March 26, said:

The rook at Vista Road had a bucket system but I'm not sure which pit it came from ; possibly Lyme Pit. I remember older lads bragging about riding in the buckets but I never saw them doing it with my own eyes.

I don't remember seeing buckets at Three Sisters but it would be 1958 onwards before I started spending time in Ashton. I think the pits there had closed by then , not sure.

Galatas, on March 26, said:

Incidently , although I don't remember the aerial ropeway at Ravenhead , I do remember there being a similar system carrying sand from Pocket Nook , St. Helens , to Pilkingtons glass works. I have a vague recollection of another near Rainford.