Great Haigh Sough

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Great Haigh Sough
General information
Town or city Haigh
Country England
Coordinates 53°33′33″N 2°37′03″W / 53.559088°N 2.617436°W / 53.559088; -2.617436
Construction started 1653
Completed 1670
Technical details
Structural system drainage tunnel

The Great Haigh Sough is a tunnel or adit driven under Sir Roger Bradshaigh's estate in Haigh, then in the historic county of Lancashire. Coal had been dug on the estate since Tudor times. The sough drained Bradshaigh's coal pits, which produced coal and cannel, and extended the life of the shallow workings, which were prone to flooding. The sough, a major investment was preferable to winding water from the workings by the primitive methods available at the time.[1][2] Bradshaigh recorded a detailed survey of the construction of the sough and its shafts with instructions for maintenance so that, "the benefit of my 16 years labour, charge and patience (which it pleased God to crown with success for me and my posterity) may not be lost by neglect."[3]

The 1,120 yards (1,020 m) long tunnel, up to six feet wide and four feet deep, had ten ventilation shafts each 3 yards (2.7 m) wide and up to 49 yards (45 m) deep. Driven from Bottling Wood to Park Pit, work started in 1653 and finished in 1670.[4] The shafts were used to remove rock as the miners cut the tunnel.[5] Such was the importance of the sough that in 1687, the bailiff, Thomas Winstanley, ordered its inspection and cleaning from bottom to top at least every two months and repairs to be speedily expedited.[6] The sough discharged iron rich minewater into the Yellow Brook in Bottling Wood, discolouring it and the River Douglas downstream with ochre deposits. The sough was extended to Aspull Pumping Pit in 1866.[7] Regular inspections were carried out until 1923 and its abandonment led to the flooding of the Aspull and Westhoughton pits in 1932.[4]

The sough's entrance portal is constructed from brick and stone and leads into a brick lined culvert. The portal and two metres of the culvert is a Scheduled Monument.[8] The sough still drains the old mine workings.

In 2004 the Coal Authority provided a passive treatment plant in a scheme costing £750.000. Work was undertaken by Ascot Environmental who built a pumping station, pipelines, settlement lagoons, reedbeds and landscaped the site. The scheme has improved the water quality, removed manganese and iron which caused the discolouration and allowed fish to repopulate the brook.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Davies 2010, pp. 20–21
  2. ↑ Great Haigh Sough, Wigan Archaeological Society, retrieved 2011-02-02 
  3. ↑ Hatcher 1993, p. 215
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Challinor 1972, p. 12
  5. ↑ Davies 2010, p. 20
  6. ↑ Hatcher 1993, p. 216
  7. ↑ Ashmore 1982, p. 95
  8. ↑ Haigh Sough mine drainage portal, Pastscape.org.uk, retrieved 2011-02-07 
  9. ↑ Case Study Aspull Sough Minewater Treatment Scheme, Ascot Environmental, retrieved 2011-07-09 

Bibliography

  • Ashmore, Owen (1982), The Industrial archaeology of North-west England, Manchester University Press, ISBN 0-7190-0820-4 
  • Challinor, Raymond (1972), The Lancashire and Cheshire Miners, Frank Graham, ISBN 0-902833-54-5 
  • Davies, Alan (2010), Coal Mining in Lancashire & Cheshire, Amberley, ISBN 978-1-84868-488-1 
  • Hatcher, John (1993), The history of the British coal industry, Volume 2, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-828282-2 
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