Re: Christmas photos


"Edgar Iredale" <edgar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:dp2koa$pnt$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Haven't seen the picture but if that's the conical heap by the railway
> that
> you can see from Dearham Bridge Road then I'd call it a tip - a colliery
> waste tip. Similar to the one that collapsed at Aberfan. Years ago there
> were lots of these in West Cumberland but it seems most have been removed
> now. It's made up of rock and other waste separated from the coal. I
> haven't heard them being called bings before.
> (Some collierys produced both coal and clay and were able to make bricks.
> The one at Camerton was another of these.)
>
> A slag bank/heap/tip is a different thing. It is formed from tipping the
> slag which results from iron smelting. There was a big one at Workington
> running from the works towards the harbour and I well remember seeing the
> little engine and wagon climbing the bank and tipping the red hot liquid
> slag which would run down the bank.
>
Aha! I always thought tips and slagheaps were the same thing. The ones I'm
familiar with are the shale bings in West Lothian. Scotland's oil industry
was started in that area by a chap known as James "Paraffin" Young, who
discovered that many of the rocks to be found in coal mines also contained a
lot of oil. He went on to find that the shale in West Lothian was even more
oily than the Welsh coal mines he had first investigated, and was partly
responsible for setting up the industry that mined shale. The red bings
dotted the landscape around Broxburn, Armadale, Bathgate and thereabouts
throughout my childhood. My dad used to say that if anyone could ever find a
use for the stuff they'd make a fortune: in the end a use was found -
hardcore for motorways.

Was there a coalmine at Birkby? Somebody out there ought to know. I know
about the brickworks - we even have Birkby bricks in our backyard. A
neighbour, interested in such things, actually offered to buy these odd
bricks from us - at least the ones on which the word "Birkby" can still be
clearly seen.

ally


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