The date from which Mill Engine has
been worked is unknown but c1833 it was known as Old Mill Engine Colliery
and was drained by a steam engine. The pits were down 38 yards to
the Lowery coal which varied in thickness between 20 inches and 2 ft. 3
in. There were two shafts, one the pumping shaft with the steam engine
whilst the other was worked by a horse gin. The coal was worked using
the pillar and stall method and all small coal was left underground.
The main outlet for the coal was Bishops Wood on the River Wye close to
Lydbrook. It was transported there on the Severn & Wye tramroad
and was then either sent on to Hereford by river or used in the ironworks
at Bishops Wood. At some time prior to the 1841 Awards Old Mill Engine
was surrendered to the Crown.
New Mill Engine was galed in February
1846 to a John Bannister on the site of the abandoned Old Mill Engine Colliery.
It is likely that the ownership had passed, at least in part, to Cornelius
Brain in the 1850s, certainly at Midsummer 1861 some arrears of rent stood
against Thomas and Cornelius Brain in the Gavellerís records. By
1873 the colliery was being leased to the Wye Colliery Co. They were
the lessees of Speculation Colliery and used the New Mill Engine for pumping
purposes.
In December 1875 they ceased pumping,
both at Speculation and at the New Mill pumping engine, known locally as
ëOld Bobsí. Soon afterwards the workings of the Trafalgar Colliery
were flooded which led to a law suit for damages against the Wye Colliery
Co. with the Trafalgar Co. contending that the cessation of pumping was
responsible.
In April 1883 the Crown informed
the Wye Colliery Co. that the time allowed for them to open the colliery
was about to expire. Pumping was undoubtedly still being carried
out on the gale but no coal was being won from it. Later in the same
year the Wye Colliery Co. was dissolved when one of the partners, Richard
Thomas, went into liquidation. At the end of 1883 the gale was in
the hands of the Trafalgar Colliery Co., which was owned by the Brain family,
and in 1888 they sold it to the owners of Speech House Hill Colliery.
The pumping engine was supplied
with coal from Speculation Colliery and until 1874 these were brought over
the Severn & Wye tramroad but with the proposed abandonment of the
line in that year, the railway having superceeded it, a short siding was
laid in off the Wimberry branch.
MILLWAY MOORWOOD LEVEL
1841 Edmund John Scott, of St. Mildredís Court, Poultry, in the City of London, gentleman, (as assignee of a lease for a term of 1,000 years from 29 July 1816, granted by Aaron Hale, a Free Miner) to Lydbrook Deep Level; and (as assignee of a lease for a term of 200 years from 1 August 1817, granted by James Cowmeadow, o Free Miner,) to Millway Moorwood Level.
Lydbrook Deep Level Colliery, including also Millway Moorwood Level.
[Surrendered]
See also Lydbrook Colliery above