Riccall Mine
I remember my transfer to Riccall Mine like it was yesterday. I was working as a heading / coalface electrician at South Kirkby Colliery from 1979 to 1986. The pit seemed to be doing quite well with two new seams, the Fenton and the Highfield or Top Newhill having successful faces running. Suddenly the pit was planned to merge with Ferrymoor/Riddings Drift Mine. The writing was on the wall, as we all knew in the coal industry, merge a pit with another and then close two for the price of one. I knew I had to make my own way to the Selby Coalfield if I had a chance of staying in the industry as transfer options were still very difficult due to planned staffing at Selby taking place from closing collieries in the old North Yorkshire Area mentioned in previous posts. After a few phone calls and an interview with Bill Hagan at North Yorkshire Area manpower to explain the transferring, travelling and moving house allowances I transferred to Riccall Mine. It proved to be the best move I made. I signed on at Riccall Mine in September 1986 with a lot of lads from Kingsley Drift Mine, signing on the same day due to closure of their pit. It was on a thursday so my last day was to be Friday at South Kirkby Colliery. I said my good byes on the Friday dayshift and had the weekend off before starting Monday, on the day shift at Riccall Mine. The first day consisted of getting my new two piece overalls, something I had never seen before, tools, pit head bath keys, electrical locks and PPE for the new pit and introductions to some of my new shift. Quite a few of the people who signed on the same day as me ended up on the same shift including one of my new Shift Charge Engineer who I worked with until my last day at Riccall Mine.
As I walked around the surface buildings I was very impressed by the brand new pit and how clean, tidy, modern and well designed it was. When I went into the pit yard for a look around the surface the first thing I noticed was the mine car handling plant at the No1 shaft.
Qualter Hall were the contractors for the Mine Car Handling Plants in the Selby Coalfield.
Coal is unloaded from the cages in mine cars through a tippler, which emptied the coal, and returning back onto the cage to go underground using a LOFCO chain driven system. The coal was then sent by road for processing elsewhere. This system was used at all the Selby Mines, for the heading drivages, before the mines were connected to Gascoigne Wood Drift in December 1987. This was not the equipment I expected to see at Selby but it served it’s purpose well.
Riccall No 1 Pit Bottom with mine car coal clearance in 1987
The mine car handling plant was later removed when the Gascoigne Wood coal clearance was fully operational. During the time the mine car handling plant was used for coal clearance, the underground supply system was a double bogie GMT (Gyro Mining Transport ) mine car system using the No2 shaft, something I had never seen before.
The surface was 64 acres, very small compared with my old pit, and was built on a disused WW2 airfield, virtually invisible from the road. It has a huge soil banking which was landscaped around the visible edges of the mine surface using trees to hide the mine from view as agreed in the public enquiry in 1975. The plan, after closure of the mine, was to restore the mine surface back to farm land using the soil in the banking as infill but this was never used as the mine is used as a business park nowadays.
Riccall Mine Surface Buildings
No1 Shaft was a downcast with a ground mounted double parallel winder with two eight tonnes or 72 manriding capacity cages . No2 Shaft was an upcast with a tower mounted multi rope friction winder with a single cage and counterweight. The cage capacity was 16 tonnes or 149 manriding capacity on 2 decks. It also had a system of a tilting deck cage so larger or longer pieces of equipment could be lowered underground inside the cage without using slinging under the cage. The tilting deck cage was used for the huge amount of compound girders used in development drivages and bunker / drivehouse roadways at the North of the mine where the coal was loaded into Gascoigne Wood.
The shift I was put on had two Shift Charge Engineers, one from Royston Drift Mine and one from Kinsley Drift Mine who started on the same day as me. The lads on the shift were mainly from Newmarket Colliery with a couple of Woolley lads, one Fryston and myself from South Kirkby Colliery. The chargehand was from Woolley Colliery who I knew from my apprenticeship times at Monk Bretton Training Centre.
My first day underground was to give me an idea how the pit was set up and how things worked. I rode underground in the No2 shaft and was suprised how large the cage was. It would carry 149 men on two decks. When I got off the cage the temperature was quite warm and I realised why we were given 2 piece overalls.
The mine was set up to use No2 shaft as the mine supply shaft. The pit bottom was very modern with a Qualter Hall hinged platform and chain ram system used to push full articulated G.M.T. Mine cars off the cage using the empty G.M.T.’s. The full cars were kept in the pit bottom passbye system for later transportation to districts. Headings were supplied with arch packs, a pre packed system with all the materials needed for setting a pre determined amount of girders. If the girders were 16 x 12 ft they were packed in 5 settings with 19 x 13ft being packed in 4 settings. The materials were transported by flameproof Clayton BoBo or Clayton Pony rubber tyred battery Locomotives.
Clayton BoBo rubber tyred battery locomotive.
Clayton Pony rubber tyred locomotive hauling a powered face support.
The charging and maintenance station for the loco’s was in the pit bottom with dedicated fitters and electricians looking after the loco’s.
No1 shaft was used as the coal clearance shaft loading 2 tonne mine cars from the strata bunker in the north conveyor road onto the pit bottom coal handling system and then loading onto the double deck cage for disposal on the surface. The system was another Qualter Hall Engineering design and worked well. When I first saw the system I was very surprised at a brand new mine.
The mine was developed with three lateral roadways, two intakes and one return. The North Intake and North Conveyor were the intakes from the No1 shaft with the North Return to the No2 upcast shaft. The North Return had a central rackatrack installed on the sleepers from the pit bottom to 700m mark. This was intended for Rackatrack locos but they were never used as rubber tyred Clayton BoBos and Pony locos were a preferred option.
The North Intake and North Conveyor roadways were the connections to Gascoigne Wood for coal clearance. The North Conveyor and North Return were driven by Mk 2B roadheaders and were both completed when I started in September 1986. The North Intake was still under development using a Dosco Mk 2A revised hydraulic Roadheader with a trial MEDC intrinsically safe pilot circuit unit. The only one I have ever seen.
The South Headings were the South Intake and South Conveyor from the No 1 shaft with the South Return heading to the No 2 upcast shaft. I was to be the electrician in the South Return heading. All the headings were developed with cross slits for the coalface main and tailgates which also kept the temperatures in the lateral headings slightly cooler. The South Conveyor heading was driven with Dosco Mk2B roadheader and was nearly completed to the Whitemoor Mine connection when I started. The South Intake and South Return headings were being driven using Mk2A revised hydraulic roadheaders.
I started the next day in my new job with the heading team. The team was a mixture of men from different pits consisting of two young back up lads from Newmarket Colliery, the Deputy was from Fryston Colliery with the heading team from Rothwell, Peckfield and Newmarket Collieries, the fitter from Park Hill Colliery.
The South side coalface headings were HO1CR’s (C1’s) main and tailgate. The tailgate was developed using a Joy Continuous Miner (JCM12) with two shuttle cars for coal clearance to the gate conveyor. The maingate was driven by a Mk2A revised hydraulic roadheader.
The North side face headings were HO2DR’s (D2’s) Main and Tailgate. The tailgate was developed using a Lee Norse Continuous Miner (LN800 1TT). This machine was an American specification and could cut out for a setting in 7 minutes. This was the first heading at Riccall Mine to use bolts as a support system. The maingate was driven by a Dosco Mk 2A revised hydraulic roadheader.
I settled in to working at Riccall Mine within days and quickly realised I had made a good move. The mine was developing very quickly and new installations were happening on a weekly basis. The availability of overtime was limitless and the development production bonus was very good due to good mining conditions cutting a 2.6 metre seam and very powerful, high speed continuous miners being used in the face developments.
I worked in the South Return heading, which progressed well, until just before the heading made the connection with Whitemoor Mine, when I became chargehand on my shift. In April 1987 the heading hit a partial washout. In this area of the heading, water started dripping from the roof and sides. The water was incredibly acidic and left awful red marks all over any bare skin, so anyone entering the heading had to cover their skin with a special slimy barrier protection cream. The roadheader turned from a machine white to a very rusty orange within 2 days. This acid water continued for about 150m before it disappeared. The heading thirled in May 1987 as shown on the plan below. The roadheader was so badly damaged by the water that it was left when the heading was completed.
Mine plan showing South Return and South Conveyor roadways at demarcation mark.
Selby Superpit 