The Last Pit

The Last Pit. Creating a new airway at Ayle Colliery. youtu.be/_gIJiTnwzxw?si… via @YouTube

It's essential to keep the air flowing to where it is required in a coal mine, even if that means breaking into an old working. Here's a video showing that moment. A link to the full YouTube video to follow!

Visitors from @apedaleheritage put in a shift at #TheLastPit this week. R to L, Stephen Sedgewick, a regular visitor, Alex Dainty and Aidan Lee Croft, who came with a lamp and left with a shovel!

Looks like Christmas but it's actually the first day of Spring. We'll have to keep digging coal! #TheLastPit

The Last Pit. Sump and fire at Ayle Colliery. youtu.be/24dUzIwkDUU Latest in the trilogy that began with 'Shifting stone' and then 'Hewing coal'. #TheLastPit #BANG! #Coalmining

@maxmarr @BCLivingMuseum It is available from the mine near Alston in Cumbria. For availability, prices, delivery etc ring the office on 01434 382582.

@PitLast @BCLivingMuseum What price is your current anthracite price/where is it available from? thanks

Our coal @PitLast is increasingly in demand for #steamengines and machinery. This pile is destined for @BCLivingMuseum, in Dudley. British Coal, British heritage!

Follow the links to the video footage. Similar conditions to the Alston pits and other of the smaller licensed mines of the period.

@BElliottAuthor Screen shot from a video, no posing involved!

@PitLast Great image, hard to achieve I would think

Shovelling coal under the low. #TheLastPit

@pbellpainter Don't worry, good roof in the picture.

@Eden6669 😂😂😂

@PitLast Good height of coal ...this time next year you'll be a millionaire !!

@MrStevenMoore @northumbriana @LaingArtGallery He was an inventor, eccentric, charlatan, depending on your pov. Used to walk around the streets of Newcastle with a tortoise shell on his head selling pamphlets.

@PitLast @northumbriana @LaingArtGallery Oh? What was he famous/ infamous for?

Good to see John Martin remembered in his native Haydon Bridge. His ‘Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah’ is a must-see in the @LaingArtGallery

@northumbriana @MrStevenMoore @LaingArtGallery And the third brother, William, was quite a character too...

@MrStevenMoore @LaingArtGallery Yes indeed!

@Eden6669 Pure quality. Like everything down't pit.

@PitLast Good straight rails !!

A tub approaching a crossroads at Ayle Colliery. #TheLastPit

@mccwales We pride ourselves on our powers of innovation!

@PitLast I don't remember luxury seats like that.

Bait time at #TheLastPit. Photo by James Deavin. Usually there is plenty of banter, but everyone clams up when a camera comes out!

The Last Pit. 6.30 am at Ayle Colliery, Northumberland Cumbria border. youtu.be/XnWTsihcf5M via @YouTube This is the latest video on YouTube. It was filmed 2 years ago as part of a bigger project that was abandoned. Watch it and tell us what you think. #TheLastPit

Heritage rail sector under threat from mine closure via @railadvent railadvent.co.uk/2023/04/herita… A valid argument for the continuation of small scale coal mining in the UK.