On Sunday I rode up Coppice Lane in Brownhills for the first time in a few weeks, and noticed that contractors for The Coal Authority – the body charged with monitoring and remediating historic mineworkings – had been hard at work capping the two shafts left over from the West Coppice Colliery, near the old level Crossing.
The land, which has been cleared of scrub and tress for access, is now smoothed over and re-seeded, and small guard fences have been erected around the shaft caps, which have been buried.
What I assume was a ventilation shaft for the short-lived West Coppice Colliery, as photographed in 2011.
I previously featured one of the shafts in my 2011 post ‘Common ground’, and then analysed the mapping record further in a subsequent post.
I noted the shaft had been fenced off some time ago, and it now seems they’ve capped it, and another adjacent one I hadn’t spotted. I wish I’d known this was going on, I’d have loved to have had a chat to the contractors.
If anyone knows anything about this, please do comment here or drop me a line on BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Cheers.
1:2500 scale Ordnance Survey plan of Brownhills Common. Note the West Coppice Colliery at the foot of the map.