Town Moor, pillar-and-stall mine shaft

A ring-bank of spoil set on a steep slope. A 1.4 metres high apron scarp surrounds a central hollow which measures 5 metres across and is 0.6 metres deep. As in the other shaft heads in the area the ridge-and-furrow seems to overlie it although this is probably later drainage. The use of pillar-and-stall mining (cutting horizontal headings out of the bottom of the shaft, leaving pillars of coal to support the roof) meant shafts could be spaced wider apart. The best example of a widely spaced grid pattern of shafts on the Town Moor is on Nuns Moor, where four shaft heads form a square pattern. These shaft heads have larger spoil heaps than the Bell Pits, indicating deeper shafts and a later mining episode. A diagnostic feature of the landscape indicating pillar-and-stall mining is the subsidence of the surrounding ground surface, due to the caving in of the galleries especially after the removal of the roof supports. Such areas of mining subsidence effect large areas of the Moor.