Our Heritage Group was recently contacted by Mr Alan Denney, who gave us information about his memories of when he visited Tilmanstone Colliery during its closure and demolition back in 1986. All photographs have been taken by Alan Denney and used with his permission.
“In 1986, I visited Tilmanstone Colliery just as preparations were being made to fill the shafts. I had found out through a stationary steam engine group I belonged to that Tilmanstone had several steam winch engines, which were likely to be going for scrap. I contacted the colliery manager and was then invited to Tilmanstone to have a look at what they had. At the time I was looking for a suitable steam winch for the recreation of the Ash Disposal Railway at Cheddars Lane Pumping Station in Cambridge. At first the men at Tilmanstone were a bit suspicious of us, thinking we were scrap merchants. Once they realised we were from a museum, looking to save and preserve something from Tilmanstone they couldn’t have been more helpful. In particular, John Luck, who was the foreman blacksmith, helped us a lot. We selected a winch, which was located beneath the legs of the downcast shaft headstock, before making arrangements to go and remove it just a few days later. When we arrived back at the colliery to remove the winch the rope was still attached through a sheave that was hanging from an RSJ, partway up the head frame. The rope terminated with a cable that was too large to pass through the sheave. I said to my colleague that I would climb up the headstocks and detach the sheave, complete with rope. When I got up there and leaned out to try and reach the sheave I instantly had second thoughts, as beneath me was a black hole descending 3,000ft into the bowls of the earth.
Plan two – we borrowed a set of bottles and cutting gear from the blacksmiths shop and proceeded to cut through the rope to remove the cable. Next we needed to wind in the rope as the engine had been running on compressed air. After a few revolutions the air ran out, as the compressor had been shut down. We searched to find someone to start the main compressor and restore air pressure. However, this was just before Christmas and the remaining men in the carpenters shop were enjoying a pre-Christmas party. Eventually, we got the cable fully wound in and managed to jack the engine up from its foundation in readiness to be picked up by lorry, before being taken to Cambridge the following day. The steam winch we removed was standing between the legs of the No.3 headstocks of the downcast shaft. I believe it was used to lift materials into the main cages/skips that would be sent underground. The winch was made by J H Wilson of Liverpool and thought to date from 1908. Several months after getting the winch to our museum at Cambridgeshire, work was started on building a new foundation at Cambridge. Work also began on removing nearly 80 years of oil-bound coal dust from the winch so that repairs could be made. It was eventually painted and put back into steam. Finally, a building was built around the engine. In 1994, the winch was entered into the national steam heritage awards. It came first in the category for stationary steam engines. The Heritage Award scheme was sponsored by British Coal; we got a certificate signed by the chairman of British Coal and an award of £500 that we put towards the cost of having new window frames made for the winch engine house we were building. I went to the National Coal Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery near Wakefield for the award presentation. I was also presented with a new brass miner’s safety lamp. This was the last year British Coal sponsored the event, I think they wanted something connected to coal mining to finish with. It must have been a sad and depressing time for those men left at the close of the colliery.
Just recently we’ve had a problem with our main boiler that drives the winch, so it’s not been working. However, we hope to have it back into steam later this year (2025) so it can be seen once again as a working demonstration hauling wagons up and down the incline on the Ash Railway. So a little piece of Tilmanstone Colliery is preserved in rural Cambridgeshire.”
During my visit to Tilmanstone the winding ropes on No.3 coal winding (down cast shaft) had already been removed and the skips taken out of the shaft (pictures of the Koepe winder and the control desk included). An emergency diesel-electric temporary winder was in use at the time, as the shaft guide ropes and weights in the sump were being cut. Together with John Luck (foreman blacksmith) we climbed to the top of No.3 headstock in order to get some photos of the site. Partway up a section of the walkway on the headstock there was a safety handrail, which had been cut through, allowing the winding skips to be removed more easily. I remember the gaps had been bridged over with just a couple of wooden scaffolding boards and a broom handle used for a hand rail.
The other photographs show my colleague Bob Crowe standing by a couple of steam winches and the removed skip at Tilmanstone Colliery. The only picture with me shows me standing with the restored winch engine at Cambridge. This was taken before my hair went grey and started falling out!
You asked how I came to hear about Tilmanstone and the Kent Coalfield. I suppose it all started about 60 years ago when I was at junior school. We were learning about geography and history; I was chosen to write to the National Coal Board (NCB) as it was called then, to ask for some information about the coalfields of Britain. I received back a school information pack that contained some large wall posters showing how coal was mined and a map of the coalfields. I was intrigued by a remote area in Kent near Dover, which showed a small coalfield compared to the Midlands, Yorkshire, Northumberland & Durham, Lancashire and the Scottish coalfields. I have always been interested in history and particularly industrial history, and have been a member of the local Cambridge Industrial Archaeology Society for the past 50 years. In 1986, I was looking to find a steam winch engine to power the recreated Ash Railway, at Cheddar’s Lane Pumping Station (Cambridge Museum of Technology) that we were busy rebuilding.
A report in the bulletin newsletter of the International Stationary Steam Engine Society at this time mentioned Tilmanstone Colliery was on the point of closure. The report said the colliery had a number of steam winches (actually running on compressed air) that were most likely going to be scrapped but could possibly be made available to interested groups. A phone call to the manager confirmed this and an invitation to visit Tilmanstone was quickly made. Myself, plus three colleagues from Cambridge Museum of Technology travelled to Tilmanstone to see what was available. Our primary objective was to select a suitable engine. Dover Transport Museum had already earmarked a couple for them so our choice was more limited. Fortunately we knew a chap who operated a skip lorry who by placing the lifting chains around the main trunnion shaft from the winch drum to the hydraulic operated arms, was able to raise the winch and load (without having to hire a crane) and transport it home to Cambridge. While we were at the colliery we were given carte blanche permission to look around for anything else that would be of use to our museum. We left our trailer parked overnight outside the blacksmiths shop, when we returned the next morning we found it half full of goodies! Sheave and pulley blocks, a Tirfor winch, blacksmithing tools and sacks full of nuts bolts and washers. We thought these items would be of use to your museum we were told. We also removed some boiler fittings from the small boiler house with four vertical boilers plus spare packing material as these were compatible with our boiler in Cambridge.
When we made the first visit we noticed some wooden packing crates containing brand new and unused Kuplex lifting chains and fittings, which we were told would most likely go for scrap. We were asked if we wanted them and to let them know what sizes and lengths we wanted, and we would make them up for us. On our return visit they were all made up to our requirements and had suddenly doubled up the order. My Land Rover and trailer was so heavily loaded that we couldn’t have brought home more stuff even if we had tried and wanted to. All the equipment that we recovered has subsequently been put to good use. Although I had one regret, we weren’t able to get a trip underground because the cages had already been removed from the No.3 shaft and a temporary emergency winder had been installed. It was deemed too risky and we’d been just one week too late. However, I did manage to get a visit underground at another colliery two years later. A former work colleague of mine took over his father’s coal merchants business when his father retired. I asked if ever they got the opportunity to go on an underground visit at a real working pit and get up to the coal face and his reply was yes, occasionally. You can imagine my response when I got a telephone call from a while later asking if I wanted to visit Daw Mill Colliery near Coventry. At the time Daw Mill was one of only a handful of deep mines that were still working. Arriving the next day, following a safety briefing we were fully kitted out with all the safety gear and descended 1,600 feet in the cage down to the man riding area, which transported miners out towards the working faces. The last few hundred yards were then made on foot. The coal seam at Daw Mill was a very thick one, about 15 feet. However, only the middle 9 feet was removed, due to dirt contamination of the upper and lower areas of the coal seam. The roadways had been driven to the extent of the take, and longwall working and retreat mining where all the coal was taken out was retreating back towards the shafts. We were right up at the coalface with the shearer when across cutting the coal. As we left the coal face I got a bit left behind and separated from the rest of our group as I was asking lots of questions and got into conversation with a man who was advancing the powered roof supports. He asked if I would like to have a go at moving the supports and so I took the opportunity I felt I couldn’t miss. It felt a strange sensation as the roof supports were being advanced, following the progressing coalface, hearing groaning and cracking noises coming from the now unsupported roof that was behind the supports, leading to ultimate collapse. It was an experience I’m so glad I was able to have and will never forget since deep coal mining in the UK is now a thing of the past. Daw Mill Colliery closed in 2013, after an underground fire broke out.
Also shown are some scans that have come from a catalogue of Hudson Narrow Gauge Railway Equipment. The catalogue itself came from Tilmanstone Colliery, so I have included a couple of pages relevant to colliery narrow gauge railways.
Alan Denney
