Old coal mine buildings SE of Stublick Farmhouse II*

Coal mine engine house, store and furnace house, early 19th century. Squared stone, ashlar dressings, Welsh slate roofs, coped gables. Engine house with round-headed openings for winding gear and segmental-headed cart entrance to left, tall chimney at rear, tapering above chamfered plinth, brick-lined internally. Single storey range to left with ashlar gable and ridge stacks and cart entrance with timber lintel. Furnace house to west with round-headed arch and cart entrance with timber lintel in left return wall, second tall chimney similar to first, to rear right.
An exceptionally well preserved group of colliery buildings, serving workings on the small Stublick coalfield. (1)

NY 833604 Stublick Colliery. Three star rated. One of the best identified survivals of early 19th century pit head layouts. (2)

NY 83316042. The remains of Stublick Colliery, including a well preserved group of early 19th century colliery buildings. Built of squared stone with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs they include the boiler house and the beam engine house with adjacent chimney and single storey range. These buildings are thought to date to the 1830s and stand immediately south of the main pumping shaft. This shaft was used for pumping water from the deeper parts of the mine and survives as a roughly circular opening located within a levelled terrace. The remains of a second engine house and a detached chimney stand south west of the pumping shaft. A second shaft, situated south of the engine house and now infilled, is thought to have been used for winding and hauling coal to the surface. Scheduled. (3)

Documentary evidence shows that Stublick Colliery was in full production by 1774, when two pits were being worked, and was described as "an old working colliery" implying some longevity. Originally created to fuel the Langley lead smelt-mills, improvements to drainage in the colliery after 1774 meant that it was able to continue supplying coal for the smelt mills as well as for land sale. Construction of a reservoir at Nilston Rigg in the early 19th century gave the colliery a longer lease of life and deeds show a 14-year lease being taken out in 1833. Coal pits are shown on Greenwood's map of 1828, as well as a smithy. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1865 shows old shafts, a smith, engine house and saw mill; this is a relatively late phase of the running of the colliery when it had reached its largest size.
In the early 20th century the colliery seems to have been run alongside the Langley Barony Fireclay Company Brickworks because the of the quality of the fireclay beneath the coal. In 1910, a letter somments on improvements to the colliery including a New Lancashire Boiler, erection of a chimney in conneciton with the Boiler, and other new buildings such as a store, joiners, blacksmiths, a managers office and a weigh machine house. The mine closed in 1926.
The large engine house, together with its chimney, dominates the site. This building would have been used to house the boiler and beam engine for pumping water from the mine. The north elevation contains a cart entrance at ground level, with a round-headed opening above which presumably relates to winding gear as the pumping shaft is located immediately below this aperture. There are further openings in the remaining elevations. The chimney stands on the southern side of the engine house. The interior of the engine house contained no in-situ machinery. The ground floor is probably where the boiler was housed; there are two further floors at an upper level.
Against the east elevation of the engine house is a single-storey range and built in a similar manner. This range is divided into two internally and one of these rooms has a fireplace and chimney breast and may have been used as an office for the colliery. (4)

(NY83306041 NY83316041 sited OS. 1:2500 1972) (5a)

NY 83316042. The remains of Stublick Colliery, including a well preserved group of early 19th century colliery buildings. Built of squared stone with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roofs they include the boiler house and the beam engine house with adjacent chimney and single storey range. These buildings are thought to date to the 1830s and stand immediately south of the main pumping shaft. This shaft was used for pumping water from the deeper parts of the mine and survives as a roughly circular opening located within a levelled terrace. The remains of a second engine house and a detached chimney stand south west of the pumping shaft. A second shaft, situated south of the engine house and now infilled, is thought to have been used for winding and hauling coal to the surface. Scheduled. (5b)

Recorded by NRIM, photographed and measured drawings. (5c)