PONTEFRACT MILL HILL
SAND TUNNELS
by JOHN HOLMES
The main road to Carleton and Ackworth passes through a cutting and yet few
know and fewer have entered the maze of tunnels (now filled) alongside
the busy main road.
Nearly all my life I have known the mines at the top of our garden. When I was
first aware of them in about 1940, there were entrances on the north and
south side. Those on the north were mainly the result of old falls and
involved clambering down. On the south side they opened into a small
quarry. On the eastern side were openings on to Mill Hill, some of which
were bricked up. Inside, the eastern part was fairly open, consisting of
pillars supporting a five-metre thickness of rock; towards the west they
became narrow tunnels and a candle was a necessary item for exploration.
In various places were pools of still, clear water, so still that it was
easy to walk into them without noticing, although none were so deep that
a pair of Wellington’s would not keep you dry. As time went by, frost
would break away the sand from the entrance pillars so that in the end
there was an inevitable collapse. Away from the entrances the
temperature remained constant and it was possible to see original
pick-marks. One large collapse was at the north west corner and a seven
metre circular hole appeared in the field. On the south side a collapse
occurred in the middle of the field and here a fault opened up a
straight-sided hole with an overhang on the northern side. Another
collapse was at the southern entrance and this went straight down,
simply lowering the field level.
At the start of the Second World War, the Borough Council took over the
first tunnel alongside Mill Hill Road and made it into an air-raid
shelter, bricking off all the openings to the remainder of the mines.
Also built were toilet compartments and blast walls. Wooden posts were
put in to help support the roof. A low voltage lighting system was
installed, as was piped water. A drain was also laid to take surface
water into a gully in Mill Hill Road. This still operates and every so
often the gully silts up and the water runs right down Mill Hill.
The brick walls offered some support, so that in about 1946, when one of the
pillars collapsed, they supported the roof and preserved access from the
air-raid shelters to the rest of the mines.
In the 1950s Gordon Crofts, a local architect, built a bungalow in the
field. He was the architect for a new building in Newgate (now ATS) and
for an extension to Keyzer’s shop on Southgate. He allowed much of the
debris to be tipped into the north west hole and this was brought level
with the surrounding field. Soon after his bungalow was built a further
collapse near the north-eastern corner of his bungalow created a hole
about one metre deep. For some time he left it, utilising it as a
sandpit for his children! This was later filled.
Eventually he sold out and Mr. J.P. Hill of Albany Plant purchased the property. He
filled in the south-east corner of the quarry and reduced a strip of
land about seven metres wide alongside Mill Hill to road level. On this
filled and levelled portion he had a bungalow constructed. Eventually
Mr. Hill decided to sell out and he had the topsoil stripped down to the
rock, exposing three holes into the mines below. Two of these were
filled with small marl whilst the third was disguised as a well to
maintain access via a ladder from one of the gardens of the three houses
built. The house builders had 15cm holes drilled all round the site of
each house, and where they went into mines, hollow brick pillars were
built. Both holes and pillars were then filled with reinforced concrete
to support the house rafts on the surface. The topsoil was replaced and
a depression on the northern side was filled with clay and topsoil from
Carleton Glen Housing Estate, which was being built at the time. There
has been little change since then.
THE DISTANT PAST
T.W. Tew gives a few facts in Miscellaneous Papers in a talk on 4th November
1869. He mentions that at the time some 31,000 tons of sand per annum
were being dug from the Darrington – Glasshoughton area; 840 tons from
Darrington and Pontefract; 17,640 tons from Monkhill, and 12,520 tons
from Glasshoughton. The Mill Hill sand was 94% pure sand while Monkhill
was only 83% sand.
The only evidence of when and who dug at Mill Hill so far found is in the
Tanshelf Rate Book. The first entry seems to be entry 216 of 1871, when
the owner was Henry Buckle, and the occupier John Smith. The rateable
value was £31 17s, indicating a possible rental of about £36 per
annum. This compares with a rateable value for the Priory (a large
house) of £39 19s, and the Toll House (much smaller) of £2 16s. The
entries continue, but in 1872, the second rate, the tenants are John and
Thomas Smith. My copy continues to 1874 and the entries remain the same
each year. The 1849 Ordnance Survey does not show the mines, but that of
1892 shows the entrance to be very similar to how they were in 1940, and
even the collapse on the northern side has taken place. On this collapse
grew trees which still remain in the garden of the house with the well.
PRESENT SITUATION
All the entrances except Mill Hill Gates are now blocked and little change
has taken place since the entrances were filled. Wakefield MDC have
recently been concerned in particular with mines at Bexhill Close, where
two houses suddenly collapsed. They had a survey of the Mill Hill mines
done as a trial run for surveying the Bexhill Close mines, which have
now been filled in. The writer has applied for permission to landscape
the old quarry at the southern part of the Priory land but this will not
affect more than a short tunnel to the north of the gate, which is
showing signs of collapse where the limestone changes to marl.
POSTSCRIPT
Since the above article was written the Council engaged contrator’s to fill
this collection of caves. Use of Priory land was offered and accepted. A
six-inch steel tube was pushed through the entrance into one of the
caves and to this was attached piping to go in to the extremities of the
caves. A JCB came on site and lorry loads of limestone were brought in
and loaded into the hopper of the blower to be blown into the caves. As
they were filled the pipe was moved back and once all was filled the
entrance was covered. Holes were then drilled at various points around
the houses and a large circular tank brought in. Into this was tipped
Power Station Ash, cement and water to make a mixture which was pumped
to the holes and allowed to run into the limestone to bond it together.
Water had to be obtained from Mill Hill Lane by a hosepipe over the
gardens.
John Holmes
Other studies by John Holmes
Pontefract Elections
Pontefract and its Manors Part One
Pontefract and its Manors Part Two - The New Hall
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