UK Coal is currently undertaking a major surface mine regeneration scheme on its 1000 acre site at Cutacre, J4/M61 at Bolton in Greater Manchester.

The surface mining scheme which will regenerate former derelict land will, on completion at the end of 2013, have created a new topography upon which to develop a premium mixed use business park in excess of 260 acres.

Many thanks to joe of uk coal who let us (responsibly) run riot.

Out of the landrover under a minute and already Morriseys on the scene:

"You've not been messing around in the old workings have you?"
"who, me?"



"no, these pictures just magically appeared on my camera, honest!!"





Not to be outdone by the youngsters, the two senior members of the party demonstrate the hokey cokey:

Not content with viewing the coal seams from a distance myself and morrisey get right up close


After a quick brew courtesy of coalboard and a view round his "museum like" garage, two hailstorms and a butty later we had a very brief look at boboils discovery, the "dr beeching" culvert:





Which led us onto a little project ive been working on for a day or two (with it has to be said a massive amount of help from both morrisey and coalboard, without whose input i couldnt have done this)mapping some potential coal drifts (and the odd quarry)in the "wigan area", so armed with a google maps printout courtesy of morrisey we thought we'd have a little looksee just how accurate my mapping skills were.

First stop a former flag quarry which wasnt on my maps but was very close to our parking spot so we thought it would be rude not to have a quick look, we were pleasantly surprised too as we found some small old underground workings with some superb pack walls.




(pic courtesy of boboil)

The first drift we couldnt find, but to be fair its on someones property very close to their house so any further investigations of that will have to be with permission i think. But we didnt end the day dissapointed, as on the way back Morrissey appeared from down a bank very close to one of the locations i had marked, with a big grin on his face and we knew we were onto something.

That something was this hole you see me emerging from (pic courtesy of boboil) which we suspect are very early coal workings indeed, further pictures and exploration were unfortunately hindered by lack of appropriate gear.

Having been in the entranceway i can tell you the seam is a decent size(a foot i would say) and probably hasnt been worked from this hole for at least 200 years. (before my rudimentary attempts yesterday anyway)

Suffice to say a return has been planned and there will be a full report to follow in the coming weeks.

[boboil]

Great write up R1 , it was a real exciting find, lets hope when we return equipped up to t'nines
its a goer.
couple of extra pic's
pack wall

Heres r1 checking out a structure with walls to thick for any thing agricultural, but he came back with a half baked tale so were still none the wiser

Severe ochre deposit just by r1's hole

[Morrisey]

A tantalising glimpse inside, can someone photoshop out the giant cobweb or we will never get Gibbo in!

[detritus21]

I've been up this way today having been doing a running session and thought I'd have a nosey at the quarry and see what was lurking further up the hill by the hole which incidently I didn't find despite trying. Couldn't try too hard though as there were sme prepubescent thugs running about looking for a few pence they'd lost.

These are my two from in the quarry.