Solve a mystery near Brick Bridge?

[My login is Henrietta]

So Edmund backs up my memory of a child being killed by falling down the mine shaft, as Howard says ''another mystery solved''.

I remember hearing about the incident in the '50s when I was a little girl. It was dinned into me that I mustn't go near any holes in the ground.

[the rover]

So Edmund backs up my memory of a child being killed by falling down the mine shaft, as Howard says ''another mystery solved''.

[Howard]

Another mystery solved! I walked along the path from The Garden House to The Midland recently and wondered what the tunnel exits from the side of the hill were. I was wondering if they were part of the infamous "tunnel rats" network, but now it seems they were part of the mine drainage.

My parents contributed a chapter on the canals to a book in the 1970s called "The Historic Industries of Marple and Mellor". I should probably read it sometime; I might learn something.

[andrewbowden]

Great info.  Thanks for posting that, and to Edmund for sharing.

[admin]

A gentleman called Edmund Wilkinson has sent me the following message after seeing this thread:

I was surprised at the speculation as to the purpose of this concrete structure aroused as it would not be a mystery to anyone brought up in Marple  in the 1940/50s.

It was then surrounded by a fairly low stone wall capped with broken glass and I can recall once throwing lighted banger fireworks down the shaft to hear the big bang.  There was another shaft close by in the garden of the cottage opposite, high above the canal towpath.   I would surmise that these were air shafts as the main shaft was in the vicinity of the British Legion/Top Lock.

There was another shaft (ArmPit) served by an arm of the canal just beyond Brick Bridge, now a rather boggy area.   It was in the fields of Hill Top Farm.  My wife's step father, George Watson was the farmer until 1955 and I have heard said that he sometimes disposed of dead cattle into the shaft.   I think it was into this shaft that a boy fell to his death in the early 1960's and caused them to be infilled.

In the Marple Bridge area between the Midland Hotel/Corn Mill and The Garden house there are several drainage adits discharging into the river from these mines.

In the late 1950's? there were new houses built off Strines Road in the Ladythorne Ave/Marsham Drive area.   One of these houses developed a very substantial crack in its walls due to mining subsidence and it was unoccupied for a very long time as the NCB would not accept liability.

[andrewbowden]

The one thing I was very sure it wasn't, was a trig point.  Whilst there a couple of designs (the flat top stone pillar the most common) they all share one common feature - somewhere to mount the triangulation equipment.  Which this thing didn't have.

What confused me most was that there is space for some sort of plaque or sign.

[Howard]

I am pretty sure that this topic has been here a few years ago.

Mark, is it possible to check this out as the answer might have already been given?

I've been a member of this board for a loooong time and I don't remember this topic before. I've walked past that thing many hundreds of times and have often wondered why a trig point was placed there. I'm pretty sure i would have remembered it if someone had posted the explanation.

We've had other mysterious objects discovered and identified before. I remember there was some sort of engraved stone which looked like a memorial stone, but turned out to be the dedication from a building many miles away from Marple.

[admin]

I am pretty sure that this topic has been here a few years ago.

Mark, is it possible to check this out as the answer might have already been given?

I've tried a few searches and can't find anything relating to this. It doesn't mean it's not there, it could just be that I haven't thought of the right search terms.

You can search using this link: http://www.marple-uk.com/smf/index.php?action=search;advanced;search=

[the rover]

I am pretty sure that this topic has been here a few years ago.

Mark, is it possible to check this out as the answer might have already been given?

[admin]

In the recess at the top there used to be a label with NCB on it for the National Coal Board, but I cant remember what else.

Welcome to the forum @Morfaman

That's interesting, I don't recall seeing that. It is ages since I was down there but I vaguely recall another much larger flat concrete slab nearby. Is that a sound memory or not?

[Harry]

That object is certainly a capped shaft of some description, based on what I was told as a youngster that those objects were.  I'm not sure if it's a ventilation shaft or a mine shaft. I would concur though that it's not over the mine shaft shown in the old map

EDIT - however it is shown as a shaft on other old maps

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=53.3900&lon=-2.0563&layers=6&right=BingHyb

This side by side functionality to compare old and new is marvellous. Thanks for posting this @nbt

[Morfaman]

In the recess at the top there used to be a label with NCB on it for the National Coal Board, but I cant remember what else.

[marveld]

That object is certainly a capped shaft of some description, based on what I was told as a youngster that those objects were.  I'm not sure if it's a ventilation shaft or a mine shaft. I would concur though that it's not over the mine shaft shown in the old map

EDIT - however it is shown as a shaft on other old maps

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=53.3900&lon=-2.0563&layers=6&right=BingHyb

My apologies for not providing the right spot on the older map! Thanks for this link that shows the correct one close to Churchgate Lodge.

[nbt]

That object is certainly a capped shaft of some description, based on what I was told as a youngster that those objects were.  I'm not sure if it's a ventilation shaft or a mine shaft. I would concur though that it's not over the mine shaft shown in the old map

EDIT - however it is shown as a shaft on other old maps

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=18&lat=53.3900&lon=-2.0563&layers=6&right=BingHyb

[Howard]

It is indeed a capped mine shaft. Here's the 1872 map for all you map fans out there -

http://maps.nls.uk/view/102341011#zoom=6&lat=7749&lon=5770&layers=BT

Am I missing something? That shaft marker on the map isn't in the same place at the photo of the "mysterious object". The "object" is at the end of Brickbridge Road at the bottom of the footpath up to All Saints church. On the map, the shaft is about 200m further south. Fair enough, it could be a ventilation shaft, but I'm sure it's not in the same place as the shaft on the map.