Clitherbeck and Danby Low Moor (Castleton) Collieries, Danby
John Dawnay bought the manor of Danby in 1656, but it is not until 1749 that we have evidence of coal mining at Clitherbeck, near the confluence of Black and Clither Becks. In the latter year, Henry Dawnay (Lord Downe) let his Low Moor Colliery at Clitherbeck, in Danby, to Michael Smith1. Smith was a local man who had risen from being a labourer to being a colliery owner.
A report to Lord Downe gives an insight to the estate’s pits in 17682. They were about 150 feet deep, and six feet wide by eight feet long. The coal was drawn using a horse gin, not by men with a jack roll, in a corf, or basket, holding six pecks and weighing 10½ stones. The lessees worked one pit at a time, with four or five men employed underground, depending on demand. Depending on the distance from the pit bottom, the colliers were paid from 1s 10½d to 2s 1d per dozen or score, including hurrying, which was reckoned to be a bushel of ten gallons. The workings were drained by soughs and were troubled by black damp (carbon dioxide), but not firedamp (methane). In order to ventilate the pits, parallel gates were driven about five yards apart, and cross-gates were driven every 30 yards or so. The roof was supported by wooden props (usually alder), and fifteen wagon loads of wood were used yearly. A load of coal wood was worth 5s 6d where it grew, and cost a further 5s 6d a load for carriage to the pit. Day labourers were paid from 1s 6d to 2s 0d per day.
Smith renewed his lease for a further seven years, at an annual rent of £70, in May 1769 and, at around the same time, he also bought a freehold intake at Clitherbeck3. In 1775, he began driving an adit to drain the coal under his land. The adit was driven under the common, where Lord Downe owned the minerals, but Smith had no permission to do so. This resulted in a dispute, which lasted eight years, and involved two trials at York. Eventually, Lord Downe bought Smith out in 1784, paying him £1000 for the enclosure (Harrison, 1969).
The seam at Clitherbeck was also worked on both sides of the Clitherbeck valley, but most extensively along its east side at Danby Low Moor (Castleton) Colliery (Goldring, 2008). Mining around Clitherbeck continued until the mid-1860s, which coincides with the opening of the railway through Eskdale. No doubt encouraged by the ‘Coal Famine’ of the early 1870s, however, the Poverty Hill Pit, near Houlsyke, was worked by Brunton & Walker between 1875 and 1880, and again by Jos. Coverdale from 1885 to 18884. This pit is still marked by the large shale heap.
- NYCROZDS Rental
- NYCRO ZDS IV 6/3 – frame 6738
- NYCRO ZDS IV 6/3 – frame 6140
- List of Mines 1875 to 1893
