APPENDIX 2: SALTOM PIT ENGINE HOUSE (SIMON CHAPMAN)
The standing engine house ruin on the site of Saltom Pit has attracted much interest and speculation regarding its use and age. Its structure has been most ably recorded by Lancaster University Archaeology Unit (2000) who have compiled a series of drawings detailing the elevations and plan of the building. However, the interpretation of the function of the building has to date been varied and indeterminate, much confusion arising from the fact that significant early steam pumping engines were erected at this single shaft location. Saltom Pit was located near the foreshore on the furthest point west where it could drain colliery workings to the east, and in addition became the access shaft for the first undersea coal workings in the area.

A drawing (1) based on a plan of the colliery surface layout shows the existing engine house as being for a winding engine, positioned to the south of the shaft. To the west and north are shown two separate pumping engine houses, the sites of which are now covered by a mass of clay and rocks which have slipped down from the cliffs above. These buildings may have been demolished when the engines inside were scrapped after cessation of pumping in 1866 but their outline or foundations may still exist beneath the landslide.

The plan above referred to also depicts to the east of the shaft a horse-gin, a remnant of which still remains in the form of a curved stone retaining wall. This gin adjoined the half of the shaft used for winding so it is reasonable to assume that it was the means of drawing coal up the shaft. Another gin, or more probably a capstan, is indicated to the south-west of the shaft beyond the winding and pumping houses and would be necessary for maintenance of shaft and pumping equipment.

In addition, two photographs exist taken of the site about 1860 when coal drawing had ceased but pumping was still in operation. Both views show at least one rope running out from the surviving building and over the shaft headgear.

During July 2006 copies of drawings of both the winding engines at Saltom Pit and Ravenhill were located; the former dated 1823 and the latter 1822.

In plan the engine house is rectangular and divided into two compartments, east and west. The eastern compartment appears never to have been completely enclosed, there is no north wall and the east wall has been finished short so there has never been a north-east corner. A cast-iron bearing remains in the thickness of the east wall, and another exists opposite to it in the central dividing wall. Both are at first-floor level and indicate the position of a winding drum in the eastern compartment. Evidence from the 1860s photograph and the drawing of 1823 show that around the drum were two parallel paths on the sides of which were projecting guides; these were for accommodating flat ropes coiling upon themselves upon the drum. Winding of corves was by the conventional two-rope arrangement, as one rope coiled onto the drum the other uncoiled.

The whole building had a gabled roof; the south gable would have been complete but the north was only half because of the shortened east compartment which was only roofed as far as the end of the east wall. This protected the drum from the weather whilst the wall facing the shaft was totally open, an arrangement which was common for early nineteenth century winding and hauling engines where the drums were in a room separate from the engine (2).

Fixed on the drumshaft and next to the central wall was a flywheel, possibly twice the diameter of the winding drum. Towards the north end of this wall a stub of timber projects through it just below the centreline of the winding drum, and at a similar height towards the south end of the wall is a small lever mounted on a bracket, the drawing proves these two items to have supported an underslung brake band operating on only the lower half of the flywheel. From the lever a rod would have led vertically down the wall to a crank fixed on the end of a rotative shaft running through the wall into the western compartment where a long lever attached to the end of the shaft would have terminated in a foot pedal operable by the engine driver.

The drawing of 1823 shows a vertical single-cylinder winding engine of Crowther patent design, very much a feature of the Northumberland and Durham coalfield, inside the outline of a building very similar to the one at Saltom Pit. Although the drawing states it to have been erected at Saltom Pit in 1823, it is reasonable to assume that the drawing specifically relates to the engine, not the building.

Located within the western compartment was the engine and using measurements of the building and applying these to the drawing, a scale can be determined. From this a scaled distance from the centreline of the drumshaft down to the bottom of the cylinder suggests the latter to have been below the present floor level by about one foot and therefore the bedstone upon which it stood may still lie hidden. Scaling also suggests the stroke of the engine was 6 feet.

A significant feature of the Crowther vertical engine was the use of two horizontal cast iron beams, one on each side of the engine, to support the upper end of the piston rod. They were positioned one slightly above the other, their inner ends joined by linkages which were attached through their centres to the upper end of the piston rod, to ensure the rod ran truly vertical. Here was also attached the lower end of the connecting rod, the upper end of which was attached to a crank which drove the drum around. As the cylinder, perhaps two feet in overall diameter, was located very close to the central dividing wall, a recess has been made in the wall to prevent these linkages actually touching it. No doubt it also helped to avoid scraped fingers and knuckles if these linkages needed maintenance.

An interesting feature, worthy of further research, concerns the attachment of the lower end of the connecting rod to the rest of the engine, which conventionally was done through the linkages as described above (3). However, the 1823 drawing shows it being attached to the inner end of one of the beams requiring the vertical axis of the cylinder to be offset a few inches from the horizontal axis of the drumshaft, a strange complication which for some unknown reason may have been unique to this engine. In some engines one of the beams was extended outside the wall of the building to 
drive a pump, particularly advantageous when shaft sinking, but not applicable in this case. Confirmation that the engine was built as drawn lies in the fact that the vertical groove in the wall, mentioned above, and necessarily on the axis of the cylinder, is offset several inches from the centre of the remaining drumshaft bearing.

The outer ends of the two horizontal beams are depicted as terminating on pivots mounted on T-shaped brackets projecting out from the central dividing wall, one of these still survives at the southern end fixed in place by 6 bolts; at the northern end 6 boltholes indicate where that bracket was fixed.

The original wooden floor is indicated by rectangular holes for supporting joists so the vertical cylinder would have been at least half below floor level, its top is indicated by a cut-out in the side of the central wall. The valve gear was operated by a vertical plug rod from beneath the southern beam so the engineman would drive it positioned a little to the south-west of the cylinder. From such a position a clear view may be had northwards to the ‘bank’, the ground level at the top of the shaft, through a large doorway in the north wall of this compartment set a couple of feet above floor level to match the ground outside. And of course this position is only a short distance from where the brake crankshaft came through the central wall.

A vertical single cylinder winding engine of the Durham-coalfield type is preserved at Beamish Museum although about 30 years later in date. Its major difference from Saltom is that the whole engine and drum is accommodated within one room as instead of a central wall there is a massive timber A-frame to support the inner end of the drumshaft. Another single cylinder vertical engine remains at Glyn Pits (ST 266999) in South Wales and is at present undergoing restoration. This example retains its reels for flat ropes and has a central dividing wall although the vertical piston rod runs between conventional guides with a jaw-ended connecting rod.

Presumably the choice of a vertical engine for Saltom was made because of the restricted ground area as the engine chosen for the top of the Ravenhill shaft (NX 9653 1737) is depicted as being a beam engine to operate the winding drum. The erection of both of these engines within two years, to replace horse-gins, shows a major capital investment for which John Peile appears to have been responsible. He was placed in charge of the Whitehaven collieries in 1811 when Mr. Bateman retired and under his direction they made great progress. In 1819 he expanded the workings of the Saltom Pit to reach further seams so presumably adopted new winding equipment to increase the output (4).

Simon Chapman
25 July 2006

SALTOM PIT REFERENCES
(1). Industrial Archaeology of the Lake Counties. J. D. Marshall and Michael Davis-Shiel. Pub. Michael Moon, 1977. P.113.
(2). See picture of Warden Law Hauler, Hetton Railway, NZ 368504, in The Private Railways of County Durham. C. E. Mountford. I. R. S. 2004. p.128.
(3). Single Cylinder Vertical Lever Type Winding Engines As Used In The North East Of England. Alan Hill. De Archaeologische Pers. 1986.
(4). Historical Sketch of the Whitehaven Collieries. R. W. Moore. F. I. M. E. 1900 (?) P.632. Author’s copy.