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Drilling for coal vain in Slieveardagh
Slieveardagh And Ballingarry Coal Fields are part of the
Lenster Coal Vain contuined accros the two County's.
Rainging From CastleCommer in County Kilkenny to Slieveardagh and Ballingarry in County Tipperary.
Ballingarry Coal Mines are under ground coal mines located near the Village Of Ballingarry,South Tipperary.
Situated near the border of Kilkenny and Tipperary are now disused and have beed Flooded.
From 1826 the main commercial enterprise was the Mining Company of Ireland which ended operations in 1926
The Mines featured signnificantly during the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848.
By 1866 there were twelve pits been worked locally while three had recentaly abandoned.
From 1942 until 1950 the Mines were managed by the Irish Government under the name Mianrai Teo.
Welcome To My Site,just a little History to remind ourselfs of what Mining
Was like in the Slieveardagh CoalMines.
Coal Mining Started Back As Far As 400 Years Ago in Ballingarry
The Olden Miners worked in groups of two and four mostly digging for
coal in what was called bassets.These were straight shafts down until the
met the coal vain,they then followed the vain in what ever direction it took
and these vain were usually 6 inch's to 24 inch's in height and may be the
same in width,as a result men used to have to work on their back or side
all day and some times at night.
Health and safety was not an issue back then so workers were exposed to
very bad conditions,working in water,bad light,bad air and the danger of
rock falling from the roof or and the basset caving in which happened on
several occasions.There were always one man on top to hoist up the coal
and waste and also in case of any thing going wrong so he go for help.
Miners worked with only candle light to assist them,indeed if the candle
went out this would mean that there were bad air,some times they would
bring down a bird or budgy with them and also if the birds went to sleep it also
meant there were bad air and they knew it would be time to go to the surface
to get fresh air,some of the bassets had air vents or chimneys to draw the
bad air out,these also been built by the miners.There is one famous one
in the Towns Land of copper and is ironically called the Copper Steeple.
There are still Signs of these Bassets around Today.(15/02/2013)
Photo shows miner laying down useing his feet to push out the coal behind him this could be
anything from a quater mile to a half mile under ground
by ohiomhair
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