Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1873-01-27
A BURNING PIT.
FIRE THAT HAS BURNED HUNDRED YEARS

At Parkgate, near Shelf cid. England,
a most extraordinary phenomenon can be
seen by all interested in colliery Won
ders. About one hundred years ago sew
eral Parkgate gentlemen sunk a shaft
known as the Old Basset Pit. They at
once found a rich seam of coal-the
Barnsley bedtime feet in thickness.
The coal was worked in very careful
fashion for several years, great blocks
and pillars of coal containing many tons
being left to support the roof, in place
of the modern wooden props. Fer sew
eral seasons everything proceeded smooth
ly, but one day the pit caught fire. No
body can tell how it was ignited. and
the ancient miners appeared to be dis
mayed by the unexpected disaster, as
they left the pit to burn at will, instead
of closing up the shaft and commencing
anew, as they might have done.
Many years afterwards the burning
pit" was again approached by the lord
of the manor, Earl of Fitzwilliam, who
began to work out the coal in that local
ity. A shaft was sunk at some distance
from the old Bassett Pit, and the coal
in the direction of Rawmarsh was got
at, the new workings being kept at what
was considered safe distance from the
fiery pit. Everything proceeded salts
factorily till 1868, when miner named
Parkin descended the Bank Pit shaft
the name 10y which the new shaft was
known-and was greatly alarmed to find
fire only ten feet from the pit bottom.
He at once gave the alarm the princi-
pal officials were upon the spot, and eff
orts made to extinguish the fire. Par
kin's flames" were soon put out, but it
was found that the whole pit was on fire,
and as the Earfs colleries extended for
miles, it was feared that the fire would
spread over the. entire workings.
The Old Bassett shaft was at once fill
ed up the Old Bank shaft was also
closed A third shaft, the Top Stubbin
Pit was also filled up. A long and thick
wall was built up to separate the Old
Bassett workings from the newly opened
portions of the pit. Explorations had to
be conducted by crawling on hands and
knees in the midst of suffocating smoke,
but the wall was at length completed at
tremendous expense and great labor, it
being 1000 miles in length and from
one to five feet thick Cross walls were
also built to cut off Always, and so help
IN choking the fire. Thick iron pipes
with iron plugs were inserted in the wall
at intervals of fifty yards, SO that views
could be obtained from the interior OF
the Old Bassett workings by looking
through the these pipes. The great wall
occupied the time of a large body OF
men for whole year. A new ''futtrell'
the entrance to coal mine-had tc
be constructed. 1t had to be brick arch.
ed above and below with a strong brick
wall Entering by this place the wal
is inspected daily to get information il
the old fire has reached it in any way
The last fire was seen in 1871, and
on being examined lately, nothing but
..black damp came through the iron or
ifces but the most dangerous places
where the workmen labored at grea
wall at the peril of their llves-is be-
lieved to be raging, although surely i'm
prisoned by the work of the underground
heroes who built its prison wall Unit
year or two ago. the farmers found thai
their crops over this pit were materially
accelerated in growth by the heat: ant
the fact that this acceleration is not 81
apparent now is the strongest proof Il
professional minds that the burning pi
has about spent its strength after lony
fire of one hundred years. Glasgow
Herald