Hill Top Last Pit In Lancashire.

[@richardcowley4087]

Thankyou Clive, excellent and informative sad to see an industry like coal finish up Nothing in this modern world without coal and iron ore

[@MakeAllThingsBeautiful]

If coal and driving drifts could speak they would sound like you Clive, i think we all would of loved to hear you and Fred Dibner have a chat about steam driven haulage engines, love your channel, respect to that generation, make sure they are never forgotten.

[@Flymochairman1]

A great video from the folks that were there at the time. Well worth the viewing. Thanks for posting it. Keep Safe now. Cheers!

[@Shelfandtabletoplayouts00gauge]

I used to drive that road nearly every day, 1998-2001, didn’t know about this. Superb video, will have a peep next time I pass. Thank you Clive, more power to your elbow 💪🏼 Darren

[@nicholaskelly6375]

Thank you very much for a very interesting video. I made one visit to Hill Top with my Dad it must have been about 25 years ago (we had heard about it through the Industrial Railway Society). It amuses me when I hear that comments there is no underground coal mining in the UK. Obviously the people saying this have never heard of Ayle Colliery Let alone the workings in the Forest of Dean etc etc. I have always assumed that when it is said that Hapton Valley was the last pit on the Burnley Coalfield or that Parkside was the last pit in Lancashire and Kellingly was the last pit in the UK. What they actually mean is that they were the last Large Pits to close. Media people don't know anything the 'Licenced Mines'! It is worth noting that on Vesting Day (Wednesday 1st January 1947) There were around 980 pits directly taken over by the NCB. However there were also at least another 1500 plus small pits operated under licence. These could range from quite sophisticated deep mine operations like Brora Colliery in Sutherland (The most northerly pit in Britain. It worked coal of Jurassic era age) or Hunthouse Colliery (Bayton No's 11 & 12) in Worcestershire (Forest of Wyre Coalfield) for example. At the other end of the scale you had pits like Ludworth Moor Colliery (which I think was actually in south eastern Cheshire) north of Buxton. Which was a true one man operation Being worked by Mr Geoffrey de Feu I recall visiting the pit and thinking that "This is what coal mining must have been like in the Middle Ages or even in Roman times!" Thankfully there are people like you who are keeping the memories alive.

[@cheechmcduck7013]

Billy had a working pit up Carr rd dean lane. Up past croppers farm back in the late 70's early 80's... I grew up at 240 dean lane from 1973 to 1983 where we moved to forest street lumb

[@woodlandsteve]

Nice one Clive. Steve.

[@b3tarev3]

Cracking video as usual, Clive.👌

[@rossendalecollieries7995]

Wish I had got some vid when it was going Stue. I got a bit, and with Billy on but wifey took it when she cleared off. Still...between us we have a good record of things

[@b3tarev3]

@@rossendalecollieries7995 I never had the privilege of meeting Billy's dad, but I had the privilege of spending over 10 years up at Hilltop with young Billy and in that time building a photographic record of the colliery. We had some great times up there, whether it was building the new pit top or helping to heighten the haulage roads. One things for sure, it'll never happen again. 😢

[@keithrimmer3]

Thanks for keeping the memories going bud, Clive you mentioned Rod Thackery did he work at Rowerth near Marple in the 70s I remember him from there if it's the same lad

[@rossendalecollieries7995]

yeh...Ludworth Moor with Goef de Fau. G D F was involved with Dynley Colliery in the 80's. Rod also got permission to re open Porters Gate but they went bust t Thievely first

[@davidbuchan2214]

another fascinating one , interesting about the meeting of the seams and the iron ore nodules , i found an old quarry nr lanchester some time back where there was a perfect band of them some were eroded out and left what looked like a nut shell with a hole in it , i heard a tale that they were nicknamed catheads and i can see why , and they are hefty things i can imagine them flying , i was told they were hated by the coal miners as they sparked when struck , no idea how much is right amongst all that tho

[@rossendalecollieries7995]

It would take the tip off their pick as well Dave...we had brass in coal at Alston...just took end off your blade

[@johnashton2816]

another great video guys

[@robmez]

Enjoyed that , I’m shocked they were allowed to leave all there shit behind and not clear up the site Respect to the miners they were and are real men

[@adamrussell7978]

The Guy that owns it is in the process o cleaning it up n to be fair He's 1 Guy in His 70s... Don't be so quick with the negative comment...

[@Incywincey]

Hill Top Colliery is actually in Cliviger. Sounds strange but, if you look at Wier, just below the Deerplay, you will see the Cliviger sign, the boundary line meanders around but, the colliery is not in Rossendale. Fantastic video.

[@rossendalecollieries7995]

yeh you are right of course going off the ancient boundaries, that brook is the boundary and it is in the parish of Cliviger. When the pit was working under the NCB the local fire services used to fall out who's responsibility it actually was. From a social point of view....boundaries aside it's a Bacup pit through and through, although it was driven originally by Accy men. The later Colliery, Billy Claytons...yes was in Cliviger and the workings also were but all the lads were from Rossendale. County boundaries, Parish boundaries all split the area up into good clean slices of pie all neat and tidy but don't necessarily tell the correct tale. It's like the other side of the Rossendale Valley up by Clowbridge. According to parish boundaries its Burnley/Habergham Eves ( even Hapton at one point). Geologically it's part of the Rossendale Anticline.....and a great big hill separates it from Burnley. Sadly boundaries get in the way of history cause an area gets left out because its 100 yards wrong side of a line. So I include Hill Top and other Cliviger or Tod stuff right down to CloughFoot and parts of Rooley Moor even though its Rochdale. I don't like boundaries...especially maps that end at them. Thanks for watching and I appreciate your comments. Cliviger Rossendale boundary has lots of interesting stuff going back to the Ormerodds and the amount of Ormerodds in Gambleside among other things

[@Incywincey]

@@rossendalecollieries7995 Thanks, very interesting! 👌

[@anthonyleighton4754]

with the gas crisis .......lets start digging this coal up.........stiill got millions of tonnes of the stuff......

[@Shelfandtabletoplayouts00gauge]

Hypocritical governments, we import millions of tonnes still, open our pits.

[@romanianlovechild]

I came across your videos by chance while looking to see if there was any videos on Hapton Valley as i live nearby. I watched this one as it popped up on my feed and i couldnt believe it when i saw some of your pictures of Billy Clayton. I remembered him from when he came into my place of work when i was a young lad as he used to buy reels and reels of wire cable which he said were for his mine. I never got chance to see the mine but my uncle who i worked for took was taken down the mine by billy once. I always remembered him having hands like No10 shovels and he was the nicest man. A proper grafter i always wondered what happened to him and what his mine looked like and now i know. Great video thanks.

[@rossendalecollieries7995]

Depending on which year you met him it was either this pit or Grimebridge. I haven't done a vid on the Brig yet. Hill Top was started in 97 but Brig ran from 78-96

[@caitlinspencer5487]

Coal is still an asset we know where it is money in the bank 👍

[@adamrussell7978]

Ace Clive tho if Yad o gi Me some notice Yer wer putting the Hilltop Vid up I could av sorted Ya a boatload o Pic's... 🤔👊🤜😵🤛😂😃😎😉👍👍👍✌️👌🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@tonydetiger1133]

Adam, are they pictures of the old hilltop that closed in the 1960’s

[@cliveseal1557]

You were with me when we filmed it🤣

[@adamrussell7978]

@@tonydetiger1133 No sorry Mon... More recent o the New Hilltop Colliery

[@jasoni3281]

nice rember messing up there good memories

[@chrismccartney8668]

It seems that as expected we have issues with getting Gas to due to Ukraine, then closing these seems a Short sighted and disastrous view. We now have to import from Kazacstan how that is greener for the world I will never know. Yes replace coal with gas where feasible use Nuclear Wind Tidal to cut emissions but just digging it from another country and transporting it here is not Green..

[@AngloSaxon449]

Coal mining is about to make a return I think with the extortionate price of gas and electric. £7,500 a year they reckon by 2024