Orgreave S24's washout (3 of 3)

This short sequence of three photographs is a rare chance to see how adverse geological conditions affected a (relatively) modern longwall face. They were taken on 2nd May 1980 at Orgreave Colliery, near Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Please note that I did not take these photographs. They were taken by my colleague Jim Batty who was the NCB area photographer for South Yorkshire. I have used these on many an occasion to illustrate geology lectures and I am most grateful to him.

Photo 3: A closer view showing the small drilling machine boring the holes for shot firing. You can see previously drilled holes ready to be loaded with explosives.

This sort of situation caused extensive delays to production, and the difficult and, at times, unstable, roof conditions added to the risk of accident and injury on the face, although fortunately as far as I know, there were no serious incidents on this face (a wonder).

This whole washout area was around 20 - 30 metres wide from one side to the other, on a coal face that was about 180 metres wide. Eventually the washout sandstone lifted clear of the coal and production was able to be resumed relatively normally, although there were still roof control problems on this face for much of its life.

It was these sorts of conditions coupled with the fact that there was nowhere else left to work underground that led to the inevitable closure of Orgreave the following year.