IEEC2.1 07 Frederick Allott’s List of Colliery Drainage Adits and Fire Engines in South Yorkshire

Frederick Allott’s List of Colliery

Drainage Adits and Fire Engines

in South Yorkshire

John Hunter

An off-print from

Transactions of the 2nd International Early Engines Conference - Volume 1 pp144-153

Summary

The purpose of this paper is to place into the public domain, for the benefit of current and future researchers, a previously-unpublished list of ‘fire engines’ in South Yorkshire. It was compiled by Frederick Allott, a surveyor and colliery historian who worked for the NCB in the 1950s, and is held at Sheffield Archives Office. It is accompanied by a second list of early, free-draining, colliery adits, some of which were used as delivery drifts for the engines. The historical background to the use of drainage adits in combination with pumping engines in the South Yorkshire Coalfield is outlined in this paper, and brief notes on those engines that have been identified so far are also included. The understanding of the complicated history of colliery drainage in this area is far from complete, and the discovery of both lists helps considerably with this. It is anticipated that the results of further ongoing research will be published by the author and colleagues in due course.