Lower Conygre Colliery (Disused)

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This pit was proposed by Major Savage in 1847,within the boundaries of the existing lease of Upper Conygre.
Work began on one shaft in 1848, with the sinking of the second delayed until 1851 due to a shortage of money / other factors. The winding shafts were 8' dia. to a depth of 1128'.
Being close to the Coal Canal, a tramway was laid in 1855/6, and used from 1859 soon after the first coal was brought to bank. The two shafts each had a single cage & the winding engine situated between the two.
The tramway ran down to a land sale depot (where there were also coke ovens) before the completing the journey to the canal wharf.
An interesting feature introduced in 1874 in an attempt at advancing coal-getting methods was the employment of the very first coal-cutting machine in Somerset. One of Frith's patents, it was set to work on a 100 yard coal face, and produced 50 tons of coal per 8 hour shift. Though it aroused a lot of interest among other owners and local dignitaries and the press, and the trial was said to be highly successful in that 'conclusively demonstrated the usefulness and effectiveness of the machine', it nonetheless proved to be a failure.
By the 1880s, the shortcomings of the canal became more evident so the proprietors decided to obtain a siding off the GWR to serve the pit.
An underground connection had been established between Upper & Lower Conygre, with resulting changes in the ventilation system; with the Upper shaft becoming the upcast shaft ( after the collapse of the Upper downcast shaft).
In 1895, there was a disastrous underground explosion between the pits - seven men & 4 horses were killed, & the cage at Upper Conygre was blown up the shaft by the force, becoming jammed as it fell back down. The inquest found that it had been caused by airborne coal dust, and that the men had died instantly by the explosion.
The self-acting incline from Lower Conygre to the sidings commenced in 1898 and were in use by 1900. The tramway to the depot remained in use until 1906 - when it was decided to recover the rails and use that area for the batch.
Several abortive attempts to develop the pit had taken place in the period after 1880. In 1887, a branch was started to prove winnable coal north of the Farmborough Fault / Compression Zone, though by 1892/3, no commercial reserves were proved.
A further venture involved an underground drift ('dipple') in 1895 involving 2 drifts, each 1800' long at a gradient of 16'' per yard. This was the preferred option on cost grounds to deepening the Upper Conygre shaft or sinking an entirely new shaft - which would have been fruitless, given the geology / strata.
Following a good deal of prevarication, work finally began on the drifts in 1907. Some success occurred in March 1910 when, after driving 1980', the N0'4 seam was proved. The second drift, which had been halted, was now re-started to reach this coal & allow mining to commence. It wasn't long before the initial optimism evaporated, as no more coal was proved. N0 4 seam was found to be too faulted to work, & all work on the drifts was abandoned.

(The Farmborough Compression Zone proved to be an insurmountable barrier throughout the lifetime of the coalfield. It was not a fault or even series of faults, but a band of strata which was completed disrupted, disturbed, truncated and 'muddled', to such an extent that no pattern of the series of veins in the Cam Valley were traceable, other than by pure chance over a very limited distance with the known relationships between the seams 'lost'. )

No cost of this extensive & bold initiative is readily at hand, but the optimistic view of the life of the pit(s) had resulted in some £4000 being spent on the surface work (new chimney, boilers, new 3 deck cages, and electricity generating plant to provide the motive power for the haulage engine on the new drift(s).
This set-back no doubt broke the backs, heart and hitherto boldness of the owners, and this, along with problematic trading conditions & disputes which were then prevalent led to the pit(s) being closed in 1911. It re-opened later in the year, but in 1912, both pits closed and all the men were sacked.
Shortly after, these decisions were reversed and 'normal working' re-commenced. However, in 1914, disaster struck which marked the beginning of the actual end of these 2 pits. Working the Radstock Series, it was known that they were approacking the flooded Withy Mills workings, so advanced bore holes were being employed to detect any water as these old workings were approached.
The drilling machine was fitted with a 'tap' so that in ingress of water could be stopped. Unfortunately, since the tap hampered the drilling, it had been 'removed unofficially' with the inevitable result. The Withy Mills workings were holed and the entire pit at Lower Conygre was flooded to within a short distance of the sump.
Pumping proved wholly inadequate, the water level rising slowly but inexorably. Following the geological problems encountered at Upper Conygre, it was decided to close both pits for good in 1916; marking the end of mining in Timsbury.
For its time, the Conygre Pits certainly attempted a number of initiatives; from the logistical position of Lower Conygre close to the canal and then GWR railway, the (abortive) attempt to introduce modern coal cutting on a 'long seam', the exploration of seams north of the Farmborough Compression Zone by several different methods, and a willingness to invest in surface modernisation at a time when short-termism tended to be the more common philosophy.
All these approaches were ultimately destined to fail, yet attempts had been made to break out of the status quo in this most unlikely of outposts, at not inconsiderable cost.

Ref:- Down & Warrington; Radstock Museum; Shane Gould; Ray Ashman (Mining Surveyor); and Timsbury Parish Web Site.