Dr Pit - Aad Pit washer

James,not nitpicking,but only for correctness ,when I was transferred from Choppington B pit,to Bedlington A Pit,in 1965,the pit was already 140 years old,and that's when dumping the stone waste started. I was three in 1947,when my Parents moved into the newly built Hollymount Square,and I remember my older Brother [Three years older,born on the same date], telling me to look out of our bedroom window,to see the flames roaring up on a really strong wind blowing. The whole of the top of the mountain was ablaze,but that was normal,they just kept fire hoses running hopelessly in vain,to try and control the fires. For years it was always burning,but one night there was a Hurricane force wind,and she lit up more than ever in the past,and the heat was so intense it melted and twisted the heavy rails that the Bogie ran on which carried the stones up to the top of the heap,by means of a rope hauler. We played up on that as kids 10 years old,but knew where to go,and where not to go,by the colour of the slag we were walking across.In places where it was cold on the ground,the colour would change from Slaty Grey/Black,to Orange/Red/White. If we threw a big stone into those areas,it would sink like quicksand,and it would throw a plume of red hot fumes [Sulphrous],and dust and smoke. You were ok if you played along the Rabbit tracks and Burrows,of which there  hundreds!! But my ain point was,in 1947-on,that heap was a mountain,and yes,that's what the Washery was built for,to clean the oal,but all the stones from the screens went straight into Railway trucks underneath the screens and unloaded into the Bogie Hopper,and away she would go!!

HPW

Before the plant in the photo was built there was an old plant on this site that washed output from the Aad pit. The “new” plant was built on the same site as the old plant and continued to use the same dump. The wash plant in the photo was about 10 year old when the photo was taken but the discard dump as you say had been in use for over 100 years.

The difference with the new plant was that it washed coal from both the Doctor Pit and the “A” Pit. In James Tuck’s book he states that this was part of a modernisation plan at the time of nationalisation of the mines in 1947.

I’ve attached another photo of the “new” plant looking from the other side of the plant.