WorldWide Drilling Resource

53 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JUNE 2017 Scientific Developments and Historical Significance Help to Reopen Mine Compiled by the Editorial Staff of Worldwide Drilling Resource ® The historic Collyweston Mine in Northamptonshire, England, has restarted mining operations for the first time since it closed over five decades ago. For centuries, Collyweston slate was created by leaving lumps of the limestone outside overnight in the frost to split naturally along its veins, producing stones ready for shaping using specially designed hammers. Once worked, the stone slates were ready for use as local roofing or other building needs. However, the changing climate made leaving the limestone out overnight to frost an unreliable method, and mining had to cease in the 1960s. Developments in recent years by Natural England, the government’s adviser for the natural environment in England, working alongside Sheffield Hallam University have shown industrial freezers can replicate the natural process for splitting the limestone by artificially freezing it, which then causes it to crack into slates. The demand for Collyweston slate comes from its considerable local historical sig- nificance as a building material. Its distinctive color and hard wearing characteristics made it a common feature for buildings in Cambridge, including the Master’s Lodge at Trinity College, and the Round Church, as well as homes and listed buildings across the country. However, today it’s a scarce resource, causing some slates to be reclaimed from old buildings for reuse. Due to the lack of slate supply, Historic England, a public body which looks after England's historic environment, voiced the importance of reopening Collyweston Mine and using its slate to replace the deteriorating roof of Bodley’s Court at King’s College, originally laid in 1893. For Bodley’s Court to keep its building status, it will need nearly 1500 square feet of Collyweston slate for the reroofing scheduled to begin in 2018. Colleyweston Mine’s newly opened seam accessible from a shaft at a building yard just outside the village of Collyweston began extraction in January. It is thought to contain a supply of approximately ten years worth of slate, of which the first two years will be used to repair Bodley’s Court. Some unique characteristics of the mine are the many signs of extraction from mining efforts hundreds of years ago. It is hoped this new source of Collyweston limestone could prove to be a rich seam of business. Site owner Nigel Smith said, “to get this mine, and application to get this mine working again, approved, is just mas- sive not only just for us, but for the whole Collyweston slating industry.” Collyweston mine will provide slate for the reroofing of Bodley’s Court, courtesy of Peter Church.