Stone Drift

A drift driven through rock rather than along a seam — a tunnel cut across the measures from a shaft or from one seam to another, at the cost of yielding no saleable mineral while it is being driven.

Historical usage

Stone drifts are what a colliery drives when the coal it wants is not where its shafts are. Faulted ground is the commonest reason: at Holditch in North Staffordshire the Great Row and Four Feet seams were reached from shafts two thousand feet deep by two long parallel stone drifts driven south-westwards to pass through the Apedale fault and pick the Four Feet up on its downthrown side; at Argyll Colliery near Machrihanish, when a crush forced everything beyond two hundred yards to be abandoned, the effort went into stone drifts driven through the West Parkfergus fault in search of unfaulted ground. Depth is another: the Glassee workings at Lindsay Colliery in Fife, twelve hundred and sixty feet down, were approached through Hodge's Mine, a stone drift sixteen hundred and fifty yards long dipping at one in eleven, and then a level cross-measure drift of six hundred and thirty-five yards. A stone drift could also be a fitting for the mine's own plumbing: at Hyde Colliery the ventilating furnace sat in a stone drift near the bottom of the upcast, and a metal brow two hundred and nine yards long left the pit-bottom tunnel at right angles to cut the Two-feet seam. Because the work is in stone it belongs to the stonemen or drifters rather than the colliers, and because it is shotfired it is also where gas can meet a flame: the Usworth Colliery explosion of 2 March 1885, which killed forty-two men and boys, was set off by shotfiring in a stone drift.

How it worked

The drift is driven as a heading through barren measures, on a planned gradient and line, and holed through into the seam or the workings it is aimed at. Where it crosses the strata to reach seams above or below the one it starts from the sources call it a cross-measures drift, which is the archive's Crosscut; where its purpose is haulage or ventilation it may carry a rope haulage, a conveyor, or the mine's main intake or return air, and Lindsay's Hodge's Mine did both — an endless-rope haulage brought tubs out through it while it formed the main intake airway for the district.

Why it was used

Sinking a new shaft to reach a seam is the expensive answer; driving stone to it from shafts you already have is the cheap one. A stone drift buys access to faulted, deeper or outlying ground without a new winding plant, at the price of yards of dead work.

Risks & limitations

Every yard is spent and none earns: a stone drift produces no mineral while it is being driven, which is why the decision to drive one is a decision about the remaining life of a colliery. The rock is harder and more slowly won than coal, and the work is shotfiring work, which brings its own hazard into a gassy mine — the 1885 Usworth explosion began that way. A long drift on a gradient is also a long road to maintain and to ventilate.

Regional variation

A drift driven to the dip side is a dook in Scotland. The Forest of Dean glossary treats a cross-measures drift as a cross-cut, and the Sutton glossary speaks of stone drivages and of the drifter who works in them.

Mines associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 7 linked records — the term page is not an index.

• Bedwas Navigation Colliery — Caerphilly (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s geology: “…seam down to the Rhas Las or Black Vein, and thence by a cross-measure drift to the Hard Vein — the lowest coal then known in the Caerphilly…”
• Hyde Colliery — Greater Manchester (well documented example)
  Named twice in this record, first in the workings: “…men and the upcast for ventilation, the air drawn by a furnace in a stone drift near the bottom of the upcast, the returns from the Two-feet and…”
• Argyll Colliery, Machrihanish — Argyll and Bute (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s workings: “…beyond 200 yards to be abandoned, after which effort went into stone drifts driven through the West Parkfergus fault in search of unfaulted…”
• Holditch Colliery — Staffordshire (well documented example)
  Named 3 times in this record, first in the summary: “…Row and Four Feet seams, reached through the Apedale fault by long stone drifts; it employed 1,500 people, raised ironstone as well as coal, and was…”
• Seaham Colliery — County Durham (well documented example)
  Named in this record’s geology: “…was so large that reaching the coal beyond it took three years of stone drivage. The seam won at the end of that work was named the Hutton Jubilee,…”

Disasters associated with this term

5 examples chosen from 12 linked records, most direct relationship first.

• Dinas Colliery explosion, 1879 (contextual relationship)
  Named 4 times in this record, first in the cause: “Firedamp accumulated in Morris's cross-measure drift, ventilated only by three twelve-inch iron pipes which the inspector…”
• Lindsay Colliery explosion, 1957 (contextual relationship)
  Named twice in this record, first in the narrative: “…and No. 4 Units, 1,260 feet down and reached through Hodge's Mine, a stone drift 1,650 yards long, and then a cross-measure drift. Until the end of…”
• Mickley Colliery Roof Fall (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…aged 46, brothers and both datal stonemen, were driving a rise cross-measure drift. The Inspector's report judged that, rather than drill a second hole…”
• Murton Colliery explosion, 1942 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s contributing factors: “…to fire all the shots in his district himself, including in the stone drift.”
• Peckfield Colliery explosion, 1896 (contextual relationship)
  Named in this record’s narrative: “…Bed all got out: their deputy, Robert Henry Nevins, led them up a stone drift through the afterdamp.”

Sources

1. (secondary) Dave Tuffley's Mining Glossary — Forest of Dean Local History Society
2. (secondary) Lindsay Colliery 14 December 1957 — Scottish Mining Website
3. (secondary) Lindsay Colliery Explosion - Cowdenbeath - 1957 — Northern Mine Research Society
4. (secondary) Pit Terminology - Glossary — Sutton-in-Ashfield (pit terminology glossary)

Record created: 24 September 2026 · Last researched: 24 September 2026