After notching up 125 finds this is our first hide. The location was chosen by SMAKCACHE. There is a pencil in the cache and room for small swappables. Have fun!
Hole Lane Pit was located on and near what are now the playing fields of Sir Bernard Lovell and Redfield Edge schools. It had a short siding connection, facing to northbound trains, which crossed Bath Road. A branch continued over the bridge that now leads to Coombes Way, which then served a pit called Bullhall Pit, at ST675719, immediately to the west of the Midland Railway’s Bath branch railway line. These pits are shown on the 1882 Ordnance Survey map but are “disused” by 1904, having sent the last load of coal by the railway in 1867. The tramway to Bullhall may have been built and operated by the colliery owners. When the Midland Railway route was built parallel to the Avon and Gloucestershire Railway in 1869, this bridge was provided crossing that line to maintain the access.
Former workshops for the coal works are to be found off the High Street, Oldand Common on the west side of the road (see picture). What may possibly be smaller workshops are on the opposite side of the road to the school and are locally referred to as Tappets because they were probably used at a later date as workshops for boot making. They have recently been restored and now house some small local enterprises again.