This 1910 photograph shows a typical heading (tunnel) It contains a tram, and some of the tools needed for filling it. Colliers worked in stalls that were cut out at the sides of the headings. A stall was where a section of coal was removed from between pillars (blocks of coal) hence the term pillar and stall. The size of a pillar depended on the hardness of the coal being worked. “The softer the coal the larger the pillar needed for support”. This practice meant a great waste of resources. Eventually this way of mining was replaced with the long wall system which extracted all of the coal. This method comprised of two tunnels running adjacent to one another, with a long open coalface between them. As the coal was cut from the coalface it was carried away by a conveyor, that ran the whole length of the coalface to a tipping point. The coal then travelled in trams or conveyors to pit bottom.
