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The Nightingale Mine

For centuries the peasants in this part of the world dug for coal to meet their own needs. In 1714 the Lord of Elverfeld acquired the right to extract coal from the Nightingale mine. The coal was extracted by small teams of between three and six men. In order to be self-sufficient the miners often kept goats and pigs, and grew vegetables, potatoes and fruit, most especially plums which were then dried out.

Coal extraction was for a long time limited to digging holes in the ground, the so-called "Pingen", which not only badly damaged the landscape but had a detrimental effect on agriculture. Galleries were built for the first time in the middle of the 18th century. Any water seepage was diverted to the Ruhr river through conduits. Similar drainage galleries were used to draw off pit gases, pump in ventilation and also partly to transport coal.

For a long time winched inclines were used to haul the coal to the surface. Men and horses were used to transport. In 1829 a 6 kilometre track was built for horse-drawn transport. It leads southwards to a coal depot in the direction of Wuppertal and the Bergisch Land and to supply the iron mills in the Siegerland region. Towards the north it led through the Mutten valley to a coal depot by the Ruhr. In 1780 there was a great improvement in coal transportation when the Ruhr was made navigable from Herdecke to the Rhine. Previously the long distance had to be covered by horse-drawn transport or even wheelbarrows.

It was not long before the problem of water seepage in the mines was solved by steam engines which enabled coal to be extracted even below the level of the Ruhr. In 1832 the first deep shaft at the Nightingale colliery was sunk. In order to gather the immense amount of capital required for the mine, several smaller collieries located near Nightingale joined forces to form a single company. By 1844 Nightingale had become the largest colliery in the Ruhrgebiet. Around the middle of the 19th century there were some 300 to 500 workers mining coal to depths of up to 450 meters.

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