April 29th – A late afternoon escape found me spinning round Brownhills Common in a fruitless hunt for deer. I pottered on up to Engine Lane, and remembered the shaft located on a small mound by the old level crossing. Brick-lined, capped about six feet down with old railway sleepers, I think it must have been an air shaft for a nearby colliery. It’s not really wide enough to be a working shaft, and it’s termination at a considerable height above surrounding ground level suggests that the constructors wanted to avoid surface water draining down it.
A conundrum indeed.
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