Billingham History The Anhydrite Mine was operated between 1927 and 1971 and eventually closed when two mine shafts were capped in 1978. With a capacity of 11 million cubic metres it is roughly the size of 4,400 olympic swimming pools. The mine is 2 miles long from north to south and up to 1 mile wide from east to west. Only just over half of the rock was ever extracted fromt he mine - a totoal of around 33 million tonnes - leaving massive pillars to support the roof. Ranging from a depth of between 130 metres and 280 metres below ground, rock was extracted using a 'room and pillar' method. Anyhdrite (or calcium sulphate) is extremely strong and geologically stable rock.  It has roughtly four times the compression strength of concrete.

 Historical pictures...

                           

                                      

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