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77-615: Deep mining ceased in 1965 with the closure of Foxfield Colliery by the National Coal Board . Private adit mining and opencast mining ceased in 1994 with the exhaustion of economic reserves. The Cheadle Coalfield covers an area of about 20 square miles (52 km) and lies to the East of Stoke on Trent and its larger neighbour, the North Staffordshire Coalfield . The boundary of the coalfield in

154-411: A calcium aluminate cement or with Portland cement to form Portland cement concrete (named for its visual resemblance to Portland stone ). Many other non-cementitious types of concrete exist with other methods of binding aggregate together, including asphalt concrete with a bitumen binder, which is frequently used for road surfaces , and polymer concretes that use polymers as a binder. Concrete

231-433: A French structural and civil engineer . Concrete components or structures are compressed by tendon cables during, or after, their fabrication in order to strengthen them against tensile forces developing when put in service. Freyssinet patented the technique on 2 October 1928. Concrete is an artificial composite material , comprising a matrix of cementitious binder (typically Portland cement paste or asphalt ) and

308-452: A cementitious material forms a cement paste by the process of hydration. The cement paste glues the aggregate together, fills voids within it, and makes it flow more freely. As stated by Abrams' law , a lower water-to-cement ratio yields a stronger, more durable concrete, whereas more water gives a freer-flowing concrete with a higher slump . The hydration of cement involves many concurrent reactions. The process involves polymerization ,

385-400: A concrete component—and become a part of the binder for the aggregate. Fly ash and slag can enhance some properties of concrete such as fresh properties and durability. Alternatively, other materials can also be used as a concrete binder: the most prevalent substitute is asphalt , which is used as the binder in asphalt concrete . Admixtures are added to modify the cure rate or properties of

462-434: A dispersed phase or "filler" of aggregate (typically a rocky material, loose stones, and sand). The binder "glues" the filler together to form a synthetic conglomerate . Many types of concrete are available, determined by the formulations of binders and the types of aggregate used to suit the application of the engineered material. These variables determine strength and density, as well as chemical and thermal resistance of

539-747: A few years ago was the Rose and Crown near Foxfield Colliery in the Godley Brook area. Dilhorne Hall was the ancestral home of the Buller family who were noted in the legal profession in London during the 19th Century. There is also a small primary school in the village, the Dilhorne Endowed School which has a very good reputation locally. Concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of aggregate bonded together with

616-437: A fluid cement that cures to a solid over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water , and is the most widely used building material. Its usage worldwide, ton for ton, is twice that of steel, wood, plastics, and aluminium combined. When aggregate is mixed with dry Portland cement and water , the mixture forms a fluid slurry that is easily poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts with

693-678: A fully mechanised face in the Moss seam was prepared for the Cheadle miners. Some miners also transferred to Hem Heath Colliery in Trentham . Foxfield was the last deep mine in the Cheadle Coalfield and had worked for 83 years, which was a record for a Cheadle pit. It had also stretched its boundaries further than any other pit in the coalfield and was indeed a worthy colliery and one that Cheadle should be very proud of. The last face that

770-452: A greater degree of fracture resistance even in seismically active environments. Roman concrete is significantly more resistant to erosion by seawater than modern concrete; it used pyroclastic materials which react with seawater to form Al- tobermorite crystals over time. The use of hot mixing and the presence of lime clasts are thought to give the concrete a self-healing ability, where cracks that form become filled with calcite that prevents

847-415: A large aggregate that is too large for the size of the formwork, or which has too few smaller aggregate grades to serve to fill the gaps between the larger grades, or using too little or too much sand for the same reason, or using too little water, or too much cement, or even using jagged crushed stone instead of smoother round aggregate such as pebbles. Any combination of these factors and others may result in

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924-461: A large type of industrial facility called a concrete plant , or often a batch plant. The usual method of placement is casting in formwork , which holds the mix in shape until it has set enough to hold its shape unaided. Concrete plants come in two main types, ready-mix plants and central mix plants. A ready-mix plant blends all of the solid ingredients, while a central mix does the same but adds water. A central-mix plant offers more precise control of

1001-469: A mixture of calcium silicates ( alite , belite ), aluminates and ferrites —compounds, which will react with water. Portland cement and similar materials are made by heating limestone (a source of calcium) with clay or shale (a source of silicon, aluminium and iron) and grinding this product (called clinker ) with a source of sulfate (most commonly gypsum ). Cement kilns are extremely large, complex, and inherently dusty industrial installations. Of

1078-405: A number of manufactured aggregates, including air-cooled blast furnace slag and bottom ash are also permitted. The size distribution of the aggregate determines how much binder is required. Aggregate with a very even size distribution has the biggest gaps whereas adding aggregate with smaller particles tends to fill these gaps. The binder must fill the gaps between the aggregate as well as paste

1155-424: A semi-liquid slurry (paste) that can be shaped, typically by pouring it into a form. The concrete solidifies and hardens through a chemical process called hydration . The water reacts with the cement, which bonds the other components together, creating a robust, stone-like material. Other cementitious materials, such as fly ash and slag cement , are sometimes added—either pre-blended with the cement or directly as

1232-548: A shaft was sunk in 1880 it was called "Manns Pit", instead of Foxfield. The pit did though have access to good coal, and the Dilhorne and Woodhead seams were mined. In a sign of the times, when the first Woodhead coal was mined all the colliery's staff were treated to a grand supper at the Wagon and Horses Public House. The pit continued to grow and by 1893 Foxfield became the first mine in Cheadle to have its own rail connection to

1309-493: A simple, fast way of getting a basic idea of the properties of the finished concrete without having to perform testing in advance. Various governing bodies (such as British Standards ) define nominal mix ratios into a number of grades, usually ranging from lower compressive strength to higher compressive strength. The grades usually indicate the 28-day cure strength. Thorough mixing is essential to produce uniform, high-quality concrete. Separate paste mixing has shown that

1386-607: Is an ancient parish and village in Staffordshire , three miles from Cheadle and six miles from Stoke-on-Trent . The village is within the Staffordshire Moorlands area. Historically the village has been in the Parish of Dilhorne and the ancient Hundred of Totmonslow . The name Dilhorne has its origins in the old English name of "Delverne" which means "place of digging" and is because Dilhorne sits on

1463-511: Is distinct from mortar . Whereas concrete is itself a building material, mortar is a bonding agent that typically holds bricks , tiles and other masonry units together. Grout is another material associated with concrete and cement. It does not contain coarse aggregates and is usually either pourable or thixotropic , and is used to fill gaps between masonry components or coarse aggregate which has already been put in place. Some methods of concrete manufacture and repair involve pumping grout into

1540-508: Is occupied nowadays by a small farm known as "Old Engine Farm". Foxfield Colliery, located at Godley Brook was the largest mine in Dilhorne, eventually the largest mine in the Cheadle Coalfield and in the end the last mine remaining in the coalfield, working for well over 80 years. However, its beginnings made its future far from uncertain. Originally, the landowner wouldn't let anyone prospect for coal on her land, and when finally

1617-760: Is the Millstone Grit and Limestone of the Pennines around Ipstones Edge. Despite the coalfield being detached from its much larger neighbour, the North Staffordshire Coalfield, and developing from the latter in relative isolation, geological analysis by the National Coal Board in the mid 20th century correlated the coal seams of the two coalfields. Around the coalfield the measures are covered with alluvium and marl with sizeable amounts of industrial sand, gravel and limestone predominating in certain areas. The Sherwood sandstone group

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1694-471: Is the predominant rock that occurs, and comprises up to 205m of conglomerates and sandstone with scattered siltstone and mudstone. Within the area the Sandstone group has been subdivided into three lithostratigraphic formations, and quarrying for aggregates and minerals is an important industry around the coalfield area. The coal is found at a shallow depth which made mining in the area relatively easy. As

1771-559: Is then blended with aggregates and any remaining batch water and final mixing is completed in conventional concrete mixing equipment. Workability is the ability of a fresh (plastic) concrete mix to fill the form/mold properly with the desired work (pouring, pumping, spreading, tamping, vibration) and without reducing the concrete's quality. Workability depends on water content, aggregate (shape and size distribution), cementitious content and age (level of hydration ) and can be modified by adding chemical admixtures, like superplasticizer. Raising

1848-399: Is usually reinforced with materials that are strong in tension, typically steel rebar . The mix design depends on the type of structure being built, how the concrete is mixed and delivered, and how it is placed to form the structure. Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general usage. It is a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar , and many plasters . It consists of

1925-472: The Cheadle Coalfield and several seams of very high quality coal outcrop in the area. The name of Delverne, which is mentioned in the Domesday Book , suggests that the area was known for coal mining nearly a thousand years ago. Historically, the largest industry in Dilhorne for hundreds of years was coal mining . The coal mining industry became the main source of employment in the 19th century as

2002-540: The coal outcrops around the Cheadle area, the seams that were heavily worked are the deeper seams in the North Staffs field, in many cases seams that were too deep to mine economically in North Staffordshire. However they were found in shallow depths around Cheadle. The coal measures around Cheadle were worked for a number of centuries and there is documentary evidence that the coal was worked before

2079-480: The construction industry , whose demand is ever growing with greater impacts on raw material extraction, waste generation and landfill practices. Concrete production is the process of mixing together the various ingredients—water, aggregate, cement, and any additives—to produce concrete. Concrete production is time-sensitive. Once the ingredients are mixed, workers must put the concrete in place before it hardens. In modern usage, most concrete production takes place in

2156-532: The 17th century. Dr Robert Plot, a Don from Oxford visited the area in the 1680s whilst surveying for a book he was writing on Staffordshire and encountered Coal Mining around Cheadle and Kingsley. George Barrow, a nineteenth Century geologist who did a survey of the Coalfield said that: The industry, however, had its heyday during the 19th century. The 1880 edition of the Ordnance Survey plan of

2233-600: The Cheadle Miners to work in the Potteries Coalfield. Because the coalfield developed in isolation from the Potteries coalfield, the seam names are different from those in use in the Potteries. However, as stated earlier, the seams were correlated together in the 1950s by the analysis of marine bands. Below are the seams in the Cheadle Coalfield, the shallowest at the top. However, the shallow seams in

2310-473: The Potteries don't exist in Cheadle, having been washed away millions of years ago. The equivalent seam in the Potteries coalfield is shown in brackets, and the approximate thickness is shown in feet. All the thicknesses are approximate. The seams are generally named after where the coal outcropped, i.e., Woodhead, Dilhorne, Foxfield, Litley, etc. Of all the coal, the Woodhead is probably the most famous in

2387-643: The absence of reinforcement, its tensile strength was far lower than modern reinforced concrete , and its mode of application also differed: Modern structural concrete differs from Roman concrete in two important details. First, its mix consistency is fluid and homogeneous, allowing it to be poured into forms rather than requiring hand-layering together with the placement of aggregate, which, in Roman practice, often consisted of rubble . Second, integral reinforcing steel gives modern concrete assemblies great strength in tension, whereas Roman concrete could depend only upon

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2464-552: The area shows 66 coal mines, along with a number of Ironstone mines. Mining around Cheadle was done on a relatively small scale compared with the nearby Potteries and many of the miners knew the owners of the mines, as most were owned by local landowners. In particular, the Whitehurst and Bamford families owned collieries around the Dilhorne area in a partnership. Their biggest concern was the Dilhorne Colliery, which

2541-670: The board decided to transfer the majority of the miners to Florence Colliery in Longton where a fully mechanised face in the Moss Seam was prepared for the Foxfield men. Foxfield Colliery is still standing, and today is owned by the Foxfield Steam Railway who run heritage steam traction to the site. Mining still continued in the Dilhorne area but on a very small scale in small private adit mines. The most prominent

2618-404: The church is its octagonal tower, one of only a few such church towers in the country. All Saints Parish Church is one of the oldest in Staffordshire and services are every Sunday. The old parish of Dilhorne has changed a great deal over the last hundred years as outlying areas have merged into other parishes or became newer parishes. Dilhorne parish itself is now linked with nearby Caverswall as

2695-630: The cisterns secret as these enabled the Nabataeans to thrive in the desert. Some of these structures survive to this day. In the Ancient Egyptian and later Roman eras, builders discovered that adding volcanic ash to lime allowed the mix to set underwater. They discovered the pozzolanic reaction . The Romans used concrete extensively from 300 BC to AD 476. During the Roman Empire, Roman concrete (or opus caementicium )

2772-620: The coalfield and was the seam that was most sought after by the miners and the owners. The Dilhorne seam is famous as it was extensively worked by Foxfield Colliery right up to the closure of that pit. The Crabtree and the Third Grit were almost exclusively mined in the areas to the East of the Churnet Valley as all the other seams have long since eroded away. 53°00′N 2°00′W  /  53.0°N 2.0°W  / 53.0; -2.0 Foxfield Colliery Dilhorne

2849-526: The concrete at the time of batching/mixing. (See § Production below.) The common types of admixtures are as follows: Inorganic materials that have pozzolanic or latent hydraulic properties, these very fine-grained materials are added to the concrete mix to improve the properties of concrete (mineral admixtures), or as a replacement for Portland cement (blended cements). Products which incorporate limestone , fly ash , blast furnace slag , and other useful materials with pozzolanic properties into

2926-399: The concrete can cause the initially placed material to begin to set before the next batch is added on top. This creates a horizontal plane of weakness called a cold joint between the two batches. Once the mix is where it should be, the curing process must be controlled to ensure that the concrete attains the desired attributes. During concrete preparation, various technical details may affect

3003-461: The concrete quality. Central mix plants must be close to the work site where the concrete will be used, since hydration begins at the plant. A concrete plant consists of large hoppers for storage of various ingredients like cement, storage for bulk ingredients like aggregate and water, mechanisms for the addition of various additives and amendments, machinery to accurately weigh, move, and mix some or all of those ingredients, and facilities to dispense

3080-528: The crack from spreading. The widespread use of concrete in many Roman structures ensured that many survive to the present day. The Baths of Caracalla in Rome are just one example. Many Roman aqueducts and bridges, such as the magnificent Pont du Gard in southern France, have masonry cladding on a concrete core, as does the dome of the Pantheon . After the Roman Empire, the use of burned lime and pozzolana

3157-503: The end of deep mining, coal was mined in Cheadle right up until the mid-1990s by opencast mining methods. There were also a few small adit, or drift, mines which were situated where the coal outcropped. Until the end of deep Coal Mining in Staffordshire during the 1990s, Cheadle was still very much a mining town with a lot of men working at Florence and Hem Heath Collieries and, regular Buses were laid on by British Coal to transport

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3234-431: The finished product. Construction aggregates consist of large chunks of material in a concrete mix, generally a coarse gravel or crushed rocks such as limestone , or granite , along with finer materials such as sand . Cement paste, most commonly made of Portland cement , is the most prevalent kind of concrete binder. For cementitious binders, water is mixed with the dry cement powder and aggregate, which produces

3311-681: The gaps to make up a solid mass in situ . The word concrete comes from the Latin word " concretus " (meaning compact or condensed), the perfect passive participle of " concrescere ", from " con -" (together) and " crescere " (to grow). Concrete floors were found in the royal palace of Tiryns , Greece, which dates roughly to 1400 to 1200 BC. Lime mortars were used in Greece, such as in Crete and Cyprus, in 800 BC. The Assyrian Jerwan Aqueduct (688 BC) made use of waterproof concrete . Concrete

3388-554: The interlinking of the silicates and aluminate components as well as their bonding to sand and gravel particles to form a solid mass. One illustrative conversion is the hydration of tricalcium silicate: The hydration (curing) of cement is irreversible. Fine and coarse aggregates make up the bulk of a concrete mixture. Sand , natural gravel, and crushed stone are used mainly for this purpose. Recycled aggregates (from construction, demolition, and excavation waste) are increasingly used as partial replacements for natural aggregates, while

3465-406: The making of mortar. In an English translation from 1397, it reads "lyme ... is a stone brent; by medlynge thereof with sonde and water sement is made". From the 14th century, the quality of mortar was again excellent, but only from the 17th century was pozzolana commonly added. The Canal du Midi was built using concrete in 1670. Perhaps the greatest step forward in the modern use of concrete

3542-531: The material. Mineral admixtures use recycled materials as concrete ingredients. Conspicuous materials include fly ash , a by-product of coal-fired power plants ; ground granulated blast furnace slag , a by-product of steelmaking ; and silica fume , a by-product of industrial electric arc furnaces . Structures employing Portland cement concrete usually include steel reinforcement because this type of concrete can be formulated with high compressive strength , but always has lower tensile strength . Therefore, it

3619-419: The mix, are being tested and used. These developments are ever growing in relevance to minimize the impacts caused by cement use, notorious for being one of the largest producers (at about 5 to 10%) of global greenhouse gas emissions . The use of alternative materials also is capable of lowering costs, improving concrete properties, and recycling wastes, the latest being relevant for circular economy aspects of

3696-478: The mixed concrete, often to a concrete mixer truck. Modern concrete is usually prepared as a viscous fluid, so that it may be poured into forms. The forms are containers that define the desired shape. Concrete formwork can be prepared in several ways, such as slip forming and steel plate construction . Alternatively, concrete can be mixed into dryer, non-fluid forms and used in factory settings to manufacture precast concrete products. Interruption in pouring

3773-441: The mixing of cement and water into a paste before combining these materials with aggregates can increase the compressive strength of the resulting concrete. The paste is generally mixed in a high-speed , shear-type mixer at a w/c (water to cement ratio) of 0.30 to 0.45 by mass. The cement paste premix may include admixtures such as accelerators or retarders, superplasticizers , pigments , or silica fume . The premixed paste

3850-441: The mixture to improve the physical properties of the wet mix, delay or accelerate the curing time, or otherwise change the finished material. Most concrete is poured with reinforcing materials (such as steel rebar ) embedded to provide tensile strength , yielding reinforced concrete . In the past, lime -based cement binders, such as lime putty, were often used but sometimes with other hydraulic cements , (water resistant) such as

3927-539: The national rail network as a three and a half mile branch line was opened to Blythe Bridge and connection to the NSR Stoke to Derby line. Foxfield was extensively modernised in the 1930s as all production from neighbouring Parkhall Colliery was moved to Foxfield. New coal screens were built and concrete headgears were constructed. The seams mined were the Dilhorne, Four Foot and Woodhead. Foxfield, along with

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4004-504: The only Coal now Mined was The Big Dilhorne in the Dilhorne 19 and 20's Faces. The pit's surface buildings were again modernised and a new shower block for the miners was constructed, along with improvements in the Coal screens and washing facilities. However, output and manpower steadily decreased from the mid '50s peak and the colliery was finally closed in 1965. The majority of the miners were transferred to Florence Colliery in Longton , where

4081-501: The only two deep mines left were Foxfield Colliery and New Haden Colliery. Both were fairly large mines for Cheadle and were very modern. Foxfield was heavily modernised during the 1930s when it was decided to close Parkhall Colliery and concentrate production at Foxfield, mainly due in part to the rail connection the colliery had to the Stoke - Derby railway line at Blythe Bridge . Extensive new surface facilities were built and, in what

4158-506: The properties or increase the performance envelope of the mix. Design-mix concrete can have very broad specifications that cannot be met with more basic nominal mixes, but the involvement of the engineer often increases the cost of the concrete mix. Concrete mixes are primarily divided into nominal mix, standard mix and design mix. Nominal mix ratios are given in volume of Cement : Sand : Aggregate {\displaystyle {\text{Cement : Sand : Aggregate}}} . Nominal mixes are

4235-468: The quality and nature of the product. Design mix ratios are decided by an engineer after analyzing the properties of the specific ingredients being used. Instead of using a 'nominal mix' of 1 part cement, 2 parts sand, and 4 parts aggregate (the second example from above), a civil engineer will custom-design a concrete mix to exactly meet the requirements of the site and conditions, setting material ratios and often designing an admixture package to fine-tune

4312-416: The rest of the coal industry was nationalised in 1947, and the pit entered a period of expansion where by 1954 the workforce stood at 550 with 210,000 tonnes mined a year. However, this was the high water mark and gradually output and manpower decreased. In 1965 Foxfield Colliery was closed by the National Coal Board . The colliery had nearly exhausted its economic reserves, and as it was not fully mechanised,

4389-418: The small adit mines that followed the outcrops of coal progressively gave way to larger mines, funded and owned in part by the local landowners who now became coalmasters. In particular the Whitehurst and Bamford families became co-owners of several mining concerns, the largest being the Dilhorne Colliery, a large mine which was known in the coalfield for its modern steam engines . The site of Dilhorne Colliery

4466-411: The strength of the concrete bonding to resist tension. The long-term durability of Roman concrete structures has been found to be due to its use of pyroclastic (volcanic) rock and ash, whereby the crystallization of strätlingite (a specific and complex calcium aluminosilicate hydrate) and the coalescence of this and similar calcium–aluminium-silicate–hydrate cementing binders helped give the concrete

4543-497: The surface of concrete for a decorative "exposed aggregate" finish, popular among landscape designers. Admixtures are materials in the form of powder or fluids that are added to the concrete to give it certain characteristics not obtainable with plain concrete mixes. Admixtures are defined as additions "made as the concrete mix is being prepared". The most common admixtures are retarders and accelerators. In normal use, admixture dosages are less than 5% by mass of cement and are added to

4620-535: The surfaces of the aggregate together, and is typically the most expensive component. Thus, variation in sizes of the aggregate reduces the cost of concrete. The aggregate is nearly always stronger than the binder, so its use does not negatively affect the strength of the concrete. Redistribution of aggregates after compaction often creates non-homogeneity due to the influence of vibration. This can lead to strength gradients. Decorative stones such as quartzite , small river stones or crushed glass are sometimes added to

4697-533: The united benefice of Caverswall and Dilhorne. There is also a Methodist chapel in the Godley Brook area of the village. Within the village there are two fine public houses . The Royal Oak at the top of High Street and Charlie Bassets, which is near All Saints Church. The latter is named after one of its former landlords, Charlie Bassett, and was originally named the Colliers Arms. It was renamed as The White Lion from 2010 to 2014. Another pub which closed

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4774-655: The various ingredients used to produce a given quantity of concrete, the cement is the most energetically expensive. Even complex and efficient kilns require 3.3 to 3.6 gigajoules of energy to produce a ton of clinker and then grind it into cement . Many kilns can be fueled with difficult-to-dispose-of wastes, the most common being used tires. The extremely high temperatures and long periods of time at those temperatures allows cement kilns to efficiently and completely burn even difficult-to-use fuels. The five major compounds of calcium silicates and aluminates comprising Portland cement range from 5 to 50% in weight. Combining water with

4851-439: The water content or adding chemical admixtures increases concrete workability. Excessive water leads to increased bleeding or segregation of aggregates (when the cement and aggregates start to separate), with the resulting concrete having reduced quality. Changes in gradation can also affect workability of the concrete, although a wide range of gradation can be used for various applications. An undesirable gradation can mean using

4928-527: The water through a process called concrete hydration that hardens it over several hours to form a hard matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material that has many uses. This time allows concrete to not only be cast in forms, but also to have a variety of tooled processes performed. The hydration process is exothermic , which means ambient temperature plays a significant role in how long it takes concrete to set. Often, additives (such as pozzolans or superplasticizers ) are included in

5005-480: The west is the Village of Forsbrook , and nearby Callow Hill where a small fault marks the western boundary. The coalfield then underlies the villages of Dilhorne and Kingsley. Further east a major fault in the Churnet Valley throws the coal upwards. Over millions of years the upper seams in this area were washed away and the lower seams outcrop around Ipstones , Foxt and Alton . The coalfield's eastern boundary

5082-524: Was Smeaton's Tower , built by British engineer John Smeaton in Devon , England, between 1756 and 1759. This third Eddystone Lighthouse pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate. A method for producing Portland cement was developed in England and patented by Joseph Aspdin in 1824. Aspdin chose the name for its similarity to Portland stone , which

5159-465: Was Abovepark Colliery near to Dairy House Farm. This small mine closed in 1998. Agriculture in Dilhorne still plays a large part in the village, but the number of farms and workers has dramatically decreased over the years. The main concern of agriculture around the Dilhorne area is dairy farming . The parish church , All Saints, dates back to the Norman Conquest of England. A feature of

5236-483: Was a large pit and incorporated the Old Engine Colliery, one of the first in Cheadle to have a Steam Engine . The Bowers family of Harewood Hall were local coalmasters for a number of years and originally owned the famous Woodhead Colliery .Robert Plant, a local character who was involved in many local mining ventures. The industry gradually reduced in size in the early 20th century and by the late 1930s

5313-626: Was built largely of concrete, and the Pantheon has the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome. Concrete, as the Romans knew it, was a new and revolutionary material. Laid in the shape of arches , vaults and domes , it quickly hardened into a rigid mass, free from many of the internal thrusts and strains that troubled the builders of similar structures in stone or brick. Modern tests show that opus caementicium had as much compressive strength as modern Portland-cement concrete (c. 200 kg/cm  [20 MPa; 2,800 psi]). However, due to

5390-602: Was greatly reduced. Low kiln temperatures in the burning of lime, lack of pozzolana, and poor mixing all contributed to a decline in the quality of concrete and mortar. From the 11th century, the increased use of stone in church and castle construction led to an increased demand for mortar. Quality began to improve in the 12th century through better grinding and sieving. Medieval lime mortars and concretes were non-hydraulic and were used for binding masonry, "hearting" (binding rubble masonry cores) and foundations. Bartholomaeus Anglicus in his De proprietatibus rerum (1240) describes

5467-452: Was made from quicklime , pozzolana and an aggregate of pumice . Its widespread use in many Roman structures , a key event in the history of architecture termed the Roman architectural revolution , freed Roman construction from the restrictions of stone and brick materials. It enabled revolutionary new designs in terms of both structural complexity and dimension. The Colosseum in Rome

5544-498: Was pioneered by the Nabatean traders who occupied and controlled a series of oases and developed a small empire in the regions of southern Syria and northern Jordan from the 4th century BC. They discovered the advantages of hydraulic lime , with some self-cementing properties, by 700 BC. They built kilns to supply mortar for the construction of rubble masonry houses, concrete floors, and underground waterproof cisterns . They kept

5621-622: Was quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset , England. His son William continued developments into the 1840s, earning him recognition for the development of "modern" Portland cement. Reinforced concrete was invented in 1849 by Joseph Monier . and the first reinforced concrete house was built by François Coignet in 1853. The first concrete reinforced bridge was designed and built by Joseph Monier in 1875. Prestressed concrete and post-tensioned concrete were pioneered by Eugène Freyssinet ,

5698-439: Was the last deep mine in the Cheadle Coalfield. New Haden had closed in 1943 after heavy flooding underground rendered the mine uneconomic. The workforce was either transferred to Foxfield, or to Berry Hill Colliery in the Potteries. Foxfield grew steadily under the ownership of the National Coal Board until it employed nearly 600 men by the mid-1950s. Output also peaked during this period at 210,813 tons in 1954. During this time

5775-414: Was unique for Cheadle, Concrete headgears were erected. New Haden Colliery, which had the early nickname of the "Klondyke" due to the thick Woodhead coal the pit mined was one of the first mines in Staffordshire to be electrified underground and, in addition to the colliery, there was a brickworks in production. By the time of Nationalisation of the entire British Coal mining industry in 1947, Foxfield

5852-625: Was used for construction in many ancient structures. Mayan concrete at the ruins of Uxmal (AD 850–925) is referenced in Incidents of Travel in the Yucatán by John L. Stephens . "The roof is flat and had been covered with cement". "The floors were cement, in some places hard, but, by long exposure, broken, and now crumbling under the feet." "But throughout the wall was solid, and consisting of large stones imbedded in mortar, almost as hard as rock." Small-scale production of concrete-like materials

5929-465: Was worked at Foxfield was Dilhorne 21's,which lies under the Dilhorne Rocks area. Ironically, and considering the scale of the coal industry in Staffordshire, the winding gear and surface buildings at Foxfield still exist to this day and are owned by the Foxfield Steam Railway who run heritage steam traction to the former colliery along the branch line from their base at Blythe Bridge. After

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