General Chat

15-20 miles away from where I live at the moment in a new build estate the houses are being sold with lovely views of the pit bing (slag heap) according to the literature. Definitely an original idea for selling a house.

Has anyone else ever come across a house with an original selling point???

Can't think that promise of a view would entice people to buy :-0

Even the words stunning and historical as the literature claims wouldn’t entice me to buy.

To add to it there are five pit bings there so you cannot escape the “view” anywhere on the estate.

Is the slag heap still in use or is it an old pit heap soon to be flattened and landscaped, pretty much what the NCB was made to do in the UK.

Alas, in Cornwall, some of the old tin mine workings (well before nationalisation) are still a bit of a blot on the landscape. It was strange to go from beautiful coastland to (some but not all) less beautiful interior Cornwall many years ago.

The slag heaps are from shale mining and were last used in the 1960s. They are listed monuments and so cannot be touched.

Pompey had a huge landfill site which became very high. They grassed it over and it is quite a lovely feature now.

Ah, Tawny, that'll be the selling point.
'Set in the peaceful idyll of a historical landscape' :-D

It also means no buildings (at the moment) can be built on those heaps, destroying their view!.

Well look what they did with the china clay quarries etc in Cornwall, all those huge biodomes.

That's true, Ann!
I visited that area (primary school trip) when it was an actual quarry! :-D
Didn't recognise it, when I went back about 10 years ago!!

Oh dear Tawny. Being a tad cynical, I am thinking who doesn't want to put his hand in his pocket for a clear-up. I hope the heaps aren't high enough to slip too.

Why don't they leave one low heap and build a museum to shale mining around it if they really want to? By doing that schools can visit the site and find out the ins and outs of employment in the industry instead of looking at heaps.

It stands 91m or around 299ft high. There were 27 bings (slag heaps) in West Lothian and now there are only 19 but nobody will let them be flattened.

I find that such a shame because I would rather look at a softly undulating green landscape with trees and bushes that secure land. I think that would also ensure that no rainwater can get into fissures, thus preventing landslip.

I am at a loss to understand their thinking.