Does anyone have any idea what a coalrook may have been please? It crops up in a newspaper report in 1850.
Possibly coal rook. The English dialect dictionary by J. Wright says: Coal-rook (or -ruck) the place where coal is kept.
Coal ruck, slag heap, coal mountain or mining waste. Usually good for the pickings of bagging coal to take home or sell. 'As Bickershaw Colliery was one of the countries highest producers of coal it was perhaps also the highest producer of mining waste. Some of the Rucks quickly became true mountains around the site and laws were then introduced to limit the height of such waste heaps. Locals would also know that this waste would often turn to dangerous slurry pits and to keep well clear of them. There are a number of stories from the Bickershaw site where sometimes entire lorries sank into these slurry pits. leigh.life
Thanks folks. It was definitely "Oop north" A very interesting murder case I've researched. In my opinion an innocent 19yr old lad was hanged for poisoning his wife.