First known as Try ‘em all pit. In the 1870s it was renamed Fortune Pit, lifting coal mined underground to the surface. Boys would pick out the stones before the coal was loaded onto rail trucks.
In 1844 the Hedley brothers blasted a 3 metre by 3 metre vertical shaft through the rock to the Hutton Seam 126 metres below the surface, finding good quality coking coal.
A steam powered beam engine rotated drums drawing in and letting out four ropes, was housed in the tall stone building. The cage hung by the ropes passing over the pair of winding wheels. This was initially used for miners and coal. The coal was raised to the elevated building under the winding wheels. Initially stone would be removed and the coal tipped directly into railway wagons that ran under the elevated building.
Communication between the surface and the bottom of the shaft was by “rapping” a signal cable, up to 8 times, each number conveying a different meaning. Only 4 men or 6 boys could ride in the cage at one time. After Annie and Fell Pits were sunk in 1868, the conveyor was added to carry the coal to Annie Pit where it was processed, and Fell Pit was solely used to lower and raise miners.