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Somerset Coalfield

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The old coal mining sheave wheel, now featured in the centre of Radstock, in front of the Radstock Museum

The Somerset Coalfield in north Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It is part of a wider coalfield which covered northern Somerset and southern Gloucestershire. The Somerset coalfield stretched from Cromhall in the north to the Mendip Hills in the south, and from Bath in the east to Nailsea in the west, a total area of about 240 square miles (622 km2).[1] Most of the pits on the Somerset Coalfield were concentrated along the Cam Brook, Wellow Brook and Nettlebridge Valleys and around Radstock and Farrington Gurney. The pits were grouped geographically, with clusters of pits close together working the same coal seams often under the same ownership. Many pits shared the trackways and tramways which connected them to the Somerset Coal Canal or railways for distribution.

The early pits were adits or bell pits where coal outcropped or was close to the surface. These methods were abandoned when deep seams were mined. The deepest shaft on the coalfield was at the Strap mine at Nettlebridge which reached 1,838 feet (560 m). Flooding and coal dust explosions in some mines required improved ventilation and pumping engines. Several pits closed in the 19th century as the coal was worked out. Those that survived until 1947 became part of the National Coal Board, but the expense of improving equipment and working conditions meant that these became uneconomical and the last pit closed in 1973. There is still evidence of the mine workings, with the remains of buildings, spoil heaps and tramways in the area.

Contents

[edit] Geology

[edit] Early surveys of William Smith

William Smith.

Much of the exploratory survey work was carried out by William Smith, who became known as the "Father of English Geology", building on work in the same area by John Strachey.[2][3] Smith worked at one of the estate's older mines, the Mearns Pit at High Littleton.[4] As he observed the rock strata, at the pit he realised that they were arranged in a predictable pattern, and that the various strata could always be found in the same relative positions. Additionally, each particular stratum could be identified by the fossils it contained, and the same succession of fossil groups from older to younger rocks could be found in other parts of England. Furthermore, he noticed an easterly dip of the beds of rock- small near the surface (about three degrees) then bigger after the Triassic rocks. This gave Smith a testable hypothesis, which he termed The Principle of Faunal Succession, and he began his search to determine if the relationships between the strata and their characteristics were consistent throughout the country.[5] During subsequent travels, first as a surveyor (appointed by noted engineer John Rennie) for the canal company until 1799 when he was dismissed, and later, he was continually taking samples and mapping the locations of the various strata, and displaying the vertical extent of the strata, and drawing cross-sections and tables of what he saw. This would earn him the name "Strata Smith".[6]

[edit] Structure of the coalfield

The Somerset Coalfield consists of three synclines, informally referred to as 'coal basins'. The Pensford Syncline in the north and the Radstock Syncline in the south are separated by the east-west trending Farmborough Fault Belt. Further to the west is the smaller Nailsea Syncline. The Radstock Syncline in particular is cut by a series of east-west thrust faults and north-south trending normal faults.[7]

[edit] Stratigraphy

The Coal Measures of the Somerset Coalfield are divided into a Lower, Middle and Upper with coal seams found within each of these divisions. Lower and Middle Coal Measures are found at depths between 500 and 5,000 feet (152-1,525 m). Together the Lower and Middle Coal Measures are 2,000 to 2,500 feet (610–762 m) thick with the Middle Coal Measures averaging about 1,600 feet (488 m) and the Lower Coal Measures about 600 feet (183 m).

Only in the southern part of the Radstock Syncline have coals of the Lower and Middle Coal Measures been worked, mainly at the Newbury and Vobster collieries in the southeast and in the New Rock and Moorewood pits to the southwest. Only in the eastern part of Pensford Syncline have coals of the Lower and Middle Coal Measures been worked, at the Globe Pit in the Newton St Loe area in the 19th century.[8] The Variscan orogeny involved lateral compression of the rock sequence resulting in the tight folding, fracturing and faulting of the sandstone and mudstone strata, and the associated coal seams, of the Coal Measures. Along the Radstock Slide Fault the distance between the broken ends of a coal seam can be as much as 1,500 feet (457 m).[9] The complex geology and narrow seams gained the field notoriety and three underground explosions, in 1893, 1895 and 1908 were amongst the first attributable solely to airborne coal dust.[10]

[edit] Coal seams

The following coal seams are recognised within the coalfield. They are listed stratigraphically ie uppermost/youngest at the top. Note that not all seams are continuous across the entire coalfield and that correlation of certain seams from one basin to another is uncertain.[11][12][13]

The Upper Coal Measures are within Pennant Sandstones and include:

  • Forty Yard Coal (Pensford)
  • Withy Mills Coal
  • Great Coal
  • Middle Coal, ?Pensford No 2 Coal
  • Slyving Coal
  • Bull Coal
  • Bottom Little Coal
  • Rock Coal
  • Farrington Top Coal
  • Top Coal, ?Streak Coal
  • Peacock Coal
  • Middle Coal, No 5 Coal, ?Bromley No 4 Coal
  • New Coal, No 7 Coal
  • No 9 Coal
  • Big Coal, Brights Coal, No 10 Coal (splitting into Nos 8 & 9 Coals)
  • No 11 Coal
  • Rudge Coal
  • Temple Cloud Coal
  • Newbury No 2 Coal
  • Newbury No 1 Coal
  • Globe Coal
  • Warkey Coal

The Middle Coal Measures include:

  • Garden Course Coal
  • Great Course Coal
  • Firestone Coal
  • Little Course Coal
  • Dungy Drift Coal
  • Coking Coal

The Lower Coal Measures include:

  • Standing Coal
  • Main Coal
  • Perrink Coal
  • White Axen Coal

The Peacock and Brights Coals are also recorded within the Upper Coal Measures between the Rudge and New Coals.

[edit] History

It is believed that coal was mined in the area during Roman times[14] and there is documentary evidence of coal being dug on the Mendips in 1305[15][16] and at Kilmersdon in 1437. By the time of Henry VIII there were coal pits at Clutton, High Littleton and Stratton-on-the-Fosse.

During the early part of the 17th century coal was largely obtained by excavating the outcrops or driving an incline, which involved following the seam into the ground. Only a small amount of coal could be obtained by these methods and so bell pits took their place.[17] These were vertical pits, about 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter at the top and as much as 60 feet (18.3 m) deep, which were widened out at the bottom. When all the coal that could safely be extracted from a bell pit had been recovered, another pit would be sunk close by to intersect the seam and the waste from the second pit thrown into the first pit.[18]

At the beginning of the 19th century there were about 4000 people employed in the coalfield.[19] The industrial uses of coal were varied. Coal was used in limekilns to produce lime, which was much in demand for mortar production for building purposes and by farmers to improve soil. From 1820 it was used to produce gas for town lighting and to drive the woollen mills in the area. Coke uses included drying malt in the brewing industry.[20]

[edit] Transport

The Somerset Coalfield did not have the benefit of a major coal-consuming industry, and had a relatively low density of population nearby. Therefore, transport to market was a key problem for the coalfield's development.

Being in an agricultural area, during the pre-turnpike era, the roads serving the coalfield were initially unsuited to moving coal. Bulley[21] notes "The problem ... was rendered far worse by the state of the roads in Somerset, which were notorious down to the middle of the 18th century. Parishes in the area sometimes neglected or refused to repair those roads which were heavily used by coal carts. Thus in 1617 the inhabitants of Stoke St Michael ... complained that "of late by reason of many coalmines ... the highways there are much in decay and grown very founderous".

For Somerset, the turnpike phase began in 1707 with the establishment of the Bath Trust, but it was not until the middle of that century that other trusts serving the coalfield were formed. The Bristol Trust, part of which passed close to the western boundary of the coalfield, was established in 1727, but it was of little importance, as Bristol was never a significant market, having its own coalfields on the Bristol Coalfield at Kingswood Chase and Coalpit Heath, and easy import of coal from South Wales. Turnpikes facilitated the movement of coal, and John Billingsley[22] enthused "Nothing so much contributes to the improvement of a county as good roads. Before the establishment of turnpikes, many parts of the county were scarcely accessible. .... coal was carried on horses' backs to the distance of fifteen or twenty miles from the colliery; each horse carried about two hundred and half weight. Now one horse with a light cart will draw four hundred weight or four times more than a horse could carry. Can an insignificant toll be put in competition with this saving?."

Not all roads were turnpikes, and as late as 1819 Skinner[23] observed roads "rendered bad" by the passage of coal wagons. The growth of the coalfield was limited by access to market. Such a need implied a canal project, following Lord Middleton's dictum "Water transport is what all coal owners must aim at". There were large gains from being connected to a canal system, as stated by the Coal Commission "At about this period (1800) the system of coal navigation was being rapidly extended, and the result was that coals were gradually finding their way into districts that could not be reached unless at great cost, by road".[24]

In Somerset, the earliest scheme proposed an extension of the Avon Navigation in 1766, but the canal era was not to reach the coalfield for almost another fifty years. In 1794 coal proprietors formed a committee to arrange the construction of the Somerset Coal Canal. It was to have two branches extending into the Cam Brook and Wellow Brook Valleys, and from the junction at Midford, to join the then proposed Kennet and Avon Canal at the Dundas Aqueduct near Bath. After 1854, when the first railway line to the coalfield was opened, the tonnage carried by the coal canal declined very rapidly. The coal was transported by the Somerset Coal Canal and later by the Bristol and North Somerset Railway and Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, which were reached from the pits by a series of tramways.

Tonnage increased throughout the 19th century, reaching a peak around 1901, when there were 79 separate collieries and annual production was 1,250,000 tons per annum.[25][26]

[edit] Decline and closure

The peak years were 1900 to 1920. However the decline soon took hold and the number of pits reduced from 30 at the beginning of the 20th century to 14 by the mid-thirties, 12 at nationalisation to create the National Coal Board on 1 January 1947, 5 by 1959 and none after 1973.[27] Despite some investment in new infrastructure, particularly at Norton Hill,[26] narrow seams made production expensive, limiting profit and investment. The conversion of Portishead power station from coal to oil and reduced national demand together with competition from more economical coalfields[28] led to the closure of the last two pits in the coalfield, Kilmersdon and Writhlington, in September 1973.[1][26]

[edit] Area today

Although there are still the remains of the mines, in the form of disused or redeveloped buildings and a few spoil tips, most of which have been removed or landscaped, the area has returned to a largely rural nature between the Mendip Hills and the River Avon in north east Somerset. The towns and villages have light industry but are often commuter towns for Bath and Bristol. There is still quarrying of limestone, particularly in the Mendips.

The Colliers Way (NCR24) is a national cycle route which passes landmarks associated with the coalfield,[29] and other local roads and footpaths follow the tramways developed during the coal mining years.[30] It currently runs from Dundas Aqueduct to Frome via Radstock,[31] although it is intended to provide a continuous cycle route to Southampton and Portsmouth.

Radstock Museum has a range of exhibits which offer an insight into North Somerset life since the 19th century. Exhibits relate to the Somerset Coalfield and its geology. Artefacts and memorabilia of the Somerset Coal Canal, Somerset and Dorset and Great Western Railways are also on display.[32]

[edit] Pensford coal basin

The Pensford Colliery winding house after conversion.

The Pensford coal basin lies in the northern area of the Somerset coal field around Bishop Sutton, Pensford, Stanton Drew, Farmborough and Hunstrete. The date for the first pits around Bishop Sutton are uncertain but there was at least one before 1719.[33] By 1824 a collection of four bell pits were identified in field tithe No 1409, and four shaft pits in field tithe No 1428, but that they were no longer working.[33]

The Old Pit at Bishop Sutton, which was also known as Sutton Top Pit or Upper Sutton Pit was dug before 1799 and owned by Lieutenant Henry Fisher, who sold it in 1821 to Robert Blinman Dowling and seams of coal were identified and exploited. After Dowling's death the Old Pit was sold to Mr T.T. Hawkes in 1852,[33] but he defaulted on the payments and it was sold in 1853 to William Rees-Mogg (an ancestor of William Rees-Mogg) and his associates. The shaft reached a depth of 304 feet (93 m),[34] but went out of production by 1855,[33] when the "New" Pit which had been sunk in the early 19th century but then closed, was reopened and deepened to exploit deeper seams. The New Pit had two shafts of 4 feet (1.2 m) diameter, one for winding and one for pumping. In 1896 it was owned by F. Spencer, New Rock Colliery,[35] and in 1908 owned by Jesse Lovell and Sons[36] By 1921 it employed 150 men and boys and produced 10,000 tins per annum.[37] The pit finally closed in 1929.[33][38]

The Pesnford Colliery which opened in 1909 had the latest equipment at the time including coal cutters underground and red brick winding house, baths and coal washers. Underground faulting made coal production expensive and the pit closed in 1958.[26]

[edit] Earl of Warwick's Clutton Collieries

Coal mines were established in the villages of High Littleton and Hallatrow by 1633 because here the coal seams ran obliquely to the surface. The first deep mine was Mearns Coalworks which began in 1783. The Greyfield Coal Company did not start until 1833.

The Earl of Warwick's estates included sawmills, quarries, brickworks and collieries in addition to their agricultural holdings. These pits, around Clutton and High Littleton, were first described in a survey of 1610. All were closed by 1836.[45]

[edit] Paulton Basin

Large conical black mound with trees in the foreground
The spoil tip in Paulton, referred to locally as "The Batch".

Paulton was the terminus of the northern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal and was a central point for at least 15 collieries around Paulton, Timsbury and High Littleton, which were connected to the canal by tramroads.

On the northern side of Paulton basin was the terminus for the tramroad which served Old Grove, Prior's, Tyning and Hayeswood pits, with a branch line to Amesbury and Mearns pits. Parts of this line were still in use in 1873, probably all carrying horse drawn wagons of coal.

The southern side of the basin served Brittens, Littleborrok, Paulton Ham, Paulton Hill, Simons Hill terminating at Salisbury Colliery. In addition the Paulton Foundry used this line. The entire line was disused by 1871 as were the collieries it served.

The area has been designated as an ‘area of special architectural or historic interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’ under section 69 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.[48]

[edit] Timsbury and Camerton

The first of the collieries around Timsbury village was sunk in 1791 and known as Conygre (Conigre in old spellings). Camerton Old Pit opened in 1781[50] and the shaft went down to 921 feet (281 m). It closed around circa 1898 but the shaft was then used as a airway and escape route for the New Pit, until 1930 when it was closed and capped. The New Pit was half a mile east of the Old Pit and went down to 1,818 feet (554 m). In 1928 it was joined underground to Braysdown Colliery and eventually closed in 1950.[51]

There is very little landscape evidence remaining of the previous mining activities around Clutton, Temple Cloud, High Littleton and Timsbury. There are small batches at Clutton, east of Radford Hill and at Greyfields, High Littleton.[52]

[edit] East of Camerton

In this area the coal is buried beneath newer strata, which meant that mining in the area was difficult.

The dominant features of the Cam and Wellow Brooks are the remnants of the coal mining industry from the 18th-20th centuries. In both valleys there are frequent shafts and batches together with the remains of the railway and tram lines that connected the mines to the Avon Valley. Remains of the Somersetshire Coal Canal are also significant reminders of this coal mining history in this area.[56]

[edit] Farrington Gurney

Memorial to miners who lost their lives in a pit disaster in 1839

Mining in the area around Farrington Gurney has been undertaken since the 17th century.[59] By 1780 all the pits in the area were known as part of Farrington Colliery.

The main geological feature in this area south of Hallatrow consists of Supra-Pennant Measures which includes the upper coal measures and outcrops of sandstone. The relics of the industrial past are very evident within the area, including the widely visible and distinct conical shape of the Old Mills batch with its generally unvegetated surface. The three disused collieries in the area have subsequently been developed for light industry, a depot and a superstore.[60]

[edit] Duchy Mines

The Duchy of Cornwall owned most of the mineral rights around Midsomer Norton and various small pits opened around 1750 to exploit these.

[edit] Earl Waldegrave's Radstock Collieries

Old pit head buildings now an engineering works

In 1763 coal was discovered in Radstock and mining began in the area.[65]

The Waldegrave family had been Lords of the Manor of Radstock since the English Civil War. In 1896 the pits were owned by the Trustee of Frances, late Countess of Waldegrave.[35]

Radstock was the terminus for the southern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal, which was turned into a tramway. It then became a central point for railway development with large coal depots, wash houses, workshops and a gas works. As part of the development of the Wiltshire, Somerset and Weymouth Railway an 8-mile (13 km) line from Radstock to Frome was built to carry the coal. In the 1870s the broad-gauge line was converted to standard gauge and connected to the Bristol and North Somerset Line connecting it to the Great Western Railway. The Radstock Railway Land comprises an area of approximately 8.8 hectares of land which has been subject to planning and development applications.[66] [67]

[edit] Writhlington Collieries

The Writhlington batch with miners houses in the foreground

Although these collieries were close to the Waldegrave collieries, they were further east of Radstock and under different ownership. In 1896[35] they were owned by Writhlington, Huish and Foxcote Colliery Co., and by 1908[36] this had been changed to Writhlington Collieries Co. Ltd. The Upper and Lower Writhlington, Huish & Foxcote were all merged into one colliery.

The base of the Kilmersdon valley is of alluvium deposits. Above this on both sides of all of the valleys is a band of shales and clays from the Penarth Group. These rocks are from the Triassic period. The majority of the remaining upland in this area is Lias Limestone (white and blue) while the very highest part above 130 m, south of Haydon, is a small outcrop of Inferior Oolitic Limestone. All these limestones are from the Jurassic period. The steepest slopes of both the Kilmersdon and Snail’s Bottom valleys have frequently slipped. Below all of the area is the coal bearing Carboniferous strata. Haydon is an outlier of Radstock and was built to house the miners for the local pit. The disused railway line and inclined railway at Haydon form important elements within the Kilmersdon valley east of Haydon. The modern landscape has a less maintained and ‘rougher’ character and texture than neighbouring agricultural areas. This is caused in the main by the remnants of the coal industry and its infrastructure and changes in agricultural management. The disturbance caused by coal mining and the railways and the subsequent ending of mining and disuse of the railways has created valuable habitats of nature conservation interest.[70]

The Writhlington spoil heap or "batch" is a now a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) because of the rich collection of fossils in the spoil heap.[71] The Braysdown batch was planted with conifers, and is now known as Braysdown Hill. The offices, blacksmith's shop and stables at the Upper Writhlington Colliery were converted into dwellings.[72]

[edit] Norton Hill Collieries

The Norton Hill collieries at Westfield were owned by the Beauchamp family who owned other collieries and related works on the Somerset coalfield at various times.[78] They were also known as the Beauchamp goldmines as they were the most productive mines in the whole coalfield.

In 1900 a railway was constructed to join the colliery to the main Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, with additional sidings being laid in 1905 and 1907 which were relaid in 1953.[79]

On 9 April 1908 an explosion approximately 1,500 feet (460 m) underground killed 10 men and boys. As there were no organised mine rescue teams the manager and volunteers searched for 10 days for survivors. In 1911, partly as a result of the Norton Hill explosion, Winston Churchill was instrumental in the passing of the Coal Mines Act 1911.[80]

Following nationalisation after World War II the National Coal Board spent £500,000 on new infrastructure modernising the mine to have a capability for annual production of 315,000 tons, however manpower shortages and geological problems meant that it closed in 1966.[26]

[edit] Nettlebridge Valley

Old mine chimney of Oxleys Colliery near Buckland Dinham

There were hundreds of small coal workings in the area from Gurney Slade east to Mells including the villages of Holcombe, Coleford and Stratton-on-the-Fosse. These included at least 52 Bell pits with some deeper shafts and 16 adits.[84] Although some coal may have been mined in the area during Roman times and they expanded in the 13th century, making them the earliest coal mines known in Somerset, most of the development occurred in the 17th century.[85] Most mining finished in the 19th century,[86] however Strap Colliery was opened in 1953 as Mendip Colliery and worked until 1969.[87]

The Vobster Breach colliery had a nationally unique system of long coking ovens which, along with the other surviving buildings, have since been designated as a Scheduled monument.[26][88] The boiler chimney of Oxley's Colliery which only operated for a few years in the 1880s, near Buckland Dinham is a Grade II listed building.[89][90]

[edit] References

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[edit] Bibliography

  • Allsop, Niall (1993). The Somersetshire Coal Canal Rediscovered: A Walker's Guide. Bath: Millstream Books. ISBN 978-0948975356. 
  • Billingsley, John (1795). General View of the Agriculture of the County of Somerset. http://books.google.com/?id=DBUAAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage#v=onepage&q&f=false. 
  • Clew, Kenneth R. (1970). The Somersetshire Coal Canal and Railways. Newton Abbot: David and Charles. ISBN 978-0715347928. 
  • Collier, Peter (1986). Colliers Way: The Somerset Coalfield. Ex Libris Press. ISBN 978-0948578052. 
  • Coombes (1930). Rev. Arthur N. Bax. ed. Journal of a Somerset Rector, John Skinner, A. M., Antiquary 1772-1839. John Murray. 
  • Cornwell, John (2005). Collieries of Somerset and Bristol. Landmark Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1843061700. 
  • Coysh, A.W.; E.J. Mason & V. Waite (1977). The Mendips. London: Robert Hale Ltd. ISBN 978-0709164265. 
  • Down, C.G.; A. J. Warrington (2005). The history of the Somerset coalfield. Radstock: Radstock Museum. ISBN 978-0955168406. 
  • Durham, Ian; Mary Durham (1991). Chew Magna and the Chew Valley in old photographs. Redcliffe Press. ISBN 978-1872971612. 
  • Green, G.W. (1992). Bristol and Gloucester Region (Regional Geology Guides) (3rd Ed). Keyworth, Notts: British Geological Survey. ISBN 978-0118844826. 
  • Gould, Shane (1999). The Somerset Coalfield. Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society. 
  • Halse, Roger; Simon Castens (2000). The Somersetshire Coal Canal: A Pictorial Journey. Bath: Millstream Books. ISBN 978-0948975585. 
  • Handley, Chris (2006). Transport & Industrial Development in the Somerset Coalfield. Radstock: Radstock, Midsomer Norton and District Museum Society. 
  • Williams, W.J. (1976). Coal Mining in Bishop Sutton North Somerset c.1799-1929. 
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