[60] Maynard Terrace in Clutton was built to house some of the miners.

Collieries in the Paulton basin were connected to the terminal basin of the northern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal which was the focus for tramroads that connected at least 15 collieries around Paulton, Timsbury and High Littleton. The modern landscape has a less maintained and 'rougher' character and texture than neighbouring agricultural areas caused mainly by the remnants of the coal industry and its infrastructure and changes in agricultural management. Several pits closed in the 19th century as the coal was worked out. Data Loading × Data is loading, please wait. The Somerset Coalfield in northern Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It closed around circa 1898 but the shaft was then used as an airway and escape route for the New Pit, until 1930 when it was closed and capped. Coke was used to dry malt for the brewing industry. The offices, blacksmith's shop and stables at the Upper Writhlington Colliery were converted into dwellings.[89]. [45], Radstock was the terminus for the southern branch of the Somerset Coal Canal which was subsequently turned into a tramway and became the centre for railway development and coal depots, coal washeries, workshops and a gas works. The accuracy of the source maps has not been verified. 1896 owned by F. Spencer, New Rock Colliery, No coal mined. All were closed by 1836. [83], The Writhlington Collieries, close to the Waldegrave Collieries, were further east of Radstock and under different ownership. The Somerset Coalfield covers a total area of about 240 square miles (622 km2). The steepest slopes of both the Kilmersdon and Snail's Bottom valleys have frequently slipped. [102] Some coal may have been mined during Roman times and in the 13th century, making them the earliest coal mines in Somerset, but most development occurred in the 17th century. [39], The Pensford coal basin is in the northern part of the coalfield around Bishop Sutton, Pensford, Stanton Drew, Farmborough and Hunstrete. Coal had been dug out of the earth as early as the 13th century in the Burnley Area. Map of UK Sites - UK Mining Remains UK MINING REMAINS. To Mendip for Coal, Proc. [41], 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. [67], There is very little obvious landscape evidence remaining of the previous mining activities around Clutton, Temple Cloud, High Littleton and Timsbury. The Coal Mines Act of 1930 created the Coal Mines Reorganisation Commission to try and achieve this, but colliery owners blocked the scheme and the Commission was dissolved in 1936. Relics of its industrial past are evident in the area, including the highly visible and distinct conical shaped Old Mills Batch with its generally unvegetated surface. (from a well defined location). [56] The first deep mine in the parish of High Littleton was Mearns Coalworks which began in 1783. [6], Exploratory surveys of the local geology were carried out by William Smith, who became known as the "father of English geology", building on work by John Strachey. [58] Greyfield Colliery closed in 1911,[59] and the railway in 1964. 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). In 1908 10 men were killed in a major coal dust explosion. 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). Below these rocks are the coal bearing Carboniferous strata. [2] Further to the west is the smaller Nailsea Syncline. [98], After nationalisation after World War II the National Coal Board spent £500,000 on modernising the mine's infrastructure to give it the capability for annual production of 315,000 tons; however, manpower shortages and geological problems caused the pit to close in 1966. [63], 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. Had nationally unique long coking oven design. A photographic record of travels around the UK photograhing of the many surface remains of metal mines, coal mines, stone mines and quarries for use by mine explorers historians and walkers ICLOK.


The shaft reached a depth of 304 feet (93 m),[43] but the pit went out of production by 1855,[44] when "New Pit", which had been sunk in the early 19th century but then closed, was reopened and deepened to exploit deeper seams. In this section we have a number of maps that show the collieries and pits in the region at various times. These included at least 52 bell pits, some with deeper shafts and 16 adits. 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 coal. The towns and villages have some light industry but are often commuter towns for Bath and Bristol. In 1896 the pits were owned by the Trustee of Frances, late Countess of Waldegrave. British Geological Survey 1:50,000 scale geological map sheets 280, Bulley, J. [9] As he observed the rock strata at the pit, he realised that they were arranged in a predictable pattern that the various strata could always be found in the same relative positions and 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.

These data do not constitute all coal mining voids Details of individual operating coal mines can be found in the BGS Directory of Mines and Quarries.
[40] Four bell pits in Bishop Sutton were marked on field tithe No 1409, and four shaft pits on field tithe No 1428, but were no longer working by 1824. These data should not be considered complete and should not be used as the sole basis for any determination. [2], The Coal Measures are divided into a Lower, Middle and Upper with coal seams found within each of these divisions. Detail information on coal mines found in different regions in India through map During the early 17th century coal was largely obtained by excavating the outcrops and driving drifts which followed the seam into the ground. ... 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. Camerton Old Pit opened in 1781[66] and the shaft went down to 921 feet (281 m). Artefacts and memorabilia from the Somerset Coal Canal, Somerset and Dorset and Great Western Railways are also on display. These data therefore would not exceed the current National Map Standard for 1:24,000 scale maps which states that they are accurate to within +/- 40 feet horizontally [28] After 1854, when the first railway line was opened, the tonnage carried by the coal canal declined rapidly. Most of the upland in this area is Lias Limestone (white and blue) while the highest part, above 130 m, south of Haydon, is an outcrop of Inferior Oolitic Limestone, both are from the Jurassic period. The Duchy of Cornwall owned most of the mineral rights around Midsomer Norton and various small pits opened around 1750 to exploit these.