Coal mining in the United Kingdom - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Coal mining in the United Kingdom probably dates to Roman

Roman Britain

Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...

times and took place in many different parts of the country. Britain's coalfields are associated with Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

and Durham

Durham

Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

, North

North Wales

North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...

and South Wales

South Wales

South Wales is an area of Wales bordered by England and the Bristol Channel to the east and south, and Mid Wales and West Wales to the north and west. The most densely populated region in the south-west of the United Kingdom, it is home to around 2.1 million people and includes the capital city of...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, the East

East Midlands

The East Midlands is one of the regions of England, consisting of most of the eastern half of the traditional region of the Midlands. It encompasses the combined area of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire...

and West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

and Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

. During the 1980s and 1990s the industry was scaled back considerably. In 2011 there are deep mines at Kellingley Colliery

Kellingley Colliery

Kellingley Colliery is one of the newest of the few deep coal mines left in Britain today. It is situated at Beal in North Yorkshire, about east of Knottingley in West Yorkshire, on the A645, although the postal address is Knottingley, West Yorkshire, and east of Ferrybridge power station. The...

in Yorkshire, and Daw Mill

Daw Mill

Daw Mill is a coal mine located near the village of Arley in the English county of Warwickshire. The mine is Britain's biggest coal producer, mining a five-metre thick section of the Warwickshire Coalfield in the north of the county...

Colliery, Warwickshire

Warwickshire

Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

both run by UK Coal

UK Coal

UK Coal plc is the largest coal mining business in the United Kingdom. The Company is based in Harworth, in Nottinghamshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a former constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

. Maltby colliery is a deep mine near Rotherham

Rotherham

Rotherham is a town in South Yorkshire, England. It lies on the River Don, at its confluence with the River Rother, between Sheffield and Doncaster. Rotherham, at from Sheffield City Centre, is surrounded by several smaller settlements, which together form the wider Metropolitan Borough of...

owned and operated by Hargreaves Services PLC. There are numerous open cast mines

Open-pit coal mining in the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom produces about ten million tons of coal a year from open-pit mines. The majority comes from Scotland , with the largest operator there being the Scottish Coal subsidiary of Scottish Resources Group ; they are rather unforthcoming about the locations of their mines.Statistics on...

in the UK.

History

It is probable that the Romans used outcropping coal when working iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

or burning lime burning for building purposes. Evidence is mostly from ash discovered at excavations of Roman sites. There is no mention of coal mining in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

of 1086 though lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

and iron mines are recorded. In the 13th century there are records of coal digging in Durham

Durham Coalfield

The Durham Coalfield is a coalfield in north-east England. It is continuous with the Northumberland Coalfield to its north. It extends from Bishop Auckland in the south to the boundary with the county of Northumberland along the River Tyne in the north, beyond which is the Northumberland...

and Northumberland

Northumberland Coalfield

The Northumberland Coalfield is a coalfield in north-east England. It is continuous with the Durham Coalfield to its south. It extends from Amble in the north to the boundary with County Durham along the River Tyne in the south, beyond which is the Durham Coalfield.The two contiguous coalfield...

, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, Staffordshire

South Staffordshire Coalfield

The South Staffordshire Coalfield is one of several coalfields in the English Midlands. It stretches for 25 miles / 40km from the Lickey Hills in the south to Rugeley in the north. The coalfield is around 10 miles / 16km wide; its eastern and western margins are fault-bounded...

, Lancashire

Lancashire Coalfield

The Lancashire Coalfield in north-west England was one of the most important British coalfields.-Geography and geology:The geology of the coalfield consists of the coal seams of the Upper, Middle and Lower Coal Measures, layers of sandstones, shales and coal of varying thickness, which were laid...

, the Forest of Dean

Forest of Dean Coalfield

The Forest of Dean Coalfield, lying under the Forest of Dean, in northwest Gloucestershire, is one of the smaller coalfields in the British Isles, although intensive mining during the 19th and 20th centuries has had enormous influence on the landscape, history, culture and economy of the area.For...

and North

North Wales Coalfield

The North Wales Coalfield comprises the Flintshire Coalfield in the north and the Denbighshire Coalfield in the south. It extends from Point of Ayr in the north, through the Wrexham area to Oswestry in Shropshire in the south....

and South Wales

South Wales Coalfield

The South Wales Coalfield is a large region of south Wales that is rich with coal deposits, especially the South Wales Valleys.-The coalfield area:...

. At this time coal was referred to as sea cole a reference to coal washed ashore on the north east coast of England from either the cliffs or undersea outcrops. The early mines would have been drift mines or adit

Adit

An adit is an entrance to an underground mine which is horizontal or nearly horizontal, by which the mine can be entered, drained of water, and ventilated.-Construction:...

s where coal seams outcropped or by shallow bell pit

Bell pit

A bell pit is a primitive method of mining coal, iron ore or other minerals where the coal or ore lies near the surface.. A shaft is sunk to reach the mineral which is excavated by miners transported to the surface by a winch and removed by means of a bucket, much like a well. It gets its name...

s where coal was close to the surface. Shafts lined with tree trunks and branches have been found in Lancashire in workings dating from early 17th century and by 1750 brick lined shafts to 150 foot depth were common.

Industrial Revolution

Coal production increased dramatically in the 19th century as the Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...

gathered pace, especially as a fuel for steam engine

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

s such as the Newcomen engine, and later, the Watt steam engine

Watt steam engine

The Watt steam engine was the first type of steam engine to make use of steam at a pressure just above atmospheric to drive the piston helped by a partial vacuum...

. A key development was the invention at Coalbrookdale

Coalbrookdale

Coalbrookdale is a village in the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, containing a settlement of great significance in the history of iron ore smelting. This is where iron ore was first smelted by Abraham Darby using easily mined "coking coal". The coal was drawn from drift mines in the sides...

in the early 18th century of coke

Coke

Coke may refer to:* Coca-Cola, a soft drink originally based on coca leaf extract** The Coca-Cola Company, makers of this drink** Cola, any soft drink similar to Coca-Cola** Soft drink, any non-alcoholic carbonated beverage* Coca, a plant...

which could be used to make pig iron

Pig iron

Pig iron is the intermediate product of smelting iron ore with a high-carbon fuel such as coke, usually with limestone as a flux. Charcoal and anthracite have also been used as fuel...

in the blast furnace

Blast furnace

A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...

. The development of the steam locomotive

Steam locomotive

A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...

by Trevithick

Trevithick

Trevithick is a surname, and may refer to:* Francis Trevithick , one of the first locomotive engineers of the London and North Western Railway* Paul Trevithick , American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur...

early in the 19th century gave added impetus, and coal consumption grew rapidly as the railway network expanded through the Victorian period. Coal was widely used for domestic heating owing to its low cost and widespread availability. The manufacture of coke also provided coal gas

Coal gas

Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...

, which could be used for heating and lighting.

History

Industrial Revolution

See also