The Kent Coalfield was a coalfield

Coalfield

A coalfield is an area of certain uniform characteristics where coal is mined. The criteria for determining the approximate boundary of a coalfield are geographical and cultural, in addition to geological...

 located in the eastern part of the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of 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...

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Coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 was discovered in the area in 1890 while borings for an early Channel Tunnel

Channel Tunnel

The Channel Tunnel is a undersea rail tunnel linking Folkestone, Kent in the United Kingdom with Coquelles, Pas-de-Calais near Calais in northern France beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. At its lowest point, it is deep...

 project were taking place and the resultant Shakespeare colliery lasted until 1915. In the early years many collieries were sunk but failed and the East Kent Light Railway

East Kent Light Railway

The East Kent Light Railway was part of the Colonel Stephens group of cheaply built rural light railways in England. Holman Fred Stephens was engineer from its inception, subsequently becoming director and manager...

 was built to exploit the anticipated business. Extensive plans had been drawn up by 1914 for major coal exploitation in east Kent, but the outbreak of war and disappointing test results eventually resulted in only four collieries surviving: Betteshanger

Betteshanger

Betteshanger is a village near Deal in East Kent, England. It gave its name to the largest of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield.-Before the coal mine:...

, Chislet

Chislet

Chislet is a sprawling rural parish in the northeast of the English county of Kent between the city of Canterbury and the Isle of Thanet. It is also the name of a village within the parish....

, Snowdown

Snowdown

Snowdown is a village near Dover in Kent, England. It was the location of one of the four chief collieries of the Kent coalfield....

 and Tilmanstone

Tilmanstone

Tilmanstone is a small village in Kent, in the South East of England, near Eastry a much bigger and more developed area. Tilmanstone has no schools, few shops and a church and town hall. The population of Tilmanstone often work for the nearby companies, such as Pfizer or Tilmanstone Salads, or in...

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