The mining of coal has shaped England’s villages, towns, cities and landscapes for hundreds of years.
Coal mining in Britain dates back to Roman times but increased dramatically during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries.
At its peak in 1913, there were around 2,600 working pits, employing a workforce of about 1,100,000 people. Britain produced 287,000,000 tonnes of coal for domestic and foreign consumption.
Is coal still being mined in England?
The last coal mine closed in 2015. Today, there are no major working coal mines in England.
Strong mining communities developed as people moved to towns and villages to work in mines, bringing people a strong sense of local identity and heritage.
Here are some examples.
1. Sunderland, Tyne and Wear
By the 17th century, collieries in the counties of Durham and Northumberland dominated coal production in England.
By the beginning of the next century, around 40% of England’s coal came from pits in the North East.
In the 19th century, large coal reserves were discovered deep beneath layers of limestone. Wearmouth Colliery was one of the first pits driven through the limestone.
In 1846, a seam was discovered at a depth of 1,720 feet, making Wearmouth Colliery the deepest in the country at that time.
After coal production ceased in 1993, the site was cleared and redeveloped to become the home of the Stadium of Light, Sunderland AFC’s new football ground.
However, the coal staithe and lime kilns remain and are protected. In Northumberland, the former Woodhorn Colliery is open as Woodhorn Museum.
2. Elsecar, South Yorkshire
The hamlet of Elsecar Green and its surrounding land was bought during the 17th century by the Wentworth family.
In the 1790s, the 4th Earl Fitzwilliam built Elsecar New Colliery to mine coal, with 2 ironworks and a canal to take his products away.
Today, the colliery’s Newcomen engine and its engine house still stand. They’re a fantastic survival of the original machinery in the building created for it and form part of the Elsecar Heritage Centre.
Some contemporaries considered Elsecar to be a model industrial community.
Reform Row, a terrace of 28 houses, dates to 1837 and was built on the Fitzwilliam estate for mine workers.
Between 2017 and 2020, Elsecar was a Heritage Action Zone. Read more about this historic mining town.
3. Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Coal had been dug on the outskirts of Wakefield for centuries but expanded dramatically during the Industrial Revolution.
By the time the industry was nationalised (following the Second World War), the National Coal Board was among Wakefield’s largest employers.
The National Coal Mining Museum for England is based at the site of Caphouse Colliery in Overton.
In 1952, the Board established the Coal Industry Housing Association, which aimed to build nearly 20,000 new homes. 312 houses were built at Townville in Wakefield.
4. Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire
By the 19th century, pits in Staffordshire dominated coal production in the West Midlands, a region that produced 23% of all coal mined in England.
Chatterley Whitfield Colliery was the largest pit in Staffordshire. At its peak, it employed over 4,000 men.
Originally a site of several small pits, these were taken over in 1853, and production expanded as new shafts were sunk.
Coal production at Chatterley Whitfield finally ended in 1977. The Friends of Chatterley Whitfield have opened a heritage centre and arrange tours and other activities.
5. Rotherham, South Yorkshire
By the end of the 19th century, the pits of Yorkshire and the East Midlands produced more coal than those of Durham and Northumberland.
In 1889, new pits were sunk in South Yorkshire at Bentley, Brodsworth, Dinnington, Frickley, Grimethorpe and Silverwood in Rotherham to exploit the newly sunk Barnsley seam.
Work to sink 2 shafts at Silverwood Colliery began in 1900, and the Barnsley seam was reached in 1903.
With 2,593 men working underground, it had the largest workforce in Yorkshire. It was also believed to be the largest mine in the country working a single seam.
The last shift by miners at Silverwood took place in December 1994.
6. St Helens, Merseyside
Following the nationalisation of the coal industry in 1947, investment was spent on reconstructing existing pits.
One of the few new pits to be established was Parkside Colliery in the Lancashire coalfield.
Work started on sinking 2 shafts in 1957, and production began in March 1964. Enormous reinforced concrete winding towers were built over each shaft.
Production peaked in the mid-1970s. Around this time, 1,600 people were employed at Parkside, and 762,000 tonnes of coal were produced in a year. Coal production ceased in 1992 and Parkside closed the following year.
The Lancashire Mining Museum is based at the former Astley Green Colliery.
7. Houghton le Spring, Tyne and Wear
Around the end of the 19th century, several organisations were established to build and administer homes for retired miners.
Sadly, disabled and retired miners and the widows of miners could all face eviction from homes owned by the coal companies.
The largest was the Durham Aged Miners’ Homes Association. Funds were obtained by a non-compulsory levy on miners working in the Durham coalfield.
One of the Association developments was the Joicey Aged Miners’ Homes, built at Houghton le Spring in 1906.
The terrace of 12 dwellings is built in yellow brick with bands of red brick and Welsh slate roofs. They are named after one of the county’s principal mine-owning families.
8. New Bolsover, Derbyshire
In 1891, work began on New Bolsover, a new village for the Bolsover Colliery Company.
It was designed by architects Brewill and Bailey as a model village, with houses arranged around a large green.
A tramway was built between the rows of the miners’ houses to transport workers from their homes to the pit. It was also used to transport waste from the pit and workers’ houses.
New Bolsover also had a school, institute, co-operative store, churches and an orphanage.
9. South Hetton, County Durham
The village of South Hetton exists because of South Hetton Colliery. The mine was built in 1831, and in less than a decade, a settlement with a population of around 6,000 had evolved.
South Hetton Colliery closed in 1983. Its 152 year association with the village is recorded in this mural, painted on the end wall of the community’s branch library.
10. Coleford, Gloucestershire
Coal has been mined in the Forest of Dean through freemining since the Middle Ages.
During the nationalisation of the coal industry, the Forest of Dean was exempt due to its unique history.
Hopewell drift mine opened in 1976, working the Coleford High Delph seam, which produces coal of high calorific value.
Hopewell Colliery continues to be a working mine and museum that is open for tours. The old furnace level at the colliery is protected.
Further reading
Great information and captures of our heritage and homage to the brave Men, (Women and Children in some areas) that helped create our Industrial Revolution and launched us into the wider world.
Interesting post. I was looking to see if less traditional areas were mentioned. I trained as a nurse in Canterbury and Betshanger Colliery was nearby.
https://www.dovermuseum.co.uk/Exhibitions/Coal-Mining-in-Kent/History/Betteshanger-Colliery.aspx
Also Snowdown, Tilmanstone and Chislet. There remain still I think some very good buildings at Snowdown, as they were never nationalised, and one is listed. The baths were mentioned in Pevsner but were demolished upon closure. It was pretty brutal – even the school was closed. Regeneration e.g. at Betteshanger with Hadlow College has not been an unalloyed success.
I didn’t see any mention of the Cumberland (now Cumbria) in this article
No mention of Somerset or Kent?
I am surprised Middle Engine Pit, Nailsea, North Somerset, didn’t make the list. I think the only surviving example of a 17th century coal mine using a steam engine.
I was very interested to see Silverwood Colliery included, as I lived close to it for the first 19 years of my life. My father worked there for a while, as did his father and three of his brothers, some for 40 years. I remember the disaster when 9 men died and others were injured, and the visit by the Queen much later, after I had left. I was fortunate enough to be in the generation that ‘escaped’ to university. I became an archaeologist, another form of digging down.