Brandy Bottom

About This Location:

• The site of Brandy Bottom has the protection of being listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument due to Historic England’s view of it as the best-preserved layout of a 19th century steam powered mine in south-west England.
• Situated alongside the Bristol & Gloucestershire Railway, an early horse drawn tramroad, which took coal into Bristol , and was linked to the Avon & Gloucestershire Railway delivering to the Kennet & Avon Canal near Keynsham, the colliery had relatively good transport links particularly when a mainline railway took over.
• The earliest recorded date we have for the site is 1837, when it was known as Lord Radnor’s Pit.
• An inquest report of 1856 contains the first reference to the name Brandy Bottom, but where this name derives from is unknown.
• In 1871 the lease for the site passed to Handel Cossham who had been a part owner of the nearby Parkfield Colliery since 1851. He realised that linking the two operations would offer benefits and they were subsequently connected underground, which meant that Brandy Bottom offered an alternative escape route for trapped miners, one such event happening when a cage at Parkfield became detached from its guides and an ascent at Brandy Bottom saved the day.
• Cossham renamed the pit Parkfield Colliery South Pit, perhaps because a reference to alcohol was unacceptable to him as a member of the temperance movement.
• The winding shaft at Brandy Bottom is 675 ft (206m) deep. but its narrow width of 5’2” (1.57m) meant that its coal raising capacity was limited.
• A Cornish beam engine was used to pump water from the mine via an adjacent shaft.
• The engine house has today lost much of its structure but remains a dominant feature of the site, along with the handsome chimney. Early in the development of the site, a rotative condensing beam engine performed the winding function.

About Somerset Coal:

We believe that Somerset coal was first discovered by the Romans. They were in the West Country 43AD, and there are references to it being used at the Temple of Minerva in Aqua Sulis (Bath). The coal used was probably found in coal outcrops around Stratton-on-the-Fosse, and transported along the Roman road – the Fosseway – for use in Bath.

Early coal workings, from coal outcrops, were largely in the Nettlebridge Valley, around Stratton-on-the-Fosse and Coleford, and to the North of the Coalfield, around High Littleton. It is estimated that output in 1500 was estimated about 10,000 tons a year, and that this had increased 10-fold by the late 1600s…

For even more information and history of Somerset Coal, Click Here. 

The Figure in Bristol