This post is part of a series called Somerset Coal Miners
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- High Littleton
- Paulton
- Midsomer Norton – High Street
- Midsomer Norton
- Midsomer Norton Station
- Haydon
- Radstock
- Chilcompton
- Westfield
- Camerton
- Clandown
- Coleford – Coal Barton
- Coleford – Mackintosh
- Holcombe
- Old Mills
- Writhlington
- Timsbury
- Somerset Coal Mining – History!
- Paulton Basin
- Farrington Gurney
- Tunley
- Westfield Old Pit Road
- Newton St Loe
About This Location:
- The lease for the first of the two Camerton Pits was granted in November 13th 1781.
- By 1800 the second or New Pit had been sunk a few hundred yards away.
- The two shafts were connected underground and by a surface tramway.
- Coal delivered by road until the canal was constructed and then by rail on the opening of the GWR branch line from Hallatrow.
- On November 14th 1893 two men were killed in an underground explosion.
- At first the cause of the explosion was a mystery, it was eventually proved the shot firing by the men ignited coal dust in the mines atmosphere.
- Old Pit was closed for coal winding about 1898 it remained open as an airway and escape route for New Pit, until 1928/30 when an underground roadway was open from Braysdown Peasedown Colliery.
- There were two tramways to get the coal away from the pit head, one to Old Pit that was removed around 1910 and converted to a road.
- The second served Meadgate coal depot by an incline worked by an endless rope haulage engine.
- Underground the pit was almost unchanged since opening all the coal got by hand and 60% travelling in tubs to the shaft bottom.
- After nationalisation the use of conveyors was extended.
- A new canteen was opened in 1949.
- The pit closed in 1950 all the men transferred to other collieries.
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 Camerton: