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
- Clandown
- Brandy Bottom
About This Location:
- Edford pit was sunk in 1863
- There was two shafts, in the later years a single 2 deck cage was wound in each shaft.
- Between the shafts were the winding engine and Lancashire boiler
- In 1864 a new waybridge was installed for £60 for road traffic which at the time was the sole mean for coal disposal. Horses carts and later engines used this.
- Similar to other pits in the mendips Eford has to contend with very poor underground conditions
- On February 1886 there was an explosion that killed 2 men. It set fire to part of the workings. As a result the lower part of the shaft had to be closed off.
- in 1887 Coke and Coal was taken 4 miles to Radstock train station for dispatch
- The pit closed in 1915.
- The last pit in Holcombe closed in 1923
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.