Coal mining and the landscape of England, 1700 to the present day

Abstract

From 1700 coal was an important source of energy in the development of industry in England. Medieval and early modern pits were located where coal outcropped or was close to the surface and was used only locally and on a small scale. But the development first of turnpike roads, then of canals and finally of railways (themselves fuelled by coal) enabled coal to replace water as the major source of energy. The influence of coal can still be seen in the present- day English landscape, and not just in the various lines of communication, many of which still exist. Although most of the collieries that have worked over the last three hundred years have now closed, sufficient remain, either as working pits or mining museums, to show what a typical colliery was like, with the various components of headgear, heapstead, winding-engine house, control room, screens building, pithead baths, etc. Alongside the pits was the accommodation for the colliery workforce and their families; initially colliers lived amongst the local community, but as larger pits were developed, purpose-built housing was erected specifically for the colliery communities. As well as the housing, these villages incorporated other elements, such as pigeon lofts, allotments and welfare clubs, for the miners' leisure time. Earlier in the twentieth century coal-handling facilities were a frequent sight. Now these have disappeared and the only major element of the end use of coal still visible in the landscape are the coal-fired power stations and their associated waste-ash piles; railways and shipping are now powered by oil, and many power stations also now use gas or nuclear power, although if carbon capture and storage (CCS) can be made economically viable, coal may yet come back into favour for providing large-scale power.

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