1872. | The Coal Commussioner’s Report. AI 
1705, when ‘‘ there was above thirty persons, young and old, 
. slain by a blast, perhaps in less than a minute’s time.” 
In 1771 there was formed a combination among the coal 
owners who shipped their coal by the three rivers, the Tyne, 
the Wear, and the Tees, to raise the price of coals to con- 
sumers by restricting the quantity supplied. This combi- 
nation, known as the “‘ limitation of the vend,” lasted, with 
but a few temporary interruptions, until 1845. As this 
restriction did not apply to coal shipped to foreign parts, it 
frequently happened that coal was sold to foreign markets 
at 40 per cent under the prices in the London market. 
About 1791 a feeling grew up in favour of obtaining coal 
from the midland and other coal-producing counties for the 
London market. . 
Coal was first worked in Cumberland, at Whitehaven, by 
Sir John Lowther in 1660, but there does not appear to 
exist any record of the quantity raised until towards the end 
of the 18th century. Little appears to be now known of the 
early history of the Lancashire coal-fields. In the Cheshire 
coal-field, coal is said to have been first opened in Nerse 
township in 1750. ‘The early history of coal mining in 
Yorkshire is very obscure; but it is stated in an early 
number of the ‘‘ Leeds Intelligencer,” a local newspaper, that 
in 1752 a petition was prepared for Parliament for rendering 
the Calder navigable, the chief object being the conveyance 
of coal. The Derbyshire coal-fields are referred to by 
Pilkington,* who wrote in 1789; and Cambden, in his 
‘* Natural History of Warwickshire, A.D. 1730,” was perhaps 
the first to record any fa¢ts relative to what is known as the 
Staffordshire coal distri¢t. Shropshire from a very early 
period appears to have yielded from its stores fuel for the 
use of man. Shropshire coal has been found in the ruins of 
Uriconium. The earliest record of any colliery workings in 
this county however, appear in the “‘ Leeds Intelligencer” for 
November 23rd, 1756. The first notice of the production 
of coal in the Forest of Dean appears to be supplied 
by the records of the Justice Seat held at Gloucester in 
1282, where it is stated that sea coal was claimed by six of 
the ten bailiffs of the Forest of Dean. Coal was sent 
to London from South Wales as early as 1745, and in North 
Wales the Mostyn Collieries date from the 23rd year of the 
reign of Edward I. Amongst the earliest reliable accounts 
of the Scotch coal-field, we find that in the twelfth century, 
* A View of the Present State of Derbyshire, with an Acconnt of its most 
Remarkable Antiquities, &c. By James PitxineTon. Derby, 1789. 
VOL AL... (Ness) G 
