INDUSTRIES 



son of Richard of Cossall.' Amongst other 

 Cossall miners mentioned in this deed were 

 Robert Plomer and John Shepherd. 8 



A few notices of the Nottingham coalfield 

 are found amongst the charters of the reli- 

 gious houses of the county. It is not improbable 

 that the Prior and convent of Newstead, who 

 are mentioned in the deeds last quoted, had some 

 interest in this mine at Cossall, but the Carthu- 

 sian house of Beauvale in particular had a long 

 connexion with the mining industry of Notting- 

 hamshire, especially at Newthorpe, Selston, and 

 Kimberley. A lease 9 granted by these religious 

 in the third year of Richard II reveals several 

 points of interest. By this instrument they gave 

 to Robert Pascayll, William FitzHenry, Henry 

 Marchall, and William Cock, all of Eastwood 

 (Estwayt) to three Denby men, Henry Gyllyng, 

 John Horseley, and John Boliwod, and to Roger 

 Rage of Horsley Woodhouse ' tout le myne de car- 

 boun de meer qe a eux appartient dedeinz le soill 

 de Neufeld de Neuthorp ' at an annual rent of 5 

 marks, which, however, was not due until coal was 

 found, the output being apparently limited and 

 determined by a restriction as to the number of 

 miners working. As long as the lessees carried 

 out their contract the Carthusians would permit 

 no competitors to work coal within the soil of 

 Newfield, but retained the right to enter again 

 and enjoy their own property if the rent were 

 allowed to fall a quarter in arrear. 



Nearly three quarters of a century after, in 

 1457, William Arnalde granted 10 to the Prior 

 and convent of Beauvale accepto precio all his 

 coals underground within the parish of Selston 

 with power to sink shafts (puteos facere), and make 

 drains (fossas faceri), as well as timber and under- 

 wood for ' punches 11 and proppes,' for a term of 

 ninety-nine years at a yearly rent of I mark. In 

 confirmatory deeds of slightly later date connected 

 with this grant we hear of the aqueductum voca- 

 tum le Sughy the adit or drainage level so often 

 met with in coal-mining when the industry had 

 passed beyond the stage of open-cast works. The 

 sough was certainly known and probably em- 

 ployed in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, as in 

 Durham, before this time, 12 the tendency to avoid 



8 In 1394 a petition was presented to Parliament 

 complaining of the unjust extortion by the constable 

 of Nottingham Castle of \d. on every load of coals 

 carried by the highway through the forest of Sherwood 

 for the use of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, 

 and this, notwithstanding a prohibition of the same, 

 to the great damage of the king's lieges (Purl. R. iii, 

 3300). It is possible, however, that the 'coals' here 

 mentioned referred to charcoal. 



9 Cart. Misc. Aug. Off. ii, no. 211 (Tuesday after 

 Nat. of St. John Baptist 3 Ric. II). 



10 P.R.O. Anct. D. B. 3217. 



11 ' Joists,' i.e. for the timbering of the mine. 



18 In the reign of Edward I adits were commonly 

 employed in the Devonshire silver-lead mines, and at 

 these hundreds of Midland miners were employed. 



it as long as outcrop coal was to be got naturally 

 proceeding from a fear of the serious expenditure 

 its construction demanded. According to the 

 terms of the lease, during the period of the con- 

 struction of the ' Sugh,' no rent was to be ex- 

 acted. 



Coal from these Selston pits found during the 

 1 5th century a ready sale in Nottingham, 

 and we hear 13 of a bond in 100*. given by Elys 

 Dey, of Watnall Cantelupe, husbandman to 

 Richard Ody, of Nottingham, draper, for the 

 delivery at Nottingham of ten wain-loads of 

 coal called ' Pytte Coles at the feast of St. Peter's 

 Chains 1483' every wain-load to con tain a whole 

 ' roke ' of coals of ' Selston Pitte ' and another 

 10 loads on the 14 September following. 'For- 

 stalling ' was an offence not unknown, and some 

 years earlier, complaint u was made that one 

 Thomas Marshall, at a place in Nottingham 

 called ' SandeclifF,' ' forestalled 4 wain-loads of sea 

 coals, not allowing those coals to be led and 

 carried to the king's market in the town afore- 

 said.' 



In 1459 we near15 of another religious house, 

 the priory of Lenton, acquiring from the Carthu- 

 sians of Beauvale a certain portion of their ' under- 

 ground coals ' in Newfield, measuring 30 ' pik- 

 shafts ' in length and 8 selions in breadth, 2 acres 

 in all, for a term of seven years. The fine paid 

 at entrance was 10. Probably no extensive 

 operations at a great depth were contemplated in 

 this lease, for it was agreed that the Prior of 

 Lenton and his assigns after obtaining their coal 

 should fill up the pits and make them level with 

 soil, with the proviso, however, that 'if the 

 said pits (j>utet) should seem to the Prior of Beau- 

 vale very good and necessary,' then they shall be 

 delivered to him and his successors open, in order 

 that the coals remaining there might be taken 

 out. 16 



The Carthusians of Beauvale retained an in- 

 terest in certain of the coal-mines on their property 

 until the Dissolution, as for instance those at 

 Kimberley, 17 where an annual profit of ^13 was 

 mainly derived from this source. Apparently 

 the Selston coal-mines had been leased on a long 

 term 18 by the priory to John Garnon as the Dis- 

 solution drew near. 



During the 1 6th century the coal-mines of 

 Wollaton and Strelley were wrought with 

 energy, and their exploitation was so profitable 

 as to lead to sharp bickering and consequent 

 actions at law between the Willoughbys and 



" Stevenson, Rec. Boro. Nod. ii, 421. 



14 Ibid. 264. 



15 Cart. Misc. Aug. Off. xiii, no. 1 06. 



16 There is also a clause providing that even within 

 the seven years' term the Prior of Beauvale shall have 

 ' eisiamentum suum in dictis puteis' whenever he shall 

 think it necessary. 



17 Dugdale, Man. vi, 14. 



18 L. and P. Hen. fill, xv, 560. 



325 



