INDUSTRIES 



which the buyers for the midland counties south 

 and east of Derbyshire would purchase, and 

 only such were deemed ' hard coals ' as could 

 be loaded into the boats in pieces from near the 

 size of a man's head at the smallest to the largest 

 pieces which could be lifted by two or three 

 men. In consequence the waste of soft coals, 

 ' in hurrying after the hard seams because more 

 saleable,' was enormous. But one 43 serious 

 attempt had at this time been made to introduce 

 the coals of the Erewash district to the London 

 market, ' where owing to the heavy expense on 

 inland navigation before they reached the mouth 

 of the Humber, and then paying the same duty 

 on being sea-carried as those from Newcastle 

 and its neighbourhood, the adventure was attended 

 with considerable loss.' In 1819 a railroad or 

 tramway was completed from Pinxton Wharf to 

 Mansfield. The iron wagons 43 with the coal 

 were drawn by horses as far as Kirkby Summit, 

 and thence by their own weight came into 

 Mansfield, their speed being controlled by block- 

 ing the wheels with pieces of wood. After 

 discharging, the empty wagons were drawn up 

 to the Summit again and then descended to 

 Pinxton in the same manner as they came to 

 Mansfield. In 1847, however, the Erewash 

 Valley Railway line was brought into the town. 



With the railway era a great development 

 took place in the coal industry of the shire, 

 and extensive operations were entered into by 

 Mr. Thomas North, who by 1856 was the 

 owner on long leases of some 9,500 acres of 

 continuous coalfield, the centre of this activity 

 being the Cinder Hill Colliery in Basford, held 

 under the Duke of Newcastle, where in 1841 a 

 pair of y-ft. pits had been commenced and carried 

 to a depth of 666 ft. High hopes were already 

 beginning to be entertained of a wide extension 

 of the then narrow area of the visible Notting- 

 hamshire coalfield. 



A popular account of the Cinder Hill Colliery 

 as it was in the middle 'fifties of the last cen- 

 tury will be found in Rambles round Nottingham,** 

 published in 1856. The visitor, who was much 

 impressed with the latest types of engines used 

 at Cinder Hill, noticed that at the Babbington Col- 

 lieries the great pumping engine was still a 'noble 

 specimen of the old gigantic walking beam struc- 

 ture of James Watt, with the parallel joints.' 

 It was of 1 2O horse-power, and possessed a 

 pumping-rod of 1 86 ft. Another engine on the 

 high-pressure principle at this colliery was of 

 40 horse-power, and served to put 2,000 tons of 

 coal a week out of a pit 150 yds. deep. 



In 1854 the Duke of Newcastle began the 

 great work of the sinking of two pits at Shire- 

 oaks, near the Nottinghamshire border. This 



41 Farey, Gen. View of Agric. and Min. Derb. ( 1 8 1 1), 

 i, 185. 



43 Groves, Hist, of Mansfield, 358. 



44 Op. cit. 330. 



2 



enterprise 45 was carried out under the superin- 

 tendence of Mr. John Lancaster. In March of 

 this year sinkings began, and although consider- 

 able difficulties were encountered, the first thick 

 coal, 4 ft. 6 in. in section, of good quality, was 

 cut at a depth of 346 yds. This was identified 

 with the Clown or Wathwood coal of the 

 Derbyshire and South Yorkshire district. At 

 381 yds. 8 in. the Furnace coal was cut, and 

 the Hazles coal at 428 yds. I ft. 1 1 in. Finally, 

 on I February 1859, at a depth of 509 yds. 5 in., 

 the Top Hard coal, the main object of the 

 undertaking, was reached. 



In 1 86 1 the principal collieries 46 working 

 round Nottingham were the Cinder Hill, New- 

 castle, Kimberley, and Babbington, belonging to 

 Mr. North ; the Radford, Catstone Hill, and 

 Old Engine-pit, near Trowell Moor, the property 

 of Lord Middleton ; and the Watnall Colliery. 



In 1860 twenty-one collieries were at work 

 in Nottinghamshire, nine years later there were 

 twenty-six. 47 In 1862 the output of coal 

 reached 732,666 tons. In 1867 the figures 

 were 1,575,000 tons, more than double the 

 quantity raised five years before. 



During the last quarter of a century an 

 enormous development has taken place in the 

 Nottinghamshire coalfield, and the Chesterfield 

 to Lincoln line assists to carry the new sup- 

 plies of coal opened out beneath the Triassic 

 strata, especially on the Portland and Newcastle 

 estates. The Mansfield district is being rapidly 

 developed, and although the industry is said to 

 be handicapped by high railway rates, every four 

 or five years a colliery is sunk here, each proving 

 a further area of coal beyond. The output is 

 largely a good steam coal, and several Scottish coal 

 owners have turned their attention to the district. 



The amount of coal conveyed by water- 

 carriage has during the last thirty years still 

 further decreased, and is now insignificant. In 

 1 88 i the Digby collieries, situated at Giltbrook, 

 used water-carriage 48 for at least 25 per cent, 

 of their output, in the year 1906 the figure 

 was only -37 per cent. Equally instructive was 

 the evidence of Sir John Turney 49 before the 

 recent Royal Commission : 



I have been connected with a colliery for thirty 

 years, and we turn out 7,000 tons a week ; we 

 spent a good de.il of money some years ago in making 

 a tip and everything for tipping the coal directly out 

 of the tram from our colliery on to barges on the 

 River Trent, and we thought we were going to have 

 a considerable trade. We sent a lot of coal for a 

 time, but the river got into a bad condition, and 

 after a number of barges had got on the shoals and 

 rolled over and the coal had all gone, we ceased to 

 send our coal in that way. 



45 See account by Messrs. Lancaster and Wright in 

 Quart. Journ. Geal. Soc. xvi, 137. 



46 Aveline, Geol. of Country round Nttt. 10. 

 '" Rep. Com. Coal Supply (1871), iii, 89. 



48 Rep. Com. Canals ( 1908), iii, 9,. 49 Ibid. 468. 



