i8o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ON THE POPULAR TRADITION THAT 

 COAL EXISTS UNDER BLACKHEATH. 



By T. V. Holmes, F.G.S., etc. 



MOST persons interested in geology must have 

 been asked the question — " Is there any 

 truth in the old tradition that there is coal under 

 Blackheath ? " and have wondered both at the ex- 

 istence of this notion and its wide diffusion. To the 

 geologist the antiquity of this tradition adds much 

 to its strangeness, as it was more or less believed 

 in not merely long before the publication of the 

 views of Godwin Austen on the coal-fields probably 

 lying beneath the Secondary and Tertiary strata 

 of south-eastern England, but long before the very 

 existence of geology as a science. 



Many may remember the appearance of subsi- 

 dences on Blackheath a few years ago. The first 

 disclosed itself on the morning of April 12th, 1878, 

 and in November 18S0 two others appeared. That 

 of 1S78 and the more easterly of the two later ones 

 were almost identical in size and shape, being shaft- 

 like holes nearly 20 feet deep and 7 to 8 feet in 

 diameter, except near the bottom, where they 

 broadened considerably. The third pit was less 

 deep, and might be briefly described as having 

 a shorter shaft and broader bottom than the two 

 others. An attempt to explore one of the deeper 

 holes was made in 1881, by the Lewisham and 

 Blackheath Scientific Association, but the great 

 expense attending the work compelled its cessation 

 before any decided result could be obtained. The 

 Report of the Exploration Committee was published 

 by the Association in July 1 881, no decided con- 

 clusions being put forward by the Committee as a 

 whole. To it were appended some Observations 

 by the present writer, pointing out the immense 

 difficulty of any explanation of the subsidences 

 through the mere agency of water alone, unaided 

 by artificial excavations, and showing that the falling 

 in of the shafts of dene-holes such as that discovered 

 in 1878, at Eltham Park,, would naturally, tend to 

 produce results precisely similar to those presented 

 at Blackheath. It may be useful to add that an 

 account of a visit of the Geologists' Association to 

 Blackheath during the exploration appears in the 

 Record of Excursions published by that Society last 

 year, and that it is illustrated by a map and sections. 



The Blackheath Subsidence Committee, during 

 its deliberations, was favoured with communications 

 from all parts of the country, containing such ex- 

 planations as commended themselves to the writers 

 as the results of their observations in various districts. 

 In addition to descriptions of geological or engineer- 

 ing experiences, the Committee heard of vague popu- 

 lar traditions of underground passages connecting 

 the palaces of Greenwich and Eltham, but no re- 

 ference was made to any legendary coal-sinkings. 



Nor were the latter alluded to by the lord of the 

 manor of Blackheath, with whom the Committee 

 was in communication, and who was a subscriber 

 to its Exploration fund. Yet of all persons the lord 

 of the manor was the most likely to have some 

 record of old borings or sinkings in search for coal, 

 had any been made. 



However, in 18S3, nearly two years after the 

 publication of the Report of the Subsidences Com- 

 mittee, a gentleman who (with many others) applied 

 to the Secretary of the Lewisham and Blackheath 

 Association, Mr. H. W. Jackson, for a copy of the 

 report, mentioned the coal tradition. He wrote r — 

 "It is curious that when I was a boy at school there 

 was some talk of a coal-mine being found on Black- 

 heath which had been forbidden to be worked, as it 

 was said it would interfere with the city dues on coal 

 coming by sea." He added that he first heard of 

 dene-holes in 1819 or 1820. And an archaeological 

 friend of my own, Mr. R. O. Heslop of Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne, lately called my attention to the following 

 note in Mackenzie's "History of Northumberland" 

 (vol. i., p. 161 ; 1S25) : — 



" It is a vulgar error that coals might be dug at 

 Blackheath, near Woolwich, and on other commons 

 near London, if Government had not prohibited 

 their being dug, for encouraging the nursery of 

 seamen, etc. The search for coals in the southern 

 and eastern parts of England has been uniformly 

 unsuccessful. From the immense number and 

 thickness of the known strata which intervene, and 

 which contain no coals or other very valuable 

 matters, it is of no consequence whether coal veins 

 may exist or not in these parts below practicable 

 mining depths. The very open and porous state 

 of some of these strata, the chalks (more than 50 

 fathoms thick), for instance, occasion them to be 

 so powerfully supplied with water, as to render the 

 prospect of sinking even one shaft through them at 

 London utterly hopeless." 



In the above note we have evidence not only that 

 the tradition was known in the north of England 

 early in the present century, but that Government 

 interference was popularly supposed to be the real 

 hindrance to successful coal-mining at Blackheath. 

 The writer in Mackenzie's History, however, pos- 

 sessed sufficient general knowledge of south-eastern 

 geology to prevent him from sharing the view, 

 though his remark that the chalk is more than 

 50 fathoms thick implies that his information about 

 its thickness was derived simply from the deeper 

 well-sections of his time ; for the average thick- 

 ness of the chalk in the district around London is 

 considerably more than 100 fathoms. Anyhow, the 

 geology of the district seems to have been sufficiently 

 understood in mining circles to have prevented any 

 rash attempts to engage seriously in a search for 

 coal at or near Blackheath, and this, in conjunction 

 with the silence on that subject of the lord of the 



