Living Easton

Mining History Index History Index Living Easton Home Page Site Contents

Mining Methods and Mining Waste

George Anstie stated that in 1873 George Leonard of Easton Colliery described the coal seams of Easton below the brickyard as follows:

The main coal seams were reached after passing through about 120 feet of New Red Sandstone at both Easton Pit and Pennywell Road Pit. The coal seams were found at less depth at Pennywell Road because of the ‘rise’ of the strata.

The system of working these seams was called ‘longwall’ mining. This meant that level roads were ‘developed’, then hatchings or cross-gates were turned to the rise every 300 feet at an angle of 50 degrees. Coal was then mined across the seam. As the miners advanced, most of the ‘rubbish’ they produced was put behind them and packed into previous workings. Coal-cutting machines were never used in Bristol because the seams were so thin, sometimes around 12 inches thick. Quite often miners would work in tunnels no higher than 15 or 16 inches high.

Because nearly all ‘rubbish’ was left below ground there were few slag heaps in the Bristol district. Interviews with employees of Messers Stones indicated that the waste that did exist about the pit head at Easton Colliery was, after the pit’s closure, placed down the main shafts or used to level the ground at the pit head or taken in carts to the Speedwell Pit. Nothing is known about what happened to the waste from Pennywell Road Colliery but excavations in the carriageway of Russell Street (which ran between Claremont Street and Goodhind Street and was close to Pennywell Road Colliery) revealed surface deposits of colliery waste to a depth of 2 feet 6 inches.

One of the consequences of the lack of colliery waste is that there are no known examples of fossils from Easton Pits. The Bristol Museum and Art Gallery in Clifton does, however, hold extensive collections of fossils from the Bristol District Coalfield. The R. Crookhall Collection is of particular interest as it contains fossils which come from the nearby Speedwell Pit and are well worth an examination by anyone interested in researching our coal mining history.