Coal Pits
Archeological evidence suggests that ancient Britons were harvesting coal even before the Roman occupation.[1] England’s avant-garde use of coal resulted from its easy accessibility in natural outcroppings. When the demand for coal surpassed this convenient supply, miners expanded their industry to hole mining and quarrying.
Metal smiths used coal with charcoal in the production of wrought iron, but its use naturally expanded to domestic fuel. Coal was first used in English monasteries for cooking and heat. Extant written records appear from the ninth century, first documenting that the Abbey of Peterborough received a delivery of twelve cartloads “of fossil or pit-coal.”[2]
The population of the large English cities reached record highs in the fourteenth century (before the arrival of the Great Plague) and wood consumption for building timber and cooking and heating fuel reached unprecedented levels. Forests began to vanish at an alarming rate. Both readily available and relatively inexpensive, coal emerged as the popular solution to this urban fuel crisis.
Upon entering one of England’s largest cities such as York or London during the winter months, you would find the sooty, acrid stench of coal almost unbearable. The unique smell comes from coal smoke’s production of ferrous ferric oxide, particles of magnetic iron oxide similar to those produced by meteorites burning as they enter earth’s atmosphere. Congested urban coal smoke would aggravate your eyes and lungs with a burning sensation, and you would feel the particles of this medieval air pollution clinging to your skin—that is, until you became accustomed to it.
England’s insatiable coal consumption left an indelible print on the landscape. The countryside was pocked with abandoned pit mines, many of which collapsed and filled with water. Medieval wayfarers, therefore, would be wise beware these hazardous holes!
- Ann Scott -
[1] “Industry Through the Ages.” A Study of the Development of Flint, Flintshire, North Wales,
http://www.fflint.co.uk/industry.html (accessed 12 May 2010).
[2] “Industry Through the Ages.”
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