A DARK AND DANGEROUS PROFESSION
Stroll the streets of Southville, Bedminster and Ashton and you are walking above a fascinating part of Bristol's industrial history. The ground beneath you is a honeycomb of disused coal mines which had been worked since 1748. Local historian Maurice Fells takes up the story
By 1800, 18 collieries - stretching from South Liberty Lane in Ashton Vale to Dean Lane in Bedminster - provided not only vast amounts of coal for Bristol's burgeoning industries, but the pay packets for hundreds of families.Between 1801 and 1884, the population of Bedminster rocketed from about 3,000 to 78,000 as people flocked in from the Somerset countryside in search of work.
These men, many of whom had once been agricultural workers, went to work in the dark each day not knowing if they would return home. Rock falls were the most common form of accidents but explosions in the confined conditions were not unknown and, on average, one miner a month was killed.
So-called 'after damp' was a problem in the Bedminster operations. It would descend to the lower parts of the mine and could cause suffocation. The Smyth family of Ashton Court held the mineral rights to what lay below many acres of land in South Bristol and by the 1820s more than a dozen pits were being worked within sight of the mansion.
The owner of the Dean Lane pit, Henry Bennett, a mining engineer originally from the Kingswood area, had to negotiate with Sir Jarrit Smyth over the percentage of royalties to be paid. It was a lucrative business, with the Smyths receiving eight pence for every ton of coal mined.
By the 1880s many of the smaller concerns had become part of four large ones employing up to half the adult population of the area - South Liberty, Ashton Vale, the Argus Pit (also called the Malago Pit) in West Street and Dean Lane.
Dean Lane, which closed exactly 100 years ago, was the largest colliery in the area. Its workings extended down some 1,000 feet, under the New Cut, beneath Temple Meads station and out towards Barton Hill. The colliery had its own distribution yard in East Street, Bedminster (Woolworth's store now occupies the site).
More than 400 men and boys were employed both underground and on the surface. Some were just 14 years old, working alongside their fathers. Mining also kept the local hauliers busy - it was reported that up to 50 of them would wait up all night with their horses and carts for the coal to come down the chutes.
Each Friday night the miners gathered in the Clarence Hotel in Dean Lane opposite the pit to be paid; no doubt improving the landlord's profits at the same time. Their wages were between £2 and £3 a week depending on productivity.
But, on September 10, 1886, tragedy struck the tightly-knit mining community. An explosion in the pit claimed the lives of nine men and injured many others. A relief fund was quickly set up for their families.
A survivor told a coroner's inquest that he heard a noise 'like a cannon which knocked him off his legs'. A boy said that his hat was blown off, his lamp blown out and gas 'lit up the whole place'.
The coroner heard that gas had collected in an archway in a shaft and then somehow ignited, but it was unclear why this had happened. A verdict of accidental death - the colliers had died from suffocation - was returned by the inquest jury.
An inquiry into such a serious accident was held by the government's Inspector of Mines and a barrister. The 10-page report delivered to both Houses of Parliament a year later said that the miners were using naked flames to give themselves light by which to work.
'This is a custom generally used in Bristol pits which are considered 'non-fiery'. There is no negligence on the part of the managers,' said the report.
If the colliery owners could prove no liability then there would be no compensation for the bereaved families.
Dean Lane colliery closed in September 1906, as it was no longer profitable. Just four weeks previously, Isaac Cleverley, aged 39, had been killed when some drams had broken loose and crushed him.
Dame Emily Smyth gave the pit-head site to Bristol Corporation, who turned it into a childrens' playground named after her. It is still a popular attraction for many local families.
South Liberty Lane, pioneered in the 1740s to exploit what was known as the Bedminster Great Vein - some four feet thick - was the last pit in the area to close, in 1925.
The workings, which extended some 600 feet below ground, went as far as the Dundry hills. Below Temple Meads, it's said, the miners could tell the time of day by the rumblings of the trains above.
For many years, slag heaps - played on by generations of local boys - were a familiar sight. But today the only reminders of this once thriving industry are an old miner's footbridge over the railway and the names of two pubs - the Miners Arms on Bedminster Down and the Jolly Colliers in West Street.
Argus Road takes its name from the pit. South Bristol's pits were part of the Bristol and Somerset Coalfield which extended from Cromhall in South Gloucestershire down to Radstock and across to Nailsea. Kilmersdon and Writhlington pits around Radstock were the very last to be worked, the final tubs of coal being brought to the surface in 1973.
Going underground: Miners are transported down to the coal-face in a rickety contraption. Food and drink: Miners take a break from their dirty and hazardous work.
