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The Kingswood Miners.
A Brief Chronology of the KINGSWOOD Coalmines
1228; First mention of coal-working in Kingswood Forest in The Great Pipe Roll. The names of some early miners are given.
1564; The Hundred of Barton Regis is sold by the Crown with no specific mention of Kingswood Chase in the deeds. More than a century of legal dispute concerning ownership of the Chase, particularly in view of the coal veins. The local 'Lords' carve up the area between themselves calling these lands 'Liberties' after themselves. They sell spurious leases to mining adventurers who bring in a large workforce. These erect squatters cottages all over Kingswood. Kingswood's reputation as a lawless area begins.
1608: A 'View' taken of all able bodied men fit to serve in the King's Army. 'Men and Armour for Gloucestershire'. Many men in parishes of Bitton, Mangotsfield ,etc. are shown as 'collier' or 'coalminer'.
1709; Kingswood colliers march on Bristol in protest at the price of bread.
1714; Kingswood colliers falsely accused of riot in Bristol against the Hanoverian succession of George I. They are described as 'black bigots' who would do anything for drink.
1727; Kingswood colliers riot against installation of turnpikes. The disturbances continue for six years.
1738; Colliers strike against a cut in wages. A week of mayhem against Bristol. A regiment of foot march into Kingswood to break the strike.
1739; George Whitfield and John Wesley come to Kingswood to convert the colliers. Kingswood becomes a centre of Methodist. John Cennick becomes first schoolmaster.
1740; March on Bristol against the high price of bread diffused by Charles Wesley. A peaceful demonstration at the Council House.
1749; Bitton turnpike blown up with gunpowder in token support of Bedminster rising. Armed colliers patrol the woods by night to counter invasions of their territory by Bristol Militia.
1753; Kingswood colliers march on Bristol in protest against price of bread. A number killed by armed citizens who are ordered to fire into the crowd. Many arrested. Principal ringleaders not given up to authorities despite large prices on their heads.
1756: Colliers Friendly Society meets at The. White Hart, Hanham to provide relief of each other in a brotherly manner during time of sickness and injury.
1779; Kingswood pits are said to be of 'prodigious depth'. The Duke of Beaufort's a Two Mile Hill, 107 fathoms (642 feet). 1791; The Kingswood collier Benjamin Brain becomes Champion of England. The prize ring offers a legitimate escape from the pits. Others take another traditional path to improvement. Petty crime is rife in the area. Many young Kingswood men end their lives on the gallows. It becomes a Kingswood custom to exhibit the corpses of the executed at the roadside to collect money for funeral expenses from passers-by.
1792; The colliers assemble in a large peaceful body asking for an increase in wages of 10 pence per week to bring them in line with the Somerset miners. Some people suggest this is a riot and write worried letters to each other. However the Duke of Beaufort 'interests himself on their behalf and they return cheerfully to work'.
1795; William Blathwayt of Dyrham Park attempts collection of taxes and is burnt in effigy. Colliers on strike. Two tax collectors are imprisoned in a coalpit overnight by colliers and cheekily charged for their lodgings - payment to be made in gin and gingerbread. Rewards offered by Bristol Council for arrest of Edward Peacock, Henry Lewis, Jacob Porter, Moses Isles, William Fry and George Johnson who had been holding up traffic on Bristol road and preventing coal and provisions from entering the city. George and Richard Johnson arrested. (It is tempting to think that this is the same Richard Johnson who, celebrating his release from gaol, got drunk and fell into the pit at St.George.)
1798; 'Foul air' breaks out in a coalpit belonging to Mr Whittuck of Hanham, who had stopped up an air passage between his pit and one of the Duke of Beaufort's adjoining. Twenty nine of Whittuck's workers trapped. All brought out alive by Beaufort's men.
1811; Kingswood a 'centre of organised villainy'. Almost half the petty crime in the entire county of Gloucester committed by people who lived in or around the parish of Bitton. A judge remarks testily that he believes he has already hanged everybody from the place. Kingswood Association set up at the Flower Pot inn,Kingswood Hill to suppress the crime wave.
1813; Foundation stone laid for a school in Cock Road, the first since Cennick's almost a century before. Colliers give their labour free to clear and level the ground and dig foundations.
1831; Henry Hill Budgett, grocer, philanthropist and Kingswood resident defends the colliers who are falsely accused of taking part in the Bristol Riots.
1832-3: Cholera epidemic.
1834: Kingswood Benevolent Society meets with H.O. Wills in the chair. Kingswood 'now degraded by poverty of the most abject description.' 1000 collected and distributed to 6,625 deserving cases. A further 100 is found towards starting a field garden system.
1841: Elijah Waring reports to the Commissioners on the Employment of Children and Young Persons in the Mines of South Gloucestershire. John Harvey who says he is 13 but only looks nine or ten years of age is a carter in Crown Pit, Warmley. with another boy he draws two hundredweight of coals at a time. Says he eats 'whatever he can catch'; does not go to the Sunday School because he has no clothes other than those he works in. Earns 6d a day; his brother earns 2/6d a week in the same pit. He sometimes works the night shift for an extra 6d. cannot read. Never had a pair of shoes or stockings in his life. Had once worked in the pit three days without food.
1865; Wages dispute against Brain & Co, mine-owners. A hundred and fifty colliers summonsed by the company for going on strike. Samuel Cool taken by Lawford's Gate magistrates as a test case. Found in favour of the men. Carrier pigeons bedecked with blue ribbons to denote victory sent flying into Kingswood.
1874; General Strike throughout the mining industry. Reduction of wages. Several convictions for assault against Kingswood miners against those who continued to work. Open letter from the miners addressed to Western Daily Press; 'We the miners of the Bristol district are now struggling for what we consider is just and right. Our wages are just about enough to live on from hand to mouth and seeing the danger we are exposed to and the risk of life and limb to bring all their comfort we think we are entitled to a fair days wage for a fair days work. We earnestly solicit your sympathy in our present struggle. All monies given to the support of the miners in the Bristol district will be paid back in due time, double.'
1894; Miners strike at Parkfield. Strikes in 1911 and 1926,
1928: Closure of Deep Pit.
1932; Speedwell Pit threatened with closure then reprieved.
1936: Speedwell Pit closed. Parkfield Pit closed.
KING COAL - KINGSWOOD MINERS
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