Monument record 14918 - Coal Pits South-west of Clarks Green

A circular earthwork and an old coal pit depicted on historic maps. The earthwork is the upcast surrounding the former shaft entrance to a bell pits. The pits were probably excavated to extract shallow coal deposits in this area. The shaft was dug to the level of the coal, which was them extracted by cutting out from the base of the shaft and hand winched to the surface. Typically no supports (props) were used, which limited the depth and the extent of the workings. Therefore it is quite typical to encounter sequences of bell pits which follow the line of the coal seam. This method of mining coal was in use from the medieval period till at least the eighteenth century.