Coal mining in the United Kingdom dates back toRoman times and occurred in many different parts of the country.Britain's coalfields are associated withNorthumberland andDurham,North andSouthWales,Yorkshire,the Scottish Central Belt,Lancashire,Cumbria, theEast andWest Midlands andKent. After 1972,coal mining quickly collapsed and had practically disappeared by the 21st century.[1] Production fell from 228 million tonnes in 1957 to just 107 thousand tonnes in 2024, while coal consumption fell from 216 million to 2 million tonnes in the same time period.[2] Employment in coal mines fell from a peak of 1,191,000 in 1920 to 695,000 in 1956, 247,000 in 1976, 44,000 in 1993, 2,000 in 2015, and to 360 in 2022.[3]
Almost all onshore coal resources in the UK occur in rocks of theCarboniferous period, some of which extend under the North Sea.Bituminous coal is present in most of Britain's coalfields and is 86% to 88% carbon. InNorthern Ireland, there are extensive deposits oflignite which is lessenergy-dense based on oxidation (combustion) at ordinary combustion temperatures.[4] In 2015,EURACOAL estimated that the UK has 3.56 billion tonnes ofhard coal resources.[5]
In 2020, the proposedWoodhouse Colliery gained planning permission but no works have begun, with legal challenges ongoing and no licence in place for seabed mining from theMarine Management Organisation. The planning permission for the mine was later quashed by the High Court.[6]
The United Kingdom's onshore coal resources occur inCarboniferous rocks, some of which extend under the North Sea.[7] The carbon content of the bituminous coal present in most of the coalfields is 86% to 88%.[8]Britain'scoalfields are associated withNorthumberland andDurham,North andSouth Wales,Yorkshire,the Scottish Central Belt,Lancashire,Cumbria, theEast andWest Midlands andKent.
Stone andBronze Age flint axes have been discovered embedded in coal, showing that it was mined in Britain before the Roman invasion. Early miners first extracted coal already exposed on the surface and then followed the seams underground.[9] Howeverseacoal was probably the greatest source in pre-historic times.
It is probable that the Romans used outcropping coal when workingiron orburning lime for building purposes. Evidence to support these theories comes mostly from ash discovered at excavations of Roman sites.[10]
There is no mention of coal mining in theDomesday Book of 1086 althoughlead and iron mines are recorded.[11] In the 13th century, there are records of coal digging inDurham[12] andNorthumberland,[13] Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire,Staffordshire,Lancashire, theForest of Dean,Prestongrange in Lothian[14] andNorth[15] andSouth Wales. At this time coal was referred to assea cole, a reference to coal washed ashore on the north east coast of England from either the cliffs or undersea outcrops. As the supply of coal on the surface became used up, settlers followed the seam inland by digging up the shore. Generally the seam continued underground, encouraging the settlers to dig to find coal, the precursor to modern operations.[9]
The early mines would have beendrift mines oradits where coal seams outcropped or by shallowbell pits where coal was close to the surface.[16] Shafts lined with tree trunks and branches have been found in Lancashire in workings dating from the early 17th century and by 1750 brick lined shafts to 150-foot (45 m) depth were common.
Coal production increased dramatically in the 19th century as theIndustrial Revolution gathered pace, as a fuel forsteam engines such as theNewcomen engine, and later, theWatt steam engine. To produce firewood in the 1860s equivalent in energy terms to domestic consumption of coal would have required 25 million acres (100,000 km2) of land per year, nearly the entire farmland area of England (26 million acres (105,000 km2)).[17]
A key development was the invention atCoalbrookdale in the early 18th century ofcoke which could be used to makepig iron in theblast furnace. The development of thesteam locomotive byTrevithick early in the 19th century gave added impetus, and coal consumption grew rapidly as the railway network expanded through the Victorian period. Coal was widely used for domestic heating owing to its low cost and widespread availability. The manufacture of coke also providedcoal gas, which could be used for heating and lighting. Most of the workers were children and men.[18]
At the beginning of the 19th century, methods of coal extraction were primitive and the workforce – men, women, and children – laboured in dangerous conditions. By 1841 about 216,000 people were employed in the mines. Women and children worked underground for 11 or 12 hours a day for smaller wages than men.[19] The public became aware of conditions in the country's collieries in 1838 after an accident atHuskar Colliery inSilkstone, nearBarnsley. A stream overflowed into the ventilationdrift after violent thunderstorms causing the death of 26 children; 11 girls aged from 8 to 16 and 15 boys between 9 and 12 years of age.[20] The disaster came to the attention ofQueen Victoria who ordered an inquiry.[19] This led to theMines and Collieries Act 1842 (5 & 6 Vict. c. 99), commonly known as the Mines Act 1842, anact of theParliament of the United Kingdom which forbade women and girls of any age to work underground and introduced a minimum age of ten for boys employed in underground work.[19] However, the employment of women did not end abruptly in 1842; with the connivance of some employers, women dressed as men continued to work underground for several years. Penalties for employing women were small and inspectors were few and some women were so desperate for work they willingly worked illegally for less pay.[21] Eventually, theSex Discrimination Act 1975 (c. 65), another act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, was passed protecting women – and men – from discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status, including regarding employment as miners.[22] Also, children continued working underground at some pits after 1845. At Coppull Colliery's Burgh Pit, three females died after an explosion in November 1846; one was eleven years old.[23] TheMines (Prohibition of Child Labour Underground) Act 1900 was an act of Parliament that prevented boys under the age of thirteen from working, or being (for the purposes of employment) in an underground mine.[24] (The act was repealed in full by theMines and Quarries Act 1954 (2 & 3 Eliz. 2. c. 70);[25] by such time the act was out of date and was no longer necessary due to the stronger provisions in theEmployment of Women, Young Persons, and Children Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. 5. c. 65).[26]
Although it has been surmised that there were no Black miners in the UK, two chapters in the book byNorma GregoryJamaicans in Nottingham: Narratives and Reflections,[27] are on Black coal miners. The scarcity of resources on these workers led Gregory to curate an exhibition calledThe Digging Deep Project Exhibition at the National Coal Mining Museum, in Wakefield, West Yorkshire[28] and to found the Black Miners Museum.[29]
Until 1 January 1947, the mines were owned by various individuals and companies. On that date most were nationalised by theCoal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946 (9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. 59) and were run by the newNational Coal Board.[30] In March 1987 the legal name of the NCB was changed to the British Coal Corporation.[31] The name "British Coal" had been used by the NCB since 28 April 1986.[32]
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UK coal production peaked in 1913 at 287 million tonnes.[4] Until the late 1960s, coal was the main source of energy produced in the UK, peaking at 228 million tonnes in 1952. Ninety-five per cent of this came from roughly 1,334 deep-mines that were operational at the time, with the rest from around 92 surface mines.[33]
In the 1950s and 1960s, around a hundred North East coal mines were closed.[34] In March 1968, the last pit in theBlack Country closed and pit closures were a regular occurrence in many other areas.[35] Beginning with wildcat action in 1969, theNational Union of Mineworkers became increasingly militant, and was successful in gaining increased wages in their strikes in1972 and1974.[36] Closures were less common in the 1970s, and new investments were made in sites such as theSelby Coalfield. In early 1984, theConservative government ofMargaret Thatcher announced plans to close 20 coal pits which led to theyear-long miners' strike which ended in March 1985. The strike was unsuccessful in stopping the closures and led to an end to theclosed shop inBritish Coal, as the breakawayUnion of Democratic Mineworkers was formed by miners who objected to the NUM's handling of the strike.[37] Numerous pit closures followed, and in August 1989 coal mining ended in theKent coalfield.[38]
In 1986, Kellingley colliery nearPontefract achieved a record 404,000 tonnes in a single shift but nevertheless, since 1981 production fell sharply from 128 to 17.8 million tonnes in 2009.[citation needed]
Between 1947 and 1994, some 950 mines were closed by UK governments.Clement Attlee’s Labour government closed 101 pits between 1947 and 1951; Macmillan (Conservative) closed 246 pits between 1957 and 1963; Wilson (Labour) closed 253 in his two terms in office between 1964 and 1976; Heath (Conservative) closed 26 between 1970 and 1974; and Thatcher (Conservative) closed 115 between 1979 and 1990.[39]
In 1994, then-Prime MinisterJohn Major privatised British Coal after announcing 55[39] further closures, with the majority of operations transferred to the new companyUK Coal.[40][41] By this time, British Coal had closed all but the most economical of coal pits.[42]
The pit closures reflected coal consumption slumping to the lowest rate in more than a century, further declining towards the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s. This coincided with initiatives for cleaner energy generation as power stations switched to gas and biomass. A total of 100 million tonnes was produced in 1986, but by 1995 the amount was around 50 million tons.[43]
In 2001, production was exceeded by imports for the first time. In 2014, coal imported was three times more than the coal mined in Britain.[44] In 2009, companies were licensed to extract 125 million tonnes of coal in operating underground mines and 42 million tonnes at opencast locations.[4]
Coal mining employed 4,000 workers at 30 locations in 2013, extracting 13 million tonnes of coal.[44] The UK coal mines achieved the most economical coal production in Europe, according to UK Coal, with a level of productivity of 3,200 tonnes per man year as of 2012, at which point there were 13 UK Coal deep mines.[42] The three deep-pit mines wereHatfield andKellingley Collieries in Yorkshire andThoresby inNottinghamshire.[1] There were 26 opencast sites in 2014, mainly in Scotland.[45] Around that time, most coal was used for electricity generation and steel-making. Its use for heating homes had already declined because of pollution concerns. Thecommodity was also used forfertilisers, chemicals,plastics,medicines and road surfaces.
Hatfield Colliery closed in June 2015, as did Thoresby, and in December 2015, Kellingley, bringing to an end deep coal mining in the UK. The occasion was marked by a rally and march attended by thousands of people.[46] The closure of coal mines left the affected communities economically deprived, unable to recover even in the long run.[47]
In 2020, theWoodhouse Colliery proposal gained planning permission but has outstanding legal challenges as of 2024 and as yet to begin any works. The plan was criticised by some MPs and environmentalists due to the incompatibility of coal mining with government commitments to reduce carbon emissions. The mine is proposed by West Cumbria Mining and plans to extract coking coal from beneath theIrish Sea until 2049.[48][49][50] The decision to grant planning permission for Woodhouse Colliery was overturned by theHigh Court in September 2024, leaving the application to be re-determined by theSecretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government;[6] the project was cancelled in March 2025.[51]
On 21 April 2017, Britain went a full day without using coal power to generate electricity for the first time.[52] In May 2019, Britain went a full week without coal power.[53] In 2019, German utilities firmRWE announced that it planned to close all its UK coal power plants by 2020, leaving only four plants operating by March 2020;[54] in 2018, eight were still in operation when the government announced plans to shut down all coal power plants in the UK by 2025.[55] In June 2021, the government announced it was bringing forward the shutdown to 2024.[56][57]Ratcliffe-on-Soar, the UK's last coal-fired power station, closed at the end of September 2024.[58]
Earlier this month Maltby colliery in South Yorkshire closed down for good. At the end of a winter that saw 40% of our energy needs met by coal – most of it imported – we witnessed the poignant closing ceremony
1(1): No child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking.
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Notes: [1] Peat is considered a precursor to coal. [2] Graphite is only technically considered a coal type. | ||
