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MINING THROUGH THE AGES
The coal seams underlying the village slope upwards
to the northwest and continue downwards to the southeast, emerging
at the surface progressively with the top seam out-cropping at the
north end of the village. The village landscape still holds evidence
of working over a period of 800 years, the earliest record dating
to 1205. Early mining was by quarrying, then by driving adits and
then by bell pits. The coal accessible from bell pits was worked
out by the 15th century and wooden shafts were sunk to deeper seams,
coal and water being extracted by horse gins. A shaft section, recently
extracted from opencasting in the neighbourhood, is displayed in
Snibston Discovery Park, Coalville, Leicestershire. Evidence of
these three types of working can be seen on the Gorse Field .
In 1520 the manor with its coal was purchased by William Wyggeston,
who leased the coal rights to entrepreneurs, who used the latest
mining techniques available at the time and coordinated extraction
so that, by the end of the 17th century a considerable amount of
coal was being extracted.
But water, held in centuries-old workings, caused difficulties
and newly invented Newcomen Pumping engines were installed by John
Wilkins by 1717 to deal with this. By the tirne of his death in
1726 he had made a fortune from his mines.
A Newcomen haystack-type boiler was excavated from the site of
the former Califat colliery in the village, and an industrial archaeological
excavation has recently shown evidence of the considerable trouble
taken to drain the mines.
Much investment was made into the village mines in anticipation
of the linking of the village to the abortive Charnwood Forest canal
in 1795. Steam winding engines were introduced into the mines but
the canal's disastrous failure in 1802 limited further development
until the arrival of the railway in 1833.
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