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It is not possible to say with any certainty when coal was first worked in Smalley,
but it will be seen from the following records that coal was being mined in some of
the surrounding parishes at the end of the thirteenth century:- |
ASSIZE ROLL:
"Again the same year (19 Edw I. 1290) at Denby Henry Fitz Jocelin was dragging
coal in Horsley Woodhouse in a certain corfe out of a certain coalpit and that corfe
fell from his hands on the head of Henry Ryling of Kilburn whereof he died after making
his confession. And the said Henry Fitz Jocelin was taken and delivered to the Lord
King's gaol at Nottingham. And there before the Justices etc. he was acquitted of the
aforesaid death and afterwards departed as the jurors testify."
CORAM REGE ROLL:
"Hugh of the Green of Denby, John le Frenkissh and John son of Henry of Denby
were attached to answer William Rosel touching the plea wherefore by force and arms
they dug sea-coal in the ground of him William at Denby and to the value of £100
cut his trees late growing in the same place and carried them away. And other enormities etc.
To the heavy loss etc. And against the peace etc. And whereof he complains that
the aforesaid Hugh and the others, on the morrow of St. Michael in the twentieth year
(1291) of the reign of the present King and so continuing through the five
following years by force and arms dug sea-coal in the ground of the aforesaid William
in a certain place which is called 'Anisgriveles' and cut down his trees to wit,
a thousand oaks, and underwood, late growing in a certain place which is called
'Le Ker and Deneby Parkes' and carried them away, whereby he says that he is
worsened and suffers loss to the value of £40. And thereon he produces his suite etc."
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There was no direct public highway for carts from Smalley to Heanor before 1580;
the road ended in Kidsley Lane, a narrow bridleway leading to Richardson's Farm on
Smalley Hill.
The 'Robey Pits' in Kidsley Park in Smalley and Denby parish were the
great attraction. By a deed dated 1726, Thomas Robey leased his old coal mines at
Robey Field in Denby to John Fletcher for ninety-nine years, for which he received
one shilling for every stack of hard coal and sixpence for every stack of soft coal.
The outlet for the conveyance of coals from the Robey Pits to Smalley and Derby was by
way of Robey Fields Lane, known later as Carrington's Coppice.
The 'Robey Pits' in Smalley were located a little further to the south-east
on land formerly leased by the Richardsons, but given up by them before 1691.
On an undated plan two coal mines in this area near Housley Town are named Cleppit and
Crank Pits. On the same plan an old sough known as 'Richardson's Sough', to drain water
from the pits, is shown running from Crank Pit to its outlet in the brook course at
Smalley Green, a distance of 3,200 yards. Crank Pit was said on the plan to be 100 yards deep.
The following letter from John Houghton, FRS., dated 22nd April 1693, gives an interesting
account of the trade at Derby and of the coal mines at Smalley and Denby, and of the
method of draining the mines of water:-
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A COLLECTION FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF HUSBANDRY AND TRADE, ETC.
"I have formerly given some methodical account of things that relisht well with a
great many, tho not with every palate: I shall now give some useful miscellanies.
I have an account from an ingenious man of Derby, that there is not one wholesale
trademan in that town. That hops grow not in those parts. That the chiefest coal-mines
thereabouts are at Smaly, four miles, at Heaner six miles, and at Denby five miles from
Derby; thro' which abundance in summer are carried as far as Northampton-shire, from
whence is brought back Barley.
Those coals at Smaley and Heaner are in the hands of one
Mr. Samuel Richardson, who finding that Derby consumed annually about three thousand loads,
besides what was fetched into Leicester-shire and Northampton-shire, design'd to sell
his coal for three pence the hundred, and had got them to six shillings and sixpence the
load; but the worshipful John Lowe of Denby Esq., after an expence of between nine hundred
and one thousand pounds in perfecting a sough to lay his delf dry, the last spring
accomplisht the same, and has laid as many coal dry as will be got this forty years,
and before the sale came he had got above one thousand loads upon the bank, any of which
he upholds to be at least five and thirty hundred weight and sells them for five shillings
and sixpence, so that this year we bought coals delivered for three pence half penny the
hundred.
These coals are drawn up by a horse as in a malt mill, where there is a barrel,
on which a rope winds, so that while one end winds up, the other goes down through the
pulleys, and so contrary, the particular description whereof I have, but 'tis not easy to
those who are not artists therein without a cut.
At Smaley my friend went down the pit, twenty fathom, by ladders of twelve staves each,
set cross the Pit one by another; when he was so deep, he went under-ground (he believes,
as far as from my house to St. Paul's Church, which is well near half a mile) in a mine or
vein, which was above six foot, where were coals over head and under foot, the workmen
knew not how thick; from this place he was led twenty yards through a narrow passage upon
hands and feet, till he came into a large space, which was the head of a sough (a place to
carry away water) which laid all the pits dry that were on that level, and presently he
came to a pit twenty yards deeper than before, out of which they drew water brought from
another pit twenty yards deeper, with two vessels, which would hold above sixty gallons
each; they were hoopt with iron, and biggest in the midst; when one of these came to the
top a boy with a hook drew them to him, and easily did throw the water down, which in that
concave made a noise like thunder.
There is in Derby a soap boiler who drives a great trade,
etc.
Yours,
JOHN HOUGHTON, FRS."
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The pit at Smalley referred to in John Houghton's letter was no doubt Samuel Richardson's
'Engine Shaft Pit' situated on the north side of Bell Lane.
The sough was 'Richardson's
Sough' which also drained the Robey Pits.
On the mining map of Smalley is marked the approximate
location of the coal pits. The line of the sough between the Robey Pits and Smalley Green
was not straight to avoid the village and in fact curved towards Engine Shaft Pit.
The sough head and outlet is marked on the map.
All early soughs were driven from the coal seam itself. The workings on the rise side
of the sough were thus drained by it. Generally, when a new pit was sunk, a water level
was driven from it to the nearest sough.
A great deal of unpleasantness, and some costly
litigation, was caused by the fact that many mine owners drained their water into soughs
driven at considerable expense by others.
One of these disputes affected several coal
owners in the Smalley area. They alleged that one of their competitors John Fletcher was
stopping up soughs so as to drown their workings, thus giving him a monopoly of the coal
supply in the district. John Fletcher denied this strenuously. However, the other owners
introduced a parliamentary Bill in 1739 to make it illegal to destroy coal workings.
The dispute may be best understood from John Fletcher's following reply, which also gives
insight into mining practice in Smalley at the time:-
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CASE OF THE PETITIONER (JOHN FLETCHER) AGAINST THE BILL FOR PREVENTING THE WILFUL AND
MALICIOUS DESTRUCTION OF COLLIERIES AND COAL WORKS:
"The reasons given for the bringing in of this Bill are; That the Petitioner has
several collieries in Derbyshire; and he drove, or headed in his colliery at Smalley into
the old level to let wind into his work to prevent the damp; which is a usual and necessary
practice in the working of collieries.
He also sunk pits upon his own land to get his own
coal, and did get, and might have got, great quantities of coal, out of them. He also
stopped up one old sough, upon his own ground; which could not have drowned Mr Richardson's
work at Smalley, had his fire-engine been in repair, the water not being above twenty yards
deep in the Engine Pit, when the engine was set down; which it had been in any tolerable
repair would have drawn all the water. However, all that he did was upon his ground, and for
the better carrying on his own work.
Mr Richardson, indeed, did bring an Action against the Petitioner for letting in the water,
and recovered a verdict for damages: which verdict could never have been obtained,
had not the principal witnesses on my behalf been designedly made defendants.
However, this verdict shows Mr Richardson has a legal remedy for any damages he may sustain.
The water whereby Mr Richardson pretends he received this damage is not a continued
water-course, but is only what is called a land-flood, and only runs when it rains;
and there is no colliery whatsoever but the ground will break and let in the land-flood,
in some measure, after great rains; to prevent which, as much as possible, the
Petitioner, both before and since this verdict has made ditches upon fresh ground to
carry off all the water, so that except Mr Richardson has himself let in the water on
purpose to lay a foundation for this Bill, it is impossible he can be drowned by the
land-flood."
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How was Richardson's Sough driven?
The only way in which many of them could have been
driven at the time was by a man lying on his side or standing and wielding a pick.
The debris was no doubt pulled by a second person, probably a boy, to the end of the sough.
Ventilation was provided by forcing air through wooden pipes by a bellows. With very long
soughs, like the Richardson's Sough, shafts were sunk at intervals to facilitate both a
flow of air and to draw-up debris from the sough.
Generally soughs were only of use
where the coal workings were above the level of free drainage. In the case of Richardson's
Engine Shaft, the pit went much deeper than the sough and buckets or tubs were used to
bring water up to the water level which connected to the sough.
At Smalley Green the
sough discharged itself into the brook course near the 'bottom orchard' to the
old Green Farm. From this point back nearly to the brook culvert under the main road the
sough was 'open work' but from the culvert to the Robey Pits the sough was driven
underground.
The early Smalley coal workings extended further south along the higher ground to Smalley
Common.
In the High Yates Closes, a group of fields between Bell Lane and Smalley Common,
Patrick Richardson, father of Samuel, took a lease of the coals in 1650 from Jacinth Sacheverell
of Morley. Richardson also signed a bond of £400 for the due performance of the lease,
but some time later Sacheverell considered that the contract had not been fulfilled and so
brought an action at law against him.
From details in the law suit, Sacheverell had been
given notice from Richardson of the time and place for the mutual selection of a site for
the pit shaft. Sacheverell did not appear; whereupon Richardson sank a shaft.
The following year Sacheverell came to the pit and complained of its situation, declaring
he would choose a site himself. He did so without the consent of Richardson, but in the
meantime Richardson had sunk a second shaft in the area of the first. Richardson objected
that no part of Sacheverell's chosen site was of any use to him to get coals in.
The work was stopped for a time, but the injunction was eventual removed and the law suit
was quashed in 1653.
Subsequent to these early coal working activities, considerable development in coal mining
in Smalley took place and continued until the last coal mine closed in 1937.
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Sources: this contribution was made by Robert Turton and as such, he is the sole copyright
holder.
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