> minutes of the meetings for the Royal
>Commission
>Report (published 1871)
What was said at the Commission meeting ties in with the development of the
Bideford coal workings in the second half of the 19th century.
The anthracite occurs as steeply dipping / near vertical discontinuous
lenses in the Carboniferous strata. It was worked using techniques more akin
to metalliferous mining than those used in the major coalfields. Early
attempts at working in depth using water power were generally defeated by
the inflow of water. In 1846 the Bideford Anthracite Mining Co. was formed
to work the coal at East-the-Water using a Cornish beam engine for pumping
and a water balance for raising trams to the level of the tramroad to the
quayside. When recapitalised in 1852 the company cited the pending arrival
of the railway as of benefit for the export of coal to a wider market.
Coal imports to North Devon had always been significant for lime burning and
domestic usage. The Bideford Co. managed to compete with seaborne imports
prior to the arrival of the main line railway in 1855. Thereafter the cost
of imported coal no doubt fell, as in other areas. The Bideford mines, faced
with high drainage costs, then transferred their attention to the high
carbon paint pigment deposits found in association with the anthracite.
Intermittent work of those deposits continued until the late 1960s.
Peter
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Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 07831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
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Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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