Interesting!
I haven't yet found any early references in the Bristol/Somerset area giving the term "bell pit"
Taking Cromhall as an example (where there are such early workings)
Samuel Rudder’s “A New History of Gloucester” dated 1779 refers to earlier workings in “great plenty; but the works have relaxed for some time.” He says nothing more about their type or appearance.
Thomas Weaver in the Transactions of the Geological Society of London 1819 refers to earlier exploration “ by means of pits and shallow levels” He also refers to “one of the basset pits”; a basset pit is believed to be a shallow working close to the outcrop, “basset” being a term for an outcrop. The depth however is given as 49yrds 1ft 9in. certainly more than a Bell pit.
The "Glossary of Terms" by W Fairley 1868 (but written 10 yrs earlier)about this area makes no reference to Bell pits
Regards
P.S.
Does anyone know anymore about who the mining engineer W Fairley was? He had offices South Wales and worked prior to this in Somerset (possibly Vobster)
----- Original Message -----
From: "S M Linsley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 6:46 PM
Subject: Bell Pits
> I am sure that Martin Roe is largely correct in thinking that the term ‘Bell Pits’, (also called ‘Bee-hive-Pits’ according to R. L Galloway, in his Annals of Coal Mining and the Coal Trade, Vol 1. (1898) p32), was devised by relatively modern mining historians, probably late in the nineteenth century. I briefly looked into this a few years ago and found that:
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> Bell Pits are not mentioned as such in JC’s Compleat Collier of 1708; there is no mention in John Holland’s Fossil Fuel, the Collieries and Coal Trade, (1841), nor in Matthias Dunn’s Treatise on the Winning and Working of Collieries, (2nd edn., Newcastle upon Tyne, 1852), nor in John Taylor’s Archaeology of the Coal Trade (1852, published in 1858). However, Lupton’s Treatise on Mining (1893) notes that ‘... an ancient method of working, practised within the writer’s recollection, is by Bell pits. refers to ‘bell or bee-hive pits’.
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> Galloway also gives a number of references which describe bell pits, but was not able to check whether the term was used as such in the references given.
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> Hope this adds to the story.
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> Stafford M Linsley.
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