You refer to the South west in your email - I am not an expert on Railways
but as you say there is the general belief that they made coal cheaper

The Bristol are thrived during the industrial revolution (Glass & Brass
making in particular) since it not only had a port but it's own coalfield.
There are plenty of details about the opening of the horse drawn "Dramway"
in the early 1830's making it possible to bring the coal to Bristol from
nearby Coalpit Heath and the fact that the price of Coal in Bristol itself
reduced significantly as a result. The opening of the Bristol to Gloucester
Railway (1844) opened up the possibility of coal being imported from the
Midlands and is often assumed to represent the beginning of the end for
Bristol Coal. This however actually coincides with the growth of the
Bristol area under owners such as Handel Cossham and it is no surprise that
Yate (where he started work) and his later pits at Pucklechurch actually had
sidings to take coal from this area. There were also railway sidings to
many of the Bristol pits and of course Frog Lane Colliery (Coalpit Heath)
the last deep pit to close (in 1949) which had a branch onto the Gloucester
(Midlands) Line AND later a link to the Badminton Line (the GWR cut through
from Swindon to the Severn Tunnel and South Wales).

It is perhaps worth noting the quality of the coal which was of most
importance. Yate Colliery is said to have had a contract selling coal to
the Midland Railway as the Hard Vein was a good "Steam Coal". Rangeworthy
(also having a siding to the Midland line) is said to have had an Admiralty
contract again due to it producing good coal. Steam enthusiast's visiting
the SGMRG open days often moan about the quality of the coal being imported
now which doesn't give sufficient steam and gives too much ash. It was
perhaps the quality of the Bristol Coal that helped it fend off cheaper
imports by rail from elsewhere, mind you it had to be good stuff as the
seams were usually only about 2ft thick and it has been written that due to
the hard conditions if you could work in the Bristol Coalfield you could
work anywhere.

There are however also details of ships from the Forest of Dean and South
Wales bringing coal to Bristol so there was competition throughout the
area's mining history. In Somerset it was the Coal canal that first became
the means of cheaper transportation later the Somerset & Dorest Railway &
GWR that brought lines in.

Of most significance is perhaps the opening of the Severn Railway Tunnel
making it possible to get the South Wales Coal to the South West and beyond
(i.e. London) that really marked the end of the era.

The other point to note here is that after the last Bristol mines closed
many of the miners went to Somerset and Oral history tells us that they
consider there to have "crap coal" (if you'll excuse the expression) however
the Somerset coalfield kept going longer than it would otherwise as this
poor quality coal was suitable for power stations (eg Portishead) So it had
a decent outlet

To summarise the Bristol Somersetit is clear everyone was trying to get as
much for their coal as possible - that's just simply business. Better coal
sold for more but transporting costs also effected the economics of bringing
it from or moving it to elsewhere. If you had an outlet for your particular
quality coal at the right price you continued working otherwise you went out
of business.

Regards


David



-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian
Spensley
Sent: 29 January 2008 16:05
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [MINING-HISTORY] Coal mines and the Railway Monopoly.

Dear list,
 
I think Ken Smith has answered my question in a nut shell.
 
 
Interesting 'cos general belief that rlys made coal cheaper. That said, the

NER was an unusual railway. More than any other, it held sway over vast area

of N England, inc. major industrial & mining centres, most of that area
without competition. (The other large rlys such as Midland, LNW, GW, NB &
Cal, all
had competitors (often each other) in all such important areas. In
addition,
the NER, alone amongst the major rly companies, eschewed private owner
wagons, the presence of which would have materially altered the ability of
the
company to operate a monopoly. (Most of the other rlys had the majority of
their
coal traffic carried in POWs - the mighty GW, indeed, had hardly any coal
wagons of its own (except for loco-coal wagons)).
 
I had wondered if the same thing was happening in other parts of the
country, the 'South West' for instance, then it would have had an effect on
steam
engine cost in Cornwall for example.
 
Obviously not, but I suppose that the higher haulage costs on 'North East'
coal might have helped some of the smaller coal fields to compete, or at
least
maintain their profit levels. It did mean that the small coal mines in the
Yorkshire dales could keep going, although 9/10ths of their coal was for
lime
kilns rather than house coal.
 
I don't know how long this situation lasted, but certainly through the
1860's and 1870's.
 
Ian Spensley