I've reread this message more carefully. I assume that the original reference is a translation of a set of manorial accounts? My experience of these is that they frequently refer to past sources of income, in the form of null returns. Thus if coal had been mined commercially at some point, perhaps as far back as a century before, there is a good chance that you would find something like "but of the farm of the coal mines, he answers nothing as they were not let for this year". As I understand matters, the bailiff who submitted the accounts had to explain why the income of the manor showed a decrease from any previous year, to convince the accountant who checked it that he wasn't fiddling the books. Thus they were usually at pains to explain why past sources of revenue were no longer in operation.
Negative evidence is never very easy to interpret, but I think if there is no mention of coal anywhere in these accounts, then it is a fair assumption that there had been no significant mining for a number of years previously.
Of course, "carbonis", coal, can equally well mean charcoal, so distinguishing between the two can be difficult if one or other term appears in the accounts.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: mining-history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ian Spensley
Sent: 03 March 2011 13:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Coal and Turbary 1535/6
Dear list
Does anyone have an opinion on the term 'Turbary', my thoughts are that it
only applies to turf or peat on the surface of the land, but could it also
have include coal at a date of 1535/6?
The full reference is;-
Farm of the Turbary: And of 5s for the farm of the turbary in the Lord's
moor there, to be paid yearly at the terms there usual as in the preceding.
Sum 5s.
The point is that if it does not refer to coal, then it gives a date when
coal mining on Preston Under Scar moor was not in operation. Turbary is not
mentioned in accounts for other villages in the same document.
Thanks
Ian Spensley
