A short history of British mining

Mention mining to anyone over 40 and one word comes to mind: coal. But collieries – and the battles over their closure – were but a single dramatic chapter in the rich mineral history of our land.

The Bronze Age: 3200-1200BC

The very act of mining and refining copper and tin to produce bronze tools was a civilisational leap. Tin mines in Cornwall and Wales supplied not just the rest of Britain, but found their way into tools, weapons and treasures that were traded across Europe. At Great Orme, in Conwy, ore was hacked from the surface with primitive tools, including antlers. Crushed, the ore was smelted to reveal the copper metal, which was then melted at 1,100C before being poured into moulds to create anything from jewellery to axe heads.

Iron Age: 1200-100BC

The Iron Age was a step backwards to an inferior metal, forced by shortages of tin. But over time, craftsmen found ways of strengthening iron. Steel was born. Iron mines flourished, notably in the south-east and Northumbria. Iron became highly prized and its sources were jealously guarded.

Roman Age: 43-410AD

The Romans came to Britain for copper, but also for lead, sending slaves deep underground to follow seams from the Mendips to the Peak District, and using the soft metal in waterworks.

Medieval times18th century

After the Romans, mining rapidly declined, only returning at any scale with the demands of the great monasteries of the medieval period, which were met from shallow, rounded ‘bell pits’. Coal, too, was first mined in this way. It was not until gunpowder was deployed in the 17th century and pumping improved in the 18th that the great modern mining revolution began.

The Industrial Age: 1760-1913

Suddenly coal was used to drive steam engines that allowed pits to be dug deeper. Remote pits could be connected by rail for the first time. Three great coalfields opened up – in the valleys of south Wales, Co Durham and Northumberland and in South Yorkshire.

20th-century decline, 21st-century revival

After World War I, most of Britain’s metal mining had ceased, leaving more than 2,000 pits abandoned. Coal lasted longer, but was dealt a crippling blow by North Sea Gas. Combined with nuclear power, coal’s days proved numbered. Today, however, a host of new mining projects are underway or under consideration, with tin, copper, tungsten and lithium mines in the south-west and a gold rush in Scotland and Northern Ireland.