Mining
Mining for coal has been going on in Kingswood since the middle ages. Bell pits were used when a seam ran parallel to the surface some 15 or 20 feet down. A shallow shaft would be dug down to the seam then the coal excavated out in a sphere until it became unsafe to dig anymore. Then the miners moved along the field and start another bell pit, back filling the previous pit with the rubbish from the new pit. In this way a series of pits were dig across a field. Kingswood pits did not suffer from gas in the way of other mine fields so candles were used. Kingswood coal was of poor quality so lost out to Welsh coal when it became available. The quality of the coal mined here was poor when compaired with mined in Sout Wales, but it was good enough for the domestic market. It was transported to Hanham then onwards by river to Bristol and Bath. Various types of mine Kingswood sported many types of mine form bell pits when coal near the surface was taken out from a bell shaped pit. When the bell became too wide for safety another was started some way along the line of the seam and the rubbish form the new bell pit deposited in the old one. The process was repeated as long as the coal was available. Another type of extraction was used when the seam stared at the suraface and slowed downwards into the earth. The for obvious reasons is called a drift mine. The last type and the mosr expensive to oparate is the deep mine, where a shaft of dig down to the coal. The last deep mine in the area was Harry Stoke which closed in the 1950's.