ABSTRACT
The development of the coal industry was a crucial factor in promoting the economic expansion and industrial diversification which characterized Britain during the industrial revolution. Indeed, coal remained the primary source of fuel in Britain until after the Second World War. The initial stimulus to growth came in the seventeenth century when a shortage of wood forced domestic consumers to burn the hitherto despised sea-coal on their hearths. Annual output rose from 210,000 tons in 1560 to 2,985,000 tons by 1700, of which 43 per cent came from the advanced Tyne and Wear collieries which continued to dominate the trade into the twentieth century (see Map 4.1). The main market was London, and by 1720 63 per cent of the North-east’s output was shipped into the city. Although in the North-east, by the late eighteenth century, pits were being sunk at depths of over 750 feet, many early pits were small-scale and shallow and some older collieries had already been depleted of their coal stocks to the limits of existing technology. Dependence on water transport also restricted colliery development, as reflected in the concentration of the oldest North-east pits (see Map 4.2) close to the River Tyne in areas where thick seams of coal lay near to the surface.
