ABSTRACT
According to the late Prof. Sir Ian Richmond, traces of Nottinghamshire coal have been found on Roman camp sites in the Lincolnshire fens.1 The earliest written evidence of coal mining in the district, however, dates from the later middle ages.2 All the early coal-mines were on the outcrop between Wollaton in the South of the County and Teversal in the North. The mines at Wollaton, and the neighbouring villages of Strelley, Bilborough and Cossall, had the advantage of proximity to the River Trent, the only navigable water-way in the County until canals were cut in the late eighteenth century. They were also close to Nottingham.
