City Pit: Memoirs of a Speedwell Miner

A 70-page booklet of 1986 in which Fred Moss, a collier from Speedwell in east Bristol, recalls a boyhood in a mining community, his work in several pits, accidents and funerals, and the General Strike of 1926.

The mining history in this record

Fred Moss followed his father into the pits of the east Bristol coalfield, where Speedwell Colliery, Deep Pit and other workings sat among rows of miners' cottages. His memoir, City Pit: Memoirs of a Speedwell Miner, published in 1986 as a booklet of about seventy pages with photographs of the old pits and of what replaced them, begins with his boyhood in a strong community of hard lives and mutual aid. He describes how he was paid and worked with his father hacking coal and sending it to the surface, the tools of the trade and how he was taught, and, as he worked independently, the different pits he worked in and how dangerous the work was. He tells of accidents and their effect on the families of the dead, of the community turning out on the streets for the funerals and the practical help given to the widows.

He also describes the General Strike of 1926: most Kingswood colliers followed their union and stayed out, and those who did go to work had to be escorted with a bag over their head past their neighbours, the women taking the lead. The strike failed, coal gave way to other fuels and the pits closed, the last in the east Bristol coalfield, at Harry Stoke, in 1963.

People

Fred Moss, collier of Speedwell, east Bristol, the author, who followed his father into the pit.

Legacy today

Bristol City Council's 2023 story map of Speedwell quotes the memoir for the local landscape: the tunnel under the slag heaps of Knapps Lane that miners used as a short cut to Deep Pit, the 'Long Bar' lane where shifts drank at an off-licence beside a pond pumped from the pit, and the 700 to 800 yard incline down to the North-West District where Moss worked. A copy is held by Bristol Archives, and the Bristol Radical History Group reviewed the booklet in 2024. A 2024 reviewer notes that the playing field of the former Speedwell secondary school is the site of Speedwell pit.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each tagged with how solidly it's grounded and attached to the source(s) that support it. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• City Pit: memoirs of a Speedwell miner is a booklet of about 70 pages by Fred Moss, published in 1986. (documented fact) ^1,2
• Fred Moss lived and worked in east Bristol as a collier in several pits, following his father into the mines. (later recollection) ¹
• The memoir covers community life, pay, the tools of the trade, how he was taught, the different pits he worked in, accidents and their effect on families, and the community's funerals for the dead. (later recollection) ¹
• Moss describes how most Kingswood colliers followed their union and stayed out during the General Strike of 1926, while those who worked had to be escorted to work with a bag over their head. (later recollection) ¹
• The last pit in the east Bristol coalfield, at Harry Stoke, closed in 1963. (documented fact) ¹
• Bristol City Council's Speedwell story map quotes Moss on the tunnel under the Knapps Lane slag heaps, the 'Long Bar' lane and the long incline to the North-West District where he worked. (documented fact) ³
• Bristol Archives holds a copy in its St Ambrose, Whitehall parish collection under reference P/St.AW/X/2. (documented fact) ²

Mines

• Speedwell Colliery — Bristol
  The colliery of the memoir's title: Moss was a Speedwell miner, and the Speedwell story map quotes him on its pits and workings.

Sources

1. (secondary) City Pit (Bristol Radical History Group, book review by Steve Mills, 2024) — Bristol Radical History Group
2. (primary) Fred Moss: City Pit, memoirs of a Speedwell miner (Bristol Archives catalogue, via The National Archives Discovery) — Bristol Archives
3. (secondary) The Speedwell Story (Know Your Place story map) — Pete Insole, Bristol City Council (ArcGIS StoryMaps)

Record created: 18 September 2026 · Last researched: 30 September 2026