Dunkerton Colliery

Overview

Dunkerton was the last colliery sunk in the Somerset coalfield and the largest and deepest of them, standing in the Cam Brook valley three and a half miles from Radstock. Sinking began in 1903 and the pit was slow to pay: eighty-nine people in 1905, but 799 by 1910, working the Great, Bull, Slyving, Top Little and Under Little veins. The company opened seams in the Farrington series in June 1914. It never fulfilled its promise, and by 1933 the return was three people. The colliery had its own halt on the Camerton branch and stood beside the Somerset Coal Canal.

History

Dunkerton Collieries Ltd sank the last new pit of the Somerset coalfield in the Cam Brook valley in 1904, and it became the largest and deepest colliery in a coalfield of mostly small and awkward mines. The Lists of Mines record 89 people in 1905 working the Great Vein, rising to 799 in 1910 across the Bull Vein, Great, Slyving, Top Little and Under Little seams — by some way the biggest workforce in Somerset. Employment fell back to 587 in 1915, when the company was opening seams in the Farrington series, and to 475 in 1923; the return for 1933 is three people. Somerset Collieries Ltd held the colliery in its later years. The Somerset coalfield's problem was never the quality of the coal but the ground: steep, faulted and folded measures that made every ton expensive to raise. Dunkerton was built to beat that with scale, and it did not. The deaths recorded here are the ordinary ones of a small deep mine — a sixteen-year-old incline hitcher riding a journey of full trams against rules the inspector noted had not been strictly enforced, a labourer crushed inside the screen machinery fence for reasons never explained, a hewer killed by a bell-mould that could not be seen before it fell. The shaft was ten feet across and went down 1,651 feet, the deepest in the coalfield. Life at the new colliery was not easy: poor working conditions there led to riots in 1908 and 1909.

Geology

The Somerset coalfield's measures are steeply inclined, folded and heavily faulted, which is why its collieries stayed small and expensive to work. Dunkerton worked the Great Vein first and then the Bull Vein, Slyving, Top Little and Under Little, and in June 1914 began opening seams in the Farrington series. The Great Vein here was only two feet six inches thick.

Geological setting: Faults and Fractures (historical documentary reference), Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

A deep shaft colliery in the Cam Brook valley beside the Somerset Coal Canal, with hand haulage underground in its early years and surface screens driven by a hauling plant. It was served by its own halt on the Great Western Railway's Camerton branch.

Closure

The colliery's workforce fell from 799 in 1910 to 475 in 1923, and the Lists of Mines return for 1933 is three people. Sources give the closing year as either 1925 or 1933. Dunkerton Colliery Halt, opened for the colliers in 1911, shut temporarily in 1915, reopened in 1923 and closed for good on 21 September 1925.

What remains

Nothing of the colliery stands. The Cam Brook valley at Dunkerton carries the line of the former Somerset Coal Canal and the trackbed of the Camerton branch; a bridge abutment survives near the village.

Nearby mines

• Braysdown Colliery — 2.8 km SW
• Camerton Colliery — 3.2 km SW
• Clandown Colliery — 4.6 km SW
• Combe Down Stone Mines — 4.6 km NE
• Tyning Colliery — 4.8 km S

Straight-line distance, within 15 km. Show on the map.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• The colliery employed 89 people in 1905, 799 in 1910, 587 in 1915 and 475 in 1923; the Lists of Mines return for 1933 is three. ¹
• Dunkerton worked the Great Vein from 1905 and the Bull Vein, Slyving, Top Little and Under Little by 1910, and was opening seams in the Farrington series in June 1914. ¹
• The colliery was worked by Dunkerton Collieries Ltd and later by Somerset Collieries Ltd. ¹
• Dunkerton Colliery Halt was opened on the Great Western Railway's Camerton branch to serve the colliery. ²
• The Great Vein at Dunkerton was two feet six inches thick. ¹
• Dunkerton was opened in 1904 with a shaft ten feet in diameter sunk to 1,651 feet, the greatest shaft depth in the Somerset coalfield. ³
• The closing year is given as 1925 by one source and 1933 by another; the Lists of Mines still return three people at the colliery in 1933. (disputed) ^3,1
• Poor working conditions at Dunkerton led to riots in 1908 and 1909. ³
• Dunkerton Colliery Halt opened on 9 October 1911, closed temporarily on 22 March 1915, reopened on 9 July 1923 and closed permanently on 21 September 1925. ²

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Dunkerton Colliery — Durham Mining Museum, from the Mines Inspectors Reports and the Lists of Mines
2. (secondary) Dunkerton Colliery Halt railway station — Wikipedia
3. (secondary) Somerset Coalfield — Wikipedia

Record created: 10 September 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026