Ludlows Colliery

Overview

One of the Waldegrave estate's Radstock pits, sunk before 1800 by one account and worked to a depth of 1,686 feet; it had pithead baths from 1940 under Somerset Collieries and closed in 1954.

History

Ludlows was one of the collieries on the Waldegrave family's estate at Radstock, the family having been lords of the manor since the Civil War. One account dates it to before 1790, another to the first half of the nineteenth century. Its shaft was eight feet across and reached a depth of 1,686 feet. In 1853 a collier fell from a landing in the shaft, and the next year a sixteen-year-old fell to his death when a hodge on the inset tipped over. Shaft work continued for decades: sinkers were killed in 1860, when a scaffold strip nailed to a bunton gave way, and in 1888, when a brick was knocked from the shaft side 160 yards from the bottom.

In the 1890s the colliery was returned under the trustee of Frances, late Countess Waldegrave, employing 321 people in 1894 and 327 in 1896 and working the Great, Top Little, Middle, Sliving, Under Little, Nine Inch and Bull veins and Nos. 5 and 6 of the Farrington series for coking, gas, household and steam coal. In 1903 the owner is given as the Earl of Waldegrave.

Ludlows passed to Somerset Collieries Limited, and on 30 March 1940 its managing director, Sir Frank Beauchamp, opened the colliery's pithead baths, a small installation for 396 men with a canteen, designed for the Miners' Welfare Commission. The Middle and Ludlows workings in the No. 5 seam were abandoned in 1945, and the colliery closed in 1954.

Geology

Coal Measures of the Somerset coalfield: the Great, Top Little, Middle, Sliving, Under Little, Nine Inch and Bull veins and Nos. 5 and 6 of the Farrington series.

Workings

A shaft eight feet in diameter, 1,686 feet deep at its deepest, with insets and a hodge at the inset; workings linked on plan with Middle Pit and the other Radstock pits; pithead baths and canteen of 1940.

Closure

Closed in 1954; the Middle and Ludlows No. 5 seam workings were abandoned on 30 September 1945.

What remains

The pithead baths of 1940 survive.

The pithead baths building.

Redevelopment

Unknown.

Related mines

• Tyning Colliery — Waldegrave estate pits at Radstock whose workings appear together on the combined Radstock/Ludlows/Middle/Tyning seam plans (BGS).
• Wellsways Colliery — Both Waldegrave estate pits at Radstock, returned under the trustee of Frances, late Countess of Waldegrave, and sharing combined seam plans (BGS).

What's uncertain

Points where sources disagree or the record could not be settled; both accounts are kept. All open questions in the archive.

• Ludlows was one of the Radstock mines opened between 1800 and 1850. (disputed) ²

Recorded claims

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

• Ludlows was opened before 1790 and closed in 1954; its shaft was eight feet in diameter and 1,686 feet deep. ¹
• Ludlows was one of the Radstock mines opened between 1800 and 1850. (disputed) ²
• In 1896 the colliery was owned by the trustee of Frances, late Countess of Waldegrave, and employed 327 people. ^3,2
• In 1903 Ludlow's pit at Radstock was owned by the Earl of Waldegrave. ⁴
• The pithead baths at Ludlow Colliery were opened on 30 March 1940 by Sir Frank Beauchamp of Somerset Collieries Limited, for 396 men. ⁵
• The pithead baths survive. ⁵
• The Middle and Ludlows workings in the No. 5 seam were abandoned on 30 September 1945. ⁶

Sources

1. (secondary) Somerset Coalfield — Wikipedia
2. (secondary) Radstock — Wikipedia
3. (primary) Durham Mining Museum: Ludlows Colliery — Durham Mining Museum
4. (primary) NMRS Coal Mining Accidents and Deaths: Ernest Turner, Ludlow's, Radstock, 1903 — Northern Mine Research Society
5. (secondary) Ludlow Colliery pithead baths, Radstock — Twentieth Century Society
6. (primary) BGS mine plans: Radstock (Middle / Ludlows), No. 5 seam, abandoned 30 September 1945 — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority

Record created: 16 October 2026 · Last researched: 16 October 2026