South Liberty Colliery

Overview

The first pit sunk in the Bedminster coalfield and the last one left in it — 177 years apart — and reputedly still pumped at the end by the same Newcomen engine that had been put in when it opened.

History

The first shaft at South Liberty Lane was sunk in 1748, after mining promoters convinced the Smyth family of Ashton Court that there was coal beneath their land. A Newcomen atmospheric pumping engine is claimed to have been installed in 1750, and the engine at South Liberty is recorded as having remained in use until the colliery closed. Around it, through the 18th and 19th centuries, grew the Bedminster coalfield: at its height in the middle of the 19th century there were as many as twenty-five pitheads around Bedminster, Southville and Ashton Gate. They closed one by one, and the last to go, in 1925, was the first that had opened. The site was taken over by the Bristol Metal Welding and Spraying Company.

Geology

The Bristol coalfield is a small, faulted and steeply disturbed field on the northern edge of the Somerset coal basin — the same broad Carboniferous measures, but broken up into ground that was awkward and expensive to work. That is much of the reason the coalfield stayed technologically conservative: contemporaries noted that Bristol pits leaned far more heavily on horses than Somerset ones, averaging nearly thirteen per pit in 1925 against about seven, and a colliery still pumping with an 18th-century engine design in the 20th century tells the same story.

Geological setting: Sedimentary Beds and Seams (well documented example)

Workings

Shaft mining, pumped throughout its life by the engine on the site. The claim that the same Newcomen engine served from 1750 to 1925 has been questioned — a map of 1769 by Donn does not show a steam engine at South Liberty — but the engine's long survival is itself the point usually made about the coalfield.

Closure

South Liberty closed in 1925, the last working pit of the Bedminster field. Coal Authority plans survive for South Liberty and neighbouring Ashton Vale, and a multi-colliery plan covering Bedminster and Dean Lane is dated 1906; they are catalogued under Somerset, which is the historic county for this ground.

What remains

Built over. South Liberty Lane is now a trading estate and railway corridor, and nothing of the colliery is visible.

None surviving above ground. The Bedminster Coalminers Heritage Group launched 'Digging Deep', a project researching all 157 miners who died in Bedminster and Ashton's pits, marking the pit's 2025 closure centenary with an event at St Aldhelm's Church, the Chessels, on 21 June 2025, and is campaigning for a permanent memorial that the district currently lacks.

Redevelopment

Industrial estate and railway land in south Bristol.

What's uncertain

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

• A Newcomen pumping engine is claimed to have been installed at South Liberty in 1750 and to have remained in use until the colliery closed in 1925; a map of 1769 by Donn does not show a steam engine on the site. (uncertain) ²

Recorded claims

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

• The first shaft at South Liberty Lane was sunk in 1748, after mining promoters persuaded the Smyth family of Ashton Court that there was coal under their land. ¹
• A Newcomen pumping engine is claimed to have been installed at South Liberty in 1750 and to have remained in use until the colliery closed in 1925; a map of 1769 by Donn does not show a steam engine on the site. (uncertain) ²
• At the coalfield's height in the mid-19th century there were as many as twenty-five pitheads around Bedminster, Southville and Ashton Gate. ¹
• South Liberty closed in 1925, the last pit of the Bedminster field to do so and the first to have opened; the site was taken over by the Bristol Metal Welding and Spraying Company. ¹
• Bristol pits relied on horses far more heavily than Somerset ones, averaging 12.75 per pit in 1925 against 7.14, which has been read as evidence of the coalfield's technological conservatism. ²
• The Bedminster Coalminers Heritage Group marked the 2025 centenary of the colliery's closure with a 'Digging Deep' commemorative event at St Aldhelm's Church on 21 June 2025, researching all 157 miners who died across Bedminster and Ashton's pits and campaigning for a permanent memorial. ¹

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (secondary) New project to commemorate Bristol's mining history — Bristol 24/7
2. (primary) Coal in the Bristol region — Bristol Historical Resource, University of the West of England
3. (primary) Mine plans SWR3433, SWR3434 and 5178: South Liberty, Ashton Vale, Bedminster and Dean Lane — British Geological Survey / Mining Remediation Authority mine plans catalogue

Record created: 24 August 2026 · Last researched: 24 August 2026