Troopers Hill
Troopers Hill is in St. George, Bristol and runs between Crews Hole Road on the River Avon and Air Balloon Road. The area is open but has seen extensive and intensive quarrying and mining over the years. The road was originally called Harris's or Harris Hill but was renamed after a civil war battle there in 1643. Donkeys were once kept there and so the hill also had the nickname of Donkey Island.
Shallow coal deposits made the area around the Crews Hole area made the area very attractive to lead and copper works which began work there at least as early as the end of the seventeenth century. The only remains architectural remains of the coal pits in the area are those of the Crews Hole Pit which were also known as the Troopers Hill Pit. This pit doesn't appear on 1803 maps but does appear on the Tithe Map of 1640. The mine workings reached a depth of 122ft to work the Millgrit Seam which was about 2.5ft in depth but went as deep as 180ft to work the Rag Vein. It's not known exactly when the colliery was abandoned but it was certainly before 1845.
Apart from coal, fireclay was also mined from the area. There were earlier workings but probably the largest on Troopers Hill was owned by a Mr. H. C. Burge. This mine, which later became the Bristol Fireclay Mine Co. Ltd. with Mr. Burge as manager, might have been in existence before 1878 but was closed on 20th May 1908.
Links
Friends of Troopers Hill - the best site about Troopers Hill
Kylet - some good photos of Troopers Hill
Sources
Bristol Coalfield by John Cornwell. Published by Published by Landmark Publishing in 2003 with the ISBN of 1843060949
Street Names of Bristol (2nd edition) by Veronica Smith. Published by Broadcast Books in 2002 with the ISBN of 1874092907
This page created 8th February 2006, last modified 8th February 2006
