The Mining Industry in
the Huddersfield District
By D. A. Wray
MINING IN ROMAN TIMES
Coal, fireclay and ironstone all occur in some abundance
in the district; and although coal would appear to be relatively
the most important, it was the last mineral of the three
to be exploited. In medieval and earlier times, the local
woods sufficed for all requirements of fuel, and consequently
the need for coal as such did not arise. Although there
seems very little doubt that even the Romans occasionally
worked coal at a few places in this country, its use to
any extent prior to the thirteenth century appears to have
been very limited and circumscribed.
The earliest mining records of which we have any clear
evidence in the Huddersfield district is of the working
of the Hard Bed Band or 36-yards fireclay by the Romans
in Grimescar Wood, two miles north-west of the town. This
valuable bed of fireclay has been mined in many places around
Huddersfield, and is being extensively worked at the present
day in the Elland district. The Roman workings at Grimescar
were discovered in the sixteenth century, and a quaint description
of the primitive form of tile kiln employed is given in
a diary preserved among the Dodsworth Manuscripts in the
Bodeleian Library at Oxford.* It consisted of a small walled
pit carefully arranged in connection with a furnace, and
associated with it were burnt cinders, fragmentary pottery
and tiles; the latter bearing a distinctive stamp. A large
number of these stamped tiles have been discovered in the
Roman camp at Slack, three miles west of Grimescar, and
are now preserved in the Tolson Memorial Museum at Huddersfield.
Roman Tile Stamps from Grimescar Wood Kilns
The stamps are of two sizes, A and B. The holes are finger
marks.
Beyond this isolated record nothing is known of any mining
activity of several centuries. Thus in the great and detailed
survey made in Norman times for Domesday Book there is no
mention whatever of coal or other minerals. The present
area, however, with the exception of the settlements at
Orberie (Horbury), Crigestone (Crigglestone), and Osleset
(Ossett) was within the confines of that devastated area
laid waste by William the Conquerer in 1069 in reprisal
for rebellion; and the ancient records clearly show the
great depreciation in value suffered by this district as
a result of the devastation.
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