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18th - 20th Century Life in Pucklechurch

                                                             Image of a colliery

The Parkfield Colliery

Coal mines in western England once provided the major source of employment for many families in the 19th and early 20th centuries and was the major cause for the large migration to the county of Gloucestershire at that time. The principal colliery in Pucklechurch was the Parkfield Colliery whose construction was ordered in 1851 by Handel Cossham on a site west of a large number of abandoned 18th century workings. The Parkfield shafts were sunk to a depth of 277 yards to the bottom landing but only the upper series of coal veins were worked - the Hard vein (2'), the Top vein (2'4"),  and the Hollybish and Great veins (2'6" and 3') respectively. When Handel Cossham dies in 1890, his trustees were directed to build and endow a hospital near Kingswood Hill for the treatment and relief of sick or injured persons of both sexes. Work at the colliery obviously involved some risk for many of the miners.

The Parkfield Colliery was almost exhausted by 1936 with only odd pockets of coal left to work. Water seeping into the mines had to be pumped out and with the increased cost of pumping, coal mining became unprofitable. Accordingly on August 15, 1936, the East Bristol Collieries LTD closed the pit. Today the only evidence which remains is one tall chimney which can be seen when driving on the M4 highway. Fifty cottages known as 'The Rank' and formerly owned by colliery miners remain today at Parkfield, about a mile from the centre of Pucklechurch village. In the hey-day of the colliery, these cottages served as a family community, lending support and help to its inhabitants of both sexes. Handel Cossham also built a school at Parkfield. After the closing of the School in 1893 and to accommodate the influx of Parkfield Children to the village school, a new school building for Infant children was built on Parkfield Road in 1895 and it still stands today.

Former collieries in the parish are located at Shortwood Brandybottom and Parkfield. Both were opened by Handel Cosham in the mid 19th. Century. According to the list of mines worked under the Coal Mines Act of 1896, the manager at Parkfield was J.T. Onions and there were 292 workers at the mine. Shortwood Brandybottom colliery was much smaller, and the 1896 Mines Regulation Act shows that there were 27 workers.

Smaller industries succeeded in Pucklechurch, including hat making and a black marble quarry. There were later RAF and prison service developments. A reference of 1873 states that the village is 'now inhabited almost entirely by farmers, miners and labourers' (The Fly Leaf 1873, p.1).The Ordnance Survey map of 1880 shows the settlement clustered around the church, the road junctions, the village greens and the large houses with little infilling between individual properties. This has subsequently changed and it is interesting to note that the Gloucestershire : The Vale and the Forest of Dean volume of the 'Buildings of England' (Verey 1976, p.326) states that…. 'Pucklechurch is still an attractive country place though there is a lot of building going on, both industrial and residential'. 

The census of 1851 is also be very useful in that it follow Pucklechurch through time, thereby making the subject more interesting for both adults and children to see how people lived in Pucklechurch 150 years ago; what they did and where they worked.

The records of the parish and village go as far back as the 16th century, and we will show them here as a comparison to the population numbers in later centuries;

¤ 1551 - 120 communicants ¤ 1563 - 22 households ¤ 1603 - 190 communicants ¤ 1650 - 32 families ¤ 1676 - 174 communicants, 12 nonconformists ¤ 1712 - 60 houses, 250 inhabitants ¤ 1779 - 92 households, 460 inhabitants ¤ 1801 - 542 inhabitants ¤

The first Census available was dated to 1841, the second Census of 30th. March 1851 has slightly higher figures all round:

91 inhabited buildings, 1 uninhabited building, 233 men, 213 women.

101 inhabited buildings, 2 uninhabited buildings, 249 men, 236 women.

The occupations listed on the 58 page document were :

Coal miner, labourer, scholar, pauper, agrarian farmer, thatcher, stone mason, shoemaker, toll collector, guard keeper, farmer, gardener, servant, dressmaker, apprentice, sergeant of police, smith, police officer, farmers boy, internist of money?, butcher, churchwoman, farmers servant, bricklayers labourer, basket maker, park bailiff, blacksmith, bailiff of coalmines, engineer, carpenter, keeper at home, maid at home, groom, housekeeper, ironmonger, charter to the coalworker, engine driver, dependent, companion, assistant, employe of labourers, machin man, vicar, curate, toolman, cook, ladys maid, kitchen hand, errand boy, shoe binder, general servant, toll gate keeper, house painter, grocer, land farmer, seller and charterer, market apprentice, painter and glazier, nail maker, nailer, baker, cashier, widow, school mistress, school assistant, mason apprentice, formal shoemaker, saddler, clerk, Inn  keeper. - Note : there were several occupations that could not be deciphered because of the long hand writing.

The following figure have been researched for Pucklechurch from census sheets and parish records and show the development of Pucklechurch over nearly 200 years:-