A bell pit with hand-winding gear.

When these were worked-out, people dug bell pits, unsupported structures going maybe twenty five feet down, into the coal and ironstone measures.

At the bottom, as much material would be extracted as possible before the structure became unsafe. It was then abandoned, and a new shaft dug nearby.

In this way, large areas became covered with old pit shafts which slowly filled with water and collapsed. As a child I remember seeing what was left of this landscape at Bentley. There were small grass-covered hillocks and mounds everywhere, and many small pools covering flooded workings.

As mentioned earlier, no early records exist for Darlaston, and so it is not known when mining began in the town. In 1538 when the traveller, historian, and writer John Leland travelled through Birmingham and the Black Country, he made no reference to Darlaston, and so it may be that little, if any, industrialisation was taking place in the town at the time.

For over two hundred years the iron ore was mined for the production of the fairly low grade iron used by numerous blacksmiths in the area. By the second half of the sixteenth century coal was beginning to be used for domestic heating, due to the shortage of timber.

Early mining in Darlaston appears to have been concentrated in the thick seam of coal that runs from Bilston and curves in an arc through Moxley and the southern part of Darlaston, before running southwards into Wednesbury. The seam was often around thirty feet thick and became known as ‘the ten yard seam’. By the late seventeenth century, exploitation of this seam would have greatly changed the local landscape. For the first time, parts of Darlaston would have looked like an industrial area rather than open countryside.

In 1698, Timothy Woodhouse, who was manager of the coal mines belonging to Mrs Mary Offley, the Lady of the Manor, had a two year contract and was paid twenty pounds a year for maintaining the mining buildings, looking after the horses, collecting arrears, hiring colliers, and organising sales. In the first year he sold 3,000 sacks of coal, and later went into partnership in his own business.

Another record from around the same time states that Edward Blakemore, a nailer, who had a milking cow, barley, winter corn, and land, was owed thirty pounds by Mrs Mary Offley for coal, and expected that his executors would go to law to recover it.

One surviving document dated 1750, concerns a letter from Darlaston coal mine under-manager, Joseph Lytcott, to the owner of the mine. With the aid of a map, he advises the owner, not to sink any shafts in the vicinity of Clarke's Close, because of the danger of meeting other workings underground, which could cause flooding.