Ram Hill Colliery
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Ram Hill Colliery, (grid reference ST679803) was a privately owned colliery in the Coalpit Heath area north-east of Bristol, England. It operated between about 1825 and 1865.
Ram Hill Colliery was sunk sometime between 1820 and 1830. It was owned by the Coalpit Heath Company, which included Sir John Smyth as a shareholder. Sir John was one of the main proponents of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Railway, which linked the pit and others in the area to Cuckolds Pill in Bristol.[1] At this date workable coal was dependent on a means of transport to market, so that the railway and the pit were interdependent.
Ram Hill was 558 ft deep and was originally worked by a horse gin, the remains of which were still visible in 2006. In later years it was worked by a beam engine. The pit was linked under ground to Churchleaze and Rose Oak Pits, forming the hub of 19th century coal mining in Westerleigh parish.
Abandonment
Abandonment plans show that the colliery, along with other Coalpit Heath pits at Churchleaze and New Engine, closed in the 1860s as the nearby Frog Lane Colliery[2] increased production.
In later years land in the area was purchased by the Great Western Railway for the construction of their direct route between Wootton Bassett and the Severn Tunnel via Badminton. The new line passed through the area in a deep cutting immediately north of the pit.
