Coalpit Heath is a small village in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

of Westerleigh and Coalpit Heath, in the

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Kingswood, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke. The southern p ...

district, in the ceremonial county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England, south of

Yate Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswolds, Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol and from Bath, Somerset, Bath. Developing from a small village into a town from t ...

and east of Frampton Cotterell.

Background

Due to the expansion of Coalpit Heath and the neighbouring villages in the late 20th century, the borders of Coalpit Heath with Frampton Cotterell have become vague. The village contains three

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s, one

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

, a 27-hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

(The Kendleshire), and a few local shops. The village also includes a

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

, and a local

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, The Manor CofE VC Primary school. It was founded as a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

settlement. One pit was on Frog Lane at ST 685 815 (to the north east of the village). Other mines operated between Mays Hill and Nibley to the north and at Ram Hill and

Henfield Henfield is a large village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham (district), Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at ...

to the south. These were served by a railway line, closed some decades ago and no longer visible on the ground. In 1949 the coal ran out, and since then it has become a sought after place to live, with fields and easy accommodation. The South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group (SGMRG) has done a lot of research into the history of mining in the area. When the Kendleshire golf course was built, the remains of many bell pits were found and there are probably many more in the area. Frampton Cotterell lies along the northwest border, but the rest of the village is surrounded by the rolling Cotswold countryside, stocked full of

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

and country pursuits. St. Saviour's Church lies within the village. It was designed by William Butterfield in 1844 and was his first Anglican Church. Amenities used and supported by the village include Bitterwell Lake at

and Coalpit Heath Cricket Club at Ram Hill.

Coalpit Heath in literature

A number of sources, including Frank Barrett's book ''Where Was Wonderland? A Traveller's Guide to the Settings of Classic Children's Books'', cite Coalpit Heath as the setting for the Dick King Smith children's book '' The Sheep-Pig'', later adapted for film as ''Babe''. The South Gloucestershire Mines Research Group have written two books (more to be published soon) on Coalpit Heath and the surrounding area, including ''Frog Lane'' and ''Kingswood Coal''.

References

External links

{{South Gloucestershire Villages in South Gloucestershire District