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South East
The chalk cliffs of South East England are a visible sign of the types of minerals that have been mined in the area. Clays and sands are the other main raw materials in the region, and are used for example in the brick–making industry.
As well as providing bricks which built cities such as London, the area also had a short-lived coal industry in East Kent, which started in the early 20th century. Some of the deepest coalfields in the UK were sunk there but most are now gone with little surface reminders of their past.
Chalk
Flint is a material closely associated with chalk and in prehistoric times the region exported worked flints, mined from the Sussex Downs. Although this industry faded away flint mining returned in the 18th century when there was a need for gun flints. The growing population, especially in London, led to many wells being dug in the chalk for water. The chalk was then ground up and spread on the soil, a process known as marling Ð widespread from the 13th to the 19th centuries. Marl was a chalk and lime mixture used as a fertiliser. Chalk was also used in the cement industry as companies such as Blue Circle, now part of the Lafarge group, moved to the area. Chalk was also mined for lime-burning and brick-making with extensive workings in North Kent and elsewhere.
For more information on the chalk industry go to the Amberley Working Museum website. The museum is based on the site of a former chalk quarry in Sussex and the website includes a history of the industrial processes carried out there.
Brick Making
The South East has also provided building materials such as bricks. The links below show websites of current brick-makers and details of the history of brick-making in the region:
Freshfield Bricks - brickmakers based near Haywards Heath in West Sussex.
Brick making in the Isle of Wight - An Isle of Wight Archaeology Society website with details on the history of brickmaking on the island.
Brickmaking in North Kent - information from the Sittingbourne Heritage Museum website.
Coal
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The East Kent coalfield was one of the deepest in the country and because of this more effort was required to reach the coal. It was not until the late 19th century that serious attempts were made to look for coal which was known to be there and it was a struggle during the first years of the 20th century to get coal to the surface. A combination of difficult geology and flooding caused problems; as did tension between miners coming from other parts of the country to work in Kent and the locals. The CHIK (Coalfield Heritage Initiative Kent) website has details on the history of coal mining in Kent and the East Kent Railway Trust website has information on the railway which was created to link the Kent coalfield pits to ports and other transport links. Other MineralsOne of the few places in the UK where gypsum is mined is at Robertsbridge in East Sussex and is used for a variety of purposes, especially in the building industry. The British Gypsum website shows other gypsum locations in England. |
Group at Dover Colliery |
The mining techniques used to extract all these minerals were also used for tunnelling, especially in the London undergound train network and in the Channel Tunnel. Work on a tunnel to France in the late 19th century led to the discovery of coal in East Kent. Underground defences and bunkers have also been built in the South East, because it is close to continental Europe.
Details on underground activity in the region can be found on the Kent Underground Research Group and Wealden Cave & Mine Society websites.
More South East images are available on the Image Gallery pages.
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