Coalpit Heath is a small village in the parish of Westerleigh,

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, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming par ...

, England, south of

Yate Yate is a town and civil parish in South Gloucestershire, England. It lies just to the southwest of the Cotswold Hills and is northeast of Bristol city centre and from the centre of Bath, with regular rail services to Bristol and Glouceste ...

and east of Frampton Cotterell in

Background

Due to the expansion of Coalpit Heath and the neighbouring villages in the late 20th century, the

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political bo ...

s of Coalpit Heath with Frampton Cotterell have become vague. The village contains three Pubs, one

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

, 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 tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The ...

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

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or ...

church, and a local

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

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

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

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

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 parish in the Horsham District of West Sussex, England. It lies south of London, northwest of Brighton, and east northeast of the county town of Chichester at the road junction of the A281 and A2037. The ...

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 undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted f ...

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