The Chinese were early acquainted with the existence of coal, and knew of its industrial value to the extent of using it for the baking of porcelain.

The fact of its extensive existence in Great Britain, and the valuable uses to which it might be put, did not, however, meet with much notice until the ninth century, when, owing to the decrease of the forest-area, and consequently of the supply of wood-charcoal therefrom, it began to attract attention as affording an excellent substitute for charcoal.

The coal-miner was, however, still a creation of the future, and even as peat is collected in Ireland at the present day for fuel, without the laborious process of mining for it, so those people living in coal-bearing districts found their needs satisfied by the quantity of coal, small as it was, which appeared ready to hand on the sides of the carboniferous mountains.  Till then, and for a long time afterwards, the principal source of fuel consisted of vast forests, amidst which the charcoal-burners, or “colliers” as they were even then called, lived out their lonely existence in preparing charcoal and hewing wood, for the fires of the baronial halls and stately castles then swarming throughout the land.  As the forests became used up, recourse was had more and more to coal, and in 1239 the first charter dealing with and recognising the importance of the supplies was granted to the freemen of Newcastle, according them permission to dig for coals in the Castle fields.  About the same time a coal-pit at Preston, Haddingtonshire, was granted to the monks of Newbattle.

Specimens of Newcastle coal were sent to London, but the city was loth to adopt its use, objecting to the innovation as one prejudicial to the health of its citizens.  By the end of the 16th century, two ships only were found sufficient to satisfy the demand for stone-coal in London.  This slow progress may, perhaps, have been partially owing to the difficulties which were placed in the way of its universal use.  Great opposition was experienced by those who imported it into the metropolis, and the increasing amount which was used by brewers and others about the year 1300, caused serious complaints to be made, the effect of which was to induce Parliament to obtain a proclamation from the King prohibiting its use, and empowering the justices to inflict a fine on those who persisted in burning it.  The nuisance which coal has since proved itself, in the pollution of the atmosphere and in the denuding of wide tracts of country of all vegetation, was even thus early recognised, and had the efforts which were then made to stamp out its use, proved successful, those who live now in the great cities might never have become acquainted with that species of black winter fog which at times hangs like a pall over them, and transforms the brightness of day into a darkness little removed from that of night.  At the same time, we must bear in mind that it is universally acknowledged that England owes her prosperity, and her pre-eminence in commerce, in great part, to her happy possession of wide and valuable coal-fields, and many authorities have not hesitated to say, that, in their opinion, the length of time during which England will continue to hold her prominent position as an industrial nation is limited by the time during which her coal will last.