Coal mining is a significant industry in…

Coal mining is a significant industry in the Nottinghamshire village of Strelley during Elizabethan and Stewart times.

Notable families involved in the early mining of Strelley include the Strelleys and the Byrons; it is a Byron who sub-leases the pits to Huntingdon Beaumont, who completes the Wollaton Wagonway, built to transport coal from the mines at Strelley to Wollaton just west of Nottingham.

Horse-drawn coal wagons travel to their destination on this wooden railway line.

This is currently the world's oldest wagonway with provenance.

The exact date is unknown, but a surviving account book for the year ending September 30, 1604, proves it had been built within the preceding twelve months.