A short introduction to the Somersetshire Coal Canal

People today seem surprised that there were coal mines in Somerset within living memory.

My mother lived down there in the 1950s and remembers how strange it seemed when a bus drew up in the centre of a rural village and men with coal-blackened faces got out.

This video tells the story of the canal that was built to serve those mines.

There is more about the Somersetshire or Somerset Coal Canal on Wikipedia.