The coal of Kingswood naturally found its market in Bristol , and that of the Radstock area went into Wilt-shire , Dorset , and North Devon , till it came into competition with the sea-borne supplies landed at ports on the south coast .sx Some coals from Glamorgan , as already mentioned , were carried into Brecknock and Hereford , but those from the pits of the Mackworths in the Beaufort area were principally used locally in copper-smelting , and those of the Merthyr collieries in the ironworks which came into being after the middle of the century .sx The coal of North Staffordshire was consumed chiefly at the pot-banks in the immediate vicinity , but considerable quantities were supplied to the salt-pans of the Cheshire " " ; and that of South Stafford-shire was used in the miscellaneous iron-working trades of Birmingham and the Black Country , though some , it was said , was carried by pack-horse as far north as Macclesfield .sx If the sales of Griff Colliery can be taken as typical , the output of the Warwickshire field was used for domestic purposes in Coventry and parts of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire .sx From Ashby-de-la-Zouch supplies were sent down the Trent to Burton , Newark , Grantham , Gainsborough , Lincoln , and even to Bawtry and Hull .sx The town of Notting-ham obtained its fuel from the pits at Wollaton , and Derby was served by those about Heanor and Smalley .sx In the summer coal from this area found its way south as far as Northamptonshire , whence barley was brought in return ; but most of the output was absorbed in the local industries of malting , soap-boiling , lime-burning , and , later , of iron-founding .sx Similarly the collieries about Chesterfield supplied the local smiths and nail-workers , but some coal was carried west to meet the needs of the lead-smelters about the Peak .sx In Yorkshire the coal worked about Sheffield and Barnsley was used in the local iron and cutlery trades , and there is no evidence that it was taken far afield .sx That raised from the pits about Wakefield and Leeds , however , was transported on the Aire and Calder as far as York and Hull .sx But the northern dales of Yorkshire received their supplies more easily from the collieries of the Tees .sx Lancashire coal was consumed almost entirely in the county itself .sx The needs of the growing population of the south-east were met by the Duke of Bridgewater and other coal-owning landlords , and Wigan coal was used by the file-makers , glass-blowers , and other artisans of the district between Warrington and Liverpool .sx Some was carried by the Douglas and the Ribble to the agricultural areas , and there was a small but regular export to North Wales and Ireland .sx The gaps in this somewhat tedious catalogue indicate that before the opening of the canal era there were considerable areas of Britain in which the use of mineral fuel was unknown .sx In most of the southern counties the poor had to gather brushwood for their fires , and where this was scarce , like the Indian peasant of to-day , they made use of a mixture of dung and straw .sx In the hilly parts of the northern counties peat was cut from the Pennines ; and in Somerset turf from the Quantocks was supplemented by bark which had fulfilled its primary functions in the local tan-yards .sx Even in the neighbourhood of the coal-pits fuel was sometimes dear , for the absence of transport facilities often gave the producer the power to exploit the consumer ; and , on occasion , violent measures were taken to obtain or preserve such power .sx In 1739 complaints were made at Derby that " many evil-disposed Persons .sx .. have of late entered into Combinations , wilfully and maliciously to destroy Coal Works and Collieries .sx .. and have accordingly destroyed and drowned some Coal Works .sx .. with intent to extravagantly enhance the Price of Coals , and procure to themselves a " ?sx In 1774 rioting occurred in Sheffield owing to the high prices charged for coal by the lessees of the Duke of Norfolk .sx In 1778 there were protests from Leeds against the insufficiency of the supply and the excessive price demanded by Charles Brandling .sx And even in Newcastle the consumer had sometimes to complain of high prices and inferior quality , especially at seasons of brisk demand in the London market .sx The lack of a uniform system of measures often facilitated the exploitation of the purchaser .sx John Watson found that a nominal 20-peck corf at Long Benton was deficient by no less than 467 cubic inches .sx Fault was found with the weights used by Sir Herbert Mackworth at Neath in 1767 .sx And the men who transported the coal from the Forest of Dean were in the habit of loading their horses with as much as they could carry in the Forest , " but when they arrive at Wye-bridge , or some other convenient spot out of the public eye they take the bag off the horses' backs , and .sx .. distribute their burdens , making what was contained in three fill four or five " .sx The transport revolution associated with the names of Metcalfe , Telford , and Macadam wrought profound changes .sx Not only were the roads improved in surface , width , and foundation , and so made fit to bear the heavy coal carts , but they were so shortened and linked up with one another as to produce important results on the cost of carriage .sx " The poor manufacturer is nowunder a Necessity of paying Ten Pence , Eleven Pence and Twelve Pence per Hundred Weight for his Coals in the Winter " , said a writer in 1764 .sx But if a projected road were made from Nottingham " the Price .sx .. would .sx .. be reduced to Six Pence per Hundred Weight , even in the Depths of " ?sx The special waggon-ways which had long existed from the pits to the staithes on the Tyne , to the coast at Whitehaven , and to the Severn at Coalbrookdale , were imitated in the other coalfields .sx The construction of such a road at Leeds in 1758 was made conditional on a reduction in the price of coal from the Brandling's colliery .sx In 1774 the Duke of Norfolk made a waggon-way from his pits to Sheffield , which reduced the cost of carriage from 2s .sx 8d .sx to 1s .sx 2d .sx a ton .sx And in 1802 the first of a number of tramways which were to transform the coal industry of South Wales was made from Newport up the Sirhowy Valley .sx More important still was the construction of a system of canals .sx Between 1758 and 1801 no fewer than 165 Acts were passed for the purpose , and of these go had as their prime object the carriage of coal .sx Under the Bridgewater Canal Acts of 1759 and 1760 the Duke was to deliver coal at Salford for not more than 4d .sx per cwt .sx instead of the 5d .sx or 7d .sx previously charged .sx Carriage by canal between Chesterfield and the Trent cost only one-fifth of that by road ; and the Grand Trunk lowered freights in general to a third or a quarter of those demanded for road transport .sx The opening of the Erewash and Nottingham Canals led , it is true , in the first instance , to an increase in the local cost of coal , owing to the growth of a demand from regions which had previously been forced to go without ; but , even here , the long-period result was a substantial fall in price .sx Apart from their effect in giving cheaper coal throughout the country , the canals reduced very considerably the differential advantages enjoyed by industrial concerns established near the centres of supply , and enabled those more remote to compete on better terms .sx This equalising effect may be illustrated from an Account Book of the Duke of Bridgewater .sx In 1778 the price of coal at the pits at Worsley was 4s .sx 2d .sx a ton ; at Longford and Barton Bridge a few miles along the canal its price was 5s .sx 10d .sx ; at Sale Moor and at Broadheath , a little farther still , it was 6s .sx 8d .sx ; but many miles on at Stockton and Preston it was still only 6s .sx 8d .sx The practice of setting a maximum to the cost of carriage whatever the distance covered was also followed on the Grand Trunk Canal .sx It is safe to assume that it was never adopted by the carriers on the roads .sx Since no duties were levied on inland coals , the new areas supplied by the canals obtained their fuel at a much lower price than did London and other places supplied by sea .sx In 1794 sea-borne coal in Carnarvonshire cost 28s .sx a ton ; in 1799 at Bury St. Edmunds it cost 26s .sx ; and in 1800 London prices ranged from 43s .sx to 50s .sx a ton .sx But in 1790 land-sale coal was selling at the pit head in South Staffordshire for 4s .sx 6d .sx a ton ; in 1793 at Derby for 5s .sx 10d .sx ; in 1799 at Sheffield for 7s .sx a ton ; in 1800 at Barnsley for as little as 2s .sx 6d .sx ; and in the same year in Shropshire for 4S .sx 6d .sx a ton .sx Direct comparison is invalidated by reason of the higher quality of the sea-borne coal as well as by slight variations in local weights and measures .sx Moreover,the charges for carriage by road or canal would have to be added to these pit-head prices before arriving at the cost to the consumer .sx Nevertheless , it can hardly be doubted that inland coals were generally cheaper than those brought by sea , and the difference must have been of some moment in determining the localisation of industry before the removal of the import duties in 1831 .sx The geographical extension of the markets of the inland coalfields is exhibited in the evidence presented to the Committee on the Coal Trade in 1830 .sx Supplies from the Forest of Dean were now carried down the Kennet and Avon canal as far as Reading , where they came into competition not only with the sea-coals of Newcastle carried up the Thames , but also with those of South Staffordshire brought by way of the Oxford Canal .sx Coal from South Staffordshire had also obtained access to the Severn and to the area south of Burton-on-Trent .sx And that from Warwickshire and Leicester-shire was selling in Oxford .sx The coal-masters of South Wales now served the whole of Cornwall and North Devon as far as Chard and Yeovil ; and the North Wales coalfield supplied Macclesfield , Newcastle-under-Lyme , and Shrewsbury .sx The construction of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal greatly extended the sales of Wigan coals in Ireland , and supplies from this field also sold as far away as Askrigg in the North Riding , where they met with competition from both Cumberland and Durham .sx The markets of the coalfields of Yorkshire , Derby , and Nottingham now covered an area from Knaresbrough and Pickering in the north almost to Northampton in the south ; and places as far apart as Huddersfield and Peterborough came within their .sx sphere .sx Alone of the inland coalfields those of Shropshire and North Staffordshire showed but relatively small extensions of the territories served , for the growth of the iron and pottery trades was such as to absorb the greater part of their increasing output .sx This widening of markets did not take place with-out much opposition .sx The industrialists of the Midlands feared that it might trench on their own sources of fuel ; and the coal-owners of the North were the constant antagonists of the projectors of new canals .sx Their alarm was hardly justified .sx The new-born competition was confined mainly to places on the western and , to a slight extent , on the southern coasts .sx Northumberland and Durham still held the field in all those areas which could be reached from the ports of the East and South-East ; and the whole of the country below a line from the Wash to the Thames at Windsor and thence to Ply-mouth was still in their possession .sx In London itself the monopoly of the coal-masters of Northumberland and Durham was almost unimpaired :sx only 2580 tons of in-land coal reached the metropolis in 1805 , and as late as 1831 only 10,742 tons .sx Sea-coal from other fields was , it is true , a more formidable rival ; but of total imports approximating two million tons hot more than 125,000 tons was brought from collieries outside Northumberland and Durham in 1826 .sx