Fencing Telford Old Mine Ground: What to Check

What Telford & Wrekin Council says

The council’s page on mining says the Coalbrookdale coalfield has been worked since the 12th century. As a result numerous mine shafts and adits exist across Telford, and many are not recorded on any plans. It adds that the area has also been undermined at shallow depth, which can be a constraint to development. Source: Telford & Wrekin Council, Mineshafts, adits and shallow mining.

Coal was not the only thing taken out. The council lists limestone, ironstone, clay and tar among the other minerals mined here, and says records of those workings were very limited. For information on them it points to the British Geological Survey and to Shropshire archives.

The idea of building on old pit ground is not new either. Dawley Heritage, The Making of the New Town records that in 1952 Dawley sought to reclaim 30 acres of old pit mounds for new housing, years before the new town was designated.

What this means for a fence

Be clear about the limits. The council and the national mining body write about development and about hazards such as collapses. None of the pages say anything about garden fences, and nothing here suggests fence posts are a problem. What the sources do show is that ground in this borough can hold surprises that nobody has drawn.

That is a reason to tell an installer what you know. If a neighbour has had a hole open up, if the lawn has a soft dip that never dries, or if your solicitor’s search mentioned workings, say so before the quote rather than after the digging starts.

Check your own address

GOV.UK sets out how. You can check if a property is in a former coal mining area and order a mining report if it is. The page says a report gives information on several things, including mine entries within 20 metres of a property’s boundaries and gas emissions from coal mines. The search uses a postcode and the property’s boundaries, and the results show immediately whether a report is needed.

Property near to past mining activities may be at risk of being on unstable ground (sometimes called ‘subsidence’).

Source: GOV.UK, Find out if a property is affected by coal mining. The national body now goes by the name Mining Remediation Authority.

A search of the official map covers coal. For other minerals, the council says to contact its Engineering Services team and points to the British Geological Survey website.

What to report, and to whom

The council lists the problems it wants reported to the Coal Authority: a collapsed mine or mine entrance, gas or water emissions from an abandoned mine, an unsealed entrance to an abandoned mine and a ground collapse such as a hole in the ground. For those, the route is the GOV.UK page for reporting a coal mine hazard, which also gives the 24-hour emergency line. The council’s own Engineering Services team handles non-coal mining problems.

If a hole appears while a fence is being put up, the sensible step is to stop digging there and report it, not to fill it.

The Gorge is a separate case

Within the Ironbridge Gorge, the council also monitors landslips, which it says have been happening for hundreds of years. It describes them as rare. That has its own page, because it comes with its own planning rules: see the Gorge page.

This page is general information, not a ground survey, and it makes no claim about any street.