Coleford, Somerset

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coleford






Statistics
Population:	2358
Ordnance Survey
OS grid reference:	ST685495
Administration
District:	Mendip
Shire county:	Somerset
Region:	South West England
Constituent country:	England
Sovereign state:	United Kingdom
Other
Ceremonial county:	Somerset
Historic county:	Somerset
Services
Police force:	Avon and Somerset
Fire and rescue:	Somerset
Ambulance:	South Western
Post office and telephone
Post town:
Postal district:
Dialling code:
Politics
UK Parliament:
European Parliament:	South West England

Coleford is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the Mells river in the Mendip Hills five miles west of Frome. The village has a population of 2,358 (2002 estimate).

There are visible remains of a famous unfinished engineering project, the Dorset and Somerset Canal, which was abandoned in 1803.

The village had several coal mines as part of the now closed Somerset coalfield. Just north of Coleford there were once the collieries of Newbury and Mackintosh. Mackintosh opened in 1867 and finally closed in 1919, due to flooding. The Natural Stone Products factory is built on the site of Newbury Colliery. This pit started around the beginning of the 19th century and closed in 1927. ^[1]