Charcoal making is thousands of years old. Metal smelting first took place across Europe in prehistoric times from about 1500 BC to smelt tin and copper (to make bronze) and then iron. The fuel used in the metal-smelting process from these early times until the 18th century, when Abraham Darby perfected the use of coke, was charcoal. But charcoal was still used well into the 20th century in the manufacture of blister steel and as a moulding material in iron foundries. Today in Britain the traditional method of making charcoal is now restricted to woodland craft demonstrations. But archaeological evidence of charcoal making remains in surviving woodlands and the English landscape is full of place-names indicating well-established charcoal-making locations. These include the Anglo-Saxon place-names of Cowley in South Yorkshire, which means woodland clearing where charcoal was made, Cowlersley in West Yorkshire (the colliers’ clearing) and Colsterdale in North Yorkshire (the valley of the charcoal makers). ‘Coal’ in early documents usually means charcoal and charcoal makers were formerly called wood colliers.

The traditional method of making charcoal
Charcoal is the black porous material with a high carbon content that is left behind when wood is heated to a high temperature in conditions where there is little oxygen. If air is not excluded the wood burns quickly and just leaves a pile of ashes. Charcoal was made by stacking four-feet lengths of coppice wood into an upturned pudding bowl shape. Careful searches of former coppice woods in winter when the vegetation does not conceal subdued features will reveal charcoal-making sites, variously called charcoal hearths and pitsteads. These are most difficult to identify when they are on naturally level ground, although when the circular or oval sites have been re-used over many coppice cycles they are usually dish-shaped. Careful inspection to find blackened soil and small pieces of charcoal may confirm the feature’s identity as a charcoal hearth.

Charcoal hearths are much easier to identify in woods on sloping sites. Here the charcoal maker had to prepare a level stable site. The characteristic feature of these ‘platform’ sites is a low bank on the upper side where the charcoal maker has cut into the slope to create a circular, oval or sub-rectangular level surface. In some cases the lower edge of the hearth may have stones revetted into it to give extra stability. To give some idea of the density of charcoal hearths in coppice woods, about 300 have been identified in one 290-acre (117.5 ha) South Yorkshire wood.

There are different traditions of building a stack. One way was to begin with the laying of three short billets on the ground in the form of a triangle. Other billets were piled on top to form a central flue. A northern method was to drive in a long central stake which was removed when the stack was ready. Whichever method of construction was used, the remainder of the stack was built by piling lengths of wood on end facing inwards round the central triangle or stake. This was continued until the stack was about 15 feet in diameter and about 5 feet high. It was then covered with straw, grass, bracken and turves and then covered again by dust and ashes. Red hot coal or burning charcoal was then dropped down the central flue. Once assured the stack was alight it had to be watched carefully, ensuring that no gaps appeared, until the burn was completed. A slow burn was essential. One of the earliest illustrations of the process, which is reproduced below, appeared in John Evelyn’s book Sylva  in 1670.

The working life of the charcoal maker
The painting of ‘Charcoal Makers’ by John William Buxton Knight (1843-1908) shown above depicts a timeless woodland scene in a wood in Knole Park in Kent in the late 19th century. It contains all the elements of the working life of the traditional charcoal burner before the days of steel kilns and retorts. During the coaling season, which usually lasted from April to November, charcoal burners lived a solitary life, sometimes completely alone but sometimes with their families, deep in the woodlands. The painting shows the charcoal maker at the charcoal hearth raking off the cover of turves and dust at the end of the burn (which could last for between 6-10 days depending on the greenness of the wood) to allow the charcoal to cool. The rake would have been one peculiar to charcoal makers, with a board at its head toothed on one side, called a corrack. The charcoal would then be packed in sacks or panniers for transport from the site. Full sacks of charcoal can be seen on the right-hand side of the scene. Behind the charcoal maker are stacks of four-foot lengths of wood, called cordwood, ready for making another charcoal stack. The charcoal maker’s assistant is barrowing more cordwood to the stockpile, on an open-framed barrow called a mare .

On the left of the painting in the foreground is the hut in which they would live in the woods during the coaling season. The hut was placed near the charcoal stacks so that the wood collier could keep a close eye on the burn, especially during windy days and nights when it had to be protected by hurdles to make sure that the stack did not burn too quickly. The huts were conical in shape built on a framework of poles about 12 ft (3.6m) high like a wigwam, sometimes around a low perimeter stone wall. The hut was normally about 10 ft (3m) in diameter at ground level. A lintel was lashed in place over a gap that was left as a doorway. Sacking or skins were laid over the framework of poles and these were then covered with turves in the manner of tiles. Doors varied in style and material, often just a covering of sacking. Sometimes a stake was driven into the ground a few feet from the entrance. The door then consisted of wood battened together which could be pulled in front of the doorway at night and merely pushed outwards to rest on the stake when the charcoal maker emerged in the morning.

In the north of England a fireplace was often built inside the hut on the south side; but more usually a fireplace was built just outside the hut. The remains of these huts in the form of a circle of stones (the remains of the low perimeter wall with a gap for the doorway) can still be found if a thorough woodland search is made in winter when the ground vegetation has died down.

A particularly evocative but faded photograph of a charcoal maker’s hut has been unearthed in a Sheffield attic. The hut is typical of its type with a turf covering over tarpaulin covered poles (one pole in the doorway is clearly birch). Note also the tiny cabin built for the dog. The underwood and timber trees would have been felled in the wood in the previous winter and, as can be clearly seen, the ‘reserved’ trees left to grow to maturity have been marked with white paint. Leaning against the hut is a woodman’s two-handled cross-cut saw used to cut the cordwood to length together with a series of long pointed poles that were probably rake handles. In the foreground is a sieve used for riddling the dust that was used to form the outer cover of the stack and two baskets for carrying work on the site. The baskets are called ‘swills’ or ‘spelks’ and were made from strips of oak woven round an ash or hazel framework. The strips of oak (spelks) were obtained by boiling oak coppice poles and riving them while still hot.

In the print edition
Read Melvyn’s article about child labour in the mining industry in Issue 4 of Discover Your Ancestors, out in newsagents and available to buy at discoveryourancestors.co.uk