History of the BGS Mine Plans Search

Background to plans held by the British Geological Survey

Mining has occurred in Great Britain since approximately 2700 BCE. A diverse range of minerals has been extracted by underground mining, from industrial minerals such as limestone to precious metals like gold. Plans, sections and shaft information exist, recording many of these workings. However, with the exception of coal mining, there has been no coordinated effort to catalogue and create a national database of these records. A variety of collections, catalogues and indexes exist in disparate public and private hands but individually, these cover only parts of the total holding (thought to be in excess of 40 000 documents).

Historical mining plan of Gas Water baryte mine, near Cumnock, East Ayrshire. BGS © UKRI.

Background to the Mining Remediation Authority’s Abandoned Mines Catalogue

Coal mining has long shaped the landscape of Great Britain with extensive underground extraction of coal and associated minerals taking place across England, Scotland, and Wales. Over this long history, thousands of mine plans were created – ranging from early, minimal sketches to detailed, standardised surveys – to record the location of workings, shafts, roadways, and geological features. These documents form an essential record of what lies beneath the ground.

Legal requirements to produce and deposit coal mine abandonment plans began in the 19th century and were strengthened through successive mining regulation and legislation. As a result, a substantial national archive of coal-related plans was amassed, later inherited and safeguarded by the Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority), and providing the most comprehensive and coherent dataset of underground working records available in Great Britain. Today the collection contains over 120,500 scanned plans representing centuries of coal mining activity, each varying in style, completeness, and accuracy depending on the era, surveying practices, and purpose for which it was created.

As well as being historical documents, such plans remain pertinent today in supporting safer land development, environmental management, academic research, and a deeper understanding of Britain’s industrial past.

A comprehensive guide to understanding coal mine plans and orientating them has been produced and made available here.

Legislation

Before the mid‑19th century, coal mines in Great Britain were not required to produce formal plans of their workings. This changed with the Inspection of Coal Mines Act 1850, which first required mine owners to keep a plan at each colliery. Further regulation followed with the Coal Mines Regulation Act 1872 and the Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act 1872, which made it a legal requirement for abandonment plans to be submitted to the Secretary of State when a mine closed.

For non‑coal mines, the rules were less stringent—plans only needed to be deposited if at least 12 men had worked underground, a relaxation that continued until 1993. Early abandonment plans were typically basic, often showing only the boundaries of worked areas and omitting crucial details such as orientation, depth of workings, or extraction information. As a result, many historic plans lack the detail and consistency seen in later statutory mapping standards.

For more information please view our guide found at Mine plans - data.gov.uk.

Force Crag Mine, Braithwaite, Cumbria. BGS © UKRI.

Gaps in our knowledge

Significant gaps exist in our understanding of historic mining activity. By the time formal legislation required the recording and deposition of mine plans, many thousands of workings had already been abandoned - leaving no reliable record of their extent or condition. As a result, knowledge of these early, unrecorded workings has often been lost.

Even where early plans do exist, they were produced using basic surveying methods and equipment that lacked the accuracy expected of modern mine plans. Records created before the 1872 statutory requirements are therefore often incomplete, inconsistent, or unreliable.

Because of these limitations, anyone using historical mining information should treat it with caution and always seek advice from a suitably qualified mining surveyor or engineer before relying on the detail contained within these records. For more information please view our guide found at Mine plans - data.gov.uk.

Hazards

Underground mining activity leaves subsurface voids and understanding their presence helps to ensure that land and property are managed safely and with confidence. Awareness of how historical workings may influence ground conditions also supports informed decision-making for property owners, developers, and communities. In some areas, spoil from former mineral workings can interact with local environmental conditions, so recognising these features contributes to effective land stewardship.

If you need to raise a concern relating to former coal mining activity, you can contact the Mining Remediation Authority on 0800 288 4242 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week). Examples of issues that people typically report include changes around former mine entries, unexpected ground movement, or gas or water emerging from an unsealed abandoned mine.

Mining records can provide valuable cultural and historical insight into past mineral extraction and remain an important resource for geological surveying and scientific research. Whilst this information supports a range of disciplines, maintaining public safety, supporting long-term resilience of land and infrastructure, and helping to uphold confidence in property use are key drivers for developing a consistent and accessible national database of mine plans.

History of coal mining plans

Header text	Header text
1840	The first Mining Records Office (MRO) was established by the Government for the voluntary registration and preservation of abandoned mine plans. The office was housed in the then newly established Museum of Practical Geology in London. A few plans, sections and even models were deposited but the vast majority chose not to deposit anything.
1850	The Select Committee on Accidents report led to the passing of the Inspection of Coal Mines Act in 1850 for Great Britain. The Act required a coal mine owner to keep a plan at each mine. This act was meant to be temporary and stay in force for only five years but was re-enacted in 1855.
1872	The Coal Mines Regulation Act and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act made the deposition of plans of abandoned mines with the Secretary of State a statutory requirement. Both acts placed an obligation on mine owners to deposit their plans within a period of three months from the date of abandonment. Non-coal mines were not required to deposit plans if there had been less than 12 people employed below ground and this relaxation was perpetuated in all subsequent legislation until 1993. All that was required to be shown on these plans were the boundaries of the mine workings up to the time of abandonment. There was no requirement for orientation with the surface, or depth or section information to be shown. Once deposited, no person except a mines inspector could view the plans for a period of 10 years.
1883	To establish a closer association between the MRO and the Inspectorate of Mines, the MRO was transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology to the Home Office.
1886	The first listing of plans deposited with the Home Office was published. The listing differentiated between open and closed plans depending on whether they had been held for 10 years.
1840	The first Mining Records Office (MRO) was established by the Government for the voluntary registration and preservation of abandoned mine plans. The office was housed in the then newly established Museum of Practical Geology in London. A few plans, sections and even models were deposited but the vast majority chose not to deposit anything.
1850	The Select Committee on Accidents report led to the passing of the Inspection of Coal Mines Act in 1850 for Great Britain. The Act required a coal mine owner to keep a plan at each mine. This act was meant to be temporary and stay in force for only five years but was re-enacted in 1855.
1872	The Coal Mines Regulation Act and Metalliferous Mines Regulation Act made the deposition of plans of abandoned mines with the Secretary of State a statutory requirement. Both acts placed an obligation on mine owners to deposit their plans within a period of three months from the date of abandonment. Non-coal mines were not required to deposit plans if there had been less than 12 people employed below ground and this relaxation was perpetuated in all subsequent legislation until 1993. All that was required to be shown on these plans were the boundaries of the mine workings up to the time of abandonment. There was no requirement for orientation with the surface, or depth or section information to be shown. Once deposited, no person except a mines inspector could view the plans for a period of 10 years.
1883	To establish a closer association between the MRO and the Inspectorate of Mines, the MRO was transferred from the Museum of Practical Geology to the Home Office.
1886	The first listing of plans deposited with the Home Office was published. The listing differentiated between open and closed plans depending on whether they had been held for 10 years.
1923-1931	There were two accidents, one in Stirlingshire in September 1923, resulting in the death of 40 workers, and one in Northumberland in March 1925, when 38 people were killed. Both accidents were as a consequence of an inrush of water from old workings. In July 1925 the Secretary for Mines made a widespread appeal for plans of old workings not covered by the statutory requirements or for the supply of information where it was not desired to give up the plans. The appeal was widely responded to and particulars of such plans were included in a new cataloguing system that was published in five volumes between 1928 and 1931. The catalogue was based on the 1:10 560 Ordnance Survey county map series, with each three miles by two miles map area subdivided into a graticule of 96 squares with alphanumeric references. This cataloguing system has been maintained ever since.
1939	All the plans and records were transferred to Buxton from London and the MRO operated from there for the duration of the Second World War and for some time afterwards.
1950	A Memorandum of Agreement was made between the ministry and the recently formed National Coal Board (NCB). Under this agreement, coal plans were segregated from the plans of other minerals and transferred to the custodianship of the National Coal Board (NCB). The collection of coal plans was then further split into regional areas to allow the plans to be made more easily accessible. Oil shale abandonment plans were transferred to Scottish Oils Ltd. The plans for ‘minerals other than coal and oil shale’ were then returned to London and stored at Thames House, Millbank.
1960	Scottish Oils Ltd. closed and oil shale plans were transferred to NCB Edinburgh.
1973	A national appeal for plans was made following the Lofthouse Colliery disaster. Non-coal plans for Cornwall were transferred to the Cornwall Record Office under a Memorandum of Agreement between the minister and Cornwall County Council.
1975	The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was set up and took over the ministry’s role of arranging archiving of abandonment plans.
1980	Plans of mines other than coal and oil shale in Scotland were transferred to BGS Edinburgh.
1984	Remaining non-coal abandonment plans were transferred from London to HSE Bootle, Merseyside.
1989-1993	English and Welsh non-coal plans from Bootle were dispersed to county record offices. Those for Cumbria were temporarily held by BGS Edinburgh between 1991 and 2000.
1992-1993	The collections of coal and oil shale abandonment plans were re-united at British Coal’s Bretby site near Burton-on-Trent. They were inherited by the Coal Authority on privatisation of the coal industry in 1994 under a new Memorandum of Agreement with the HSE.
1993	The anomaly, perpetuated in legislation made down the years since 1872, whereby abandonment plans were not required from non-coal mines employing less than 12 people, was removed by the Management and Administration of Safety and Health in Mines Regulations.
2001	The collection of coal abandonment plans was transferred to the Coal Authority’s headquarters at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire.
2017	BGS receives scanned copies of Scottish abandoned mine plans to facilitate a viewing service for Scotland at its Scotland office.
2026	MRA redeposits scans of the full collection abandoned mine plans of Scotland, England and Wales to the BGS who makes them available via their online mine plan search.

Background to the Mining Plans Catalogue Search:

The Mining Plans Catalogue Search was initially established in 2002 as a result of a partnership between a group of public bodies including the Health and Safety Executive, the Mining Remediation Authority (formerly the Coal Authority ), the BGS, the National Archives, the Mineral Valuer (part of the Valuation Office) and the Camborne School of Mines, who agreed to work together to create a national database of non-coal mine plans.

Whilst this partnership no longer exists, the BGS and the Mining Remediation Authority have continued to work together to make information about the extent of historic underground mining in Britain more accessible. Thus, from 2026 BGS will host and make available the Mining Remediation Authority’s Abandonment Mines Catalogue, providing easy access to all of the available mine plans held by both organisations in one application.

The search includes plans for Great Britain and, where available, the Isle of Man. The Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI) holds a comprehensive collection of Northern Irish mine plans accessible via the GSNI GeoIndex.

Mine Plan Catalogue Search

The Mine Plan Catalogue Search contains the following:

• Non-coal plans held at the British Geological Survey (BGS)
• Mine plans held at Mining Remediation Authority
• Plans held at other locations

All plans held at the Mining Remediation Authority have scans. Only some plans held at BGS and other external sources have scans.

The mine plan catalogue search can be accessed via this link.

British Geological Survey non-coal mine plans

A limited number of BGS plans can be identified from a spatial search on the BGS GeoIndex.

Copies of BGS held plans can be purchased from BGS Enquiries (enquiries@bgs.ac.uk).

Mining Remediation Authority mine plans

Mining Remediation Authority mine plans can be additionally identified by a spatial search on the Map Viewer found at Mining Remediation Authority map viewer.

Copies of plans can be obtained by completing the following GOV.UK form found at purchase plans.

To report an issue or provide an update to a Mining Remediation Authority mine plan please use the GOV.UK form found at plan feedback.

More information regarding understanding and orientating Mining Remediation Authority mine plans can be found through Mine plans - data.gov.uk.

Please note that the Mining Remediation Authority classify all plans under the broad category of ‘coal and associated minerals’, so do not identify specific minerals, in contrast to the BGS.

Updates to the existing plans database

Please help us improve the map search. If you have mine plans or related information that you are willing to allow us to add to our database, or if you wish to report errors, please contact us.

If you have coal mine plans which could be added to the MRAs collection, please get in contact through the following feedback form.

We also welcome information that allows us to provide more accurate information on unlocated or poorly located plans. If you have such information please contact us.

Gallery

• 
  Plan of Wanlockhead Mine, Dumfriesshire. BGS © UKRI.
• 
  Foss Barite Mine, Aberfeldy, Perthshire. BGS © UKRI.
• 
  Torwood Mine, Central Region. BGS © UKRI.