Curious Coal Facts

Continental chimneys are swept from top to bottom, but British chimneys swept from bottom to top.

The first commercial steam-powered vessels to use the Thames were the 'colliers' - seagoing barges from Newcastle - until then barges had sails.

Coal is not mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1085, but the Romans were using coal in Britain 1,000 years before.

Five Soviet miners under the leadership of Aleksey Stakanhov hold the individual coal cutting record using a pick and shovel. Each miner produced 45.4 tonnes of coal in one six-hour shift at the Tsentralnaya-Irmino mine, Donetsk region, Ukraine (then the USSR) on 19 September 1935.

A strongly held belief in the 12th to 16th centuries was that coal was a form of vegetation and actually 'grew'.

Mark Twain wrote in Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar: "There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it!"

The earliest mine found in the UK is a flint mine at Church Hill, Findon, West Sussex.dating to around 3390BC.

Brian McArdle, an Australian, holds the World record for filling a half ton (508kg) hopper with coal in 26.83 seconds. The event took place at the Fingal Valley Festival, Fingal, Tasmania, on 5 March 1974.

The oldest coal mine in the UK is at Wearmouth, Tyne and Wear, and dates to circa 1822.

The record for greatest annual output from a British coal mine (using machinery), stands at 3,045,986 tonnes from the Riccall Mine in the Selby Complex, North Yorkshire. The record occurred between April 1993 and March 1994.

The record for the most coal produced in a week in the UK was 173,156 tonnes in the week ending January 16 1993, from Wistow, also in the Selby Complex.

A gigantic lump of coal was the most prominent item on display at the great exhibition of 1851, which was held at the Crystal Palace.

Brian Newton from Leicester covered the Marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres (26 miles 385 yards) whilst carrying 1 cwt (50.8 kg) of household coal in an open bag in a time of 8 hours and 26 minutes on 27 May 1983.

David Jones of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, holds the record for the annual race at Gawthoppe, West Yorkshire, carrying a 50 kg (110 lb) bag over the 1012.5 metre (1107.2 yard) course in 4 minutes and 6 seconds on 1 April 1991.

Anthracite, the oldest type of coal, was formed up to 400 million years ago. Lignite is the youngest at under a million years old.

Coal is found on every continent from the Arctic to the Antarctic, yet it was formed in temperate and subtropical conditions.

Carrying a small lump of coal for luck is a long-held superstition - particularly by sailors and burglars!

In the 19th century coal was used as a material to make buttons, spoons, plates, dishes, snuff boxes, inkwells, candlesticks - and even statues and church floors.

Theatrical superstition says that standing on stage and throwing a piece of coal into the gallery means a successful future for a new theatre.

Finding a piece of coal on the ground is supposed to be lucky. Pick it up, spit on it and throw it over your left shoulder as you make a wish.

The expression To haul over the coals means to severely reprimand and was a punishment once applied to heretics.

A coalfish is a member of the cod family. It has a dusky colouring with a green back.

One reason chimney sweeps are considered lucky is that when King George II's horses bolted, a small sooty figure was the only person to step from the crowd and stop them.

The world record for non-stop bag carrying is held by a Birmingham man who carried 50.8kg (111 lb) of household coal 34 miles in 12 hours 45 minutes in 1986.

A box of coal and a plate of salt should be the first items taken into an empty house before moving in the furniture.