Quantock Coal

One of the nice things about an interest in the geographies of railways is to be able to imagine what might have been. One suggested route from Watchet to Bridgwater followed roughly the existing West Somerset Railway alignment from Watchet to Roebuck. From there the line would continued to follow the Doniford Brook, striking eastwards to Triscombe and the Quantock Hills. Then a mile-long tunnel under the lofty hills to bring the line out into Cockercombe and thence down to Plainsfield and away to Bridgwater. What a line that would have been! The fun bit is reading about the suggestion that there might be "coal under the Quantocks". This idea stems from the similar geology on the other side of the Bristol Channel which gave rise to the great Welsh coal industry. Whether there is coal under the Quantocks, I'm not sure anyone has actually had a look down a borehole or trial adit but there are several examples of both on each side of the hills. I guess the hope was that the railway tunnelling would have struck coal seams and proved the guess. Thanks to www.npemaps.org.uk for the out-of-copyright map.