The opposite of anthracite, or steam coal, but the basic form of 'king coal'. A mineral that rightly attained the regal title, and I will explain from a personal perspective.
In the beginning, my father spent the majority of his working life tending to the extraction of the mineral. He maintained and serviced the mechanical equipment below ground. In fact, he had three brothers who worked the mines.
Consider everyday life. We lived in houses that were heated by coal, and that had cooking ovens built into a range that depended on burning coal. So far, the household income, source of heating, and cooking are all reliant on coal.
Even the design of the house is adjusted to accommodate coal.
There were two coal fires downstairs in our two-bedroomed home. One of those was in the kitchen and included the aforementioned oven and a water boiler. The other in the sitting room. There was no central heating. More significantly, there was the coal house. My dad's wage included a coal allowance.
The coal allowance was 20cwt of coal, about once every month to six weeks. It was delivered by a man with a wagon and bags of coal that he carried on his back and tipped in the yard outside the coalhouse. 1cwt in each sack. He would tip one or two bags into the coal house, and the rest would be tipped in the yard for Dad to shovel home. When I was old enough, I 'helped'.
Holidays were dictated by the coal board because, apart from bank holidays, everyone had the same two weeks off in the summer. So life was controlled by coal.
God Bless
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