The story of Kent as one of the country’s unsung coalfields is a fascinating story of development and struggle - economic and social.

Betteshanger Colliery was the last coal mine to open for production Kent, in 1927, and the last to close, in 1989.  The colliery took its name from the nearby village of Betteshanger, although the mine pit head was actually closer to Northbourne, Finglesham and Sholden. The pit head was located on a hillside about one mile inland from the Deal to Sandwich road (A258) and two miles from the coast at Sandwich Bay.  The sinking of Betteshanger Colliery was started in 1924.  It was flooded twice during sinking but, using a process of cementation to seal the shaft sides, the pit progressed quickly.  The first Betteshanger coal was brought to the surface in 1927, and the high quality coal was often combined with lower quality coal for use in coking for steel production.  From the ‘pit top’ the coal and spoil were carried by an enclosed conveyor belt system down the hill, under the main Deal-Sandwich road and across farmland to the spoil tip site by the railway.
Betteshanger Colliery, the largest of Kent’s four coal mines, closed in 1989, two years after Snowdown and Tilmanstone Collieries and just one year short of the centenary of the discovery of coal in Kent. (With thanks to Mark Frost, senior curator of Dover Museum, for this brief account of mining in Kent.  More information on the story of mining in Kent can be found at www.kentcoal.co.uk).

Regeneration
For eleven years the former mine and spoil tip languished unused until the regional development agency, South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), acting as agents for English Partnerships, acquired the freehold in 2000.  As part of the National Coalfields Programme, and thanks to a good deal of hard work by the regional development agency and members of the Betteshanger Regeneration Team, the former Betteshanger Colliery spoil tip was regenerated into Fowlmead Country Park.