The earliest recorded date for coal mining in Nailsea was 1507 when coal was being transported to light fires at Yatton.[8] By the late 1700s the town had a large number of pits. Around this time Nailsea was visited by the social reformer Hannah More who founded a Sunday school for the workers. The Elms Colliery,(Middle Engine Pit), one of the most complete examples of an 18th-century colliery left in England,[9] is now in disrepair.