Troopers Hill Local Nature Reserve
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Troopers Hill has a fascinating history that has shaped its appearance today. The famous chimney was built to take fumes from industrial works at the bottom of the hill and may date from as early as the eighteenth century. The Friends of Troopers Hill have incorporated the chimney, with its characteristic lean to the west, into their logo.
Troopers Hill was also quarried for pennant sandstone and mined for coal and fire clay at various times in its past. Quarrying for pennant sandstone is thought to have started in medieval times and continued to the twentieth century.
Several deep coalmines run under the hill and a small amount of open-cast mining was done on the hill in the early 1900s. But, throughout its history, Troopers Hill has remained open land.
The Friends of Troopers Hill are beginning to discover a great many facts about Troopers Hill.
Click here
to see our History Timeline (PDF)
We are not yet sure how long the hill has had its current name, but we have found a
map of Kingswood from 1610 showing it as Harris Hill. Old newspaper reports indicate that donkeys were kept on Troopers Hill in the nineteenth century, and as a result the Hill was known as Donkey Island.
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Links to External Web Sites
The Tar Works in Crews Hole was a major employer.
Click here to read
the History of the Tar Works (PDF)
There were Copper Smelting Works in the area from about 1698 and it is believed that the chimney was built in the 1790s as part of an improvement to the works by the river:
Living Easton Brass and Copper Works History
The People of Troopers Hill
Details of the people who lived and worked here are beginning to come to light.
These are the surnames of the inhabitants of Crews Hole and Conham
listed in the 1881 Census.
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