The Somerset Coal Field was an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It was part of a coal field which stretched into southern Gloucestershire.

Kilmersdon Colliery was established from February 1875 (opened 11th) as part of the Writhlington group of collieries.

As a transport forum, the route of coal extraction is of interest. See also http://www.irsociety.co.uk/Archives/18/Kilmersdon.htm

Once carting boys had extracted cut coal to the main shaft, it was placed into trams for extraction to the surface, at a maximum rate of 90 trams or 85 tonnes/hour.

After transfer there to standard gauge 16-tonne coal wagons, these were individually transported via a rope worked incline, the last gravity-working industrial rope-incline in the United Kingdom. Constructed in 1877, the double-track incline was 160 yards (150 m) long with an overall gradient of 1 in 4. Sidings were added at the head of the incline in 1900 to allow colliery dirt to be dumped there.

At the foot of the incline it junctioned in a triangle with the Radstock to Frome section of the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway)'s Bristol and North Somerset Railway. The northern triangular section sidings held empty wagons waiting to be taken up. The southern section sidings contained loaded wagons awaiting pick-up by the GWR.

Nationalised after World War II, as part of the National Coal Board, Kilmersdon became the last colliery to be working the Somerset Coalfield.

Closed in August 1973, Kilmersdon Colliery structures were demolished and the shaft filled. Former railway structures which existed at the foot of the rope worked incline were demolished in 2005.

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Jack and Jill Hill in Kilmersdon is supposed to have been the inspiration for the nursery rhyme of the same name.  It links Ames Lane to School Lane. 

There are several theories about the origin of the rhyme. One story is that Jack and Jill were a married couple, who lived in Kilmersdon. One day Jack went up the hill to collect some water when he was killed by a boulder dislodged from a nearby quarry, which hit him on the head.  Jill died of a broken heart shortly after giving birth to their son, who was then raised by the villagers of Kilmersdon and known as Jill's son.  The surname Gilson is apparently still common in the Kilmersdon area

Edit to correct date in title

Yep!   We had time travel there - a colliery closing before it opened!