66 CHARCOAL BURNERS IN EPPING FOREST.
The Collier's Row men, already referred to, had quite lost the
tradition of the hut, and did not seem to even understand how
to keep it in repair, although when they came they found it
ready built for them. They were also, from what I could
gather, not particularly successful in the burning of the
charcoal, and did not obtain a satisfactory result. In fact,
great practical skill and experience are needed, although the
methods are apparently so simple and primitive. One of the
Collier's Row men told me that his father used to do a large
amount of charcoal burning, and that he used to be with him
when a boy, but apparently he had not done much of the work
since.
All the charcoal-burners call the product of their industry
simply "coal," and not charcoal,1 and, consequently, the men who
burn it are spoken of as "colliers." There can be little doubt
that Collier's Row acquired its name from the "colliers" who
formerly lived there, but the industry has now died out in the
district. Memorials of the former presence of the industry also
survive in such names as "Cole Field," "Cole-hearth Field,"
and many more. An interesting account of the history of char-
coal burning in the county is given by Mr. T. S. Dymond in
The Victoria History of Essex (1907, vol. ii., page 447), and I
must refer the reader to this memoir for further details upon
this side of the subject, merely confining myself to what I have
been able to observe in the recent revival of the industry in
Epping Forest.
The wood for charcoal burning is cut into lengths of about
three feet six inches, and if necessary split into pieces of a con-
venient thickness, and then piled into stacks called "cords,"
each cord measuring twelve feet long by three feet six inches
high by three feet six inches wide. The charcoal burnt in this
primitive manner in the woods is called "pit coal," but whatever
may formerly have been the system, no pit of any kind is now
dug for the fire. The pile of cord wood to be burnt is built up
on the natural surface of the ground, with no previous preparation,
except the removal of the turf and the levelling of the surface.
The burning pile is, however, protected from the wind by a
1 In fact, the term "coal" originally applied only to the substance we now call charcoal.
It was only in later times that the "term was used for mineral coal, which was at first
commonly spoken of as "sea-coal" (that is, the coal brought by sea), in order to distinguish it:
from the coal that was burnt in the woods.