Also 7 collyery, colyery, 8 collery, coalliery. [f. COLLIER + -Y: see -ERY; cf. also the form COALERY.]
1. A place where coal is worked; a coal-mine.
1635. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 85. Besides great collieries employed for the use and supply of the commons and poor of the town.
1648. Rushw., Hist. Coll., IV. II. 1219. An extraordinary Storm … which … hath drowned Two of the best collyeries upon Sunderland River.
1676. Hodgson, in Phil. Trans., XI. 764. The water that runs from the adjacent Colyeries is vitrioline.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 10. Your Ground Borders on other Colleries, which are working Colleries.
1799. Scotland Descr. (ed. 2), 102. Its coallieries, its traffic, its various manufactures.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 172. It was not … until 1238 that the first collieries were established on the high grounds in the neighbourhood of Newcastle.
† 2. The working of a coal-mine. Obs.
1708. J. C., Compl. Collier (1845), 10. As also explain the whole Art of Collery.
1708. J. Chamberlayne, St. Gt. Brit., I. I. iii. (1743), 9. The Colliery here is brought to such Perfection.
† 3. The coal trade. Obs.
1673. H. Stubbe, Further Justif. War Netherl., To Rdr. 2. Of our inferiour Commerce what have we but the Colliery, and Fishing of New-found land.
† 4. The ships employed in the coal trade; also, one such vessel. Obs.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1884), 280. Among the Colliery, that is to say, among the Ships.
1763. Churchill, Duellist, III. (1764), 43 (R.).
| The Master, or by Courtesy, | |
| The Captain of a Colliery. |
† 5. (See quot.) Obs.
1708–15. Kersey, Collery, a Store-house of Coals.
1721–1800. in Bailey.
6. attrib., as colliery Act, club, district, explosion, inspector, manager, owner, trade, yard; colliery viewer = COAL-VIEWER.
1786. Act 26 Geo. III., c. 41. Any such … may … sail in the Colliery Trade.
1849. Sir F. B. Head, Stokers & Pokers, i. (1851), 30. Joseph Locke, a colliery-viewer … had served his apprenticeship below ground.
1852. J. Glynn, Power of Water (Weale), 119. By profession a ‘colliery viewer.’
1863. Trans. Assoc. Coal Miners, 10. They had colliery clubs established in their district…. The Educational Clause of the Colliery Act operated favourably.
1866. W. Begbie, Wks. (1883), 254. Who has recently resided in a colliery-district.
