Billingsley is a very old mining area, numerous shafts (at least 13 are known!) were sunk west of the B4363 in the fields opposite the "Cape of Good Hope" in the the late 1700s to work seams of 'Sulphur coal' - however these were restricted in that they were working the down-dip side of the coal seam with even earlier flooded mines up-dip to the west in Deserts Woods.
The mines were worked intermitently for over 100 years - one dispersal sale in 1817 advertising a small Trevithick engine and other steam engines for sale.
The mine site East of the Cape of Good Hope was developed in the 1870s and reached "Sweet coal" at 160 yards depth by Christmas 1872 (Sweet coal is low sulphur coal). A series of financial problems effected the mine until it was eventually purchased and run by Alfred Gibbs in 1882. The mine was operated successfully on a small by the Severn Valley Colliery Company until 1910, when the new Billingsley Colliery Company was created.
The new comnpany undertook a major transformation of the mine, including a complete reconstruction of the surface buildngs and alteration of the layout- adding a fan-house, lamp room, an electrical powerhouse, carpenters and fitters shops. Electric haulage was installed underground and a rope-hauled narrow gauge tramway built to drop coal tubs down to new railway sidings in a valley at Priors Moor about half a mile away and 300ft lower than the mine site. A new Garden Village was also built for the miners at Highley.
Screens were built at the sidings and connected to the mine by an electric powered rope-hauled tramwy. Coal came down the incline to the screens and was loaded onto the railway. Waste and pit materials were sent back up the incline to the mine. An aerial ropeway from Billingsley brickworks also brought bricks, tiles and other products down to the sidings with coal for the kilns going back to the brickworks.
Billingsley was taken over in 1915 by the Highley Mining Company after it had, had a number of financial and geological difficulties - they also took over the Garden Village housing development in Highley.
On the eastern Billngsley site there were 2 shafts about 500ft. deep and 7.5ft in diameter. The mine finally closed in 1921. A few of the 1910 mine buildings survive and have been turned into farm buildings.