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This work presents a transcription and translation of a case of novel disseisin brought before the Nottingham assizes in 1257. Its importance lies in the fact that the case is concerned with a coalmine in Nottinghamshire. It offers important new evidence in three key areas: early, thirteenth-century enclosures, the earliest evidence for coal mining in the Nottinghamshire coalfield and very rare evidence of pit-head sales of coal. The accompanying commentary discusses these themes in detail in conjunction with the legal context of novel disseisin, the details of the case itself - with particular reference to the litigants themselves - and suggests that the numerous and early surviving novel disseisin cases may be an additional source of evidence for social historians in a period when other documentation might be lacking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]