Coal Mine Structures is based on a six-year study, carried out at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne between 1976 and 1982 and financed by the National Coal Board and the European Coal and Steel Community (Projects 7220 - ACj806 and 7220 - ACj814), into the behaviour of under­ ground openings in British coal mines. The original work has been expanded to include other relevant British and international data. How­ ever, it remains, deliberately, a personal view based on a specific - albeit broad - research programme. It does not pretend to be a complete description of the behaviour of shafts, tunnels, rooms, pillars and long­ wall excavations. Nor does it set out to provide a manual for design. The specific aim is to show, often through consideration of quite detailed laboratory and field data, how the observed performance of some under­ ground structures during mining, can be explained by the deformation characteristics of the rocks which surround them. The work is based on observatiollB by many engineers working for the National Coal Board's Mining Research and Development Establishment, and by research associates and postgraduate students at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. I am grateful to them all, but I am particularly indebted to Dr A. H. Wilson and Mr M. J. Bell of the National Coal Board, to Dr P. F. R. Altounyan, Dr P. Garritty, Dr P. Holmes, and Dr P. D. Shelton formerly of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, to Dr R. N.