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The Parkgate Seam (Langsettian) is an important seam for the coal industry in the UK. It extends over a considerable part of the East Pennine Coalfield and a large database of information on the seam has been complied by (the former) British Coal for the Nottinghamshire area from many sampling locations. The seam has been subdivided into a series of mappable units termed plies. This paper demonstrates how sulphur concentrations may vary considerably on a vertical scale and that spatial distributions within individual plies may be markedly different to other plies within the seam. Often seam sulphur maps for industrial use are produced for a composite of the whole thickness of the seam, typically as the whole seam-less-dirt. The neglect of the vertical variation in seam sulphur content may lead to the production of maps which are of limited industrial use. Variations in sulphur distributions also has implications for the origin of the sulphur in the coal. Distribution maps have allowed the controls on sulphur in the Parkgate Seam to be investigated, and these are dominated by complex depositional processes.