Broseley Mining Victoria County History

Transcription

1 Broseley Mining Victoria County History About 1250 Philip of Benthall gave Buildwas abbey free right of way across Benthall for the carriage of coal, stone, and timber. Until the 19th century a road ran north and then west from a point east of Benthall Hall to Buildwas, although stone and timber for the abbey had probably been carried to the Severn and so up river rather than overland. By the mid 17th century coal from Benthall was shipped down the Severn. In 1635 John Weld of Willey asserted that Lawrence Benthall had built, or encouraged 'poor and disorderly people' to build, cottages both in Benthall and in Broseley (presumably Broseley Wood). Benthall denied it,

2 saying that he had built only two cottages, at Benthall Marsh and for miners not disorderly people. Large-scale coal mining began at least a generation earlier in Broseley (c. 1580) than in Benthall (c. 1630), and Benthall's winnable coal, ironstone, and good clays proved more limited. Benthall's commons, on which incomers could be settled, were smaller than Broseley's, whose natural advantages were fully exploited by its landowners, particularly James Clifford (d. 1613) and Sir John Weld (d. 1666). George Maw (d. 1912) moved to Benthall Hall c. 1852, when Maw & Co. began to make tiles in the parish. Large-scale coal extraction perhaps did not begin as early in Benthall as in Broseley and it was apparently Lawrence Benthall (born c. 1589) who accelerated exploitation of the parish's mineral reserves. By 1634 he had sunk pits for coal and ironstone, perhaps particularly in Benthall Marsh, and had allegedly encouraged the settlement of 'many poor and disorderly people' as workmen. By the terms of his agreement with John Weld in 1637 Benthall was able to mine throughout Benthall Marsh and the Marsh Head and to lay railways. By 1645, when they were seized by Parliament, Benthall's collieries ranked with those of Broseley and Madeley, and it was said that each year 30,000 tons of Benthall coal were shipped down the Severn to Worcester or beyond. Benthall remained one of the Severn's pre-eminent collieries in After the mid 17th century, when many of the easily won reserves were probably worked out, Benthall's mines may never again have equalled Broseley's. Pierce & Co., who ran potteries in the parish in the early 19th century, got coal and clay there. In 1851 the inhabitants included 30 miners, three-quarters of them coal miners and the rest ironstone miners, but most probably worked in Broseley pits. There was some mining in the late 19th and the 20th century. Small amounts of ironstone were also mined in the parish. Benthall ironworks was built in the 1770s on Benthall brook, c. 400 m. from the Severn. The Harries family and William Banks and John Onions were operating the works together by 1778 and in formal partnership The lord of the manor's younger son F. B. Harries remained active in the works until 1814 or later. Initially the blast for the two furnaces was provided by a water wheel, a pumping engine returning the water to pools above the works. Later an atmospheric engine blew the furnaces. The furnaces specialized in pig for casting, sent in the late 1770s to the ironworks in Wolverley (Worcs.), and between c and 1801 to the Soho foundry in Smethwick (Staffs.). In 1803 there were two furnaces but the engine could blow only one at a time. Production was 30 tons a week, part of which was used in the adjoining foundry and the rest sold. The works, employing c. 700, had a water-powered boring mill by 1781 and a forge. By 1784 the works was capable of manufacturing steam engines, although in the early 19th

3 century domestic goods were probably the main manufacture. The furnaces went out of blast in 1821 but the foundry, under Stephen Hill, and the boring mill worked until the 1840s. There was a 'pitchhouse' in A range of ovens for the manufacture of coke and tar, similar to those at Calcutts (in Broseley), was built by Lord Dundonald c. 1787, next to the ironworks. By 1799 they had been demolished. In 1731 Thomas Barker, chief agent in North Wales for the London Lead Co., leased land in Benthall, probably on the river bank near the broseley boundary. A smeltery of Barker's design, with two coal-fired reverberatory furnaces or cupolas, was in use later that year. It used ore from the company's mines in Llandrinio (Mont.) and coal from Little Dawley. The ore supply, however, proved unsatisfactory and in 1736 the works was leased to Matthew Dore & Partners of the Bog mine (in Wentnor), who used it until the mid 1740s. In the 18th and 19th centuries vast amounts of limestone were got from Benthall Edge for fluxing and burning. In the late 18th century at least some of the limeworks were run as a joint venture with Benthall ironworks. In the late 19th century three groups of kilns survived: one west of Bower Yard, one on the top of Benthall Edge, and one west of Mine Spout. There was some quarrying and lime burning in the 1920s and 1930s. Local railways served the parish's industries by the 17th century. By 1636 Lawrence Benthall was laying wooden railways to his mines, and in 1637 he gained permission to cross the land of John Weld of Willey. The main line in the parish, down its eastern side, was Benthall rails, apparently in existence by In the late 18th century the New Willey Co. used it, as an alternative to the Tarbatch Dingle railway, to carry iron to a Severn wharf. At that time, therefore, the line probably ran from Willey furnaces to the neighbourhood of Benthall ferry. The southern part of the line probably fell into disuse when Willey ironworks closed in the early 19th century, but the northern section probably took limestone and Benthall ironworks' products to the river until 1856 or later. Short railways probably served various extractive industries in the parish. In 1801 and later an inclined plane carried limestone from Benthall Edge to kilns at Bower Yard. In 1833 it ran southeast from the top of the Edge before turning north-east, probably to join Benthall rails near Benthall ironworks. At least two other short inclined planes also served the limestone quarries. In the early 18th century brown lead-glazed ware, yellow slipware, and salt-glazed dipped stoneware were made near Coppice House. Eleanor and John Lyster had a kiln in William Booth was leasing an 'old pottery' in the parish in The Pitchyard pottery, on the site later occupied by E. Southorn's clay pipe works, probably also began in the 18th century. The Pitchyard pottery was leased to Jasper Cox in 1800 and was run from before 1814 until 1826 by William Lloyd of Pitchyard House, and from 1826 until 1833 or later by Mrs. Lloyd, presumably his widow. The main pot works in the parish, the Benthall Pottery, was founded in 1772 when John Thursfield (d. 1789) built a new manufactory north of his existing Haybrook Pottery in Posenhall, which he soon afterwards gave up. John's son John later entered the business and was joined by his brother-in-law William Pierce. Pierce & Co. ran the Benthall Pottery until It was then

4 taken by Samuel Roden & Co., who had the lease until when John Farnall became proprietor. Farnall still ran the works in 1837 and perhaps remained in charge until c when W. T. Jones and Edwin Bathurst, lessees of the Haybrook Pottery, reunited the two concerns. They remained a single business, the works being known collectively as the Benthall Potteries, although in the early 1850s, when there were 31 employees at the Benthall Pottery, Jones and Bathurst may have divided the managerial responsibility with the latter running the Benthall concern. The main products were then Rockingham-style ware and stoneware. Between c and c the Benthall Pottery Co. was run by William Allen and thereafter, until the early 1920s, by his son W. B. Allen. In 1880 the traditional coarse 'red and yellow' ware still sold readily in Wales. Allen, however, was beginning to promote the works as the Salopian Decorative Art Pottery Co. In 1882 its products included copies and 'adaptations' of vessels from the ancient world, pots based on flower heads, and barbotine ware. By 1901 Allen's attempt to 'raise the character' of the products had largely foundered, and, apart from a few Greek- and Hispano-style vessels, the manufacture was mainly coarse wares, lamp bases, and electrical engineering ceramics. In 1929 the company was re-formed as the Benthall & Ironbridge Pottery Co. Ltd., which continued trading until the Second World War. In 1795 and 1805 John Thursfield also held a pottery formerly run by Joseph Glass (d. 1790), where one kiln produced earthenware. Pierce & Co. had it in 1811, and it was presumably the single-kiln pottery held in 1845 by Jones & Bathurst on the north side of the Wenlock- Broseley road 0.5 km. east of their Benthall Pottery. By the time that Maw & Co. moved from Benthall in 1883 they were making decorative vases. In 1922 Woolfson, Rowe & Co. made earthenware in Bridge Road as the Salop Pottery Co. Ltd. The works was operated between c and 1937 by the Leigh Pottery Co. Ltd. The works had three kilns, and the main product was probably domestic ware such as teapots. Production was restarted by a Stoke-on-Trent firm c. 1950, but it soon ceased. In 1635 Lawrence Benthall was promoting the manufacture of bricks at Benthall Marsh. The Burton family had a brickworks which was perhaps, by c as in 1845 and later, at Bower Yard. By 1856 white refractory firebricks were the main product, although floor and roofing tiles were also possibly made there in the later 19th century. Burtons built the coalfield's first downdraught chimney in About 1895 control of the firm passed to the Jones family, and c to Bennett Bros. Known as Benthall Firebrick Works from c. 1900, it closed c A second brickyard at Bower Yard in 1845 belonged to F. B. Harries. In 1852 George and Arthur Maw, who for some time had used clay from the area in their Worcester factory, opened a tileworks on the site of the former ironworks. In the early years the Maws concentrated on development, and production was not on a commercial scale, but by the early 1860s Maws had a highly regarded design team and were receiving awards and commissions for products which included tile mosaics, friezes, and chimney pieces. Roof tiles were designed by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt. The Benthall works closed in 1883 when the Maws' new Broseley works opened. Between the late 1930s and c the Benthall Stoneware Co. made sanitary pipes at the former Releigh Pipe

5 works, employing 30 or 40 people. Between 1930 and 1982 the Benthall Pipe Co. made agricultural and sanitary pipes at the former Benthall pottery. Clay tobacco pipes were made in Benthall from the later 17th century or earlier. As in Broseley local clays were used in the 17th century. Apparently prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries were the Bradley and Hartshorne families, and in the 19th the Shaws and Rodens. About 1858 Edwin Southorn took over Noah Roden's business adjoining the New Inn in Bridge Road. An important and innovative factory, the Broseley Pipe Works, was soon established, employing 28 pipemakers in 1861 and 40 in After Southorn's death in 1876 Hopkins & Co. ran the works as the Raleigh Pipe Works, said in 1885 to be one of the largest factories of its kind in England. About 1882 control of the works reverted to the Southorns, who kept up production there until c The first known record of mineral working comes in 1250 when Phillip de Benthall granted the Buildwas monks the right of way over his estate for the conveyance of coal and ironstone. Mineral extraction would have led to the progressive deforestation of the area to be worked. This was apparently considered a problem from an early date for a proclamation was issued in 1308 prohibiting the use of coal as a fuel, to safeguard the interests of the timber growers. How much emphasis was given to enforcing these early laws is not clear, for 14 years later the Wenlock Prior granted Walter de Colebrook a license for "the digging of coles at the Brocholes (Madeley)" on the payment of six shillings a year.