LISTER APPENDICES

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Issue Date 14/11/2020.

Section 1 printed 25/2/2002
Section 2 Printed from original source
Section 6 Printed from original file.

LISTER APPENDICES 1

1.        The Broseley Anti-Felons 1-1

2.        John Wilkinson and the Early Iron Barges 2-8

3.        COLLIERIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AT WORK IN 1869 3-1

CHESHIRE, SHROPSHIRE, CHESHIRE 3-1

SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE and WORCESTERSHIRE 3-2

4.        All Saints Broseley (St Leonard's) 4-1

The Birchmeadow Chapel 4-1

5.        Industrialization and Canals: Britain 5-1

6.        Appendix 8: Broseley Directories 6-1

Piggott’s Directory 1822-3 6-1

Tibnam's Directory, 1828 6-5

BROSELEY. 6-5

COALBROOKDALE 6-5

MADELEY 6-5

Directory of Shropshire Staffordshire etc. Pigot 1829 6-9

Pigots 1835. 6-17

7.        Appendix 10:  SOME MINING INCIDENTS IN THE BROSELEY FIELD 7-1

8.        Creation of the Engine Business at Soho 8-1

9.        Poor Law in Rural Communities 1601 - 1834 9-1

Introduction 9-1

Background 9-1

Poor law 1601 - 1834 9-2

Legal Settlement 9-2

Holding a Parish Office. 9-2

Parish Apprentices 9-3

Illegitimacy 9-3

Parish Relief 9-4

After 1834 9-4

Mental Illness 9-5

Removal Orders 9-12

Clothing Receipts and Bills 9-26

Settlement Examinations 9-29

Hardship Letters 9-51

10.      BRITISH HISTORY ONLINE Extracts 10-1

WROCKWARDINE 10-1

WROCKWARDINE WOOD 10-28

Broseley 10-33

Benthall 10-92

11.      Burgesses and Freemen. 11-1

12.      Changes: 3

 

Appendix 1:

1.     The Broseley Anti-Felons

 

By JOHN CRAGG

This article was originally published in the Wilkinson Journals 9 and 11 - 1981&83
“The Anti-Felons” was the name by which they were popularly known. Their full title was “The Broseley Association for the Prosecution of Felons”. They were one of many such associations existing in the 18th, 19th and well into the 20th centuries, which originally had the sole purpose of bringing petty criminals to justice. They flourished in the days prior to the compulsory establishment of borough and county police forces.
In his “Portrait of an Age Victorian England”, G.M. Young says that in 1840 there were in England “five hundred associations for the prosecution of felons; but there were no county police; and the mainstay of the public police was not the (parish) constable but the yeoman, and behind the yeoman, though cautiously and reluctantly employed, the soldier”.
More than one Shropshire town had its Anti-Felon Association. Ludlow had one, rivalling Broseley’s in its long years of existence. There was one in Louth, Lincolnshire. George Eliot, in “Scenes of Clerical Life”, writing of the 1830 period, has a farmer, Mr. Hackit, “presiding at the annual dinner of the Association for the Prosecution of Felons at the Oldinfort Arms”, in the Nuneaton area. Arnold Bennett writes in “These Twain” of an architect living in the Five Towns during the late 19th century:
“Osmond Orgreave had never related himself to the crowds. He was not a Freemason; he had never had municipal office; he had never been President of the Society for the Prosecution of Felons”.
But between the days of Hackit and Orgreave Anti-Felons everywhere were more concerned with the pleasures of social gatherings than with the pursuit of justice.
Nevertheless, in recent years there has been something like a revival of the activities of the original Anti-Felons. The prevalence of theft of cattle and sheep has caused farmers in some parts of the country to act independently of the police. In December 1978, for example, farmers in Dorset banded together, each subscribing £5 annually in order to finance a system of payment for information leading to the arrest of sheep and cattle rustlers.
Precisely such a system of rewards was fundamental to the formation of the Broseley Anti-Felons. Members of the Association were owners of various kinds of property; a house, an estate, a mine, a quarry, a farm, craft on the river, an iron-works, a pottery, a shop or a public house. They each paid a membership fee and an annual subscription, and the money subscribed served to provide rewards for information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of persons responsible for thefts and acts of damage to property. The money was also to be used to pay lawyers’ fees.
There was a fixed scale of rewards, payable after conviction of the felon. In 1837, a reward of 5 guineas was offered in cases of burglary, highway robbery, arson, stealing horses and cattle; 2 guineas when pigs, poultry, hay, straw had been stolen; one guinea in the case of theft of timber, gates, fencing, of fruit and vegetables, and in the event of wilful damage to wagons, ploughs etc.; “or any kind of felony whatsoever”. In 1860 the same scale of rewards applied as in 1837.
In 1860 membership of the Association was “general for any person living within the Several parishes of Broseley, Benthall, Madeley, Willey_, Linley., Barrow and Posenhall” ; the Association provided “Protection on property lying within the said parishes. Membership fee was one guinea, the annual subscription 5 shillings.
The Rules and Articles of the Broseley Association, including the scale of rewards, were publicly displayed, as were handbills relating to specific offences and offering appropriate payment for information. One such handbill, dated October 14^th 1914, was referred to by Mr. I.J. Brown in his article on page 4 of the Society’s Journal No. 8. The felon was there described as “some evilly-disposed person” who had damaged equipment in a Benthall mineshaft.
A more recent handbill (undated) and one of more general application, reads
“ONE GUINEA REWARD”
“The above reward will be paid to anyone giving such information as will Lead to the conviction of any person or persona trespassing upon or damaging this property.”
W. E. PRICE
(Secretary - Treasurer, Broseley Association for the Prosecution of Felons)
Arthur Meredith, Printer, Broseley.
The Broseley Anti-Felons wound up their affairs at the Lion Hotel, on July 30th, 1959. No such precise knowledge, so far as I am aware, is available about the Association’s beginnings.
Two minute-books have survived, the earlier one opening on page one, with an account of a meeting of Members held on October 9th, 1789, with a rough draft of proceedings written on the fly-leaf facing page one. It is apparent that the Association was already a flourishing concern; indeed there is later evidence that it existed in 1775.
The entries in the book are mostly clearly written, but there are some words, which I could not decipher; and the spelling is variable.
The 1789 meeting was “Held at the House of Mr. John Cleobury at The Fox Inn in Broseley.

Presant:	Mr.	Thos Mytton	Mr.	Jno. Onions
		Jno. Morris		Tho. Baker
		Jno. Rose		Ben Haines
		Jno. Perry		Fr. Baker
		Elias Prestwick		Saml. Scale
	Mr.	Jno. Morris (junior)		Ed. Owen
	Mr.	Tho. Bryan		Jno. Guest
		Jno. B. Corbet		Jno. Boden
		Geo. Hartshorne		J. Cleobury
		Jno. Weaver		Ch. Guest

Agreed: That Mr. John Rose be paid four shillings for the expence of a serch warrant for serching after persons suspected of stealing six geese the same to be paid by Mr. J. Guest, Treasurer.

That this Association be advertised in the Shrewsbury Cronicle immidiataly after each meeting setting forth the several rewards to be paid for the different Fellonise and misdemeanours and that a copy of the said advertisement be published in two Hand Bills.
By order of the Meeting. Jno. Guest.”
Some well-known names appear in this list of Members. The Guests are probably the most famous. They belonged to an old Broseley family, and for many years were prominent iron-makers and coal-owners. Randall mentions a John Guest who was born in Broseley in 1522, and had a son Andrew who was buried there in 1609. A branch of the family established itself in South Wales at Dowlais in the mid-18th century and laid the foundations of a great industrial firm, which developed into to-day’s G.K.N.
Charles Guest was a trustee of the turnpike road running through Cuckoo Oak, where the principal tollhouse stood. He was a subscriber to the building of the Preens Eddy Bridge at Coalport; and he and John Guest also subscribed to the building of the Iron Bridge. John Guest “paid half the cost of the Birch Meadow Baptist Chapel, Broseley, in 1801” (The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire, B. Trinder, p. 201), and he and John Onions were buried in the Chapel graveyard.
The Norris family had an interest in limestone quarries in the Wyke-Tickwood area. Thos. Bryan had a half share with William Reynolds in the Tuckies estate at Jackfield. John Onions was an ironmaster with interests in the area and for many miles around. He was a partner with William Banks and with Francis Blithe Harries of Benthall Hall, in the Benthall Ironworks. Edward Owen was a barge-owner. The Hartshornes, the Corbets, the Barbers were coal-owners. Samuel Seale was the parish constable at Willey.
Thomas Mytton was a lawyer. At a meeting of the Association on September 30th, 1791 it was resolved by the members present that he should be “the only person in his profession that shall commence proceedings in Law against any person or persons that shall commit any depredations upon the property of any one of them or their servants”. Later, in the 19th century, the Association was to carry this “closed-shop” attitude to extremes.
The Prestwich family were vintners. Early in the 19th century they left Broseley for London where their trade flourished. Joseph Prestwich married Catherine Blakeway in 1809 in Broseley. They had a son Joseph who became Professor of Geology at Oxford and was the author of a well-known work on “The Coalbrookdale Coalfield”. After the departure of the Prestwich family for London their business in Broseley was taken over by the Listers.
Reference was made in the Minute Book entry for October 9th, 1789 to the theft of six geese belonging to John Rose. This John Rose was the father of John Roe the manufacturer of porcelain at Caughley and Coalport. John Rose senior was a farmer, living at Swinney Farm near Caughley, in the parish of Barrow. He died in 1792 when his son John at the age of 20 was about to end his apprenticeship with Thomas Turner and join Edward Blakeway at Jackfield.
After the meeting held in October 1789, the next one reported at The Fox Inn was on March 26th, 1790, at which the firm of Banks & Onions with works in Broseley and Benthall, was admitted to the Association in joint membership. It was agreed also that a future payment of one pound eleven shillings and sixpence be made for dinner at The Fox Inn. This was presumably the total cost of the meal for the whole company.
On April 1st, 1791 at the next meeting recorded, again held at The Fox Inn, Mr. Samuel Seale, the Parish Constable of Willey, “produced a number of keys and three Chissils which he found in the house of Mr. Matthew Morris of the Parish of Willey in execution of a serch warrant on his house and it being represented to this society that Mr. Richd. Wilkes of Linley a member thereof can prove one or more of the same keys his property”. It was resolved “that the Treasurer (John Guest) be requested to wait upon Mr. Wilkes and recommend to him immediately to prosecute the offender if he is in possession of any profe which may be the means of conviction”.
At a meeting held on May 11th, 1792 it was resolved Mr. Scale be paid expenses incurred in prosecuting Sarah Moore and Edward Howels in separate actions, the nature of the offences going unrecorded. There is a reference to a disallowed claim for expenses from a Mr. Morris; Mr. Thomas Wilkinson, submitted a bill for prosecuting John Martin; a Mr. Morris was to be paid £ 6. 13. 8. “for his activity in bringing forward a prosecution against Elizabeth Brazier”. This last case must have been a serious one in view of the size of the reward, but no details are given in the Minute Book; they doubtless could be found in legal records if these have survived.
There were meetings of the Association in April 1793, October 1793, and October 1794. On the last occasion a Mr. Bennett submitted a bill for prosecuting John Peach and this it was agreed “be alowd, also that his man Thomas Merrick be alowd l0/6d for taking him”.
In March 1795 Mr. Bernard Colley was paid seven shillings for handbills and for the constable’s expenses “aprehending George Egerton”. In the following October Mr. Mytton was allowed four pounds nineteen shillings for the conviction of George Egerton. Again, the nature of the offence is not stated.
On April 1st 1796 Rob. Mills was paid 6/9 “for aprehending John Wheeler’s aprentice for stealing bricks” and it was agreed that “J. Holmes be paid 2/6 for being the active person in the business in order to bring him to justice”.
Mr. Prichard succeeded Thomas Mytton as the Association’s solicitor at a meeting held on March 31st 1797. Prichard was required to go into action at once on the application of a Mr. Simkis to prosecute Mary Roper who had stolen his window lights.
At a general meeting held on March 28th 1800 the Association’s Treasurer must have expressed some concern about members who were defaulting on the payment of subscriptions. It was agreed “that the Treasurer be directed to send to every member of this society who is at present in arrears to pay the and in case of refusal - that the Treasurer be directed to prosecute such person for the recovery of such arrears in the Court of Requests at Broseley -and in case of Nonsuit that the expences of the same be defrayed by the Society”.
It is clear from a minute dated March 26th 1802 that the Association’s meetings were not held haphazardly or only when there was business to transact. It was resolved at this meeting that the Society should meet on the second Thursday after Michaelmas and on the first Thursday after Ladyday.
At the meeting held on September 30th 1802 it was agreed that Mr. Prichard’s bill be allowed “for the different prosecutions, except Mr. Collins’ journey to Posnal to examine Eliza Ray”. Another tantalising reference to an event about which we are left completely in the dark.
From 1802 up to 1820 entries in the first of the two surviving minute books contain little of interest for us. John Guest was still Treasurer and the minutes are still in his handwriting. But he had not much longer to serve the Association. New names appear in a list of committee members appointed at the 1820 spring meeting, alongside one or two old ones. The Anti-Felons functioned much as before, but changes were to appear in the following thirty or so years which were due to events in the country at large.
At the Anti-Felons’ meeting held on April 20th, 1820, at the Fox Inn, Broseley, a new committee was formed consisting of: Mr. A. Brodie, Mr W. Hazeldine (represented by Mr. Thomson), Mr. W. Fifield, Mr. Thos. Roberts, Mr. Jno. Lister, Mr. Abr. Wyke, Mr. Samuel Roden, Mr. Geo. Hartshorne. Any four of these men could act in conjunction with the Treasurer who had been in office since before 1789.
There are some well-known Broseley names in the above list: Hartshorne, Wyke, Roden, Lister. Brodie and Hazeldine were comparative newcomers.
Alexander Brodie lived at the Rock House, Jackfield. He was the nephew of another Alexander Brodie, a Scot who became a figure almost as important as Wilkinson. Alexander senior bought the Calcutt mines, furnaces and forges in 1786 and made a national reputation for producing high-quality iron, for steam pumps and other engines, for cannon accurately bored, and for such by-products as coke and tar. He died in 1811 and his nephew took over the Calcutt works.
William Hazeldine of Shrewsbury, where he owned a foundry, had taken over the Calcutt works from Brodie by 1817, when in the aftermath of the recent Wars trade was sluggish. Under the supervision of his friend Telford, Hazeldine constructed the Menai Suspension Bridge and was constructor also of the ironwork for the Pontcysyllte and Chirk Aqueducts.
William Fifield is described in Pigot’s Directory as a Surgeon. A Mrs. Fifield was living in 1851 at Barratt’s Hill, possibly in what is still called “Fifield House”, which was a Doctor’s residence until recently.
In May 1822 there is a Minute about expenses allowed to Messrs. John Rose & Co. “in the prosecutions of Griffiths and Nevitt”. No details are given.
The Minutes of a meeting held on October 24th, 1822 were signed by 17 members who included John Onions, George Hartshorne, William Roden (“for father” ), John Lister, Thomas Rose. John Onions and his father John, who died in 1819, are two of the great ironmasters and mine-owners of the age, owning furnaces in whole or in part at Lilleshall, Benthall, Broseley (Coneybury) and Brierley Hill. John junior lived at Whitehall (Church Street) in 1851. He died in 1859. Thomas Rose was the brother of John Rose. He had been a partner in the porcelain firm of Reynolds, Horton & Rose in 1803 when Robert Anstice purchased the share holding of his late cousin William Reynolds. In 1814 John Rose bought up Anstice, Horton & Rose and brother Thomas thus found himself subordinate to John and as we see attended meetings of the Anti-Felons as a representative of the firm.
Amongst the names of subscribers to the Association in May 1824 appear the Hon. Lord Forester and the Rev. Townshend Forester who later became a Canon of Worcester Cathedral.
At the meeting of April 14th 1824 “the Society (felt) itself much obliged by the services of the late Mr. John Guest as Treasurer of the Association for a period of fifty years and upwards last past”. According to this tribute John Guest became Treasurer of the Anti-Felons in or about 1774, some 15 years before the first meeting recorded in the surviving Minute Books.
John Guest was succeeded by Mr. John Onions who was “unanimously elected” and “was good enough to accept the appointment”. Traces of pride, gratification and deference here. Alexander Brodie signed this Minute as Chairman.
There is a reference in Minutes of a meeting in April 1826 to prosecutions on behalf of four members of the Association: John Hartshorne, William Bennett, Samuel Roden and Abraham Aston. A Mr. Ashwood “was allowed expenses for advertising a robbery at his mill”. Pigot’s Directory records that in 1842 Jeremiah Ashwood was a miller and “Postmaster” in Broseley. He was also a maltster and an agent for the Globe Fire Insurance Company. In April 1827 Mr. Ashwood is said to have lost “his lead pump”. Rewards for information were agreed on in cases of window breaking and a theft of fowls. In November 1827 a “robbery of sheep” in mentioned.
At a meeting held on April 17th 1828, Mr. Onions expressed his “determination to resign” the Treasurership. Unfortunately no reason for this is given in the Minute Book. Mr. J. Lister was appointed in his place.
The meeting of October 19th 1837 decided on a new scale of rewards for information leading to successful prosecutions.
In 1844 the Association had funds of over £100 in hand and the annual subscription was reduced from 5/- to 3/6, the entrance subscription dropping to half a guinea from one guinea. In 1853 the annual subscription was again cut, to 2/6.
In 1849 there occurs the first reference to meetings being held at the Pheasant Inn instead of at the Fox. In 1859 the Pheasant was closed, for no stated reason, and it was decided that meetings in future were to be held at the Lion.
The mid-l9th century is a convenient time to look at national developments in the field of law and order. In country parishes maintenance of order was the duty of constables appointed usually by two justices of the peace. These constables often delegated their duties to deputies who were in many cases inefficient and corrupt. General dissatisfaction led to attempts to reform the system. In 1839 an Act of Parliament was passed empowering Justices in Quarter Sessions to establish a paid constabulary in the counties. This Act was only permissive and another followed it in 1856, which made it compulsory to create county police forces.
These enactments caused no immediate change in the affairs of the Broseley Association for the Prosecution of Felons, or at least in the reports contained in their Minute Books. The system of rewards for information leading to successful prosecutions continued, and the scales of payment published in 1837 were re-issued almost unchanged in 1860.
When the names of Police Constables do eventually appear (and these men were already paid by the County Police authority) they are recorded as receiving the appropriate reward listed in the Association’s scale of payments. P.C. Becket in 1881 received 10/6 for giving information leading to the conviction of Edward Doughty for the theft of coal from the pits of Messrs. Ealey & Sons (Exley?). P.C. Daniel Brew had the same amount for his share in the conviction of Annie Hill and William Purrier who had stolen “underwood belonging to Lord Forester”. In 1883 P.C. Perry of Jackfield was rewarded for the apprehension of Mary Heighway who was found guilty of stealing potatoes and turnips belonging to Mr. James Barnet of Woodhouse Farm.
Several other cases are recorded of similar rewards given to policemen. It is never apparent if they were or were not acting during their hours of official duty. Some other convictions were obtained as the result of action by members of the public, but such cases seem to have been fewer than those involving the police. In 1884, for instance, Mr. Henry Sergeant was rewarded for reporting that Richard Griffiths had stolen “peasticks the property of Lord Forester”.
During the latter half of the 19th century a change took place in the occupations and interests of the leading personalities amongst the Anti-Felons. Earlier on, the prominent men, the Guests, the Onions, Hartshornes, Hazeldines, Listers, Rodens etc., were industrialists, shopkeepers, and landowners. (John Wilkinson is never mentioned in the Minute Books, nor is Lord Dundonald, nor Alexander Brodie senior, though they may have been members). About the middle of the century men of other occupations begin to appear as Chairmen and Treasurers. Lawyers and doctors for instance, occasionally a clergyman, together with some landowners, tradesmen, small manufacturers and farmers.
In 1851 the Chairman was Robert Evans, a brick and tile manufacturer and a J.P., living at the Dunge. In 1853 Evans had died and his place was occupied by Mr. G. Pritchard, a solicitor and banker. The Treasurer was Dr. Richard Thursfield. According to Pigot’s Directory (1842), while George Pritchard was the leading “attorney” in Broseley, George Potts was an attorney in Ironbridge. George Pritchard was very highly regarded in Broseley, as a benefactor to the poor, to orphans and widows, and “an able and upright magistrate”. The Pritchard Memorial which once stood in Broseley Square was erected by public subscription to perpetuate his memory.
Bagshaw’s Directory of 1851 states that in that year George Potts was Clerk to the Borough of Wenlock and to Madeley County Court. He lived at “The Green” in Broseley.
George Pritchard died in 1861. Already, in 1860, George Potts was Chairman of the Association. He was also Solicitor to the Association. Richard Thursfield, the Treasurer, had died. At a meeting held on October 3^rd 1860, George Potts was elected Treasurer in place of Thursfield. Edward Bagnall Potts was elected Solicitor of the Association in place of George Potts.
The Potts were energetic, ambitious and tenacious. The family name recurs up to the end of the century and beyond, though entries in the Minute Books become shorter and more infrequent. The Potts’ influence was, however, of shorter duration than that of the faithful John Guest.
In 1887 a reward of 10/6 was given to P.C. Banks “for extra diligence which led to the conviction of a man for stealing a hat”. The Chairman on this occasion was Frederick H. Potts. The hat belonged to Mr. G.B. Potts. At the same meeting a Mr. Carter was rewarded for obtaining the conviction of James Barrett who had stolen plants belonging to Mrs. Bathurst. In 1851 Henry Martyn Bathurst, headmaster of the National School, lived on Barratt’ s Hill, perhaps some relation of Mrs. Bathurst who was thus robbed. In 1887 also, three men were convicted of stealing “old iron”.
Most meetings during these years were held at the Lion, but there was an attempt, briefly successful, to move back to the Pheasant. On October 26th 1870, Edward Roden supported by Rev. R. H. Cobbold, proposed that the meetings in the following year be held at the Pheasant.
In 1873 the name Thursfield appears again. Thomas Greville Thursfield was elected Treasurer. Edward Potts was Chairman. On November 15th 1882, F.H. Potts was elected Treasurer in place of Dr. Thursfield who resigned for reasons of ill health. At this meeting, held at the Lion, a reward of 10/6 was given to P.C. Tomkins of Bridgnorth for the apprehension and conviction of Thomas James who had stolen rope belonging to John Burroughs of Bridgnorth. Perhaps Thomas James was a Broseley man; otherwise this seems not to have been a Broseley matter. There are also references in 1882 and again in 1883 to the theft of artificial manure from Mr. G. W. Wheeler of Posenhall.
Rewards continued to be offered to policemen for services rendered to members of the Association until after 1900. On December 16th 1901 P.C. Davies was given one guinea “for extra diligence” in obtaining the conviction of Eliza Aston and Elizabeth Sargeant for stealing coal belonging to Mr. G. Davies senior. In the same month P.C. Bower received 10/6 “for diligence” in connection with the conviction of Frederick Sherwood “for stealing beansticks and stakes the property of Lord Forester”. For supplying information in this prosecution Mr. G. Boden was given one guinea.
No further examples of policemen receiving monetary rewards occur in the Minute Books. But in 1907 the Police Constables of Broseley and Jackfield were each given a goose for Christmas from the Association’s funds.
The last reference in the Minute Books to payment for information received concerning an alleged crime appears in a Minute dated January 12th 1934 when an application for such a reward was made on behalf of George Sherwood for reporting that Samuel Watson and Albert J. Thomas, in pursuit of rabbits, trespassed “on land in occupation of Mr. E.A. Powell of the Dean Farm. A reward of one guinea was allowed”. Not the most heinous of crimes, even supposing that trespass was a crime in 1934.
Annual Dinners for members of the Association were not unknown in the early days; there is reference to such events in the 1790 entry in the Minute Book. But little mention of them is made until we come to 1901. On December 11th in that year a dinner was provided by Messrs. Haughton for 43 members at a total cost of £5. 7. 6., plus £5. 1. 5. for wine and tobacco and 10/0 for the waiters. In 1914 dinner at the Pheasant for an unspecified number of members cost in total £6. 9. 0., plus £4. 1. 0. for wine and cigars. This event was something of a social occasion in the town. However, after 1914 there is understandably a blank in the record of the Associations’s activities, but it lasted, according to the Minute Books, until 1932.
On December 16th 1932 a dinner for 34 members and visitors was held at the Forester Arms. The Rev. C.S. Jackson was at this time Chairman, W.E. Price was Secretary and Treasurer and the Committee members were : J.T. Mear, J.H. Matthews, C.R. Jones, A.H. Dixon, T. Jones, W. Oakley, F.W. Davis, T. Marlow. J. Nicklin and W. Edge joined the Committee later on. Most, if not all, of these men will be remembered by many people in Broseley today. I imagine that with the Rector of Broseley in the chair a more tolerant attitude would be shown towards the kind of petty offences, which had so often been reported and punished in the past.
Newcomers to the town and district were not slow to join the Association. Doctors Tom and Sherlock Hoy became members in 1933 not long after their arrival here.
The Association’s accumulated funds were drawn on quite liberally over a period of years after 1934 in support of various institutions and charities. The Cricket Club benefited, the Horticultural Society also; a gift was made in aid of the local unemployed at Christmas in 1932, and a similar donation was contributed to a fund for men and women in the Forces at Christmas in 1940. In 1946 people who suffered loss and damage in the Severn floods were helped. More substantial grants were made in 1946 to the Broseley Church Tower Fund (£150) and to the Baptist, Congregational and Methodist Churches (£50 each).
On July 30th 1959 the Association’s affairs were wound up. Mr. Arthur Garbett and Mr. Will Oakley as Trustees arranged the final disbursement of money from the remaining funds. £20 in each case was given to Broseley Church, to the Methodist, Baptist and Congregational Churches and to Mrs. Boy’s Gymkhana Club, which was raising money for the Town Hall.
I am indebted to the late Ern. Harris who suggested that I should write this account and give a talk on the Broseley Association for the Prosecution of Felons; to Arthur Garbett for giving me initial guidance and for providing copies of correspondence; to Barrie Trinder‘s splendid “Industrial Revolution in Shropshire” with its wealth of information on many aspects of this area a history; to Pigot’s and Bagahaw’s Directories; and to Randall’s still fascinating “Broseley and its Surroundings “.

 

2.     John Wilkinson and the Early Iron Barges

Hard Copy only in file – printed from Wilkinsin Society Jounal, No 15, 1987

 

Appendix 2:

3.     COLLIERIES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AT WORK IN 1869

ENGLAND

LIST OF MINES 1869

 

CHESHIRE, SHROPSHIRE, CHESHIRE

 

SHROPSHIRE

 

SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE and WORCESTERSHIRE

Rugeley, Wyrley, Walsall, Darlston, Bilston, Willenhall, Wolverhampton, Sedgeley, Tipton, Rowley Regis, Oldbury, West Bromwich, Wednesbury, Corngreaves, Dudley, Stourport, Brierley Hill, Bewdley (Worcester), Bridgenorth.

Rugeley

Wyrley

Walsall

Darlston

Bilston

Willenhall

Wolverhampton

Sedgeley

Tipton

Rowley Regis

Oldbury

West Bromwich

Wednesbury

Corngreaves

Dudley

Stourport

Brierley Hill

Bewdley (Worcester)

Bridgenorth

 

 

 

Appendix 5:

4.     All Saints Broseley (St Leonard's)

Originally known as St Leonards Broseley’s Parish Church, dedicated to All Saints, stands in what was once the centre of the village, but as the town grew the population settled further from the church building.
In the early 1700's, what was probably the original church, was completely rebuilt bring complete by 1716. This church was in turn demolished the present Victorian edifice being completed in 1845 at a cost of £9,000. It is constructed of stone from Grinshill about 25 miles away. It was at this time that the name was changed from St Leonard's to All Saints.
Its architectural design is based on the great wool churches of the south and west of England, although it does not touch their glory. The most noteworthy feature is the tower, which since Broseley overlooks the Severn Gorge, is a prominent landmark from the opposite side of the river.
When a new building was proposed there was a suggestion that it be built of local brick the building committee being headed by Mr William Exley a local brick manufacturer. The then Rector, the Hon. & Rev. O.W.W. Forester, a Canon of York and later 4^th Baron Forester, however, rejected the idea, The architect was of Worcester.
The church contains a window by Kempe, and a rerados by Bodley. There are a number of memorials to local worthies, including one telling a Cinderella story. The silver, which has been removed for safe keeping, dates form the late 17^th century. There is a coat of arms of Queen Ann. The bells were cast by Mears of London in 1844, and are six in number.
There is also a Parsons Sanctus bell dating from 1642.
Broseley was a centre of iron making, and there are some fascinating iron tomb "stones” in the churchyard. The church railings too are fine examples of local craftsmanship. An ancient yew stands in the church grounds.
The registers go back to 1570, and are available in local libraries.

Appendix 6 2002:

The Birchmeadow Chapel

 is also now a community centre owned by the  Town Council. It was built as a Baptist Chapel in 1803 jointly by John Guest (of the GKN steel company) and George Crompton (draper). In more recent times it has been the Elite Cinema, a night-club and during WW2 it was used by the local APR and Home Guard.

Appendix 7:

5.     Industrialization and Canals: Britain

While your questions are fresh, e-mail rneill@upei.ca

The upsurge in construction of roads and canals in eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain was a response to demand growing from prior developments in agriculture and manufacturing. The sailing ship and the steam locomotive railway, in periods preceding and following the Canal Era, generated quantum leaps in transportation capability. They opened up new lands which till then had not been encompassed by European economic development. For this reason they created the illusion that they were the cause of development and growth. In the case of canals that illusion is absent.
The point is of over-reaching importance in the Canadian case. If innovations in transportation and consequent commercial development were the foundation and continuing mainstays of the Canadian economy, then the substance of the economy was to be found in long-run factors in its integration. The economic concomitants of the canoe and the railway, that is the fur trade and the wheat trade, were integrating. If, on the contrary, non-staple-export agriculture and manufacturing were the foundation and continuing mainstays of the Canadian economy, then the substance of the economy was to be found in long run factors in its disintegration.
Harold Innis wrote the history of Canadian economic development in response to the question `What have been the very long run factors in the integration of Canada?'. He perceived that in the Age of Sail and in the Railway Epoch, transportation improved first, markets expanded, and general economic development followed. In his view, this was the process of economic development in general, that is, the process of development that was evident in Europe and in the rest of world as a whole. In his view, it was also the process of economic development in Canada. For this reason, he focused his attention on the sailing ship, the canoe, and the railway. The `alchemy of fur and wheat' was the alchemy of the canoe and the railway, an alchemy that worked for the integration of Canada. The sequence in development was, first, technical advance in transportation, second, expansion of commerce, and, third, development of agriculture and manufacturing. This was the underlying paradigm of his Staple Thesis. It was Innis' economic explanation of Canadian unity.
Whatever the sequence of events in the general development of the world as a whole, in Britain's Industrial Revolution, 1750--1840, the sequence was not transportation and commerce first, and agriculture and manufacturing later. It was agriculture and manufacturing first, in that order, and expansion of transportation, in the form of roads and canals, as a consequence. Insofar as the geographic spread of the Industrial Revolution, east to Europe and west to America, was the migration of this sequence of events, the Innisian sequence was not followed, even in Canada. Further, to the extent that the Industrial Revolution settled unevenly across Canada, different growth paths emerged in different regions of the country. Not only was the integrating force of improvement in transportation relegated to a secondary place in the Canal Era, but the type of development commonly associated with it, development based on staple exports, was reduced in importance. Integrating factors in Canadian economic development became secondary, and the substance of development became a disintegrating force.
To say all this does not imply that acceptance of a temporal sequence, or any linear ordering of events, is the only way to understand economic development. A question could be asked, for example, that would make it convenient to assert that all sectors, developed in mutual interdependence, with recurring disequilibria of one sort of another bringing one or another sector to the fore as the fastest growing, and seemingly initiating sector. It does mean, however, that when Canadian economic development is recounted in response to a question other than Innis' question, the Innisian sequence of events in development is irrelevant to the answer.
The question here is, `What have been the very long run economic factors in the disintegration of Canada?'.
The Industrial Revolution: 1750--1850
Europe's Industrial Revolution was constituted by a shift in focus of attention (on the part of entrepreneurs and the public at the time, and on the part of economic historians ever since) from commercial developments related to the sailing ship and world trade to industrial developments related to the mechanization of manufacturing, the rise of factory towns, and the adjustment of overland transportation and commerce to accommodate the beginning of mass production of heavy, bulky commodities. The Industrial Revolution was accompanied by an upswing in the pace of economic activity in general, by a deepening of capital commitment in economic activity, and by a lengthening of planning time horizons.
The Industrial Revolution occurred first in England in the last half of the eighteenth century. It spread across Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century, reaching Russia in the 1860s. It migrated to America over the turn of the century. Given unquestionable evidence of the migration of information and activities, what happened in England can be taken, at the very least, as a crude approximation of what happened subsequently elsewhere. In Russia, distant in time, space, and circumstance from Britain, the similarities need substantial qualification. In the United States, frontier conditions have to be taken into account. But if Russia and the United States repeated the experience of British industrialization, in whatever qualified sense, then so did Canada.
Industrialization: the Informational Environment
It is universally asserted by historians that seventeenth and eighteenth century Europe witnessed the triumph of a capitalist mentality. That is to say, those who owned wealth came to perceive that either it should be turned to the making of more wealth, or it should be let out to someone who would turn it to the making of more wealth. Wealth surperceded social status, and bought social status, in the minds of those who wanted to excel. Energy, pouring into whatever pursuit, was increasingly expected to pass through a market. This change in mentality can be attributed to changes in the informational environment, which, in turn, can be attributed to changes in instruments forming the informational environment, primarily innovations stemming from the invention of paper and the printing press.
By 1500, paper made from rags had replaced parchment as a medium for written communication. Paper was considerably cheaper to manufacture, and the supply of rags exceeded that of sheep hides. In fact, the increasing manufacture and use of cotton textiles that was an element of the Industrial Revolution increased the supply of worn clothing. Making paper became a way of recycling a costlessly increasing supply of otherwise useless material. As in other upswings in innovation, one thing led to another. Cheap paper, in part, was a byproduct of the sixteenth and seventeenth century clothing revolution.
Under the influence of mercantilist policies at the beginning of the eighteenth century, paper making migrated from France to England. Demand for paper was such that, by 1725, there were 150 mills in England; by 1800, 500. In 1799, when hand processes in manufacturing paper were stretched to the limit, a paper making machine was invented in France. Its use spread rapidly throughout Europe.
The environment of economic decision making, a critical factor in the triumph of the capitalist mentality, interacted with the growing use of paper. Cheap paper facilitated the keeping of business accounts. It generated a revolution in business communication. It changed and multiplied the principal instruments of information storage. These changes, in turn, increased the demand for paper.
Paper, combined with the invention of the printing press, in 1440, created a publishing industry that completely escaped guild control. It was capitalistic from the start. With a view to financial gain, capitalistic publishers undertook production of relatively large quantities of vernacularizations of classic texts. The vernacular bible was just one among many such commercial ventures.
The effect on religious organization was the Protestant Reformation, but that was just one dimension of what happened to society in general. Having itself escaped feudalism, the publishing industry liberated the rest of society. Reading, writing, information, and education became relatively inexpensive, and more common outside ecclesiastical and monarchical administrations. New kinds of knowledge, including technical and business related information, entered into information exchange and accumulation. There was a Renaissance of pre-Christian Greek and Roman thought. Economic activity was most profoundly affected because, whatever else they had in common, `the bourgeois bought books and sent their sons to school' (Clough, p.~92.).
Perhaps most important of all, paper and the printing press generated pamphlets, weekly newspapers and, eventually, dailies. As early as 1716, in England, pamphlets were being replaced by lead articles in weeklies, which, with the advent of lower postal rates, achieved a wider circulation. About the time that coffee and tea replaced gin as a popular beverage, the exchange of news and the availability of newspapers in tea and coffee houses increasingly became a facilitator of business. The London Stock Exchange came into existence, in 1773, when the city's brokers moved from Jonathan's Coffee House to the Stock Exchange Coffee House. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century daily papers replaced weeklies. Between 1777 and 1784, the number of daily mail coaches out of London, carrying the daily papers, rose from 0 to 16.
The industrial revolution in England was much more than a new emphasis in and on manufacturing. It was, as the members of the German Historical School said, a new perception of the world. It was a new behavioral style, and a new economic system. It was a new attitude formed in a newspaper and print informational environment. It affected enterprise in agriculture, manufacturing, commerce, and finance alike.
Industrialization: Agricultural Support
Over the 1750--1850 period in Britain, improvements in agriculture were primarily organizational adjustments constituting and reacting to an increasingly pervasive market nexus. Production was restructured towards individual and regional specialization, that is, towards production for markets emerging in growing factory and commercial towns. Cash crops, and money relationships between landowners, peasants, and the land itself became the rule as the enclosure movement exhausted its remaining possibilities.
Enclosure of land for individual ownership was ongoing from the fourteenth century. From 1500 to 1650, most enclosures absorbed manorial and village commons, permitting market oriented nobility to move into production and sale of wool. In that period 8% to 10% of all land was enclosed. Between 1600 and 1750, when reduction of feudal dues to simple quit-rents permitted peasants to husband their lands as they saw fit, enclosures of all kinds continued. Between 1740 and 1850, the period of the industrial revolution, further enclosures of woods, wastes and commons occurred, to the financial benefit of landlords and engrossing tenants who consolidated scattered strips into larger, contiguous holdings. Between 1800 and 1850, an additional 25% of all land was enclosed.
Throughout this period, but particularly after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, Parliament, dominated by land owning nobility and land owning bourgeois, facilitated the enclosure process, creating at the same time a landless proletariat, a working class available for factory employment.
There were technical improvements in farming in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were more frequent in the nineteenth century when the development of manufacturing fed back into farming in the form of horse-drawn mechanization and scientific husbandry, particularly with respect to the use of fertilizers. In general, in the eighteen century, England led the way in agricultural advance by borrowing from others: clover from Spain, the plow from Holland, the horseshoe from Languedoc, the turnip from Belgium. Agricultural technique became a subject for discussion among the nobility in England first. Eventually it became the hobby passion of princes and kings throughout Europe. Among lesser folk it became a subject of interest in clubs and societies. By the nineteenth century, rational agriculture, culling the customs and traditions of the feudal past, had trickled down to the mass of those who worked the land.
The Eighteen Thirties and Forties witnessed mechanical improvements: artificial fertilizers, better iron and steel plows, the seed drill that made seeding more effective by spacing seed for growth and for cultivation, iron toothed harrows, and disk cultivators, mechanical reapers and threshers (all of which were drawn by horses, or were associated with equipment drawn by horses), the use of alfalfa, clover, turnips, and corn (for stock feed and to allow constant-use rotation of fields), wide acceptance of the potato, and, as a consequence of the Napoleonic Blockade, development of the sugar beet.
This revolution in agricultural organization and technique spread from Britain to continental Europe after 1800. French enclosures, following the French Revolution, were centrally organized and more favourable to tenants, granting them fully two/thirds of the land. In Germany, particularly in Prussia, larger estates dominated. In Russia larger estates emerged but feudalism deepened in practice until legal abolition in the 1860s. Whether by disrupting practice, as in Britain, or by formal, legal reformation, as in France and Russia, the feudal system, as a matter of agricultural practice, was terminated in Europe by 1870.
English agricultural policy favoured economic rationalization. To prevent local famines and gluts, a national market was created by national tariffs. Parliament placed tariffs on imports, when prices were low, and removed them when prices were high. This stabilized and expanded production by creating and ensuring a relatively large home market. After 1800, particularly after the defeat of Napoleon, these `Corn Laws' worked to keep the price of food stuffs high, and drained a surplus off the returns from manufacturing by keeping wages high in real terms. So legislation that had encouraged an agricultural revolution, a revolution that had provided workers and food for workers in the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth century, came to inhibit industrial development in the nineteenth century. Specifically, it made manufacturing more expensive by obstructing importation of less expensive grain from America. Britain's modification of the Corn Laws with respect to grains from Canada, in the first half of the nineteenth century, and its abolition of the Corn Laws and adoption of general free trade by 1850, readjusted the situation.
Industrialization: Technological Change
The industrial revolution was most evidently a revolution in manufacturing technique. Processes using machines and engines replaced hand-made processes and human muscle power. Human and animal power, and water and wind power had been used from ancient times. With the invention of the steam engine industry was liberated from the uncontrollable limitations of these natural forces. Energy, itself, became a manufactured input in the manufacturing process.
Use of machines and steam engines in manufacturing increased demand for coal, iron, and steel, well beyond the increase in demand for these products that had preceded the industrial revolution.
Demand for metal grew with the relatively slow increase in the use of tools of various kinds up to the eleventh century. Gunpowder arrived in Europe from China in the twelfth century. In the fourteenth century it became a factor in war with the use of cannon to attack stone fortifications after 1325. Cannon were an important factor in the rise of the nation state over formerly impregnable feudal strongholds. Demand for arms generated a greater demand for iron and steel. The shoulder gun, not yet a rifle, appeared about 1450. The metal lathe, invented in 1789, and the mechanical metal bore, made barrel size, rifling, and the projection of shot a matter of precision. Wood lathes, plains and drills appeared at the same time. Breach-loading and percussion lock guns did not appear until 1807. The revolver was invented in 1836, in time for the opening of the American west. In general, the mechanization of war and industry generated enormous increases in the demand for metal, particularly for iron and steel.
Demand for wood, for general use and to make charcoal for metal smelting, for glass works, and for salt works, depleted British supplies in the course of the seventeenth century. Britain had adequate supplies of coal, but its use had to be learned, and it was not as ubiquitous as wood had been. It required transport. In the eighteenth century, with the discovery of coking processes that eliminated impurities, coal replaced wood in metal making. By the end of the eighteenth century the use of coke, combined with puddling and rolling mill techniques, made it possible to produce steel of good quality in much larger quantities than had been possible with charcoal techniques.
Technical, economic, and political elements in the industrial revolution fed on one another. Efficient steam engines required precision built, replaceable metal parts. Making machine tools to make the parts required efficient steam engines. So, one thing generated a demand for another. The consequent increase in commerce generated a demand for transportation. Road systems were improved and extended. Navigable rivers were joined by canals. James Watt's steam engine, invented for use in coal mines, in 1764, found general use in industry, especially after 1775. Increasing use of the steam engine, the American Revolution, and Adam Smith's writing of The Wealth of Nations occurred at the same time.. In 1807, the steam boat Clermont began regular service between New York and Albany, and, by 1814, Stephanson had proven the worth of the steam locomotive. Demands for mechanical and metal goods, (the iron bridge after 1779, the iron boat after 1787) grew rapidly.
Industrialization inaugurated the age of iron, coal and steam, long before 1850.
More than anywhere else the effects of industrialization appeared in the manufacture of textiles. Cotton replaced wool in some uses, but demand for textiles grew with the growth of wealth in general. Population increased, and a larger portion of people did not live on farms. There was a growing market to be exploited, and the textile manufacturing process could be mechanized. Between 1733 and 1800, the flying shuttle, the spinning jenny, Crompton's mule, and use of steam power in factories eliminated the `putting out' system in England. England became the inventor of the factory and the factory town. It became textile manufacturer for the world.
This was the beginning of modern industrialism. Once the revolution was accomplished, England's principle advantage lay in being the first to understand and use the new techniques. Migration of industries was not new in the late eighteenth century, but from then on, not just industries, but the process of industrialization spread with the spread of knowledge.
None of this would have been possible, however, if there had not been cheap transport for heavy, bulky goods such as coal and iron ore. Neither the agricultural development necessary for industrialization, nor industrialization itself, would have been possible if the demand they generated for better transport had not been met.
Industrialization: Transportation
From the first, coal transport had been a dominant factor in the canal movement. The fuel famine of the eighteenth century would have stopped the growth not solely of industry but of population, in many districts, had not means been devised for overcoming it. The Duke of Bridgewater was a coal-owner and his canal had halved the price of coal in Manchester. Eight years later the first section of the old Birmingham Canal had done much the same for Birmingham (Clapham, p.~78.).
Important as was the movement of fuel along the inland waterways, on the chief through routes it was subordinate to that of general merchandise. There was a huge local coal trade on the Black Country, South Lancashire, and Yorkshire canal systems; but between those areas coal obviously would not move. The manufacturing districts now brought such of their raw materials as were not locally produced, and sent away the bulk of their finished produce, by water. London drew in immenser quantities of manufactures, building materials, and agricultural produce by way of the Thames basin navigation systems and the Grand Junction Canal. Owing to her unique shipping, she was relatively, a more important distributing centre than she became later. Not merely her own fine finished goods and imported colonial wares, but such raw materials as wool, tin and cotton were regularly shipped to the manufacturing Midlands and the North along the Grand Junction Canal. Throughout the country, stone for building, paving and road making; bricks, tiles and timber; limestone for the builder, farmer or blast furnace owner; beasts and cattle; corn hay and straw; manure from the London mews and the mountainous London dust heaps; the heavy castings which were coming into use for bridge-building and other structural purposes--all these, and whatever other bulky wares there may be, moved along the new waterways over what, half a century earlier, had been impossible routes or impossible distances (Clapham, p.~79.).
Lipson`s account is instructive (pp.~229--233).
In the middle of the eighteenth century it took the Edinburgh coach fourteen days, the Manchester coach and the York coach each four days, to reach London. The London-Oxford coach in a journey of fifty-five miles started at 7 am. and arrived on the evening of the following day....
The manifold consequences of this situation did not escape attention. It was recognized that defective communications hampered economic progress and rendered the carriage of commodities by land both difficult and costly. Henry Homer in 1767 wrote: `The trade of the kingdom languished under these impediments. The natural produce of the country was with difficulty circulated to supply the necessities of those counties and trading towns which wanted [them].' The imperfections of the existing methods gave rise to the turnpike system which embodied the principle that every person, other than foot passengers, ought to contribute to the repair of roads in proportion to the use he made of them.
Turnpike roads were constructed by private trusts that recouped their expenses plus a profit from collecting tolls. Under the aegis of these enterprises, road making became part of engineering.
Ultimately public opinion awoke to the fact that for centuries the methods of improving communications had been to suit the traffic to the roads instead of suiting the roads to the traffic: hence the attempts of the legislature to regulate the character of the vehicles and the weight of their loads. No real progress was possible until highways were constructed and maintained on scientific principles. Development on these lines is associated with Telford, one of the leading British engineers, and McAdam. The latter won a great reputation as a road repairer who sought to cover the surface with an impenetrable crust by spreading over it small broken stones uniform in size, which under the pressure of traffic would consolidate to form a smooth and hard surface.
McAdam's surface also had the very desirable quality of remaining smooth and hard in wet weather.
The universal discontent with the condition of the roads inspired attempts to utilize as much as possible an alternative method of transport, namely, the rivers. Experience, however, showed that river navigation was attended by serious drawbacks: rivers suffered either from an excess or from a deficiency of water, their course was irregular, they were not evenly distributed throughout the kingdom. Hence in the second half of the eighteenth century artificial waterways were made. They had certain advantages over natural waterways: they did not suffer from floods or droughts and they could be built where they were wanted [to some extent]. In view of the superiority of canals the delay in their construction requires some explanation. So long as corn and timber were the chief commodities for which carriage was needed, it did not seem profitable to embark upon expensive undertakings; moreover the necessary capital was not readily available in earlier times. In the eighteenth century the situation changed in both respects. The expansion of coal-mining and the iron industry made new methods of transport indispensable; and the accumulation of capital together with the advances provided by London bankers furnished the means for costly enterprises.
In their origin railways, like canals, were connected with the coal industry. When coal began to be consumed in increasing quantities, one obstacle to its production lay in the difficulty of getting the mineral from the pits to the river. The first attempt to deal with the situation was by the construction of wooden rails. This was the starting-point of the railway as it was known in the sixteenth century. To secure traction four-wheeled waggons were drawn by a horse, sometimes preceded by a man with a bundle of hay which he held just in front of the horse to stimulate it to greater exertions. The next stage in the evolution of the railway was the substitution of steam engines for horses. A stationary engine was placed at the top of a slope and drew up or controlled the descent of the loads. This was the beginning of steam-power on the railways. The third development occurred when the Surrey Iron Railway between Croydon and the River Thames, a `public' railway not connected with either collieries or canal navigation, was built in 1801. The trucks were drawn by horses, mules or donkeys. The company did not own the trucks, the notion being that railways were to be treated like canals -- that is, the company provided the route and the users supplied the wagons or barges and paid tolls. Then came the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened in 1825: it furnished wagons for goods traffic and coaches for passengers. At first horse-power was contemplated, but the company was persuaded by George Stephenson to employ locomotive engines ... .
Between 1750 and 1850, mail and passenger services were improved by means of improved roads. Bulk transport still relied largely on canals, less so, of course, in Britain, than else where, though Britain's lead in steam locomotive railways was not more than twenty years, and perhaps less.
The improvement of road surfaces increased the speed of travel.... by 1830 the fast mail and passenger coaches had an average speed of 1--10 miles per hour, about double what it had been prior to 1750. The London to Manchester journey had taken four and one half days in 1754, but by 1830 it was reduced to 20 hours. Increased speed of travel, together with the growing specialization of production, multiplied the volume of passenger travel. In 1801 seven coaches left Chester daily, but in 1831 twenty-six. Wagons carrying goods travelled, of course, much more slowly. Even the `fly wagons' went only two and one half miles per hour on the average. It is probable that road-rates for goods had changed but little (Smith, p.~153--54.).
The first few British canals showed great profits. Great profits were followed by over building. The first canal of the Era was the Newry Canal, built in northern Ireland, in 1742. By 1760, there were 1,400 miles of canals in Britain. By 1790, `canal mania' had set in. There were 3,691 miles of canals, and London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds were linked by inland navigation. England was crossed diagonally in two ways, and horizontally from London to Bristol. Then, suddenly, the great expansion was over. The year 1814 brought losses and government regulation to canal companies. Between 1815 and 1850, only 330 miles of new canals were built, while England, Scotland (south of Edinburgh and Glasgow), and northeastern Ireland were netted with railways.
Continental European Beginnings.
The swinging miter-gate, the technical advance defining a modern canal, was invented by Leonardo Da Vinci. Its first significant commercial use was a product of national policy in seventeenth century, mercantilist France. In 1642 the Canal du Briare traversed 36 miles between the Loire and the Seine, creating a navigable horseshoe inland from Nantes on the Atlantic and back out to Le Havre to the north. Between 1666 and 1681, under Colbert, the Languedoc, or Canal du Midi was build across southern France from Bordeaux on the Atlantic to Narbonne on the Mediterranean. It was considered the greatest work of engineering in Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire. (Until increases and advances in road building in the late eighteenth century, the basic road system of Europe, including England, was Roman.) By 1692, the Loire and the Seine had been connected again by the Orleans Canal running from Orleans to Paris.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western Europe did not generate the rapid expansion of canals that occurred in Britain. In part, the Industrial Revolution came later in continental Europe, so the level of demand was lower. In part, the geography of Europe militated against canal transportation. Rivers run east to west, and are separated by forbidding heights of land. Transportation tended to run along, rather than between rivers.
The Canal Era in General
The nature of canal building varied from nation to nation with the character of industrialization, but similarities were substantial. The Russian experience of 1800--1850 may have been more like that of England than were the experiences of the United States or Canada. Russia built its canals in long settled areas to meet pre-existing demand. The United States and Canada built canals in relation to an expanding agricultural frontier. Still, in America the canals were built in areas already settled, and the canals were to facilitate intra-regional commerce related to the beginning of industrialization, as well as to facilitate extra regional transport related to frontier expansion. But, therein lies the critical question. Was the process of economic development in America substantially that of England, or, was it fundamentally different because of the presence of an open frontier and related exports of primary products? In a simpler form the question is, did the general development of the economy precede and occasion the building of canals in America as in Britain?
There were, of course, great differences between the economies of Britain, Russia, the United States and Canada at the end of the Canal Era. In 1850 Britain was the most advanced industrial nation in the world. In 1854, Russia, defeated in the Crimean War, was forced to admit, as it had under Peter the Great, that, compared to the nations of western Europe, it was underdeveloped. The United States, approaching the end of its `catch up' period, was about to build the first transcontinental, industrialized nation. Canada, confederated in 1867 without a national economy, was about to launch a National Policy intended to build one.
References
Clapham, J.H., 1950, An Economic History of Modern
Britain: the the Early Railway Age, 1820--1850
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Innis, H.A., 1951, `The English Publishing Trade in the
Eighteenth Century', in H.A. Innis, The Bias of Communication,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp.~142--155.
1956, `Significant Factors in Canadian Economic Development',
in H.A. Innis, Essays in Canadian Economic History,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp.~200--210.
1956, `Transportation as a Factor in Canadian Economic History',
in H.A. Innis, Essays in Canadian Economic History,
University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp.~62--77.
Lipson, E., 1949, the Growth of English Society,
Adam & Charles Black, London.
Smith, W., 1949, An Economic Geography of Great Britain,
Methuen \& Co. Ltd., London.

6.     Appendix 8: Broseley Directories

This Section printed from original file.

Tibnam's Directory, 1828

Directory of Shropshire Staffordshire etc. Pigot 1829

 Pigots 1835.

 

Piggott’s Directory 1822-3

BROSELEY COALBROOK-DALE, COALPORT,

IRON-BRIDGE AND MADELEY.

BROSELEY a market-town. in the county of Salop. is parted from Madeley by the river Severn, and is a very populous parish, consisting of about 1500 houses and contains according to the last census 4014 inha­bitants. Beneath the surface of the earth is a continued bed of coal, which is dug, and appropriated on the spot to various iron furnaces, potteries, &c. and great quantities are sent to different towns by means of the Severn, which divide, also this-parish from Coalbrook-dale. It is noted for a manufactory of glazed pipes; and baa a court of request for assail debts. Broseley is distant from London 146 miles, 13 from Shrewsbury, and 25 from Ludlow. The market is held on Wednesday,—Fairs, last Tuesday in April and October 28^th

Hannah Guest is Post Mistress.- The Post leaves for Shifnal (where it meets the London and Holyhead mails) every morning at a quarter before five, and returns every evening at half past four o’clock.:

COALBROOK-DALE situated about two miles from Madeley, is a winding glen, between two vast hills which break into various forms with beautiful hanging woods. Here and in the neighbourhood, are the most considerable iron works in England; the forges mills and steam engines with all their vast machinery, the flaming furnaces, and smoking lime kilns, form. a spectacle, horribly sublime; while the stupendous iron arch, striding over the Severn, gives these scenes a yet nearer resemblance to the ideas in romance. This famous bridge was built in the year 1779, the whole having been previously cast in open sand; all the principal parts were erected in three months, without any accident to the work or workmen, or the least obstruction to the navigation of the river.

COALPORT two miles from hence is chiefly noted for its celebrated china manufactory which is well wor­thy the minute inspection of the visitant; as indeed is the whole of this curious and romantic neighbour­hood. About two miles from hence arc the ruins of Buildwas abbey.

The market-day is Friday, and is held at Iron bridge. The fairs held at Madeley, two miles from hence, are January 26, May 29th, and October 12th. The parish contains according to the last returns 5379 inhabitants.

William Smith, Post Master.-The Post same as Broseley, only a quarter of an hour later in time morning, and quarter of an hour sooner in the evening.

 

Attorney

Griffiths James Broseley                        Harper Edward, Madeley

Pritchard and Sons, Broseley                    Ridding William, Coalbrookdale

 

Auctioneers

Hartshorne; George Broseley                     Walter Samuel Elliott, Iron-bridge

 

Bakers and Flour Dealers                        Everall, Peter Broseley

Gwyn. George, Broseley                    Miller George, Iron-bridge

Moore Thomas, Coalport                         

 

Bankers

Coalbrook Dale Company, Coalbrook-dale          Vickers, Pritchard and Pritchard

 

Broseley Booksellers and Printers.

Smith William, Iron-bridge                      Watery S. E. Iron-bridge

 

Boot and Shoe Makers.                          

Franklin Edward, Iron-bridge Parson. Edward, Broseley Woodruff James, Iron-bridge

Yates — John, Iron-bridge                            

 

Braziers & TinPlate Workers.

Barnett George, Iron-bridge.                    Fenton Johns Iron-bridge

Parker Widow; Broseley                   

Brick and Tile Makers.

Amphlitt and Co. Broseley                       Blaze Thomas Broseley

Booth Henry Broseley                            Davies Thomas, Broseley

Hartshorne, J. Broseley                   Palmer Robert, Madeley-wood

Roden Samuel, (& potter) Broseley               Smith Samuel and Co. Madeley

 

Builders

Jenks William. Iron-bridge                      Smith Samuel, Madeley..

 

Cabinet Makers.

Edwards Edward, Iron-bridge                     Garbett John. Broseley

Hartshorne George, jun. Broseley                Perks George, Madeley

 

Coal Masters.

Evans and Son, Broseley                         Guest John, Broseley

 

China Manufacturers

Rose John and Co. Coalport and No. 9, Thanet-place, Temple-bar, London

 

Coopers.

Haynes Richard, Iron-bridge                     Rogers Thomas, Iron-bridge

 

Curriers.

Brown Henry, Iron-bridge                        Cock Roger, Iron-bridge

Cotton Richard, iron-bridge

 

Fire Offices

Globe, Abraham Wyke, Broseley             Salop, Stephen Jones, Benthall

 

Grocers, Tea Dealers, &c.

Bailey William, Coalbrook-dale                  Chune George, jun. Iron-bridge

Evans Richard, Broseley                   Fletcher Mary, Coalbrook-dale

Fletcher Sarah, Coalbrook-dale                  Glazebrook James, Iron-bridge

Guest, John, Broseley                           Hanley Nathaniel, Iron-bridge

Jones William, Broseley                   Milner Betsey, Iron-bridge.

Parker Joshua, Madeley                    Smith William, Iron-bridge

Sankey Susanna, Coalbrook-dale                  Stanley William, Horshays

Wilkinson William, Iron-bridge                       

 

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Guest Charles, Broseley                   Lister John and Son, Broseley

 

Inns.

Lion, John Farnall, Broseley                    Swan, Benjamin Lloyd Iron-bridge

Tontine, W. Colwick, Iron-bridge                     

 

Iron and Coal Masters.

Addenbrook, Pidcock &Co. Lightmoor        Botfield. W. and B. Coalport

Bryan and Martin, (coal only) Tuckies-House     Coalbrook-dale Co. Coalbrook-dale

Foster James, Barnett’s Leasow                  Hazeldine William, Calcuts

Madeley Wood Co. Madeley-wood             Onions John, Broseley

 

Iron Founders                      

Ball Benjamin, Willey-wharf                     Hill Stephen, Benthall

 

Iron Mongers.    

Davies Richard, Iron-bridge                     Parker Widow, Broseley

Wilkinson William, Iron-bridge                       

 

Lime Masters.

Patten John, Benthall                           Tranter John, Benthall

 

Linen and Woolen Drapers and Mercers.

Bryan Arnold, Iron-bridge                       Bailey William, Coalbrook-dale

Blanthorn J. (& tailor) Iron-bridge             Charlton-Humphrey, Iron-bridge

Chune George, Iron-bridge                       Edwards, Edward Iron-bridge

Fletcher. Mary, Coalbrookdale             Guest Josiah. J, (and stamp office) Broseley

Home J. Madeley                           Roberts Thomas, Broseley

 

Maltster.

Blase Thomas, Broseley                    Blanthorn James, Iron-bridge

Bill William, Broseley                    Boycott Richard, Iron-bridge

Cook Benjamin, Broseley                   Crump Edward, Broseley

Davies Charles, Broseley                        Eustice William, Madeley

Gough Thomas, Broseley                    Guest Charles, Broseley

Jones John, Broseley                            Jones Richard, Madeley

Lister John and Son, Broseley             Lloyd Benjamin, Iron-bridge

Lumley William, Madeley                         Perry Thomas, Broseley

Onions Jane, Broseley                     Onions Thomas, Broseley

Parker James, Iron-bridge                       Smith Samuel, Madeley

Tranter John, Broseley                    Painters

Crowder Leonard, Iron-bridge              Crowder Thomas, Broseley

 

Pipe Makers.                 

Legg Richard, Broseley                    Owen Francis Coalbrook-dale

Roden Noah, Broseley                     

 

Plumbers and Glaziers. 

Crowder Thomas, Broseley                        Evans Thomas, Iron-bridge

Jenks William, Iron-bridge                      Pritchard John, Broseley

Russell Charles, Coalbrook-dale                 Yates Adam, Iron-bridge

 

Saddlers.

Davies Benjamin, Broseley                       Grosvener Samuel, Iron-bridge

Richards Thomas, Broseley                       Rogers Robert, Madeley

 

Straw Hat Makers.

Dyas MaryAnn, Iron-bridge                       Raby Seth, Iron-bridge

 

Surgeons.

Edwards William, Coalbrook-dale                 Fifield William, Broseley

Procter Richard, Iron-bridge                    Rowland Hugh, Iron-bridge

Thursfield and Gwynn, Broseley                  Wyke and Ashwood, Broseley

 

Taverns and Public House..

Coopers’ Arms, R. Haynes, Iron-bridge           Hodge Bower, R. Cock, Iron-bridge

Rodney, John Owen, Iron-bridge                  Royal Oak, Stn. Davies, Iron-bridge.

Talbot, Sarah Bycott, Iron-bridge               White Hart, J. Mantle, Iron-bridge

 

Tallow Chandlers

Evans Richard, Broseley                   Goodwin Benjamin, Iron-bridge

Haywood and Jones, Iron-bridge                  Jones John, Broseley

 

Timber Merchants.

Chune Geo. & Son, Coalbrook-dale                Davies Stephen. Iron-bridge

Griffiths James, Coalport                       Nock Thomas, Coalbrook-dale

Smith Samuel, Madeley                    

 

Wharfinger

Reynolds Joseph, Esq. Coalport                 

 

Wine & Spirit Merchants

Lister John and Son, Broseley            

 

Wire Worker

Haywood John, Iron-bridge

 

Miscellaneous

Bell and Poole, potters, Broseley               Easthope J. cheese mgr. Bent-hall

Edge Benjamin, Pit-chain & pattern ring maker, Coalport

Embery Jas salt dealer, Iron-bridge             Gething J. tailor &c Iron-bridge

Griffiths Robt. wheelwrt. Broseley              Gwynn James, basket maker, &c, Broseley

Jones C.C. . rope maker, Coalport               Onions John, hat manuf. Broseley

Reynolds Richard, hairdresser, &c. Iron-bridge  Stodd F. boat builder, Iron-bridge

Stormont John, patten ring maker, Iron-bridge  

 

Carriers

LONDON, Crowley, Hicklin &Co. Wed. and Saturday, Iron-bridge

LONDON John Jolly, from Geo. Hartshorne’s, Broseley, Tuesday.

SHRESBURY, Parry, from the Swan, Iron-bridge, and the Crown, Broseley, Tuesday and Friday

CONVEYANCE

BRISTOL, and all the line of the Severn, Ames and Jones, from Coalport warehouse every spring tide

BRISTOL, Wm. Devey, from Coalport warehouse, every spring tide

SHREWSBURY. Wm. Goodwin, from his own house, Iron-bridge every spring tide.

SHREWSBURY and Droitwich, Samuel Poole, from his own house, Iron-bridge.

STOURPORT, g. Lloyd, from the Swan Inn, Iron-Bridge, every week.

Coaches

FROM THE TONTINE INN, IRON-BRIDGE & THE LION BROSELEY

WORCESTER, every day (except Sunday) at half-past nine in the morning.

WORCESTER Mon. Wed. & Friday mornings at half past eight

 

 

Tibnam's Directory, 1828

BROSELEY.

A market-town in the franchise of Wenlock, contain­ing 1019 houses, and 4814 inhabitants. Here, and in the neighbourhood, are many coal and iron mines ; and is much noted for the manufacturing of glazed pipes. The market is held on Wednesday. Broseley is distant from London 146 miles, from Shrewsbury 14 miles, and from Ludlow 25 miles.

Mr. Isaiah Guest, Post .Master,-The Post arrives from Wenlock in Broseley every Morning at half-past three o'clock, and returns the same evening.-From Shiffnal to Broseley every Morning at hall past four.

COALBROOKDALE

Celebrated for its iron bridge over the Severn, is a winding glen between two vast hills, which are covered with hanging trees, and is situated about a mile from Madeley. Here are the most considerable iron works in England; the forges, mills, and steam engines, with all their vast machinery,-the flaming furnaces, and smoking lime kilns, present a horribly sublime spectacle. The stupendous iron bridge was erected in 1779, the whole having been cast in open sand ; all the principal parts were erected in three months, without any accident to the work or work­men, or the least obstruction to the navigation of the river : the span of the arch is 100 feet, 6 inches,­ the height, from the base line to the centre, is 40 feet, and the whole weight of iron is near 379 tons.

There is no Post-office at COALBROOK-DALE, COALPORT, (which is chiefly noted for its china manufactory), or Madeley, the principal place in the parish being Iron-bridge, where the office is kept by Mr. Smith, Bookseller, Market-place

The Post arrives at the Iron-bridge about four in the Morning, and returns at four in the Evening,

MADELEY

Stands in an elevated situation, fifteen miles from Shrewsbury, and contains 1081 houses, and upwards of 5370 inhabitants. It has a market on Friday, called Madeley Wood market, which is generally well supplied with provisions, and is of late become a con­siderable mart for corn. Two miles from Madeley, church, in a south-easterly direction is Coalport,* which takes its name from the termination of the Shropshire canal, which is seven miles in length, The coals brought by this conveyance, from the extensive mines of Ketley, Dawley, and other places, are landed on the banks of the river Severn, and are thence forwarded in barges to different parts of the counties of Worcester and Gloucester, to the average amount of fifty thousand tons annually.

* At Coalport, the large and flourishing Porcelain Manufacture of J.

Ross AND Co. is carried on to a great extent, and is the only one of the bind u, the county. This article in the beauty of its composition,-the superior taste displayed on its surface, and the elegance of the workman. ship, is no a here excelled.

Attornies

Matthew Court, Iron-bridge

James Griffiths, Broseley

Pritchard and Sons, Broseley

William Ridding, Coalbrook-dale

John Wase, Iron-bridge

Auctioneers.

George Hartshorne, Broseley

Samuel Elliott Walter, (and printer) Iron-bridge

Samuel Smith, Madeley

Bakers and Flour Dealers,

Peter Everall, Broseley

George Gwynn, Broseley

Thomas Harris, Coalbrook-dale

Edward Jones, Iron-bridge

George Miller, Iron-bridge

Thomas Moore, Coalport

John Onions, Madeley

Bankers.

Darby and Co. Coalbrook-dale

J. G. and J. Pritchard, Broseley

Bookseller, Stationer, Printer, and Bookbinder.

William Smith, (and post-master) Iron-bridge

Boot and Shoe Makers.

Edward Franklin, Ditto

Ford and Lewis, Iron-bridge

- Howard, Iron-bridge

Edward Parsons, Broseley

James Woodruff Iron-bridge

John Yates, Ditto

Braziers, and Tin-Plate Workers.

George Barnett, Ironbridge

James Bartlem, Ditto John Fenton, Ditto

Widow Parker, Broseley

Brick and Tile Manufacturers.

Amphlitt and Co. Broseley

Thomas Blase, Ditto

Henry Booth, Ditto

Roger Cock, Madeley Wood

Thomas Davies, Broseley

J. Hartshorne, Ditto

Samuel Roden, (and potter) Ditto

Samuel Smith and Co. Madeley

Builders.

William Jenks, Iron-bridge

Samuel Smith, Madeley

Cabinet Makers.

Brooke Cox, Madeley Wood

Edward Edwards, Iron-bridge

Robert Evans, sen. Madeley

Robert Evans,.jun. Ditto

John Gurbett, Broseley

George Hartshorne, jun. Ditto

George Perks, Madeley

Thomas Rogers, Iron-bridge

Coal Masters.

Coalbrook-dale Company

Evans and Son, Broseley

John Guest, Ditto

Madeley Wood Company

China Manufacturers.

John Rose and Co. Coalport, and No. 9, Thanet Place, Temple Bar, London

Coopers.

Richard Haynes, Iron-bridge

Thomas Rogers, Ditto

Carriers and Leather Sellers.

Henry Brown, Ironbridge

Roger Cock, Ditto

Richard Cotton, Ditto

Fire Offices.

Alliance, Thomas Graham, Ironbridge

Globe, Abraham Wyke, Broseley

Salop, Stephen Jones, Benthall

Grocers, Tea-Dealers, &c.

Richard Armstrong, Iron-bridge

William Bailey, Coalbrook-dale

Leonard Crowther, Iron-bridge

George Chune, sen. Coalbrook-dale

Richard Evans, Broseley

Sarah Fletcher, Iron-bridge

James Glazebrook, Ditto

John Guest, Broseley

Margaret Hanley, Iron-bridge

William Jones, Broseley

Betsy Milner, Iron-bridge

Joshua Parker, Madeley

William Smith, Iron-bridge

Henry Smith, Ditto

William Stanley, Horshays

Benjamin Wright, Coalbrook-dale

Henry Wilcox, Ironbridge

Hatters.

John Onions, Broseley

William Shinglar, Iron-bridge

Hop and Seed Merchants.

Charles Guest, Broseley

John Lister and Son, Ditto

Inns.

Lion, Benjamin Law, Broseley

Swan, Benjamin Lloyd, Iron-bridge

Tontine, J. Turton, Ditto

Talbot, R. Boycott, Ditto

White Hart, Fanny Mantle, Ditto

Iron and Coal Masters.

Addenbrook, Pidcock, and Co. Lightmoor

T. W. and B. Botfield, Coalport

Coalbrook-dale Company, Coalbrook-dale

James Foster, Barnett's Leasow

William Hazledine, Calcuts

Madeley Wood Company, Madeley. Wood

John Onions, Broseley

Iron Founders.

Benjamin Ball, Willey-wharf

Stephen Hill, Benthall

Ironmongers.

Richard Davies, Iron-bridge

Richard Davies, Broseley

John Fenton, Iron-bridge

John Haywood, Ditto

William Smith, Ditto

Lime Masters.

John Patten, Benthall

John Tranter, Ditto

Smith aid Jarvis, Coalbrook-dale

Linen and Woollen Drapers.

William Bailey, Coalbrook-dale

J. Blanthorn, (and tailor), Iron-bridge

Henry Charlton, Ditto

George Chune, Ditto

Edward Edwards, Ditto

James Gething, (woollen only) Coalbrook-dale

James Glazebrooke, Iron-bridge

John Heaford, (woollen only) Coalbrook-dale

John Pace, Madeley

Thomas Roberts, Broseley

William Weare, Iron-bridge

Benjamin Wright, Coalbrook-dale

Maltsters.

Thomas Blase, Broseley

J. Blanthorn, Iron-bridge

William Bill, Broseley

R. Boycott, Iron-bridge

W. Broughall, Madeley

Benjamin Cook, Broseley

Edward Crump, Ditto

Charles Davies, Ditto

W. Enstice, Madeley

Thomas Gough, Broseley

Charles Guest, Ditto

John Jones, Ditto

J. Lister & Son, Broseley

B. Lloyd, Iron-bridge

B. Lloyd, Coalbrook-dale

W. Lumley, Madeley

Thomas Perry, Broseley

Jane Onions, Ditto

Thomas Onions, Ditto

J. Parker, Iron-bridge

Samuel Smith, Madeley

John Tranter, Broseley

B. Wright, Coalbrook-dale

Painters,

Leonard Crowder, iron-bridge

Thomas Crowder, Broseley

Robert Evans, Madeley

William Jenks, Iron-bridge

Adam Yates, The Lloyds

Pipe Makers

Richard Legg, Broseley

Francis Owen, Coalbrook-dale

Noah Roden, Broseley

Edward Shaw, Benthall

Plumbers and Glaziers.

Thomas Crowder, Broseley

Thomas Evans, Iron-bridge

William Jenks, Ditto

John Pritchard, Broseley

John Tilley, Coalbrook-dale

Adam Yates, Iron-bridge

Salt-Dealers..

Samuel Poole, Iron-bridge

Francis Yates, Ditto

Saddlers.

Benjamin Davies, Broseley

Benjamin Davies, Iron-bridge

Samuel Grosvener, Iron-bridge

- Lloyd, Madeley

Thomas Richards, Broseley

Robert Roberts, Madeley

Straw Hat Makers.

Mary Ann Acton, Iron-bridge

Seth Raby, Ditto

Surgeons.

John Ashwood, Broseley,

William Edwards, Coalbrook-dale

William Fifield, Broseley

Richard Thursfield, Ditto

Richard Proctor, Iron-bridge

Rowlands and Son, Iron-bridge

Rowland and Hazlehurst, Dawley Green

Tailors.

Blodwell and Son, Ironbridge

J. Gething, ditto

Tallow Chandlers.

Benjamin Goodwin, Iron-bridge
Richard Evans, Broseley

John Jones, Ditto

Robert Evans, Ditto

Timber Merchants.

George Chune and Son, Coalbrook-dale

Stephen Davies, Iron-bridge

James Griffiths, Coalport

Thomas Nock, Coalbrook-dale

Samuel Smith, Madeley

Warfingers.

Benjamin Lloyd, Coalbrook-dale

Joseph Reynolds, Esq, Coalport

MISCELLANEOUS.

Bell and Poole, potters, Broseley

J. Easthope, cheese monger, Benthall

Benjamin Edge, manufacturer of flat chains for coal pits, pattern ring;, &c. Coalport

Robert Griffith, wheelwright, Broseley

James Gwynn, basket-maker, Ditto

John Haywood, wire-worker, Iron-bridge

Charles C. Jones, rope-maker, Coalport

John Lister and Son, wine and spirit merchants, Broseley

John Robinson, manufacturer of linens, Coalbrook-dale

Richard Reynolds, hair-dresser, iron-bridge

William Smith, drawing-master, Coalbrook-dale

Francis Stodd, boat-builder, Iron-bridge

John Stormont, patten-ring-maker, Iron-bridge

TAVERNS and PUBLIC-HOUSES.

Coopers' Arms,-R. Haynes, Iron-bridge

Golden Ball-Brooke Cox, Madeley

George and Dragon,--Matthew Thompson, Ditto.

Hodge Bower,-R. Cock, Iron-bridge

Horse and Hoes,-Dirs. Lees, Madeley

Rodney,-Samuel Shuker, Iron-bridge

Royal Oak,-Stephen Davies, Ditto

CARRIERS.

To London, Crowley, Hicklin, and Co. from the Iron-bridge, every Wednesday and Saturday.

To London, John Jolly, from George Hartshorne's, Broseley, every Tuesday.

To Shrewsbury, Parry, from the Swan Inn, Iron-bridge, and from the Crown lnn, Broseley, every Tuesday and Friday

BY WATER.

To Bristol, and all the line of the Severn, Ames and Jones, from Coalport Warehouse, every spring tide.

To Bristol, William Devey, from Coalport, every spring tide.

To Shrewsbury, William Goodwin, from his own house, Iron-bridge every spring tide.

To Shrewsbury and Droitwich, Samuel Poole, from his own house, Iron-bridge, every spring tide.

To Stourport, G. Lloyd, from the Swan, Iron-bridge, every week.

COACHES.

FROM THE TONTINE, IRON-BRIDGE, AND THE LION, BROSELEY.

To London, The Prince of Wales, every morning at nine o'clock

To London, from the White Hart, The Emerald, every day at ten o'clock.

To Worcester, every day, (Sundays excepted)

To Shrewsbury, The Emerald, every afternoon, at three o'clock.

 

 

 

Directory of Shropshire Staffordshire etc. Pigot 1829

BROSELEY, MADELEY,

COALBROOK.DALE, COALPORT, IRON-BRIDGE, BENTHALL & NEIGHBOURHOODS.

BROSELEY, a market town and parish, in the, liberties of Wenlock, is 146 miles from London, 25 from Ludlow, and 13 from Shrewsbury, situated on die Severn, which river separates it from Madeley, Ironbridge and Coalbrook-dale. The mines of coal here are very extensive, which are worked and appropriated on the spot to various iron furnaces, potteries, &c. as well as to the manufacture of glazed pipes, which it has been long noted. A court of requests is ­held here for the recovery of small debts. Here is one church under the establishment, and three dissenting chapels; the benefice of the former is a vicarage, in the incumbency of the Rev. Townend Forester, The market day is on Wednesday, and the fairs are the last Tuesday in April, and October the 28th. The population if Broseley parish contained, in 1811, 4,850 inhabitants, and in 1821, 4,814, the reduced population being attributed to the depression of the iron trade.

MADELEY, or Madeley Market is a parish and market town, in the same liberties as Broseley; the­ town extending to COALBROOKDAI.E, which is accounted a part of it, and connected therewith in its trade and history. The iron works of this parish are supposed to be the most considerable of any in England; the forges, mills and steam engines, with all their vast machinery, the flaming furnaces and smoking lime kilns, form a spectacle horribly sublime, while the stupendous iron arch, striding over the Severn gives these scenes a yet nearer resemblance to the ideas in romance. This famous bridge was built in the year 1779, the whole baring been previously cast in open sand; all the principal parts were erected in three months, without any accident to the work or workmen, or the least obstruction to the navigation of the river. This great work, which has for given name to a part of the parish IRONBRIDGE, has every claim to attention as an effort of great mechanical genius, and is only surpassed by the bridge at Bishop’s-Wearmouth.

At COALPORT, two miles from Ironbridge, are the celebrated china manufactories, which are well worth the minute inspection of the visitant, as indeed is the whole of this curious and romantic neighbourhood; where may be seen winding glens, vast hills and hanging woods; while the bosom of the noble Severn, that so essentially contributes to the prosperity of this district, in bearing away the articles of trade produced here, adds also to the general beauty of the country through which it glides. The market-day is on Friday, held at Ironbridge, and the fairs, which are held at Madeley, are January 26th, May 29th and October the 12th. The parish of Madeley, by the last census,. contained 5,379 Inhabitants.

BENTHALL, a parish and village, 2 miles and a half north of Much Wenlock, has a population of about 600 inhabitants, who are chiefly supported by potteries, established here.

POST OFFICE, BROSELEY, Hannah Guest, Post Mistress.—A horse post is dispatched to Shiffnall every morning at a quarter before four with letters for the North and LONDON Mails, and arrives as half-past four in the afternoon. -_IRONBRIDGE, William Smith, Post Master—A horse post is despatched to SHIFFNALL every morning at four with letters for the North and LONDOM Mails, and arrives at bar in the afternoon.

NOBILITY, GENTRY AND CLERGY

Bartlett Rev. John, Madeley               Brown —, gent. Iron bridge

Cowper Rev. John, Madeley                 Embrey Edward, gent. Iron bridge

Forester Dr. Townend, Broseley            Forester Lord, Willey park

Harries F. B. esq. Benthall               Hartshorne Rev. Charles, Broseley

Lacon Walter L. esq. Linley hall          Thomason Mrs. Madeley

William, Rev. John, Broseley              Yates Mrs. Madeley

ACADEMIES & SCHOOLS.

Now otherwise described as Day Schools.

Child William, Broseley                  
Cowper Rev. John (gent’s. brdng.) Madeley

Fell Robert, Iron bridge                 

Micklewright Thos. Madeley

Onions Mrs. (ladies’ day & brdng.) Broseley

Taylor Mrs. & Miss(ladies’ brdng.) [Lincoln’s hill

Thomas Wm. Broseley

Wyke Misses (ladies’ brdg.)Broseley

ATTORNEYS.

Court Matthew, iron bridge                Pritchard &Sons, Broseley

Riding Wm.. Coalbrook dale                Wase John, Madeley

AUCTIONEERS

Hartshorne George, Broseley               Smith Samuel, Madeley

Walter Sand. Elliott, Iron bridge         BAKERS & CONFECTIONERS.

Harries Thos. Coalbrook dale

Jones Edward, Iron bridge

Milner George, Iron bridge

BANKERS.

Darby& Co. Coalbrook dale.—(draw on Sir Jan. Esdaile& Co. London)

Pritchard J. G. & J. Broseley— (draw on Barnetts, Hoare & Co. London)

BLACKSMITHS

Davies Thomas, Broseley

Edge Benjamin, Coalport

Edwards John, Iron bridge

Handley Francis, Coalbrook dale

Jones John, Broseley~

Jones John, Madeley

Parker John Coalbrook dale

Stormont Joint (and patten maker) Iron bridge

Wallet Thomas, Coalport

Walton Richard, Iron bridge

BOOKSELLER, STATIONER AND PRINTER

Smith William, Iron bridge

BOOT MAKERS.& SHOE

Bailey John, Coalbrook dale

Booth John, Broseley

Dodd Thomas, Iron bridge

Franklin Edward, Iron bridge

Howard William, Iron bridge

Parsons Edward, Broseley

Roberts John, Coalbrook dale

Stodd Wm. Coalbrook dale..

Williams William, Broseley

Woodruff James, Iron bridge

Yates Richard, Madeley wood

BRAZIERS AND TIN-PLATE WORKERS

Bartlam Charles, Iron bridge

Fenton John, Iron bridge.

BRICK AND TILE MAKERS

Beard Richard, Madeley

Burton John (fire) Broseley

Cock Roger (white) iron bridge

Davies Abraham, Lightmore

Davies George, Broseley

Davies James (fire) Broseley

Davies Thomas, Broseley

Edwards Edward, Iron bridge

Harrington & Greenwood, Broseley

Hartshorne Hezekiah, Broseley

Lumley & Co. Broseley

Onions John, Broseley

Poole Richard, Broseley

Roden John & Thos. Broseley

Smith Saml. & Co. Madeley wood

Thompson John, Lightmoor

BRICKLAYERS

Fowler Thomas, Broseley

Legg Francis, Broseley .

Legg William, Broseley

Nevet John, Iron bridge

Nevet Samuel, Iron bridge

Nevvt Thomas, Iron bridge

Perkins Thomas, Broseley

Pugh George, Broseley

Pugh John, Broseley

Pugh William, Broseley

Smith Charles, Broseley

Smith John, Broseley

Smith William, Broseley

Thompson Thomas, Iron bridge

BUTCHERS..

Barrett Thomas, Iron bridge

Booth Henry, Broseley

Bowdler Henry, Madeley

Cartwright Charles, Broseley

Cartwright George, Broseley

Cartwright James, Broseley

Cartwright John, Broseley

Colley Richard, Broseley

Corfield John, Broseley

Corfield William, Broseley

Cox John, Coalbrook

Crump Edward, Broseley

Crump William, Broseley

Delves Joseph, Coalbrook dale

Delves Thomas, Coalbrook dale

Gough Thomas, Broseley

Harris James, Madeley

Harris James, Madeley

Holyoake Thomas, Broseley

Jones Jeremiah, Iron bridge

Knowles George, Broseley.

Page John, Iron bridge

Pearce Thomas, Broseley

Smith Charles, Broseley

Taylor William, Broseley

Wilcocks John, Madeley

CABINET MAKERS.

Edwards Edward, Iron bridge

Hartshorne George Broseley

Perks Geo.(& upholsterer) Madeley

CHINA MANUFACTURERS.

Rose Jno. & Co. Coalport. & 9 New castle street, Strand, London

COOPERS.

Haynes Richard. Iron bridge

Jones Richard. Broseley

Rogers Thomas, Iron bridge

Williams William, Iron bridge

CORN MILLERS.

Ashwood Jeremiah, Broseley

Morgan George, Coalbrook dale

Morgan William, Benthall

Nock William, Broseley

CURRIERS.

Brown Henry. Iron bridge

Cock Roger, Iron bridge

Cotton Richard, Iron bridge

FIRE, &c. OFTICE AGENTS.

ALLIANCE, Thomas Graham, Coalbrook dale

GLOBE, Abraham Wyke, Broseley

SALOP, Stephen Jones, Broseley

GROCERS AND TEA DEALERS

Bailey William, Coalbrook dale

Bell William, Broseley

Bright Benjamin, Coalbrook dale

Chune George, Coalbrook dale

Crowder Leonard, Iron bridge

Evans Richard, Broseley

Glazebrooke James, Iron bridge

Hanley Mary, Iron bridge

Hartshorne Hezekiah, Broseley

Icke & Pace, Madeley

Inett Thomas, Coalbrook dale

Jones Stephen, Broseley

Miliner Betsy, Iron bridge

O’Adams Ths. (& druggist) Broseley

Parker Joshua Madeley

Smith Henry, Iron bridge

Smith William, Iran bridge -

Wilcox Thomas, Madeley green

HOP & SEED DEALER

Guest Charles, Broseley

Lister John &.Son (and wine and spirit) Broseley

Parker James, Madeley.

Parker Jas, (&nurseryman) Iron bdg

INNS

Red Lion, John Law, Broseley

Tontine(and posting) John Evans, Ironbridge

IRON FOUNDERS

Ball Benjamin, Willey. wharf

Hill Stephen, Benthall

IRON MASTERS.

Addenbrook, Pidcock & Co. Lightmore­

COALBROOK-DALE COMPANY, Coal­brook dale

Foster James, Barnetts Leason (Leassow)

Hazeldine Wm. Calcuts

MADELEY WOOD COMPANY, Madeley wood

Onions John, Broseley

IRONMONGERS

Davies .Richard, Iron bridge and Broseley

Haywood John (and wire-worker) Iron bridge

JOINERS & CARPENTERS

Bailey William, Madeley green

Cox Brooke, Madeley green

Cox Joseph,. Broseley

Davies John, Broseley

Evans Thos. jun. Madeley green

Evans Thomas, sen. (and builder) Madeley green

Jenks Wm. (& builder) Iron bridge

Lloyd John, Iron bridge

Smith Saml. (& builder) Madeley

Turley William, Broseley

LIME BURNERS.

Patten John, Benthall

Smith & Jarvis, Lincoln’s hill

Tranter John, Benthall

LINEN & WOOLLEN DRAPRS,

Bailey William, Coalbrook dale

Bright Benjamin, Coalbrook dale

Charlton Henry, Iron bridge

Collier William, Broseley

Edwards Edward, Iron bridge

Glazebrooke James, Iron bridge

Guest Isaiah John, Broseley

Jones Mary, Broseley

Roberts Ts.(& excise office)Broseley

Weare William, Iron bridge

Wilcox Thomas, Madeley green

MALTSTERS.

Anstice William, iron budge

Birch Thomas, Broseley

Blaize Walker, Broseley

Blanthorn James, Iron bridge

Boycott Richard, Iron bridge

Bright Benjamin, Coalbrook date

Broughall Joseph, Madeley

Burton John, Broseley

Chune George, Iron bridge

Crump Edward, Broseley

Davies Charles, Broseley

Davies Samuel, Iron bridge

Dickenson Bernard, Coalbrook dale

Gough Thomas, Broseley

Guest Charles, Broseley

Jones John, Broseley

Home Thomas, Madeley

Lane Mary, Broseley

Lloyd Benjamin, Coalbrook dale

Matthews Samuel, Broseley

Parker James, Iron bridge

Perry Thomas, Madeley

Smith Samuel, Iron bridge

Spruce Bernard, Madeley

Wellings John, Broseley

Yates Francis & John, Iron bridge

NAIL MAKERS

Andrew, Richard, Iron bridge

Armstrong Richard, Iron bridge

Jones Benjamin, Iron bridge

Peters Richard, Broseley

PAINTERS, PLUMBERS AND GLAZIERS

Crowder Leonard, Iron bridge

Crowder Thomas, Broseley

Evans Robert, Madeley

Evans Thomas, Madeley green

Jenks Wm. Iron bridge

Tilley John, Coalbrook dale

Yates Adam, Madeley green

PIPE MAKERS.

Bradley John, Benthall

Bryan Wm. Broseley

Gething John, Benthall

Legg Richard, Broseley

Pennor Samuel, Broseley

Roden Noah, Broseley

Roden Sarah, Broseley

Shaw Richard, Benthall

Southern Wm. Broseley

POTTERS. .

Bell& Poole, Benthall

Farnall John, Benthall

SADDLERS.

Davies Benjamin, Iron bridge

Grosvenor Samuel, Iron bridge

Lloyd Andrew, Madeley

Milner Benjamin, Madeley

Richards Thomas, Broseley

SALT DEALERS

Goodwin George, Iron bridge

Poole Samuel, Iron bridge

Roden Samuel, Benthall

Yaws Francis. Iron bridge

SHOPKEEPERS & DEALERS IN SUNDRIES.

Armstrong Richard, Iron bridge

Bartly James, Madeley

Blocksidge John, Coalport

Barnet Wm. Broseley

Clemson Wm, Madeley

Davies John, Broseley

Fletcher Sarah, Coalbrook date

Inston John, Broseley

Millward Wm. Broseley

Parker Joshua, Madeley wood

Pearce Thomas., Broseley

STRAW HAT MAKERS.

Aston John Iron bridge

Delves Elizabeth, Iron bridge.

Raby Seth, Iron bridge

SURGEONS.

Ashwood John Nicholls, Broseley

Edwards & Sons, Coalbrook dale

Firfield Wm. Broseley

Gourley Daniel, Madeley

Proctor Richard, Iron bridge

Rowland & Son, Iron bridge

Thursfield Richard, Broseley

TAILORS.

Blanthorn Jas. (& draper) Iron bdge

Blodwell Edward, Iron bridge

Davies Edward, Coalbrook dale

Delves Thomas, Iron bridge

George John, Broseley

Gethin Jas. (& draper) Coalbrook dale

Heaford Wm. Coalbrook dale

Johnson James, Broseley

Jones Stephen, Broseley

‘Thomas Nathaniel, Broseley

TALLOW CHANDLERS.

Carrington Wm. Broseley

Goodwin Benjamin, Iron bridge

Jones John, Broseley

TAVERNS PUBLIC HOUSES

Ash Tree, John Williams, Broseley

Ball, Thos. Jones, Coalbrook dale

Black Swan, Win. Oakes, Broseley

Block House Rock, John Till Madeley wood

Bull’s Head, Saml. Preen, Broseley

Cape of Good Hope, John Turton, Broseley

Coalport Inn, Saml. Price, Coalport

Coopers’ Arms, Richard Haynes Iron bridge

Craven Arms, Ann Owen, Horsehay

Crown, Saint. Matthews, Broseley

Crown & Anchor, Mary Higgins, Broseley

Dog, John Geary, Broseley

Duke Wellington, Rt. Jones, Broseley

Elephant, John Bradley, Broseley

Fox, Richard Poole, Broseley

George.& Dragon, Matt Thompson, Madeley wood

Golden Ball, Brooke Cox, Madeley wood

­Hammer, Thos. Home, Madeley

Hat & Lamb, William Shingler, Madeley wood

Hodge Bower, Roger Cock, Madeley wood

Hole in the Wall, Geo. Wilkes, Broseley

Horse, Win. Darnell, Madeley

King’s Head, Win. Bill, Broseley

Labour in Vain, Thomas Morris, Horsehay

Lake Head, Benjamin Bennett, Madeley wood

Lloyd’s Head, Ts. Evanson, Broseley

Lord Hill, Benj. Cooke, Broseley

Lord Nelson, M. Jones, Broseley

May-pole, Charles Jones, Broseley

New Inn, Eliz. Lloyd, Benthall

Old Crown, Richd. Wyre, Broseley

Old Red Lion, Wm. Wilson, Broseley

Pheasant, Saml. Pugh, Broseley

Plough, Thos. Challoner, Broseley

Queen’s Head, Harriet Fowler, Iron bridge

Robin Hood, James Owen, Madeley wood

Rodney, Saml. Shuker, Coalbrookdale

Royal Oak, Stephen Davies, Iron bridge

Royal Oak, Robt. Richards, Broseley

Severn Trow, Chas. Lloyd ,Broseley

Ship, Martha Jones, Broseley

Spotted Leopard, Ts .Jones, Benthall

Swan, Benj. Lloyd, Coalbrook dale

Talbot; Richd. Boycott, Coalbrook dale

Three Horse Shoes Sarah Lees, Madeley

Three Tuns. John Lister, Iron bdge

Tumbling Sailors, Js. Lloyd, Broseley

Turk’s Head, Francis Griffiths, Broseley

Victualler, Bernard Spruce, Madeley wood

Wheat Sheaf, Geo. Lloyd, Broseley

Whelps, Richd. Beard, Broseley

White Hart, Margt. Mantle, Iron bridge

TIMBER MERCHANTS

Chane Geo. St Sons, Iron bridge

Davies Stephen, Iron bridge

Griffiths John & Edw. Coalport

Horton Wm. (& seed crusher) Coalport

Nock Thomas, Coalbrook dale

WATCH & CLOCK MAKERS.

Farr James, Iron bridge

Lister William, Iron bridge

WHEELWRIGHTS

Farr James, Madeley

Griffiths Robert, Broseley-

Poole Richard, Broseley

MISCELLANEOUS

Burnet Henry, smallware dealer, Broseley

Guest Isaiah John, sub-distributor of stamps, Broseley

Guynn James, basket maker, Broseley

Harper John, chemist & druggist, Iron bridge

Jones Chas. rope maker, Coalport

Lloyd Paul, land surveyor, Broseley

Mellor James, clothes dlr. Madeley

Norris Wm, china & earthenware dealer, Iron bridge

Onions John, hat manufr .Broseley

Reynolds Joe, wharfinger, Coalport

Shingler William, pawnbroker and hatter, Madeley green

Slack Saml patten mkr, Iron bdge.

Wilson Jno. supervisor, Broseley

COACHES.

To BIRMINGHAM, the Emerald (from Shrewsbury) calls at the White Hart, Iron bridge, every morning at tea.

T. CHELTENHAM, the Old Worcester (from Shrewsbury) cells at the Tontine Inn, Iron bridge, every Monday Wednesday; & Friday morning at eight, and at the Red ion, Broseley, about. half­-past eight the same mornings; goes through Worcester.

To SHIFNALL, the Prince, every morning at quarter past nine.

to SHREWSBURY, the Emerald (from Birmingham) calls at the White hart,. every afternoon at three—and the Old Warrior (from Cheltenham) calls at the Red Lion, Broseley, every Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday afternoon at half past four, end at the Tontine inn, Iron bridge, at five the same afternoons..

CARRIERS.

To LONDON, Crowley, Hicklin & Co. from Iron bridge every week—&c John Jolly, from Geo. Hartshorne’s, Broseley every Tuesday.

To SHREWSBURY, Richd. Parry from the Swan Inn, Iron bridge, and the Crown, Broseley, every Tues & Friday

CONVEYANCE BY WATER.

To BRISTOL, & all intermediate places, John Jones, from Coalport warehouse every spring tide.

To DROITWICH, Samuel Poole, from Iron bridge, once a month.

To STOCKPORT, Geo. Lloyd, from the Swan, Iron bridge, once a week.

 

 

Pigots 1835.

BROSLEY AND MADELEY

WITH COALBRROK-DALE, COALPORT, IRONBRIDGE, BENTHALL & NEIGHBOURHOODS

BROSELEY is a market-town, in the parish of its name, and franchise of Wenlock ; 146 miles N.W. from London, 25 N. E. from Ludlow, 13 S. E. from Shrews­bury, and 4 E. from Wenlock ; situate on the Severn, which river separates it from Madeley, Ironbridge, and Colebrook-Dale; and on the road from Worcester to Shrewsbury. In ancient records it is written Bur­wardesley, probably deriving that appellation from a family of the name of Burward, to which it formerly belonged. It consists principally of one long street, with smaller ones branching off irregularly, leading to the different collieries and other works ; the former of which are extensive. Their produce is chiefly ap­propriated on the spot to various iron furnaces, pot­teries, &c. as well as to the manufacture of glazed pipes (for which it has been long noted), fire-bricks, tiles, &c. The town is within the jurisdiction of the borough of Wenlock : courts-leet for the manor are held in the town-ball, in April and October; at the latter of which four constables are appointed : and a court of requests, for the recovery of debts under 40s.is held generally every alternate Wednesday. The places of worship are, the parish church, a chapel of ease at Jackfield (in this parish), two chapels for Baptists, and one for the Wesleyan Methodists. The church, which is dedicated to St. Leonard, has, with the exception of the tower (which is of stone,) been rebuilt of brick. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Blythe family: the Rev. Townsend Forester is the present incumbent. The market is held on Wednesday; and the fairs on the last Tues­day in April, and the 28th of October. The parish of Broseley contained, in 1811, 4,850 inhabitants; in 1821, 4,814; and in 1831, 4,299; the reduced population being attributed to the depression of the iron trade.

MADELEY, or Madeley Market, is a parish and mar­ket town, in the same liberties as Broseley ; the town extending to COALBROOK-DALE, which is accounted a part of it, and connected therewith in its trade and history. The iron-works of this parish are consider­able; the forges, mills, and steam-engines, with all their vast machinery, and the flaming furnaces and smoking lime-kilns, form a spectacle horribly sub­lime; while the stupendous iron arch, bestriding the Severn, gives these scenes a yet nearer resemblance to the ideas in romance. This famous bridge was built

in the year 1779, the whole having been previously cast in open sand ; all the principal parts were erected in three months, without any accident to the work or workmen, or the least obstruction to the navigation of the river. The span of the arch is one hundred feet six inches, and the height, from the base line to the centre, forty feet ; the total weight of iron being three hundred and seventy-eight tons. This great work, which has given name to a part of the parish, IRONBRIDGE, has every claim to attention as an effort of great mechanical genius. The places of worship are, the parish church, dedicated to All Saints, chapels for Wesleyan Methodists, and one for Roman Catholics. A new church is about to be erected for the accom­modation of the inhabitants of Ironbridge. The living of Madeley is a discharged vicarage, in the patronage of Sir Edward Kynaston, Bart.: the Rev. George Edmonds is the present incumbent. The house of in­dustry, erected in 1797, at an expense of about £1,100. is a commodious building. At COALPORT, two miles from Ironbridge, are the china manufactories, which are well worth the minute inspection of the visitant; as indeed is the whole of this curious and romantic neighbourhood; where may be seen winding glens, vast hills, and hanging woods: while the bosom of the noble Severn, which so essentially contributes to the prosperity of this district, in bearing away the ar­ticles of trade produced here, adds also to the general beauty of the country through which it glides. The market is held on Friday at Ironbridge ; and the fairs at Madeley, on the 26th of January, the 29th of May, and the 12th of October. The parish of Madeley con­tained, by the census of 1821, 5,379 inhabitants, and by that for 1831, 5,822.

BENTHALL is a village, in the parish of its name, within the liberties of Wenlock, situate two miles and a half N.N.E. from that town. There are two pottery works in this neighbourhood, which give employment to many of, the inhabitants; and the river Severn, which flows through the parish, provides the means of distributing the articles manufactured to various parts. The church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew ; and the living is a perpetual curacy, in the gift of the vicar of Much Wenlock. The population of the parish at the last census (1831) was 525, being fewer by 111 than it contained in the year 1801.

POST OFFICE, Broseley, Hannah Guest, Post Mistress.- Letters from LONDON and all parts arrive every day at ten minutes past twelve, and are despatched every afternoon at twenty minutes before 3.

POST OFFICE, IRONBRIDGE, William Smith, Post Mater.-Letters from LONDON, &c. arrive every day at twelve, and are despatched every afternoon at three.-Letters from BIRMINGHAM arrive every evening at six, and are despatched every morning at a quarter past eight. ­-­Letters from SHREWSBURY arrive every morning at quarter past eight, and are dispatched every evening at six.

NOBILITY, GENTRY AND CLERGY,

Barnes Rev. William, Madeley

Bartlett Rev. John, Marnwood

Darby Richard, esq. Coalbrook-Dale

Dutton Mr. John, Madeley

Edmonds Mrs. Ann, Madeley

Edmonds Rev. George, Madeley

Edmonds William, esq. Madeley

Ferriday Miss Ann, Madeley

Ferriday Robert, esq. Madeley

Forester Lord John George Weld, Willey park

Forester Rev. Townsend, Rectory

Jeffries Rev. Clement, Madeley

Jones Rev. Daniel, Broseley

Jones Rev. Thomas, Broseley

Patrick Mrs. May Ann, Madeley

Williams Rev. John, Broseley

Yates the Misses -, Madeley

ACADEMIES & SCHOOLS.

Not otherwise described are Day Schools.

Aston Mary, Coalbrook-Dale

Baylis Ann, Ironbridge

Baylis John Cox, Ironbridge

Bonner William, Broseley

Carter Mary, Madeley

Evans George, Broseley

Greathead Mary, Ironbridge

Harvey William, Ironbridge

INFANTS' SCHOOL, Coalbrook-Dale Ellen Evison, mistress

INFANTS' SCHOOL, Madeley-the Young Ladies of the Village mistresses

INFANTS' SCHOOL, Ironbridge­ Sarah Nickless, mistress

Jones Rev. Thomas (gentleman's boarding) Broseley

LANCASTERIAN SCHOOL (girls'), Coalbrook-Dale-Martha Michael, mistress

Micklewright Thos. Madeley wood

Onions Jane, Broseley

Onions Samuel, Little Dawley

Taylor Ann, Ironbridge

Thomas John, Broseley

AGENTS.

(See ales Fire, &c.. Office Agents.)

Baylis William (to the MADELEY WOOD Co.) Coalport

James George (to T, W. & B. Bot­field) Coalport

Smith William (to the MADELEY WOOD Co.) Lloyds

ARCHITECTS & SURVEYORS,

Smith Samuel & Son, Madeley

ATTORNEYS.

Anstice William Reynolds, Madeley

Court Matthew, Ironbridge

Pritchard & Sons, Broseley

Tanner John, Ironbridge

AUCTIONEERS.

Bywater George, Ironbridge

Hartshorne George, Broseley

Smith Samuel, Madeley

Walter Samuel Elliot, Ironbridge

BAKERS & CONFECTIONERS.

Barclay John, Ironbridge

Everall Mary, Broseley

Jones Edward, Ironbridge

Jones Stephen, Ironbridge

Milner George Jacob Ironbridge

Onions James Madeley

Rogers Mary, Ironbridge

BANKERS.

Darby and Co. Coalbrook-Dale­ (draw on Sir Japes Esdaile and Co. London)

Pritchard John, George and John Broseley-(draw on Barnetts, Hoare & Co. London)

SAVINGS' BANK, Ironbridge­ William Smith, actuary- (attend­ance monthly)

BLACKSMITHS.

Davies Francis, Broseley

Davies Richard, Ironbridge

Edwards John, Ironbridge

Edwards Joseph, Broseley

Felton William, Madeley

Handley Francis, Coalbrook-Dale

Jones Rebecca, Madeley

Parker John, Coalbrook-Dale

Parsons William, Broseley

Wallett Thomas, Coalport

Walton Richard, Ironbridge

Wilkinson Sarah, Broseley

BOAT BUILDERS.

Gother Francis, Benthall

Grice Peter, Madeley Wood

Griffiths John and Edwin Francis, Coalport

BOOKSELLERS, STATIONERS AND PRINTERS.

Smith William, Ironbridge

Walter Samuel Elliot, Ironbridge

BOOT AND SHOE MAKERS.

Bailey John, Coalbrook-Dale

Barker John, Madeley

Betton Richard, Ironbridge

Blocksidge John, Coalport

Booth John, Broseley

Burnt James, Broseley

Crowder John, Broseley

Cureton Edward, Madeley Wood

Dodd Thomas, Ironbridge

Dovey Richard, Madeley

Franklin Edward, Ironbridge

Franks Thomas, Madeley Wood

Garbett Thomas, Benthall

Howard William, Ironbridge

Lewis & Ford, Ironbridge

Parsons Edward, Broseley

Price John, Madeley

Roberts John, Coalbrook-Dale

Stodd William, Coalbrook-Dale

Weeks Richard, Broseley

Williams William, Broseley

Woodruff James, Ironbridge

Yates Francis, Madeley Wood

Yates Richard, Madeley Wood

BRAZIERS AND TIN-PLATE WORKERS.

Bartlam Charles, Ironbridge

Fenton J no., Broseley & Ironbridge

BRICK AND TILE MAKERS.

Barton John & Edwd. Ironbridge

Cock Roger, Hodge Bower

Davies George, Madeley Wood

Davies Thomas, Lloyd's head

Davies William, Lloyd's head

Edwards Edward, Ironbridge

Evans Robert, Broseley Hartshorne

Hezekiah, Broseley

Onions John, Broseley

Poole Richard, Broseley

Roden John &Thomas, Jackfield

Roden Samuel, Broseley

Smith Samuel & Co. Madeley

Thompson James, Lightmoor

BRICKLAYERS.

Barclay John, Ironbridge

Legg Francis, Broseley

Legg William, Broseley

Nevett John, Ironbridge

Nevett Samuel, Ironbridge

Nevett Thomas, Ironbridge

Nickless James, Madeley Wood

Smith Charles, Broseley

Smith John, Broseley

Smythyman John, Broseley

Squires Richard, Broseley

Thompson Thomas, Madeley Wood

BUTCHERS.

Barnett Thomas, Ironbridge

Booth Henry, Broseley

Cartwright Charles, Broseley

Cartwright George, Broseley

Cartwright James, Broseley

Cartwright James, jun. Broseley

Cox John, Coalbrook-Dale

Crump William, Broseley

Delves Joseph, Coalbrook-Dale

Delves Thomas, Ironbridge

Gough Thomas, Broseley

Harris James, Madeley

Harris James, jun. Madeley

Knowles George, Broseley

Page John, Ironbridge

Page Thomas, Broseley

Pearce Thomas, Broseley

Raby John, Madeley Wood

Wilcox John, Madeley

Wilcox William, Madeley

CABINET MAKERS.

Edwards Edward, Ironbridge

Hartshorne George, Broseley

Lloyd John, Ironbridge

Perks George, Madeley

Poole Thomas, Broseley

CHAIN CABLE MANUFACTURE

Edge Benjamin, Coalport

CHINA MANUFACTURERS.

Rose John & Co. Coalport

CHYMISTS AND DRUGGISTS.

Oakley Jesse, Broseley

Wheeler Richard, Ironbridge

COOPERS.

Cannadine Isaac, Ironbridge

Rogers Thomas, Ironbridge

Williams William, Ironbridge

CURRIERS.

Brown Henry, Ironbridge

Cock Roger, Hodge Bower

Cotton Richard, Ironbridge

FIRE, &c. OFFICE AGENTS.

ALLIANCE, Thomas Graham, Coal­brook-Dale

BIRMINGHAM Jno.Harvey, Broseley

GLOBE, Humphy. Charlton, Broseley

NORWICH UNION, Edward Smith, Lloyds

SALOP, John Jones, Benthall

SUN, John Tanner, Ironbridge

GROCERS & TEA DEALERS.

(See also Shopkeepers, &c.)

Bailey William, Coalbrook-Dale

Franks Benjamin, Madeley Wood

Glazebrook James, Ironbridge

Inett Thomas, Coalbrook-Dale

Milner Betsey, Ironbridge

Oakley Jesse, Broseley

Rose Samuel, Coalbrook-Dale

Smith Charles William, Ironbridge

Smith Henry(& cheese factor) Ironbridge

Wild Thomas, Broseley

Wright Benjamin, Coalbrook-Dale

HAIR DRESSERS.

Baugh George, Ironbridge

Poole Thomas, Ironbridge

HAT MANUFACTURERS.

Shingler and Son, Ironbridge and Madeley Wood

HOP AND SEED DEALERS.

Guest Charles, Broseley

Lister Thomas, Broseley

Smith Henry, Ironbridge .

INN.

Tontine (& posting house) Thomas Jones, Ironbridge

IRON FOUNDERS.

Clayton Charles, Madeley

Hill Stephen, Benthall

IRON MASTERS.

Addenbrook, Pidcock & Co. Lightmoor

Botfield Thomas William & Briah, Coalport

COALBROOK-DALE COMPANY, Coal­brook-Dale

MADELEY WOOD CO. Madeley Wood

Onions John, Broseley

IRONMONGERS.

Davies Richard, Ironbridge

Ha wood John (& wire worker)Ironbridge

Smith Charles William, Ironbridge

JOINERS &CARPENTERS.

Bailey William, Madeley Wood

Burnet Abraham, Broseley

Cox Brooke, Madeley Wood

Davies John, Broseley

Evans Thomas, Madeley Wood

Hartshorne George, Broseley

Jenks Thomas, Ironbridge

Lloyd John, Ironbridge

Nickless William, Ironbridge

Smith Samuel & Son (& builders) Madeley

Turley William, Broseley

LIME BURNERS.

Patten John, Benthall

Smith William &Co. Lloyds

LINEN &s WOOLLEN DRAPERS

Baker Jeremiah, Broseley

Charlton Henry, Ironbridge

Edwards Edward, Ironbridge

Ford John, Ironbridge

Glazebrook James, Ironbridge

Mellor James (woollen) Madeley

Perrin William, Broseley

Weare William, Ironbridge

Wright Benjamin, Coalbrook-Dale

MALTSTERS.

Ashwood Jeremiah, Broseley

Birch Thomas, Broseley

Blanthorn James, Ironbridge

Blaze John Walker, Broseley

Boycott Richard, Ironbridge

Bronghall Joseph, Madeley

Burton John & Edwd. Ironbridge

Chune George, Coalbrook-Dale

Davies Stephen, Ironbridge

Dickinson Barnard, Coalbrook-Dale

Dyas Charles, Madeley

Gough Thomas, Broseley

Guest Charles, Broseley

Lister Thomas, Broseley

Lloyd Benjamin, Coalbrook-Dale

Lloyd Thomas, Jackfield

Lumley Charles, Coalport

Morgan William, Benthall

Page Thomas, Broseley

Smith Edward, Lloyds

Smith Samuel & Son, Madeley

Till Thomas, Madeley Wood

Wellings & Onions, Coalport

Wright Benjamin, Coalbrook-Dale

Yates John & Francis, Ironbridge

MILLERS.

Ashwood Jeremiah, Broseley

Morgan George, Coalbrook-Dale

Morgan William, Broseley

MILLINERS & DRESS MAKERS

Armstrong Mary Ann, Ironbridge

Griffiths Martha, Broseley

Sanders Martha & Matilda, Ironbridge

NAIL MAKERS.

Andrews Richard, Madeley Wood

Jones Benjamin, Madeley Wood

Jones Thomas, Madeley Wood

Peters Richard, Broseley

Weston William, Madeley Wood

PAINTERS, PLUMBERS, AND GLAZIERS.

Brandford Thomas, Coalbrook-Dale

Crowder Leonard, Ironbridge

Evans Robert, Madeley Wood

Evans Thomas, Madeley Wood

Hinsley John, Madeley Wood

Jenks Edward, Ironbridge

Jones Richard, Broseley

Smith James, Broseley

PIPE MAKERS.

Bryan Widow, Broseley

Legg Richard, Broseley

Pinner Samuel, Broseley

Roden John, Broseley

Roden Noah, Broseley

Roden Samuel, Broseley

Roden Sarah, Broseley

Shaw Richard, Broseley

Southorn William (manufacturer of the most superior quality of pipes) Broseley

POTTERS.

Farnell John, Benthall

Lloyd John & Co. Benthall

Myatt John, Jackfield

SADDLERS.

Lloyd Andrew, Madeley

Owen Thomas, Madeley

Richards Thomas, Broseley Wood

Edward, Ironbridge

SALT DEALERS

Burton Jno. & Edward, Ironbridge

Goodwin George, Ironbridge

Roden Samuel, Benthall

SHOPKEEPERS& DEALERS IN GROCERIES & SUNDRIES.

Bartley Thomas, Madeley

Blocksidge John, Coalport

Burnet Abraham, Broseley

Burnet William, Broseley

Clark William, Ironbridge

Crowther John, Broseley

Davies John, Broseley

Davies Thomas, Lloyd's head

Evans Thomas, Ironbridge

Fennell Thomas, Coal port

Fletcher Sarah, Coalbrook-Dale

Harper William, Madeley

Hartshorne Hezekiah, Broseley

Harvey John, Broseley

Instone John, Broseley

Jones John, Madeley

Lees John, Madeley

Lloyd John, Broseley

Lloyd Thomas, Madeley Wood

Lloyd Thomas, Lloyd's head

Nevett Enoch, Broseley

Page Mary, Broseley

Pearce Thomas, Broseley

Picken Thomas, Madeley

Putts Thomas, Lloyd's head

Poultney Samuel, Broseley

Roden Samuel, Benthall

Rushton Valentine, Madeley

Speak Thomas, Broseley

Weaver Charles, Broseley

Wilcox Henry, Ironbridge

Wilcox 'Thomas, Madeley Wood

Williams William, Broseley

STRAW HAT MAKERS

Aston Mary Ann, Ironbridge

Delves Jane, Ironbridge

Patten Elizabeth, Benthall

Raby Seth, Ironbridge

SURGEONS.

Brookes John, Madeley

Edwards Edward, Coalbrook-Dale

Fifield William, Broseley

Gourley Daniel, M. D. Madeley

Lister John Matthews, Broseley

Procter Richard, Ironbridge

Rowland Hugh & Son, Ironbridge

Thursfield Richard, Broseley

Wyke Richard, Broseley

TAILORS.

Blanthorn James, Ironbridge

Blodwell James, Madeley Wood

Delves Thomas, Madeley Wood

Fowler James, Broseley

George John, Broseley

Gething James, Coalbrook-Dale

Hammersley Isaac, Ironbridge

Heaford William, Coalbrook-Dale

Humphreys William, Ironbridge

Johnson John, Broseley

Jones Stephen, Broseley

Morgan Philip, Madeley

Shotton Richard, Madeley Wood

Thomas Thomas, Broseley

TALLOW CHANDLERS.

Carrington William, Broseley

Evans Richard, Broseley

Goodwin Benjamin, Ironbridge

TAVERNS & PUBLIC HOUSES.

Albion, John Lloyd, Broseley

Ash Tree, William Travis, Jackfield

Black Swan, William Potts. Jackfield

Block House, John Davies, Madeley

Wood Bridge House, John Wellings, Coalport

Cape of Good Hope,J ohn Turton, Broseley

Coalport Inn, Samuel Price, Coalport

Coopers' Arms, John Owen, Ironbridge

Craven Arms, Robert Owen, Horsehay

Crown, Roger Cock, Hodge bower

Crown, Samuel Matthews, Broseley

Crown, Sarah Reynolds, Madeley Wood

Dog & Duck, Edward Williams, Lloyds

Dog, Samuel Amphlet, Broseley

Duke of Cumberland, Thos. Davies, Broseley

Duke of Wellington, Martha Jones ,Broseley

Duke of York, Thomas Rutland, Broseley

Elephant & Castle, Edwd. Lister, Broseley

Foresters' Arms, Wm. Edwards, Broseley

Fox, John Davies, Broseley

George and Dragon, Matthew Thompson, Madeley Wood

Golden Ball, Brooke Cox, Madeley Wood

Grove, John Ferrington, Coalbrook-Dale

Half Moon, George Richards, Salt house

Hammer, Samuel Jones, Madeley Wood

Hand and Tankard, John Smythyman Broseley

Hat & Lamb. William Shingler, Madeley Wood

Hole-in-the-Wall, George Wilks, Broseley

King's Head, Ann Higgins, Broseley

Labour-in-Vain, Thos. Morris, Horse hay

Lake Head, Joseph Cope, Madeley Wood

Letters, Ann Jones, Coalbrook-Dale

Lion, John Law Broseley

Lloyd's Head, John Transom, Lloyd's head

Lord Hill, John Burgess, Broseley

Lord Nelson, Noah Hill, Broseley

May Pole, Charles Jones, Broseley

Meadow House Geo. James, the Meadow

New Hill Pitt, &s. Till, Madeley Wood

New Inn, Elizabeth Lloyd, Benthall

Old Crown, Thomas Holloway, Broseley

Old Red Lion, William Wilson, Broseley

Park Tavern, Mary Ward, Madeley

Pheasant, Adam Jones, Broseley

Plough, John Smith, Broseley

Queen's Head, Harriet Fowler, Ironbridge

Robin Hood, James Bailey, Madeley Wood

Rodney, George Lloyd, Coalbrook-Date

Royal Oak, Charles Dyes, Madeley

Royal Oak, Robert Richards, Jackfield

Royal Oak, Thomas Wild, Ironbridge

Severn Trow, Ann Lloyd, Jackfield

Ship, Ann Adams the Werps

Spirit Vaults, Thomas Lister, Ironbridge

Spotted Leopard, Robert Jones, Benthall

Swan, Benjamin Lloyd, Coalbrook-Dale

Talbot, George Boycott, Ironbridge

Three Horse Shoes, Sarah Lees, Madeley

Three Tuns, Richd. Boycott, Ironbridge

Tumbling Sailors, Elizabeth Richards Lloyd's head

Turk's Head, Francis Richards, Madeley Wood

Werps, Thomas Beard, the Werps

White Hart, Sophia Mantle, Ironbridge

Retailers of Beer.

Bailey John, Coalbrook-Dale

Davies John, Broseley

Edwards Edward, Ironbridge

Evans George, Ironbridge

Gather Francis, Benthall

Hargreaves Rebecca, Coalport

Harris Thomas, Ironbridge

Holt Richard, Madeley

Law Elizabeth, Madeley

Lloyd Edmund, Lloyd's head

Lloyd Thomas, Madeley Wood

Lloyd William, Broseley

Lisseter William, Ironbridge

Millington Elizabeth, Broseley

Oakes Thomas, Salt house

Poole Thomas, Ironbridge

Poole John, Broseley

Rogers Thomas, Ironbridge

Williams John, Madeley

Williams William, Broseley

TIMBER MERCHANTS.

Chune George & Joseph (& timber surveyors) Coalbrook-Dale

Griffiths John and Edwin Francis, Coalport

Griffiths Robert & John, Broseley

Horton Samuel, Coalport Smith Samuel & Son, Madeley

WATCH & CLOCK MAKERS.

Blakeway Thomas, Broseley

Burroughs James, Ironbridge

Lisseter William, Ironbridge

WHEELWRIGHTS.

Broadhurst Thomas, Broseley

Farr James, Madeley

Griffiths Robert & John, Broseley

Hill Edward, Ironbridge

WINE & SPIRIT MERCHANT.

Lister Thomas, Broseley

Miscellaneous.

Brown John, turner, Madeley Wood

Brown Samuel, hosier, Ironbridge

Burnet Henry, smallware dealer, Broseley

Gwynn James, basket maker, Broseley

Musgrave William, wharfinger, Coalport

Parker Elizabeth, nursery and seed dealer, Ironbridge

Smith Edward, porter dealer,

Lloyds Smith J no. Home, drawing master, Broseley

Stormont John, patten maker, Ironbridge

Weager Israel, block and pump maker, Madeley Wood

Madeley-John Powis, master WORKHOUSE,

COACHES.

From the IRONBRIDGE.

To LONDON, the Salopian (from Shrews­bury) calls at the White Hart, every morning at ten; goes through Shiffnall, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Strat­ford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Henley-on­-Thames, Maidenhead and Slough.

To BIRMINGHAM, the Royal Mail (from Shrewsbury) calls at the Ton­tine, every morning at half-past eight; goes thro' Shiffnall & Wolverhampton.

To CHELTENHAM, the Hawk (from Shrewsbury) calls at the Tontine, every forenoon (Sunday exceted)at half-past eleven-the Hibernia (from Liverpool) calls at the Swan, and the L'Hirondell, calls at the Tontine, both every after­noon (Sunday excepted) at half-past two; all go through Bridgnorth, Kid­derminster and Worcester..

To LIVERPOOL, the Hibernia (from Cheltenham) calls at the Swan, even forenoon (Sunday excepted) at half-past eleven; goes thro' Shrewsbury, Wem Whitchurch and Chester-and the' L'Hirondell, calls at the Tontine, at the same hour ; goes through Shrews­bury, Wrexham and Chester.

To SHREWSBURY, the Royal Mail (from Birmingham) calls at the Tontine, every evening at half-past six-the Hawk (from Cheltenham) calls at the Tontine, every evening (Sunday excepted) at half-past five-and the Salopian (from London) calls at the White Hart, every evening at six.

CARRIERS.

To BIRMINGHAM & WOLVERHAMPTON, Pickford and Co., and Crowley Hicklin, Batty & Co. from the Coopers' Arms, Ironbridge, every Wed. and Sat

To LUDLOW, William Marston, from the Three Tuns, every Wednesday.

To SHREWSBURY, Richard Parry, from the Crown, Broseley, every Tues. & Fri.

To WENLOCK, William Marston, from the Three Tuns, every Wednesday.

CONVEYANCE BY WATER.

To BRIDGNORTH, BEWDLEY, GLOUCESTER, STOURPORT, TEWKESBURY & WORCESTER, John Lloyd and George Goodwin, from Coalport and Ironbridge, daily, to meet the Fly Boats of Ames and Co. who forward goods to all parts of the Kingdom.

To SHREWSBURY, the same Carriers, weekly.

 

7.     Appendix 10:  SOME MINING INCIDENTS IN THE BROSELEY FIELD

(downloaded from internet 19/11/2002)

By Ivor Brown
This article was originally published in the Wilkinson Journal No.8 1980

The one thing that has always struck the writer when considering the Broseley part of the Coalbrookdale Coalfield has been the primitive nature of the equipment used even during this century. This was probably due to the fact that there were never any large mines; the clay industry, with its low - value raw material, was dominant and the seams of mineral present were few, thin and shallow. The following article is a collection of notes culled from various sources, all of which indicate not only the primitiveness of the industry but also the variety of techniques in use. Some of the incidents described are tragic, some comic: they also show the local miners to have been frequently ingenious but with, at the younger end, a considerable degree of carelessness.

In 1891 the following mines[1][1] were still operating in the area (diameter and depth of shafts are given in brackets in feet) :-

Mine	Shaft		Shaft		Shaft
	Diameter	Depth	Diameter	Depth	Diameter	Depth
Broseley Wood Fireclay	6½	300	6	105
Deer Leap Coal	6	48	(adit 2ft x 2ft)
Benthall Fireclay	(adit 5ft x 4ft)		4	23
Bells Rough Coal	5	30	5	30
Pottery Pit Fireclay	5	54	6	48
Deep Pit Coal	6½	420	5½;	420
Turners Yard Coal	5	108	5	108
Tuckies Red Clay and Coal	7	195	6	210
Calcutts Red Clay	6	60	6	60
Green Pit Red Clay	5	30
White Level Fireclay	(adit 4½ft x 4½ft)		5	24
Coneybury Coal	6½	420	4	420
Prestage Trial Red Clay	8	135
Dunge Coal & Clay	5	66	5	70	4	57
Doughty’s Red Clay	6	100	4	105
Exley’s Nos. 1 & 2 Red Clay	5½	105	5½	105
Gitchfield Clay	(adit)
Broad Meadow Coal	4	24

 

All the pits were “naturally ventilated” except Deep Pit which had a firelamp suspended in the shaft, the Tuckies which used ‘exhaust steam’ from pipes in the upcast shaft and Coneybury which had a furnace at the surface. Each type of heat source caused the air to circulate through the mine using convection currents, Of course, several small mines have opened since 1891 but most of these were short-lived ventures.
By 1930 only the following remained at work (the numbers of men being employed underground is given) :-

Alders Meadow (Doughty’s)	5 men,      closed 1940       (NGR 682029)
Benthall Lane Fireclay	4 men,      closed 1942       (Part re-opened as Viger Drift)
Gitchfield Red Clay (Exleys)	10 men, closed 1950     (NGR 707014)
Ladywood Clay (3 pits)	Total 7 men, closed 1939 (NGR 679029)
Broseley (Milburgh) Tile Clay       (Prestage)	5 men,      closed 1940
Deep Pit Clay (Prestage)	4 men,      closed 1940 (NGR 683016)
Turners Yard Fireclay (Prestage)	14 men, closed 1955 ?   (NGR 693001)

 

In 1948 only Turners Yard (11 men), Gitchfield (3 men) and the Viger Drift (part of Benthall Mines) (2 men) remained in operation, and, although there was some drift mining in the 1950s around Caughley, by 1960 all mining had ceased in the Broseley area.

Reports of incidents in the mines come from a variety of sources. In 1889 two men were suffocated in a mine at Broseley when they climbed down to retrieve a hat which had fallen when they looked down the shaft during a Sunday walk. In a similar incident about 1948 two youths were suffocated on entering an adit during a walk. At the Dunge Pit in 1904 an overman was injured when two youths, who were lowering him down a shaft, lost control of the windlass; - the younger youth, who was 17, let go of the handle and the other youth could not control it. During Sunday October 11th, 1914 “some evilly-disposed person removed the covering of a coalpit shaft at Benthall, Salop and threw the covering together with a chain and wire rope down the shaft, causing serious damage to Messrs. C.R. Jones & Sons and endangering the public”. A reward of one guinea was offered by the “Broseley association for the Prosecution of Felons to any person giving such information as shall lead to the conviction of the offender” [2][2]. In the 1930s the cover of a shaft beneath the George Pritchard Memorial caved in and the shaft was filled and grouted. This shaft had opened up suddenly some years previously and a small boy named James Nock fell in and was drowned[3][3]. John Randall recorded a similar mishap in his book ‘Old Sports and Sportsmen’ when Tom Moody, the celebrated ‘Whipper-in’, fell into a pitshaft. “His halloo to the dogs brought him assistance, and he was extricated” [4][4].

The Mines of the Broseley area were often featured in the Annual Reports of the Inspector of Mines. For example, in 1902 at the Wallace Pit a clay miner was struck by something falling down the shaft as he was standing at the bottom waiting to be hauled up. At Tuckies Pit a gunpowder shot had missed-fire and a miner cut away the clay from around it; then, when withdrawing the charge, he accidentally ignited it with his candle. Similarly, at Doughtys Pit a miner was burned when he accidentally ignited two bobbins of compressed powder explosive with his candle as he carried it to his working place.

The writer has also tried to record incidents that have occurred within recent years by interviewing former mine-workers. The late Mr. W. Yates related his experiences in the Gitchfield Mine to the writer in 1967. Mr. Yates began work there in 1892 at 13 years of age. It was an adit mine and his first job was ‘mobbying’, hauling clay, two tubs at a time, while crawling on hands and knees with a hauling chain between his legs and attached to a heavy leather belt at his waist. For this work he got 1 shilling per day out of which he had to pay 2½d per week toll to cross the Coalport Bridge. The clay was got by hand from pillar and stall workings, with ventilation from a shaft half a mile away in Tarbatch Dingle. Carbon dioxide gas was a problem, causing difficulty in keeping candles alight, and in such places they “burned better when kept horizontal”. The mine was very wet. As well as the red clay, fire clay was obtained from a seam about 25ft below it. In 1920 the red clay and the fireclay were being mixed in the proportion 4 red to one of fireclay. The mine produced about 300 tons of clay per week with about 10 men.

The Deep Pit has been described by F.R. Gameson in the Shropshire Magazine, March 1952: “An 8-man pit and an historic engine”. When the mine closed in 1940 it was believed to have been in operation for over 200 years, the same steam engine having been used for over 130 of these years. Attempts were made to get the engine preserved, but a Science Museum expert described it as consisting entirely of ‘all spare parts’ and in 1951 it was scrapped. The mine was very extensive and ventilation was a major problem, both a furnace and a firelamp being used at various times. The Deep Pit produced red clay and fireclay, and ‘fat grey glacial clay’ was obtained from a quarry near one of the shafts. In 1924 the mine was producing 24 tons of tile clay per week which was weathered for about 3 months and then mixed with glacial clay in the proportion two of red to one of glacial clay.

The late J. Roberts described graphically the mine surface to the writer in 1965. “There was a stable where the donkey stood looking through the door till the cage came up, then he would walk out on his own and stand in front of the drought or skip (wagon) to be hooked on to the clay, about 8 to 10 cwt, to take up to the tip. Then he would walk back again and wait for the next. One part of the stable was kept for straw, hay and chaff. The head gear had a crosspiece on top to keep it square, with screws to tighten the guides. Nearby was the furnace chimney: the fire was above the ground in one half of the chimney, and its flue was the other half; it went down under ground to an old shaft. A round building at the surface was a cabin, which, my father told me, over 60 years ago, was built in that shape because the miners knew they would have a lot of waste when they sank the pits and not much room for it. So they heaped it all up around the cabin to the top; if this had been of square sides the waste would have pushed them in.    The shape took the pressure all around, so they knew what they were doing, as it stood the test for over 200 years. Inside there were two long seats for the men to sit on to eat their food, a coffer for corn, fuse, axe, saw etc., while the candles were hung in the centre so that the mice could not get them. Oil lamps were used for lighting. There was also a blacksmith’s shop with leather bellows, a forge, anvil and vice etc.” Mr. Roberts was good with his hands and often repaired the sledges and blow georges (ventilating fans) of for other mines. He remembered, too, that when sinking new shafts, the miners would run drain pipes down the outside of the brickwork and put the ‘air bags’ in these. His father often provided the steam engine to drive the blow the george at these mines.

Another interesting description has been provided by the family of the late T. Jones, a coal and clay entrepreneur and for a time Managing Director of C.R. Jones & Sons Ltd., Ladywood Tileworks. This has been published in full in the Shropshire Mining Club Journal, 1973/4, and describes interesting incidents at Colleys Dingle, Broad Meadow, Benthall and at the mine by the Old,   Ironbridge (Viger Drift); also at the Crawstone Levels by the Hairpin Bend (from which ochrous water still flows), the Pennystone Pit near the Red Church, the Deer Leap and the Fiery Fields.

Of the recent workings at Viger Drift and Turners Yard some documentary and field evidence can still be seen. The Viger Drift was part of a complex of old adits in the woods on the opposite side of Benthall Bank to the Old Mill at the Ironbridge. One of the brick lined adits can still be seen by the roadside, as can a corrugated sheet covered adit entrance, now collapsed, a few feet above. Nearby there is also a corrugated sheet covered miners’ cabin. These workings were described by T. Jones in the article referred to above, and in 1920 they were still being worked by a modified longwall method. At various times they have been connected to the Benthall Lane Mine behind the Benthall Firebrick Works near the Ironbridge Toll House. This consisted of a row of  four adits on the 224 ft. OD contour. One of these was steel-arched and still visible until recently destroyed by Telford Development Corporation ‘landscaping’. The clay was brought by wagons out of the adits, down an incline and across a bridge over the Severn Valley Line, before closure in 1942. Several mine plans survive, showing the workings at the mines here.[5][5]

Alas, very little has been written of the Turners Yard Mine and Caughley drift mines, which closed in 1940 and in the 1950s respectively, or even of the Milburgh Mines of Prestage and Broseley Tileries (also closed 1940), from which the steam engine has recently been removed to Blists Hill Museum. The writer, and the Society, would like to hear from anyone who has memories of from these or any other Broseley Mines.

In 2001 some of the landmarks mentioned in the article still exist: