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| "The ENGINE for Raising Water by Fire" - Thomas Newcomen's steam-powered pumping engine |
Today's "Tale From Watnall Hall" looks at the relics of the Industrial Revolution hidden in and around Watnall Woods...
Walking over the green and pleasant fields of the Giltbrook valley towards Greasley Castle and the church, you’d never think that for centuries it was a noisy, smoky hive of industry, particularly for mining and quarrying. The clues are still hidden in the landscape, curious depressions and overgrown embankments, the remains of old mine shafts and tramways. One of the fields is called Engine House Field and refers to a substantial industrial relic that has now completely disappeared, the so-called “Greasley Engine”.
This was a pumping engine, active in 1819, located on the western bank of the Giltbrook just down from Woodpit Cottage. It was used to pump water out of a series of small mines dotted along the valley.
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| Old technology and new... |
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| Artist's impression of the derelict Greasley Engine in its location beside today's Giltbrook. Not exactly sure of the scale, the larger engines were this size, others were smaller. |
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| Dowsing for coal |
Small-scale mining in the Giltbrook valley had started in medieval times. The monks at Beauvale and Lenton Priories leased out mining rights in 1370 and 1459 at Newthorpe. In 1595 Sir John Savage of Greasley Castle reserved the rights on his own land to “mines of coal, lead, iron and stone, existing or proposed”. There are old stone quarries dotted all along the Magnesian Limestone ridge that heads north out of Watnall Woods towards Annesley and beyond. It makes excellent building stone, known locally as Bulwell stone, and was also used for lime-making in lime kilns, some relics of which still remain near Annesley Hall⁷.
Larger, more sophisticated mine workings began to develop. The Rollestons of Watnall Hall first leased their coal rights in 1636 and in 1647 mining started on Greasley Castle land¹⁰ comprising “a horse engine, a water engine, engine house, stables, mynes, soughes,…”
The Civil War hampered development as the local mining protagonists were on opposing sides¹⁰. From the early 1700s, the Barber family of Greasley Castle were the dominant force in the valley. Mr. Robert Barber is mentioned in the records as... “coal got and sold within Griesly Castle Farm being his own property during the term”. They would later join forces with the Walkers of Bilborough to form the famous Barber Walker Company. Their pits at Bilborough started using Newcomen engines in 1768³.
As technology advanced with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, the older horse-driven pumps were replaced by steam engines. Around 70% of the steam engines used at the time were Newcomens or “commons” as they were known, invented by Devon ironmonger Thomas Newcomen. The pistons were not actually "powered" by steam. The steam was condensed by a jet of cold water forming a vacuum. Atmospheric pressure then pushed the piston down. Despite being unsophisticated compared to the competing Boulton and Watt engines, they were cheaper and simpler to construct and maintain. They did however burn lots of coal but that was ok, there was plenty here. The commercial success of the Newcomen engines was also due to some canny sales techniques. A syndicate for the exploitation of the patent rights, the “Committee of Proprietors of the Invention for Raising Water by Fire” promoted rather successfully the use of the engines for drainage in various mining areas by means of a network of agents and licensees. They were nevertheless an expensive outlay for mine owners. In 1777 a new pit at Barlow in Derbyshire was sunk and equipped for £545 of which £275 was the engine⁴.
By 1800 another Greasley-based mining entrepreneur James Potter and partner Gervas Bourne were mining in Giltbrook although not always successfully. An 1806 note says that east of Reckoning House “they had only two pits and got very little coal, it having been worked many years before”. The old mine "Reckoning House" still exists as part of Reckoning House Farm.
A Reckoning House was the mine office where accounts were kept and wages (usually piecework) calculated and paid out. Many local Derbyshire lead mines had similar Reckoning Houses the remains of which are today converted to barns, farm buildings or hiker's hostels as at Mandale near Bakewell.
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| By 1881 the Greasley Engines settlement had grown to 8 dwellings |
The Greasley Engine is referred to in 1819 when Potter and Bourne’s pits in the area had been “drown out” or flooded. It must have been quite a large engine as it was connected to an extensive subterranean drainage level called the “Greasley Level” which, according to Coal Board records, extended for miles under Greasley.
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| Elsecar Engine², near Barnsley, now a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and associated houses. "Greasley Engines" would have looked similar. |
The old maps and archives mention other local engines too³ - the 1777 map shows the "Awsworth Engine", the 1836 and 1853 maps show the substantial-looking "Beggarlee Engines"/ "Barber and Walker's engines" at Moorgreen (before the pit was built in 1865) and no doubt where Engine Lane got its name⁸. It also shows a significant road from Greasley Castle to Reckoning House going via the location of the Greasley Engine. Just north of Brinsley in 1836 and 1900 a place called Engine Row is marked that has now gone and at Willey Lane, Underwood in 1837 the county's first high-tech James Watt steam engine was in use³.
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| 1853 map from local public health report shows "Beverlee Engine" and significant road to the Greasley Engine (not marked) and Reckoning House |
Soughs and the "Greasley Level"
Digging the “Greasley Level” and other underground drainage channels was highly specialised and dangerous work. They were dug using hand tools and candlelight. According to J.M. Lee’s mining history book…
“They were dug by hand and were often miles long, linking several pits together and, by preference, draining naturally into a neighbouring stream system”.
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| Emerging from a sough |
“Before the availability of steam pumps a popular approach was to drive a drainage tunnel (an adit or sough) through the field and to connect the pits to the sough. They could even drain pits working below sough level using the primitive pumps available at the time. The Fletchers were specialist sough builders and they produced one under Kimberley, probably before 1739. It is recorded in 1798 extending from under the Queen Adelaide and draining into the River Erewash near Bennerley Bridge – over 2 miles. Buried and forgotten, it reappeared in around 1973 during opencasting at Awsworth (Shilo). It had a square section about 2 ft 6ins x 2ft 6ins, was unlined, and about 20ft down at that point. The outfall was also discovered, close to Bennerley viaduct, dressed with sandstone blocks and with an arched roof.”
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| Hutchinson's 1739 map of mining in the Erewash valley shows the remarkable length of the Kimberley sough |
This may be the same one as reported on the HealyHero website... "Another sough at Kimberley was from the River Erewash West of Awsworth, 3¼ miles long to near Strelley and Bilborough and was driven in the coal measures." The remains of the “Greasley Level” are no doubt still buried somewhere under the green fields of Giltbrook assuming they escaped being destroyed by open-casting.
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| Francis Barber (1696-1782) founder of the mining dynasty |
All over the valley a tangled network of tracks and tramways sprang up for moving coal to the nearby turnpike roads and canals. The 1835 Sanderson map shows tracks heading south to where Ikea is today and north and east towards the Greasley Engine, over Giltbrook towards Watnall Woods and an inclined railway up to the main road the end of Narrow Lane. This was called “Town End Field and Coal Wharf”, later occupied by Hall Farm, where the Watnall Farm Shop is. A mining industry boomtime was now in full swing all over the area with small pits springing up everywhere and promptly closing down if the money or coal ran out. For example, a mine was opened at High Spania, Kimberley in 1823 and was gone by 1854. No trace of it remains, even on old maps⁵. Total coal production for Nottinghamshire in 1854 was 3.1 million tons and in 1855 47 new pits opened and 20 closed⁶.
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| c.1820 map of Giltbrook showing a colliery in Watnall woods and tramways which are still traceable today leading to the Nottingham Canal. This was before the coming of the railways. |
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| Newcomen's engine was adapted to provide rotary motion for hauling up coal |
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| "A coal mine in the Midlands in the 1790s" a painting in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
Perhaps the Barber's Watnall mining operation did not prove fruitful as the mining rights soon changed hands. In Watnall Woods in the 1850's a new but ill-fated mining operation had been started by James Morley of Nuthall centred around Woodpit Cottage (where the Watnall Hall gamekeeper lived). Morley had borrowed money from his family's hosiery business and bought a lease from Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall Hall to access to the coal reserves. In 1853 it was described as a “house, close with workshops & yard amounting to about 5 acres”. J.M. Lee’s book about Watnall’s mining history says...
“Morley worked from old shafts which he refurbished, probably old Barber and Walker workings which originally had their outlet to the Nottingham Canal via the Giltbrook Valley. Morley wasn’t lucky. A court case took place in 1858, in which his creditors recovered all his mining and personal assets. He ended up with “the wearing apparel of him the said James Morley” – losing literally everything except the shirt on his back. The colliery apparatus was sold in 1858 and comprised amongst other items: eight steam engines, nine boilers, 150 tram wagons, 43 railway trucks, several miles of rails and a good many buildings, to be demolished within a month, as well as 30,000 bricks". Perhaps one of the steam engines sold to pay off his debts was the Greasley Engine? Be that as it may, by the late 19th century many of the original Newcomens would have been coming to the end of their useful lives.
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| Part of Morley's art collection is now at Chatsworth |
Morley seems to have recovered from the failure of his mining businesses¹¹ perhaps helped by his family's deep pockets. His father Richard and brother Arthur ran a very successful hosiery company, I&R Morley. In subsequent census he is described as a "gentleman" with "income from houses". He died in 1877 aged 69 living in a large house by The Park with an estate worth £4000 including a large collection of valuable paintings and furniture¹¹ and a small household staff. He never married. One of his paintings, by John Riley of the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, was recently bought for the Chatsworth House collection. An investigation into its provenance has linked it to the brother of the famous bare knuckle boxer of Nottingham Bendigo Thompson¹¹.
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| Rural colliery - typical of the Eastwood area around the turn of the century as written about by DH Lawrence |
"We called it Shonky Bank after it was demolished. The tailings bank was always smoking. It was a great playground for all of us kids living on Stamford St."
Local author DH Lawrence also writes about it in Sons and Lovers…
“They came near to the colliery. It stood quite still and black among the corn-fields, its immense heap of slag seen rising almost from the oats. “What a pity there is a coal-pit here where it is so pretty!” said Clara. “Do you think so?” he answered. “You see, I am so used to it I should miss it. No; and I like the pits here and there. I like the rows of trucks, and the headstocks, and the steam in the daytime, and the lights at night. When I was a boy, I always thought a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night was a pit, with its steam, and its lights, and the burning bank, — and I thought the Lord was always at the pit-top.”
The final phase of mining in the valley took place in the 1950s and 60s when “outcropping” or open cast coal mining ravaged the landscape and swallowed up the Greasley Engine and cottages for good. Photographs of the devastation caused are hard to comprehend these days as you stand in such peaceful bucolic surroundings. If you look carefully at the overlaid map above you can see that the course of the Giltbrook was also changed quite substantially with many meanders and river bends taken out and replaced by straight channels. One picture shows Greasley Church overlooking a vast rocky valley quarried away by the outcropping. It was eventually infilled and replanted to what you see today but the tell-tale lack of mature trees in some fields is a dead giveaway of its past history.
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| Greasley Church in the 1950's hiding behind the opencast workings locally called "the outcrop" and a similar view after restoration |
There are plenty more "Tales from Watnall Hall" to enjoy here...
Sources : Steam Engines in 18th-Century Britain: A Quantitative Assessment by John Kanefsky and John Robey; The early diffusion of the steam engine in Britain, 1700–1800: a reappraisal by Lessandro Nuvolari, Bart Verspagen & Nick von Tunzelmann; JM Lee – A Brief History of Watnall; Bulwell stone and lime burning http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/monographs/bulwell1946/bullwell2.htm; The Science Museum website;
Healy Hero website https://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-1/1700.html; Coal mining in medieval Nottinghamshire: Consumers and producers in a nascent industry by Richard Goddard https://www.academia.edu/5408451/Coal_mining_in_medieval_Nottinghamshire_Consumers_and_producers_in_a_nascent_industry
Notes -
1 - Here's the link to a video of a brilliant working scale model of a Newcomen engine created by David Hulse. He is interviewed here by Fred Dibnah...
and here is a video of David Hulse himself...
and to Guy Martin's fascinating 50 min documentary about early mining and the importance of Newcomen engine's
2 - Newcomen engines still in existence today - The Newcomen Memorial Engine (sometimes called the Coventry Canal Engine) is a preserved beam engine in Dartmouth, Devon. It was preserved as a memorial to Thomas Newcomen (d. 1729), inventor of the beam engine, who was born in Dartmouth. The engine is the world's oldest surviving steam engine. There is also a full-scale working replica engine at the Black Country Living Museum shown here...
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| Black Country Living Museum |
The original Pentrich Engine is in the Science Museum in London and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan has the original "Fairbottom Bobs" engine from Ashton-Under-Lyne in England. In 1928 Henry Ford was on a tour of England looking to buy a series of old steam engines and had a budget of 10 million dollars! Having been turned down at the Science Museum he bought the derelict Fairbottom Bobs and shipped it back to the USA. He had tried to buy the "Great Engine" at Elsecar in Yorkshire but his lucrative offer was politely turned down.
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| Fairbottom Bobs c.1890 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APMW7JR2TDc&ab_channel=BarnsleyMuseums and in this article about its restoration...
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| Fairbottom Bobs in 1925 |
Newcomen's first successful engine is considered to be the Dudley Castle engine of 1712.
Newcomen engines were used for applications that required the raising of water, such as the draining of coal mines. These 'fire engines' became popular for mining and 104 were in use by 1733, eventually over two thousand of them were installed. Full history here...
Videos of working Newcomen engines are on YouTube...
3 - Other local mine pumping "engines" - https://coalpitheath.org.uk/engines/index.php?find=Colliery
- The Newcomen-style "Awsworth Engine" appears on a 1777 map at the bottom of Newtons lane by the banks of the River Erewash. A curious feature appears in roughly the same spot on 1900 maps called "The Blob" - any connection I wonder? The map is called 'A plan of the navigable canal from the River Trent to Langley Bridge, in the counties of Derby and Nottingham by J. Smith' by J Smith (1777).
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| 1777 map 'A plan of the navigable canal from the River Trent to Langley Bridge, in the counties of Derby and Nottingham by J. Smith' |
- There were 4 engines at the 3 Barber Walker Bilborough Collieries in 1768, 1780 and 2 in 1798 one of which was converted to rotary use for winding. The Beggarlee Engine(s) mentioned in the main text were located on what became Engine Lane, Moorgreen (no doubt associated with the Barber's 1700's Beggarlee pit) which predated Barber Walker's Moorgreen Colliery also on Engine Lane.
- Cossall Colliery (Ilkeston Common) in 1786
- Eastwood Colliery in or before 1775
- Ilkeston Colliery 1776 "a very large fire engine"
- Two Newcomens at Nuthall Colliery (spelt Nutt Hall") and also known as Awsworth Colliery at or before 1764
- 1733 and 1736 - One of the first uses of a steam engine to pump water from a mine in Nottinghamshire was at Trowell Field pit according to Bob Bradley's HealeyHero website.
- Robinetts near Cossall in 1797
- Wollaton Colliery in 1728, 1761 and 1793 owned by Lord Middleton
- The first James Watt engine appeared in the country in 1837 (from HealeyHero) "A further pit was sunk by Barber Walker and Co at Beggarlee (shown as Beverlee on 1836 map) near Eastwood and was opened in 1838, and at Willey Lane, Underwood, whilst sinking, a Watt Condensing winding engine was put to work by the company, this being the first of its kind in Nottinghamshire. "
- A feature described by Fyfe (W.W. Fyfe’s 1856 Rambles Around Nottingham) as the ‘Branch Mineral Railway, from Cinder Hill coal field to the Erewash valley’ (Fyfye 1856, 254) was shown crossing the northern part of the study area on the 1858 North plan and was named in the accompanying lease as the ‘Railway from Babbington to Cinder Hill and from the Stationary Engine to the pits at Kimberley’. While these mines were located outside the Strelley study area, a three-line waggonway or mineral railway junction with the stationary steam engine at its centre was depicted on the 1858 plan. The waggonway from Babbington Colliery that had been shown on the 1838 North plan continued to be shown on the 1858 North plan.
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| 1836 map showing local mines, "Beverlee" engine and Brinsley's Engine Row |
- By 1800 the primitive chain or rag pumps were still operated at the pits in the Whittington Moor area of Chesterfield. Here a group of men in succession lifted up the water from the low side of mines. An earlier system was the churn pump which was operated by one man using a cross handle to pull a bucket up. Some horse gins were fitted with cogwheel, pinion and crank to work a pump. Waterwheels working pumps by cranks were more common as at Baslow, Dimsdale and Shallcross collieries. The majority of mines using pumps were operated by steam engine and many pits were worked by the bord and pillar system.
- Other significant local developments:
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| 1855 - Nibble and Clink with the engine man to the left and William Cheetham to the right |
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| Hutchinson's map of 1739 showing local pits incl. Greasley "a Colliery unwrought" and the Kimberley sough. Note that there were still as yet no canals or railways. Coal is transported by pack horse. |
- A plan of the Kimberley area dated 1765 shows pits at Kimberley, on Chalk Hill/Lawn Mill Road, 2 shafts at Alma Hill, one shaft, South East of the town towards Awsworth and another South, towards Strelley.
- The Erewash Canal was begun in 1777 and was 11 miles long from Langley Bridge to Sawley on the River Trent. It was constructed as an outlet for the coal from the Erewash Valley mines and completed in 1779. The 1790's saw the Nottingham, Pinxton, Cromford and Nutbrook canals open.
4 - Cost of the Newcomen Engines - The first Barlow pit had a gin and a fire engine was bought in 1777 for £275 16s 6d (£275.87½p), quite a considerable sum at the time in comparison to other equipment used at a mine as the total cost for opening the mine was £545 3s 6d (£545.17½ p) which included shaft sinking and opening as well as the installation of the engine.
5 - A plan showing the Duke of Rutland’s Estate at Greasley Castle Kimberley by John Thomas Woodhouse 8 Apr 1867 showed that Sam Potter sank pits at Kimberley (Nottinghamshire) 60 yards (55m) deep
at Kettle Bank Common and 80 yards (73m) deep
at High Spania.
Saul Potter was working a pit nearby and the workings stripped an old sough (ancient level) leading to the watercourse near Bennerley Bridge which passed nearby. It joined the Barehill Fields sough. Workings here began in 1800 and finished in 1823. A stone head was driven to the north through a fault by Potter and Burn in 1806 to find coal for pits towards Eastwood (this was probably the old sough dug under Kimberley by the Fletchers)
6 - Healey Hero website https://www.healeyhero.co.uk/rescue/individual/Bob_Bradley/Bk-2/Bk2-1855.html
7 - There are limekilns hidden in the woods on Kennel Lane, Annesley by an old quarry. You can read about that in DH Lawrence too. In the White Peacock. Also on Salmon Lane on the track to Damsteads (now a fishing lake with car park) an old quarry and lime burners wee still in use until the 1930s. See Annesley Through the Ages book by Denis R Pearson.
8 - 1853 Public Health Act, 11 & 12 Vict. cap. 63. Report ... on a preliminary inquiry into the sewerage, drainage, and supply of water, and the sanitary condition of the inhabitants of the parish of Eastwood, and the hamlets of Newthorpe, Moorgreen, and Brinsley, in the parish of Greasley ... By William Lee. [With a plan.]
9 - 1881 census showing the 35 residents (6 families) of the place called Greasley Engines
FOUND 35 RESULTS IN THE 1881 ENGLAND & WALES CENSUS
FRANK HENSHAW (MALE)
BIRTH: 1827
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen,Greasley, Nottinghamshire
SARAH HENSHAW (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1831
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen,Greasley, Nottinghamshire
THOMAS HENSHAW (MALE)
BIRTH: 1841
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM WOODCOCK (MALE)
BIRTH: 1850
BIRTH PLACE: Clifton Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
SARAH WOODCOCK (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1841
BIRTH PLACE: Barkstone Leicestershire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
JOHN WOODCOCK (MALE)
BIRTH: 1874
BIRTH PLACE: Barkstone Leicestershire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
THOMAS WOODCOCK (MALE)
BIRTH: 1875
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen,Greasley, Nottinghamshire
SAMUEL WOODCOCK (MALE)
BIRTH: 1878
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
GEORGE WOODCOCK (MALE)
BIRTH: 1880
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
JAMES SCOTHERN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1846
BIRTH PLACE: Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
MARTHA SCOTHERN (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1849
BIRTH PLACE: Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
JOHN SCOTHERN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1872
BIRTH PLACE: Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
JAMES SCOTHERN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1875
BIRTH PLACE: Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM SCOTHERN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1881
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
STEPHEN WATSON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1791
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
LEWIS WATSON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1825
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ANNIE WATSON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1831
BIRTH PLACE: Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ANNIE WATSON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1858
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ELIZABETH WATSON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1863
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
CHARLES NORMAN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1839
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ANNIE NORMAN (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1864
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WALTER NORMAN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1867
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
GEORGE NORMAN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1868
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
CHARLES NORMAN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1870
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM NORMAN (MALE)
BIRTH: 1878
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1843
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen,Greasley, Nottinghamshire
MARY LONGDON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1843
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ELIZABETH LONGDON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1864
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
ALBERT LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1866
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
WILLIAM LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1869
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
LOIS LONGDON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1871
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
PERCY LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1873
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
CHRISTIAN LONGDON (FEMALE)
BIRTH: 1875
BIRTH PLACE: Eastwood Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
LEWIS LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1878
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen, Greasley, Nottinghamshire
HENRY LONGDON (MALE)
BIRTH: 1880
BIRTH PLACE: Greasley Nottinghamshire
RESIDENCE: Greasley Engines, Moorgreen,Greasley, Nottinghamshire
10 - From Nottingham Archives Ref NAO DDFM 80/6; records referenced in "The Lost Village of Greasley"https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5defd6e81d329522f68f014e/t/5df011a68d1a5a7f901ec9de/1576014302297/lost-village-greasley.pdf ; Sarah Speight - Castle Studies Group http://www.castlestudiesgroup.org.uk/Sarahy%20Speight%20-%20Castles%20as%20Past%20Culture%202.pdf
"14th May 1647 John, Earl of Rutland produced an article of agreement with Major Charles White of Bevall Abbie to search for coal at Kestoe or Kestore in the Manor of Gresley and to provide timber for construction of a horse engine a water engine, engine house, stable house, mynes, soughes. This was followed by a memo to the tenants of Charles White that if any tenant complains of damage caused by the mining or transport of coal in the close called Kestoe or Kestore that he will refer to My Lord of Rutland for satisfaction. A further note from the Earl of Rutland to Charles White stated that to work the coal delph in the demesnes of Greseley Castle more water will be necessary in the summer months to supply the engine and this could be found by cutting a trench no more than 16 inches wide to bring water from a spring on land belonging to Lord Capell and if the delph proceeded it would be desirable to sink another pit in the “nooke” of the close of Lord Capell on the south side of the pasture called Kestoes. Another note was an agreement between Lord Rutland and Charles White for enlargement of the above agreement from 7years to 12 years to mine coal in the pasture called Kestoes."
Possibly refers to Casters Field (alias Castle Field) was the name of the large unenclosed field running from Kimberley towards Greasley Castle - J Lee - A Brief History Of Kimberley
Not really sure what is meant by a "water engine" and why they'd need more water to power it. 1647 is too early for a steam engine.
A "delph" is defined as an excavation or digging of some kind.
Civil War hiatus and alliances - "Meanwhile, the civil war affected upon local alliances. Charles White served as a Colonel of the Dragoons for Parliament. Rutland was a parliamentarian. Lord Capel was royalist. He was captured at Colchester in August 1648, was tried and condemned by a Parliamentary Commission and then beheaded on 9th March 1649 (Von Hube 1901, 94-5)"
11 - We learn more about James Morley's wealth from the provenance of a "lost" painting he inherited of the second Duke of Devonshire by John Riley. When Morley died in 1877 an auction of his extensive art collection was held over 2 days at his house Park Side.
The first day saw the sale of the ‘Important and Valuable Collection of Pictures’ formed by the late James Morley, together with china, silver and plated goods. There were 91 pictures, which were briefly described in a newspaper advertisement and included ‘several fine portraits’ said to be by Van Dyck, Lely, Kneller, Eglon van der Neer (1635/6–1703),11 Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–92), Carlo Maratti (1625–1713) and others, ‘four of them from the Skegby Hall collection’.12
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| SNEINTON MANOR HOUSE, birthplace of James Morley. This drawing by T W Hammond dates from a few years before its demolition in 1894. |
Although James, born c.1808, was older than Arthur, he did not join the family business. Instead, he seems to have gone into the coal trade.
He must apparently be the James Morley, then in his early thirties, who in 1841 was living in the hamlet named Two Mile House, near Cinderhill in the parish of Basford, with two female servants. Ten years later what is obviously the same man, aged 43, was living at Morley Lodge in Nuthall, when
he gave his occupation as ‘coal proprietor’ and his birthplace as Sneinton. He had a housekeeper and maid living in.
By 1861 he had retired from business and was living on Wellington Square in New Lenton, off Derby Road. He stayed either in this house or another one nearby until he died, describing himself as a ‘gentlemen’ in 1861 and as having an ‘income from houses’ ten years later.21 He
must have sold his colliery interests and invested his capital in house property. He never married
Bendigo Thompson link - In October 1873 Thomas Neale auctioneers announced a sale of ornamental china, paintings, drawings etc. on the instructions of the executors of John Thompson, removed from his residence in the Market Place, Nottingham. There were 50 pictures, ‘including some fine old Portraits from the Skegby Hall collection’. These may have included those later owned by Morley, but the newspaper advertisement does not supply any further detail.
John Thompson died on 12 July 1873 and his will was proved at Nottingham on 29 July that year by the executors, Sidney Cartwright of Leasowes (Worcs.) and Francis Burton of Red Hill Lodge, Arnold. His estate was initially sworn at £3,000 but re-sworn in September 1876 at £7,000, an unusually
large discrepancy which suggests that the executors traced significant further estate after the initial grant. A brief obituary noted that Thompson was formerly of Pelham Street but died at his residence in Market Street. After making a ‘liberal provision’ for his housekeeper, he left the bulk of his property,‘which is considerable’, to his brother, ‘the ex-pugilist’.
From "Bendigo - The Right Fist of God by Alan Dance - "the death of his brother John. By now a respected and well-established optician in the town, he left a considerable sum in his will, of which a bequest of £1,200 was to be invested on behalf of his brother, his executors being instructed to pay the interest to William during his lifetime, with certain conditions attached to prevent him spending it other than for his own benefit."
Dance, Alan; Field, David. Bendigo - The Right Fist of God . Arundel Books. Kindle Edition.
The family business and its legacy morleythreads.com
Notes from the James Morley article:
12. Nottinghamshire Guardian, 25 May 1877
13. Nottinghamshire Guardian, 2 March 1877.
14. Cal. Grants (1877).
15. Ibid. 2 March 1877.
16. R. Mellors, Men of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire (Nottingham, 1924), 210–13; idem, Old Nottingham Suburbs: then and now (Nottingham, 1914), 91–2. For the business generally see S.D. Chapman, ‘I. and R. Morley: Colossus of the hosiery trade and industry, 1799–1965’, Textile History, 28 (1997), 11–28; and an older house history, F.M. Thomas, I. and R. Morley: a record of a hundred years (1900).
17. Thomas, I. & R. Morley, unlike many old fashioned business histories, does not contain a pedigree and the text mentions only members of the family involved in the company.
18. TNA, HO 107/856/5, f. 34v. White’s Directory of Nottinghamshire (1853) describes Two Mile House (in the parish of Basford) as a ‘scattered village at the west end of the parish, on the Alfreton Road, from two to three miles N.W. of Nottingham’. Mellors, Old Nottingham Suburbs, 117, uses the name ‘Two Mile Houses’ and points out that the place was more than three miles from the city centre.
19. TNA, HO 107/2127, f. 446v. These identifications in 1841 and 1851 may not seem particularly strong, but there is no other James Morley of about the right age in or near Nottingham in either census.
20. TNA, RG 9/2447, f. 138v.
21. TNA, RG 10/3500, f. 55v. In this census Morley’s address is given as Park Side, Derby Road, but the house enumerated immediately before his was said to be in Wellington Square. He may have lived on the corner of Derby Road and Wellington Square and both entries refer to the same property. The name ‘Park Side’ refers to the proximity of these houses to ‘The Park’, the estate laid out in the grounds of Nottingham Castle, and is not to be confused with Parkside in Wollaton, adjoining the park in which Wollaton Hall stands
12 - Life of Thomas North - He enjoyed a hugely colourful career as a local mining entrepreneur and built up huge debts as a consequence. He died in 1868, leaving a vast swathe of assets, including the Babbington estate with its colliery interests, to his Bank: Wrights of Nottingham. On a obelisk standing in the old cemetery [grassy park opposite St.Leo's church in Basford] it is stated that he died in 1868, aged 57, and it is added "By great enterprize he was the means of finding employment for a large number of people who have subscribed to erect this monument to his memory." Cinder Hill colliery was established in 1842, and Mr. North worked Babbington, Newcastle and other collieries.
He formerly resided at Babbington Cottage, and afterwards at Basford Hall; Mr. R. G. Barber being the resident engineer. Mr. North was Mayor of Nottingham in 1844, and to celebrate the event there was a grand ball on Jan. 16th, 1845, when 800 ladies and gentlemen were entertained with splendour and display. The dancing was kept up till seven o'clock in the morning. A service of plate was presented, subscribed for by 800 persons, and costing £810, and bearing a laudatory inscription, but there were some traits in his character that cannot be commended. http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/mellorsarticles/basford6.htm
He was responsible for many of the houses and buildings in Babbington village.
He was present at the disaster after the execution of William Saville when several people were killed in a crush in the huge crowd who had come to witness it outside the Shire Hall. Incl. in the dead was Millicent Shaw who is buried at Greasley Church.
He also organised at least 2 well-attended gala fetes in the grounds of Basford Hall where he was living. They included 2 early balloon flights one of which ended in another disaster. More about that here https://www.facebook.com/groups/400986200022386/permalink/6367066070081006/
The Babbington Coal Company - A colliery at Babbington in the parish of Kimberley, Nottinghmshire, was active from the early 1820s, which belonged to the North family. In 1835 Thomas North went into partnership with Thomas Wakefield and then also with James Morley in 1839, leading to the establishment of the Babbington Coal Company. This led to the development of several mines in the 1840s at Babbington, Greasley, Newthorpe Common, Awsworth, Strelley and Stanton. In 1841-1843 the sinking of deeper shafts at Cinderhill Colliery (also known as Babbington Colliery) 3 miles north of Nottingham led to the establishment of what has been considered the first modern deep mine of the area. Although Wakefield was bankrupted by 1847 and Morley withdrew from the partnership, North carried on as sole proprietor with financial backing from Wright's Bank, and several similar types of collieries to Cinderhill were sunk in the 1850s and 1860s with help from other financial investors. North had over-committed himself and came under increasing pressure from creditors, and he died in January 1868, owing £190,000 to Wright's Bank.
The company was sold by Wright and Company to the Seely family in 1872. At that time the collieries included those of Cinderhill, Babbington, Newcastle, Broxtowe, Nuthall Temple, Kimberley and Bulwell. The company also owned brickworks at Cinderhill. In 1896 the company's collieries consisted of those called Brixtowe, Bulwell, Cinderhill No.1 (re-named Babbington by 1923) and No. 4, Kimberley and Newcastle in Nottinghamshire, and Shady Birchwood and Tibshelf Nos. 1-4 in Derbyshire. The company was incorporated as a limited company in 1925. Members of the Seely family sold their interest to the limited company between 1928 and 1936. In 1938 the Nottinghamshire collieries were taken over by B.A. Collieries Limited. In 1939 the Derbyshire collieries were taken over and closed down by the Sheepbridge Coal and Iron Company. The Babbington Coal Company Limited was liquidated in 26 June 1953 (London Gazette 10 July 1953).
More on North's local pits and tramways is in JM Lee's History of Kimberley... Bourne was one half of the Potter and Bourne mining partnership, dealt with later. Both Potter and Bourne appear to have done very well for themselves. After his death, Gervas Bourne’s estate was sold in 1833 and included all the colliery and farming interests at Babbington as well as 39 freehold houses in Nottingham. Bourne also seems to have been responsible for the construction of Babbington Hall. In 1833, the estate and mining interests at Babbington were being leased from Bourne by Thomas North who went on to buy them in Bourne’s sale. North also went on to create a substantial part of later Babbington, including including the Baptist Chapel. He enjoyed a hugely colourful career as a mining entrepreneur and built up huge debts as a consequence. He died in 1868, leaving a vast swathe of assets, including the Babbington estate with its colliery interests, to his Bank: Wrights of Nottingham.
Barber Walker’s great competitor locally was Thomas North. He was the archetypal Victorian, self-made man. After starting from fairly modest beginnings, he came, by 1842, to own mines all over the area, notably in Newthorpe, Strelley and Awsworth, as well as in Babbington Village. He was also responsible for Kimberley Pit, of which more below. He spent his entire career being dogged by financial problems, many of his own making. He was colourful, popular and famously stingy with wages. Strikes and lockouts were common, but leaders were never sacked afterwards and North never disputed his men’s fundamental right to organise. He died in 1868, owing monumental sums to Wright’s bank. Wright’s thus acquired considerable coal interests and continued to trade as “The Babbington Coal Company”. This was sold later to Sir Charles Seely and Charles Seely Junior, and later still, in 1937, acquired by B.A. Collieries Ltd. Thomas North’s Kimberley Pit (at Swingate see map illus 7) probably arose in the early 1840s. Two new shafts were sunk to the Top Hard seam in 1855 and two more to the Deep Soft and Deep Hard in about 1860. They were all abandoned in 1897 but the pit remained in use for pumping water for many years after. Water from the pit was also vital, occasionally, in the production of beer. A shaft reappeared in the front garden of a house on Clive Crescent in 1974 and was promptly re-capped.
Lee, J M. A Brief History of Kimberley (Brief Histories, North Nottingham Book 1) . UNKNOWN. Kindle Edition.
Thomas North, Lord Mayor of Nottingham - was he Lord Mayor in Aug 1844?? or was it still William Vickers at the execution of William Saville, when disaster struck... "Just before 8 am Saville was led out onto the scaffold and the halter placed around his neck. According to eyewitnesses, the whole affair took around three minutes; “When the bolt was removed and the body fell, the immense crowd of many thousands of men, woman and children began to move away….” Official records state that no barricades had been put into place to safely control the crowd. The sudden surge into movement was like a dam bursting. The confines of the narrow street funnelled the crowed along, forcing individuals to move in the direction of the mass. Many, who had been standing for hours found it difficult to walk and were swept off their feet and carried along. Whilst those in the centre were carried along, those around the edges were pressed tight against the walls of the houses on either side and began to stumble and fall. The occupants of the houses, who had also been watching the execution, now franticly began to yell warning from the windows or to open their doors to relive the pressure. Amongst these individuals was the Lord Mayor, pioneering pit owner and Liberal Councillor Thomas North. [is this verifiable as North seems to have been elected in Nov 1844 and William Vickers elected in Nov 1843]
“The inhabitants, at the windows on each side the street, observed the overwhelming rush, and foreseeing the consequence, screamed out to those in the rear to stay their progress. The mayor was especially active, and though the almost threw himself out of his window for the purpose of staying the fatal advance….”.
But these efforts were too little too late. The ‘head’ of the mass had already reached the even narrower ally of Garner hill with its steep flight of steps leading down to Narrow Marsh. Forced into this side street, disaster overtook the crowd as the bodies of men women and children tumbled down the stone steps. It was all over in minutes."
https://www.gedlingeye.co.uk/local-history/3168/
He was first elected to office in the 1837 Municipal Elections (aged 26) and was Mayor (aged 33) from Nov 1844 to Nov 1845 "Nov. 5.1845 —Public dinner and presentation of a piece of plate to Mr. T. North, on his retirement from the office of Mayor, in testimony of the high approval of the subscribers of the impartial and zealous manner in which he had discharged its onerous duties. Mr. Thos.Wakefield presided, and the other speakers were, Mr. T. H. Smith, Mr. W. Page, Mr. Alderman Birkhead, and Mr. Cowley." 1849 is the last Date Book record of him being elected to the committee. https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Date_Book_of_Remarkable_and_Memorabl/SoQHAAAAQAAJ?q=watnall&gbpv=1#f=false
Basford Hall balloon flights 1800s
"A fête in the park attached to Basford Hall, the rented property of Mr Thomas North, in aid of the rebuilding of the parish church. "After considerable delay, Mr Coxwell ascended in his fine balloon "The Queen", accompanied by Mr Hall of Nottingham and Mr Danks of Basford, amid the cheers of the spectators" (Illustrated London news)" in 1859. The view from Basford Hall's car park is pretty much exactly the same today. Would make a good before and after actually...
https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qddrct9t
http://www.nottshistory.org.uk/articles/sneinton/sm63_17-32.htm
https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/BalloonDisaster
http://www.thorotonsociety.org.uk/publications/articles/basfordhall.htm
Watnall mining rights
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/1ede9254-9ecc-4216-990c-a31ad661224f
13 - The lives of the men signing the mining agreement, Lancelot Rolleston 7 and Thomas Francis Philip Hutchinson Barber, had some remarkable parallels mostly as you would expect of local yeoman landowners and country squires in military and county council duties. But more surprisingly in 1844 both tragically lost their wives. Captain Barber struggled to come to terms with the death of his wife. He retired and moved to Germany where he died in 1857. Rolleston on the other hand saw a chance for a new family. He quickly remarried to a young Scottish laird's daughter from Torbreck near Inverness. His only son and heir had died in 1826 with his wife in her 40s so the prospect of another heir was sadly remote and must have been hard to bear. His second marriage started dynasty #2 out of which the final Lancelot Rolleston (Colonel Sir) came. So he was finally blessed with 3 sons and another daughter.
14 - Reckoning House Farm history - In 1816 The Duke of Rutland sold his estates in the parish of Greasley at auction at the Blackamoors Hotel in Nottingham. Thomas Grammar bought Greasley Castle Farm and Reckoning House Farm.
By 1846 the tithe map and ledger of Moorgreen in Greasley parish shows Reckoning House Farm is the property of Lavinia, formerly Lavinia Grammar, widow of Thomas Marshall, Georgiana Grammar, spinster, and Jemima Grammar, spinster, as trustees under the will of the late Thomas Grammar and is in the occupation of Anthony Fletcher. The document goes on to name as landowners Richard Allen and Jemima, is wife, George Man (or Maw) and Georgiana is wife and Joseph Hays and Lavinia his wife.
In 1886 a claim for damages to land by the Digby mining company is made by George Hogg of Reckoning House Farm. 157 - Nottinghamshire Archives
157 DD/LM - Lothian of Melbourne
DD/LM BOXES 162-186 - Documents not deposited at Nottinghamshire Archives
DD/LM/192/1-14 - Box 192: LAND EXCHANGES AND SALES, ESTATE CORRESPONDENCE
DD/LM/192/7/1-39 - Digby Colliery damaged land
This record is held by Nottinghamshire Archives Reference: DD/LM/192/7/15
Description:George Hogg, Reckoning House Farm, Newthorpe to WG. Digby Co refuse to pay per acre, he says terms are £3 per acre; what course should be taken?
Date: 18 Aug., 1886
Into the 20th century all of Moorgreen was still owned by Francis, 7th Earl Cowper except for Greasley Castle farm, that was owned by Isaac Grammar esq, his tenant was Mr Joseph Renshaw who is said to have “improved the condition of the land since he came to it and carefully preserved every part and object connected with the ancient castle and its defences.” The Grammars also owned Reckoning House Farm, which had been inherited by Mr Grammar’s two daughters. The farm was sold to Mr John Godber and his tenant was Mr John Shaw. Mr Godber sold the farm to Sir Lancelot Rolleston of Watnall Hall. All Watnall Hall estate land, including several farms, passed to Sir Lancelot's niece Elma Rolleston and then by marriage to the present day Scott-Dalgleish family under the Rolleston Land Company ownership.
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