Profile of a Welsh county coalfield - the Denbighshire coalfield 1850-1914 by Bethan Lloyd Jones BA (Hons); ACA A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Cardiff University Economic History, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University 2008 UMI Number: U584296 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U584296 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 “Coal in truth, stands not beside, but entirely above all other commodities. It is the material energy of the country and commands this age - The Age of Coal.” W.S Jevons The Coal question (1865) Summary During the nineteenth century the British coal industry fuelled industrial growth to such an extent that Great Britain was acknowledged as the most powerful industrial country in the world. Although the coal industry was dominated by the larger regional coalfields, e.g. south Wales, the smaller coalfields also made an important, albeit largely local, contribution. This contribution has, however, often been ignored; most histories either concentrate on the larger coalfields or, if examining small coalfields, they have centred on a particular event or town rather than on examining the contribution of each coalfield as a whole. This thesis will partly redress this imbalance by undertaking a ‘case study’ of a small, county coalfield, Denbighshire. For official purposes, Denbighshire was never considered a coalfield in its own right, it was merely recognised as part of the north Wales ‘coalfield’. It is, however, argued in this thesis that geological factors and its significance within the north Wales coalfield, mean that Denbighshire warrants consideration as a small coalfield in its own right. This thesis attempts to develop, for the first time, a definitive history of the coal industry in Denbighshire, 1850-1914, through the use of an archival approach. Source material, including company records, newspapers, personal letters and official statistics, was examined. The thesis considers not only the performance of the coalfield in terms of productivity and profitability but also the various stakeholders in the coalfield, i.e. those people who, either directly or indirectly, influenced, or were influenced by, the development of the Denbighshire coal industry. Apart from establishing that Denbighshire should be treated as a small coalfield in its own right, it is concluded that the performance of Denbighshire was comparable to that of other ‘small’ coalfields and that, although affected by similar influences to other coalfields, the extent of their impact could be different. Declarations/Statements DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. 0 s,9ned WLik U ^ p V A jZ o Date ^ ( o .O J STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD. Signed Date 2 . c* , off STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. Signe j. WLD- Dai* a ■ (o . c 3> STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed Date Acknowledgements First and foremost I must express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Trevor Boyns without whose, seemingly, unending supply of patience and guidance I would not have been able to complete this thesis. I would also like to thank Mr Percy Jackson for his invaluable explanations of the nature and geology of the Denbighshire coalfield. Finally I would like to thank my father, Henry, for instilling in me a love of learning and history, and my husband Graham for his continued love and support. This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Valmai, who did not live to see its completion. Contents Page Summary iii Declaration/Statements iv Acknowledgements V Contents vi List of Tables vii List of Maps and figures xii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 - The coal industry in Britain, Wales and 13 Denbighshire to 1850 Chapter 2 - Profile of the Denbighshire coalfield, 1850-1914 44 Chapter 3 - Financing coal companies 73 Chapter 4 - The coalowners 103 Chapter 5 - Mineral ownership 129 Chapter 6 - Labour relations 159 Chapter 7 - Markets & customers 238 Chapter 8 - Performance 262 Conclusions 326 Bibliography 335 Appendix A - Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd Example of detailed trading account for the half year ending 31st 351 December 1913 Appendix B - Extract from Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd. minutes illustrating contract types and customers, May-September 353 1888 Appendix C - Details of all the collieries of Denbighshire in existence after 1850, showing whether collieries being 356 worked in 1854, 1870, 1901 and 1910 Appendix D - Numbers employed in collieries of Denbighshire, 1894-1914 360 Appendix E - Details of Cinder Hill riots 364 Appendix F - Example of price list, 1907 366 List of Tables: Table Page Number Table 1.1: Annual average tonnage, by decades, of coal output in Britain 15 Table 1.2: Estimated consumption of the output of the main British coalfields by uses, 1816-1855 (in million tons) 15 Table 2.1: Statistics re the UK and north Wales 1854-1875 47 Table 2.2:Number of collieries and output, Cheshire & Shropshire 1854-1875 48 Table 2.3: UK and north Wales output (to nearest million tons) and employment figures, 1875-1914 49 Table 2.4: North Wales employment as a proportion of UK total, 1875-1914 50 Table 2.5: Number of collieries in the coalfields of the UK in 1913 51 Table 2.6: Output of ‘small’ coalfields as % of UK output 52 Table 2.7: Employment of ‘small’ coalfields as a % of UK employment 53 Table 2.8: Depth and width of various seams at the Bersham, Westminster, Llay Hall and Vauxhall collieries on the 57 Denbighshire coalfield Table 2.9: Statistics re Denbighshire 1854-1875 59 Table 2.10: Denbighshire’s output as a percentage of north Wales output, 1875-1914 60 Table 2.11: North Wales and Denbighshire output as % of UK output, 1875-1914 60 Table 2.12: Percentage of total UK collieries in each region 62 Table 2.13: The size distribution of collieries in Denbighshire 1894, 1900, 1907 & 1914 64 Table 2.14: The size distribution of collieries in Denbighshire treating all collieries as single entities 65 Table 2.15 : Numbers employed in the various sized collieries of Denbighshire 65 Table 2.16: Numbers employed in Denbighshire treating all collieries as single entities 66 Table 2.17: proportion of collieries employing more than 1000 men in 1913 67 Table 2.18: Average colliery size (workers) in Denbighshire 1894 -1914 68 Table 2.19: Average colliery size (workers) in the coalfields of the UK, 1913 70 Table 3.1: Details of ownership of the largest Denbighshire collieries in 1894 73 Table 3.2: The denomination of shares for colliery companies in Denbighshire 1850-1914 per List of Mines 80 Table 3.3: Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd.: Breakdown of capital, reserves and liabilities, 1887-1914 93 Table 3.4 : Wrexham Colliery Co. Ltd.: Breakdown of capital, reserves and liabilities, 1867-1876 95 Table 3.5: Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd.: Breakdown of assets, 1887-1914 96 Table 3.6: Wrexham Colliery Co. Ltd./Wrexham & Acton Collieries Co. Ltd.: Breakdown of assets, 1867-1876 98 Table 3.7: Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd., Breakdown of fixed assets, as a proportion of total 99 assets, 1887-1914 Table 3.8:Wrexham Colliery Co. Ltd./Wrexham & Acton Collieries Co. Ltd., Breakdown of fixed assets, as a 100 proportion of total assets 1887-1914 Table 4.1: Occupation of subscribers in Denbighshire coal companies 1856-1913 116 Table 4.2: Analysis of subscribers’ addresses in Denbighshire 1856-1913 117 Table 4.3: Percentage of shares held by subscribers five to ten years after incorporation 118 Table 4.4: Analysis of shareholders in Wrexham coal companies, 1885-1895, by number of shares held 120 Table 4.5: Analysis of shareholders’ occupations 1885-1895, by number of shares held 121 Table 4.6: Analysis of addresses of shareholders in Denbighshire coal companies, 1885-1895, by number of 124 shares held Table 4.7: Proportion of shareholders, analysed by address, 125 1885-1895 Table 4.8: ‘Local’ shareholding in Denbighshire coal 126 companies, 1885-1895 Table 5.1: British mining royalties for coal 135 Table 5.2: W ayleaves agreed by Brynkinallt colliery with R Myddleton-Biddulph, Chirk Castle, 23 June 1875, for 137 tramways crossing the latter’s land Table 5.3: Average royalties per ton in the coal mining 141 regions of the UK Table 5.4: Broughton & Plas Power Coal Co. Ltd., revenue, 142 cost and profit per ton 1911-1914 Table 5.5: Extracts from monthly cost sheets, Wrexham and 143 Acton Collieries Co. Ltd., January to July 1883. Table 5.6: Leaseholds held by the Broughton & Plas Power 146 Coal Co Ltd., 1912 Table 5.7: Illustration of