398 A TOPOGRAPHICAL 



sixteen pence the ton. In 1795 the price of coals was from four to 

 five shillings per ton at the works. Since that time a regular ad- 

 vance has taken place."* When they first began to get the coals 

 here, it was done by removing the soil and clay which covered them : 

 they were afterwards got in open pits, which, however, soon filled 

 with water. Recourse was then had to draining, by laying soughs 

 or gutters from the lowest part of the land near them, by which 

 means the coals were procured for many years in this neighbourhood, 

 until the upper parts or heads of the mine were generally .exhausted, 

 and coals became scarce. 



In the year 1719, Lord Macclesfield, who owned an estate of 

 about 150 acres, full of coals, adjoining the town of Burslem, en- 

 tered into an agreement with the owners of the low meadow lands 

 near the church, for permission to cut a sough or gutter from 

 thence up to his lands, for the purpose of draining his mines. The 

 completion of this gutter furnished an abundant supply for upwards 

 of sixty years, but the coal that lay above this gutter or drain, at 

 length became exhausted, and rendered the article scarce and 

 dear* The proprietors of the coal lands then introduced horse- 

 gins ; and steam-engines followed shortly afterwards. The deepest 

 engine-pit in the year 1815 was 111 yards, which, if the owners 

 find sufficient demand for the coal, will give a plentiful supply for 

 many years to come. Coals are now sold here at .8s. 4rf. per ton. 

 at the pit. 



The coals here- range from north to south the whole length of 

 the Potteries (say about nine or ten miles on the east of Bur- 

 slem), and generally dip from east to west about one foot perpen- 

 dicular in every four feet in length down the dip. Towards 

 Mole Cop, which is four or five miles north of Burslem, the coals 

 suddenly return along Harecastle Hills, having a greater dip, and 

 range nearly from north to south for the length of four or five 

 miles to the neighbourhood of Red-street, and dip south-east; 

 from whence they again range north and south in the direction of 

 Silverdale, a distance of four or five miles, dipping towards the 

 east, and heading-out to the surface of the earth towards the west. 



It has been clearly ascertained that there are 32 different mines 

 of coals, between Burslem and the ridge of hills a little to the east 

 of Norton Church, of various thicknesses, generally from about 

 three to ten feet each, laying in the following order, stratum, super- 

 stratum, &c., and in that neighbourhood known to miners by the 

 * Aikin'* Manchester, . 



