Mr. Buddle on Mining Records. 309 



No. XVI. — On making the Society a Place of Deposit for the Mining Re- 

 cords of the District. By John Buddle, Esq., V. P., F. G. S., Sfc. 



Read December 23, 1834. 



1 he inconvenience and unnecessary expense which have so frequently 

 been occasioned in this neighbourhood and other mining districts, as well as 

 the many fatal accidents which have happened from the want of accurate 

 plans and records of the former workings of exhausted or relinquished col- 

 lieries, have long been a subject of public regret, as well as of individual 

 loss and suffering ; yet no systematic plan for remedying this defect in our 

 mode of recording colliery operations has hitherto been adopted. 



So long ago as the year 1797, the idea of preserving Colliery Records 

 was suggested by the late Mr. Thomas, of Denton ; and the subject was 

 again brought forward by my late friend, Mr. Wm. Chapman, Civil En- 

 gineer, in 1815. But on both occasions the laudable endeavours of those 

 respectable individuals to excite due attention to this important subject 

 proved abortive. 



This may be chiefly, if not wholly, attributable to the want of a suitable 

 place in which to collect and deposit the requisite information and docu- 

 ments for effecting so desirable an object. An abundance of materials for 

 forming an accurate history of the working of our coal-mines, from the 

 earliest period of their commencement down to the present time, is to 

 be found in the hands of individuals, but it is so detached and scattered as 

 hardly to be available for any practical or useful purpose ; and the object 

 I have in view, in addressing this paper to the Society, is to point the at- 

 tention of those who may feel an interest in promoting a collection of plans 

 and reports of all those collieries which have been exhausted, wholly or 

 partially, so as, in the course of time, to form an extensive and useful 

 collection of authentic information for the guide of posterity. I am impelled 



VOL. II. 3 o 



