INDUSTRIES 



In the time of Edward III the monks of 

 Bolton Priory were sending to Colne for supplies 

 -of coal." During the reign of Henry VI we find 

 references to the mines of ' Sclateston at Lang- 

 ford-longhende ' in the town of Marsden and at 

 Padiham, and to the farm of sea-coals in Colne 

 and Trawden,^^ which was held in 1472-3 by 

 Lawrence Lyster at a rent of 6j. 8d}^ In 1488 

 Henry VII leased these mines for seven years, 

 and in 1509 the lease was regranted for twenty 

 years.^* With regard to coal in the Cliviger 

 district, which is a few miles to the south of 

 Colne, T. D. Whitaker^' says: 



How long the coal so abundant in this rocky district 

 has been wrought for sale does not appear from any 

 document which I have seen.'* I only know that in 

 the 3rd and 4th of Philip and Mary (1556-7) these 

 sovereigns granted to my ancestor Thomas Whitaker, 

 of Holme, gentleman, his heirs and assigns for ever, 

 ' All their coole mynes and coole pitts in Clyvecher ' 

 which in the year 1567 this improvident grantee 

 transferred to John Townley Esq. for the trifling sum 

 of j^zo, and by this bargain his descendants have during 

 the last forty years been deprived of at least j^i,ooo 

 per annum. 



In the sixteenth century we find the first 

 references to the working of coal in two other 

 Lancashire districts. The one is to the cannel 

 coal of Wigan, the chief mine for which was 

 situated at Haigh (or Hawe), where a Mr. Brad- 

 shaw lived, of whom Leland remarks in 1538 ^^ 

 that ' he hathe founde moche canal like se coal 

 in his grounde, very profitable to him.' The 

 other is to coal at Little Hulton, between Bolton 

 and Manchester, where in leases of farms at the 

 end of the sixteenth century powers were reserved 

 for getting the coal. Thus in the lease relating 

 to the tenements and lands called Fernyslacke in 

 Little Hulton, dated 24 October, 1575, the lessor 

 reserved power ' to come with horses, carts, car- 

 riages, and workmen to dig and carry away all 

 such coals as shall be found growing within or 

 upon' the lands and grounds demised. In the 

 leases of the same premises, dated 1 50 1 and 1550, 

 no mention is made of coal.^' 



During the seventeenth century the districts 

 in which coal was worked increased, but the 

 Wigan coalfield appears to have been the most 



"Whitaker, Craven (ed. 2), 401, quoted in Gallo- 

 way, 61. 



"Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. vol. 21, fol. — ; 

 Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 76, nos. 1498 

 and 1500 ; Farrer, Clitheroe CR. 490. 



" Whitaker, Hist, of Original Parish of Whalky and 

 Honour of Clitheroe (ed. 4), ii, 361, quoted in Gallo- 

 way, 77. 



" Duchy of Lane. Misc. Bks. vol. 21, fol. -^. 



" Hist. ofWhalley (ed. 4), ii, 237, quoted in Gallo- 

 way, IIS- 



'° A reference to the sale of coal there in 1 296 will 

 be found mentioned above. 



" Leyland, vii, 47. 



" Crofton, 42. 



important. The new districts were those of 

 Manchester and St. Helens. 



In 1 610 there were coal mines at Bradford, 

 near Manchester." In 1688 we find a reference 

 to coal mining at Clifton, near Manchester. On 

 13 February, 1688, an Exchequer commission was 

 issued in an action by James Butler against 

 Thomas Gooden, relative to coal mines and 

 coal pits in the manor of Clifton.^" With regard 

 to St. Helens, we learn from the autobiography 

 of Adam Martindale, who was born in 1623 at 

 Moss Bank, that coal-mines were being worked 

 in St. Helens in 1629,^^ though it is very possible, 

 to judge from the will of Richard Halsall of 

 Whiston, dated 14 November, 1557, that coal 

 was being worked in the neighbourhood three- 

 quarters of a century earlier : 



I bequeath unto Henry Halsall, my son, all my tackle 

 of the ' DelfFe of Coles,' which I have taken off 

 Thomas Nelson, my wife having coals free so long as 

 she liveth.'* 



It is only by single references that we know 

 that coal continued to be worked in the neigh- 

 bourhoods of Bolton and Colne. At an in- 

 quisition held at Bolton on 4 September, 1611, 

 George Hulton, of Farnworth, was found to 

 have possessed ' one coal mine with the appur- 

 tenances in fFarnworth.' ^' In September, 1652, 

 Anthony Freston and John Hobart petitioned 

 the ' Honorable Commissioners for removing 

 obstruction in the sale of the late King's lands,' 

 on the ground that their lease of certain coal 

 mines at Colne had still eighteen years to run, 

 and that the new purchasers refused to recognize 

 the validity of this lease. The commissioners 

 referred the matter to Richard Darnell ' of 

 Councell for the Commonwealth,' who reported 

 as follows : — ^ 



The late K. Charles by his Lres Patents as well 

 under the Seale of the County Palatine of Lancaster 

 dated 20 Nov. in the 15 th yeare of his raigne [1640] 

 in consideration of three pounds six shillings and eight 

 pence by advice and consent of his Chancelor and 

 Councell of the duchy Did Graunt and to farme lette 

 unto the sayd Anth. Freston and John Hobart the 

 Mynes of Seacoales within the Mannor of Colne, 

 p'cell of the sayd Mannor and P'cell of his possessions 

 of his Duchy of Lancaster. And also one myne of 

 coals within the Forest of Trawden p'cell of ye 

 Lordship of Clitheroe in the County of Lancaster to 

 hold the sanje from Michaelmass then last past for 3 1 



" Local N. and Q. Manchester Guardian, No. 173, 

 quoted in Crofton, 53. 



™ Lane. Rec. Soc. ix, 73, 76, quoted in Crofton, 63. 



" Quoted in Brockbank, Hist, of St. Helens, 20. 



" Lane, and Ches. Wills (Lane, and Ches. Rec. Soc), 

 XXX, 184. 



"^ Lane. Inq. Stuart Period, pt. iii (Lane, and Ches. 

 Rec. Soc), xvii, 468. 



*' Tanner MSS. Bodleian Lib. xlviii, 109-10, 

 quoted in Earwaker's Local Gleanings relating to 

 Lane, and Ches. ii, 278. 



357 



