 Associated with The Black Country Memories Club |
Dr. Rowlands says that by
the end of the 1600s it was the local gentry who were exploiting the
mineral wealth of the area: “Mr. Hoo of Bradley had a quarry of building
stone, and William Robbins of the Mansion house had a coal-work at the
Croft, where in 1692 he employed Benjamin Wood of London to build him an
engine to draw water there, which required four men to keep it going.
Samuel Pipe, esquire, had an agreement with William Clarke, coalmaster,
of Wednesbury to get coal and iron”.
But things were changing: by
1760 “the Hoo family had much increased their interests becoming lords
of the manors of Bradley, Barr and Wednesbury, but ceased to reside in
Bilston after 1720. The Perry's too, in their many branches, scattered.
The Pipe family died out. William Robbins lived fifteen miles away and
‘only came over to collect his rents or more often sent for them’. Later
he moved to London. New men with new fortunes made from new trades came
to the fore. In the short period between 1716 and 1730 when trades are
given in the register there are 240 references to buckle-makers, 61 to
toy-makers and 44 to chape-makers. These trades readily adapted to the
introduction of japanning and enameling about 1720”.
It might
also be noted that all of these industries, with a few exceptions such
as iron production, can be described as cottage industries, in that they
were usually run, on a small scale, by large numbers of people operating
on their own in their own houses and backyards. They would mostly have
sold their products not directly to the consumer but to “factors”, who
bought from many makers and sold the bulk of good thus accumulated to
merchants, wholesalers and retailers. If, for instance, we think that
Bilston mass produced enameled boxes we have to remember that this was
not mass production as we know it today, with everything being produced
by a large company in a large factory; but it was mostly a very large
number of individuals and family, each producing small quantities. But
there are indications of bigger operations, employing people outside the
family, in both enameling and japanning.
It is well known that
coal, of high quality and in many thick seams, underlies most of
Bilston. The earliest reference to the mining of coal which Lawley gives
is one of 1315. At that time coal was not much used for any purpose –
wood was too plentiful and the making of charcoal was widely practiced.
But in time, with the near exhaustion of wood and charcoal, coal
became more and more in demand for domestic and industrial purposes and
the good people of Bilston did all they could to meet this demand –
short of working the mines efficiently. The whole area around, and even
within, the village, was covered by small bell pits. This industry
continued, to some extent at least, until the early 20th century but
most of the pits had been worked out before then. Nearly all the mining
was carried out by one man/family operations.
The first material
to be quarried in Bilston was stone for grindstones, the local stone
being of a very fine grain and producing high quality grindstones. This
work continued into the 20th century. Plott says: “The grinding stones
dug at Bilston are so fine, and of so small a grit, that they are only
useful for thin edged tools, such as knives, razors, &c. and are better
than the grinding stones brought out of Derbyshire”.
A second
material to be quarried was casting sand. Plott’s Natural History of
Staffordshire mentions it: “I met with a sort of sand at Bilston, so
very fine that it is hardly palpable. It is of a deep orange colour and
it is sent for by artists living at a great distance and used by them to
cast metal with”.
And the third, and commercially most important
quarry activity, was for limestone, which was used in part for
agricultural purposes, though mainly, and more and more, as a vital flux
in the making of iron and steel.
