Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler has been busy again trawling the archives and has spotted this snippet possibly relating to the Brownhills collieries on the common during the Harrison tenure.
I think this is probably the proposal for the pump at the Cathederal Pit. which was the drainage pit for other deep workings in the area. 800 horsepower is a huge pump in steam engine terms, being a little short of 600KW. That’s big, even by todays standards: there must have been a huge amount of water to shift.
As usual, thanks to eagle-eyed Peter for the spot and taking the time to email me the relevant stuff.
Hi Bob,
As we have found a deal about the Harrisons I have been looking into articles about Cannock Chase Collieries from as early as possible. The Mercury starts around 1898 and the Tamworth Herald around 1870. I have an interest to see how the Harrisons interacted with their workers.
I found some interesting clips between 1870 and 1873 that show the state of affairs, and thought that it may be best to send them, and then follow up in groups of years as I find them.
I then started a search for all papers and came up with this below from the Staffs Sentinel 22 Apr 1850. This would be, according to Gerald Reece, just after the W Harrison Esq took over the lease. It looks like he is on to a winner!
All the best
Pedro
An interesting find in the Staffordshire Sentinel of the 22nd April 1850. Wonder if this did come to fruition?