A man of outstanding ability in mining

Well, that was quick and you guys never, ever cease to amaze me – Having done the morning chores and gone for a wander out, I came back to find that following my publication of the enquiry about the Potters Clay and Coal Company and the possible involvement of Samuel Ramses Jones outstanding researcher Peter ‘Pedro’ Cutler had been digging in the National Newspaper Archive.

Here’s the link to the full post from yesterday, in which I mainly ruminate on a couple of photos found on the Potclays website. In that article, I erroneously speculate that the issue may be being confused with Brownhills, Tunssatall in The Potteries – clearly not the case.

The original enquiry said:

Hi,

I need some help, please…

Can you find or do you know who the founders of the original company that started up as Potters Clay and Coal were?

Theres not a mention of them any were on the net.

I have been told that a relative, Samual Ramses Jones may have been involved.

I just looking for more information, really – Samuel’s daughter is still alive.

We know they lived at The Croft I think it was Pelsall Road – I maybe wrong. Her father died in 1939 or 40.

If you have any more info at all please can you contact me, apparently he was a well known gentleman of his time in that area.

Well, Peter found the article the foot of this post in the Lichfield Mercury of 23rd March, 1940, reporting on the funeral in all probability, of Samuel Ramses Jones. The article gives details of his founding of the Potters Clay and Coal Company.

Peter’s ability to find stuff in the newspaper articles is wonderful.

This is astounding stuff and I’d like to thank Peter immensely – I have emailed the reader concerned with the link to these articles. Please, if you have anything to add, do. I’d be particularly interested in the location of The Croft, where Samuel is believed to have lived.

Comment here or mail me: BrownhillsBob at Googlemail dot com. Thanks.

The text of the Lichfield Mercury is below. It’s a hand-corrected machine read passage, so please alert me to any howlers or typos.

BROWNHILLS DIRECTOR’S FUNERAL.

Many Brownhills residents paid their tributes of respect to the memory of Mr. Samuel R. Jones, at the funeral on Saturday morning.

All the blinds were drawn in the main street, through which the cortege passed to the Brownhills West Methodist Church, where the service was conducted by the Rev. W. Dawson, and then on to the Parish Churchyard.

Mr. Jones, who had passed away the previous Wednesday after a long and painful illness at the early age of 39, was a man of outstanding ability in mining and of considerable business acumen.

He was managing director of the Potters Clay and Coal Company Ltd., a successful undertaking, which he had founded. Unfortunately he did not live to realise his ambition of seeing complete pottery production from the drawing of the clay to the finished article in Brownhills, where the undertaking would have found employment for many people.

During the past few months a slip mill had been erected for the washing and pressing of the clay prior to despatch to the potteries. It is hoped, however, that what he planned will be eventually realised.

The chief family mourners were the widow (who is left with two children), Mr. and Mrs. G. A. Jones, (brother and sister-in-law) and Mr. and Mrs. K. Holyman (sister and brother-in-law), workmen from the Bentley Pits and the Potters Clay and Coal Co., Ltd., Brownhills and representatives of local public bodies also followed.

There were many beautiful floral tributes, including those from the Comforts Fund Committee, the ladies’ knitting party at the Congregational Church, aad the Cannock Division of the Conservative and Unionist Association.