Keith
Have you tried the PRO at Kew? Many company records are in class BT31
and receivership records are in another class (cannot remember the
number offhand). A search of their catalogue at www.pro.gov.uk could
yield dividends.
Such records can be thin on the financial side but if they survive can
contain a lot of useful information.
Michael Messenger
In message <[log in to unmask]>, Keith Ramsey
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>I haven't got anything to add to this, except to repeat a plea for information
>which I've probably made here before.
>
>One of the major problems in researching the history of the coal mines in the
>Bristol area (as distinct from those over the border in Somerset) is that
>hardly any of the business records of the owners seem to have survived.
>
>Leonard Boult and Co Ltd went out of business in the mid-1890s and their pits
>were acquired by the Bennett family who owned Dean Lane colliery at
>Bedminster. In 1900, following the death of Handel Cossham's wife, they also
>acquired Deep Pit, Parkfield and Speedwell collieries, and formed a new
>company, Bedminster, Easton, Kingswood and Parkfield Collieries Ltd. By 1914
>this company was in receivership and the remaining pits were acquired by Frank
>Beauchamp who set up another company, East Bristol Collieries Ltd, which
>continued to trade until the mid-1930s.
>
>I suspect that the business records may have passed from company to company
>and finished up in the hands of the Beauchamps. I've checked all the obvious
>archives, etc but I can't find any trace of the family's papers (apart from a
>few at the Somerset Record office) and none of them still seem to live in the
>area.
>
>I'd very much like to be able to investigate the financial side of all these
>businesses as they represent the major part of the output of the Bristol area.
>Has anyone ever come across any of the records?
>
>Keith Ramsey
>University of Exeter
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Michael Messenger
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http://www.twelveheads.com/
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