Handel Cossham is probably the best known name in the Bristol area regarding coal mining.
I have a whole file of stuff on him and I know others (which probably includes Keith Ramsey) who know more.

The following summary was part of a display by the South Glos Mines Research Group.
(a lot of it relates to his early life and the Yate connection as the display was in Yate)

Handel Cossham

Handel Cossham was born in 1824 in Thornbury. His father Jesse Cossham was a carpenter and it was this trade that Handel first took. The family's non-conformist faith brought him into contact with Samuel Long & Christopher Keeling at a time when independent chapels were being set up in many of the villages in South Gloucestershire. Handel was later to preach in many of these. He preached his first sermon at Crossways Chapel in 1842 and it is no surprise that his name appears on the title deeds along with that of Christopher Keeling.

 

Long & Keeling were the owners of Yate Colliery and it was there in 1845 that Handel started work probably initially as a Clerk but soon he was signing his name as manager.

 

In 1848 he married Elizabeth Wethered of Little Marlow in Shropshire and subsequently went into partnership with her father and three brothers in developing a colliery site at Pucklechurch. The Parkfield and Brandy Bottom sites were to become one of the principle mines in the area and was worked (under various ownership's) until 1936.

 

Speedwell and Deep Pit at St George were acquired by the partnership in 1863. In 1875 he purchased the Lordship of the manor of Kingswood and then the mineral rights for Stapleton from the Duke of Beaufort. Handel Cossham went on to hold 3000 acres of freehold mineral property with a daily output of 700 to 1000 tons of coal. In 1879 the Kingswood and Parkfield Colliery Company Limited was formed, with the Wethered's selling their interest at that time. He was now the largest employer in the West of England employing about 1500 people.



He laid the foundation stone for the British School in North Road Yate in September 1850 and later is also linked to the founding of Pucklechurch Infants school, British schools in Parkfield, Mangotsfield and Thornbury. He donated Cossham Hall to the inhabitants of Thornbury.

 

Cossham's other achievements include being Mayor of Bath and Member of Parliament for Bristol East. It was in the library of the House of Commons in 1890 that he collapsed and later died. The miners from his collieries lead the procession followed by the open hearse drawn by four horses and the carriages of the various family members and dignitaries. The procession took nearly three-quarters of an hour to pass. It is estimated about 50,000 people lined the route from Weston Park near Bath to Avon View Cemetery.

 

He left his estate in trust to his wife for her lifetime with instruction that when she died the mines were to be sold off to finance the construction of a hospital. The Cossham Memorial Hospital opened in 1907. Handel Cossham's name is also kept alive in Cossham Street in Mangotsfield.

 

Handel Cossham is evidently one of the most notable characters in the coalfield's history. His knowledge of Geology, particularly understanding the faulted ground in the Kingswood area, lead to the discovery of coal seems that had not been worked and the extended life of the coalfield.

 

His approach to life was

 

"To do all the good I can to all the people I can, in every place I can, throughout life."




----- Original Message -----
From: "Service Culturel CCSTI" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: [MINING-HISTORY] Hirwain Iron Works, Brecknockshire


Le 14/12/03 20:57, « Keith Ramsey » <[log in to unmask]> a écrit :

> According to "Mineral Statistics" for 1866, this works was owned by Hinde
> and Cosham. Allowing for spelling mistakes, does anyone know if this had
> anything to do with Handel Cossham, the Bristol colliery owner?
>
> Keith Ramsey

In "The South Wales Iron Industry, 1750-1885", by Laurence Ince (Ferric
Publications, 1993, ISBN 0-9518165-1-9, indispensable), it says, p35 :

"The (Hirwaun) furnaces were in blast for the first six months of 1859 and
then the Crawshays abandoned the site. The works reverted to the landowner
who was the Marquis of Bute. His mineral agents managed to let the concern
in 1864 when the Hirwaun Ironworks was leased by Handel Cossham and Thomas
Challender Hinde who put two furnaces into blast. In the following year the
other two furnaces were repaired and in 1866 the works was controlled by the
Hirwaun Iron and coal company headed by Handel Cossham. ... The Hirwaun
Ironworks was advertised for sale in 1870..no interested parties came
forward and the Hirwaun Iron and Coal Company was wound up..."

I'm interested to see who this character actually was, as Ince gives no
further details. His two sources are "Mining Journal, Jan. 14th 1864, and
Robert Hunt, Mineral Statistics, 1865-6".

Hirwaun Ironworks was actually half in Brecknockshire (Crawshay land : yard
and limekiln)) and half in Glamorgan (Bute land : furnaces and mills) and
strained relations were the result ; one of the greatest tram road systems
of South Wales grew up around this Ironworks, founded in 1757 as the first
coke fired iron furnace in South Wales.

Ian