Further to David's interest in mines being "up and running" before a lease
was signed, I have the following instances, hence my original query.
1. Snailbeach mine was apparently being "worked" by T. Lovett starting in
May 1779. Meetings of the partnership were already being held in 1781. Lord
Weymouth's lease of Snailbeach to Lovett was made in Jan 1782.
2. Land sales of coal were being made at Snailbeach in Feb 1784, but Samuel
Heighway's lease of Pontesford colliery was not made until Sept 1784. This
suggests the company was already raising coal there.
3. A settlement for surface rent and damages suggests that the Snailbeach
company was installed at the Malehurst colliery, Pontesbury, around six
months before the lease was completed in about March 1854. I think it
should be borne in mind that completing a legal document of the kind would
be expected to take some months.
I suspected that there ought to be some kind of written licence for there
to be liberty to search. The idea that a take or tack note did not oblige
the bearer to develop a mine ties in with how Lewis portrayed the
encouragement of low cost lead mining enterprises in periods of slump.
Clearly there was not likely to be sufficient return to cover exploration &
landlords would be thankful for the royalty on any ores they were lucky
enough to have raised for them.
I would welcome any further comments.
Andy Cuckson
|