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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