Description:The document above is the draft of a lease made between Earl Gower and Jeremiah Smith for coal mines in Hanley and Shelton. The lease was made in the eighteenth century and this document shows the alterations and additions made to the agreement before it was signed by Gower and Smith.
The lease gave Jeremiah Smith the right ‘to search for Digg and carry away’ coals from mines in Hanley and Shelton and also ‘to dig & make any Watercourse or Watercourses within any place’ within the towns.
The lease between Gower and Smith was for twenty nine years. For the first twenty years Smith was required to pay an annual sum of eighty pounds to Earl Gower. The remaining nine years were leased to Smith at the lower rate of fifty pounds per year.
In acquiring the mineral rights for mines in Hanley and Shelton, the lease states that Smith would be responsible for maintaining the land around the mines. Immediately after ‘the digging and consumption’ of coals, Smith was required to ‘well and sufficiently fill & stop up’ the ‘pits and holes’ used to mine them. In addition, Smith was charged with making ‘a reasonable Recompence or satisfaction’ for any ‘damage’ caused to lands by his mining.
The lease between Gower and Smith contains many more details about mining in Hanley and Shelton in the eighteenth century. Click on the images on the left to read more.