Description:This document is an account of the money spent on building a house at Hanley Colliery in 1783 for Mr. John Sparrow.
John Sparrow worked as a colliery agent for Granville Leveson-Gower (1721-1803) Earl Gower, and his house at Hanley Colliery was probably built to accommodate him close to the mines which he oversaw.
The accounts include payments to ‘Milton Hewit bricklayer’ made on 27th September 1783. In November 1783 payments were made for tiling the property and for glazing windows. Bills for nails, timber and well sinking and numerous ‘smiths’ bills are also listed in November. The expenses suggest that the house was made of brick and was supplied with water using a pump from a well in its grounds. The house was heated by a fire, one payment being listed for an ‘iron grate’. The document provides an insight into the construction of houses at this time, the roles of carpenters, bricklayers and glaziers in the project and the equipment and materials required to build a property. The total cost of building the house came to one hundred and eighty three pounds, thirteen shillings and fourpence, including a payment of two shillings for crates which had been ‘broken with scaffolding’.