Description:Joyce Wilson from the North Staffordshire Mining History Group has examined many of the letters surviving amongst mining documents in the Sutherland Papers. The letter featured above involves an old lady who had appealed to Mr. Burgess at the Foley Coal Office for help repairing her house. Joyce has transcribed this letter below:
A letter from Mr. Suther to Mr. Burgess, Foley Coal Office, 13th August 1818
“I have received your note about this woman who wants her house repaired.
The example is a bad one. It will set out demands to make her upstairs like a palace, and is truly out of the question. The answer to any requests of this nature should be at once and decidedly NO.
Whether to begin with this woman I leave to your knowledge of her ability. Give her a piece of old timber to do the repairs she wants herself.”