Description:Mining had begun in Longton before the end of the seventeenth century. By 1775 there were numerous coal workings in the area and the economical availability of coal in Longton encouraged the rise of the pottery industry. The success of Mining and the Pottery Industry in the area during this period resulted in the growth of Longton as a town in the early nineteenth century.
By 1721 mining had begun on Leveson-Gower land in Longton at Priors Field. In 1874 George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1828-1892, the third Duke of Sutherland, opened Florence Colliery which he named after his eldest daughter. The Colliery consisted of three pits and employed approximately three and a half thousand men by 1910. Florence Colliery was the only Longton Colliery to survive into the later twentieth century, still employing nearly two thousand workers in 1957. In 1990 the Colliery merged with Hem Heath Colliery.
The Sutherland Papers contains a wealth of documents relating to Florence Colliery from the 1870s onwards, including monthly statements of output and stock on hand, financial records, minutes from meetings of the Colliery Company, reports and documents relating to engineering at the Colliery. In addition, much correspondence survives telling us about the history of the Colliery and its workers.
Letter from George Menzies to the Duke of Sutherland, 9th September 1901
George Menzies, an agent of the Duke of Sutherland wrote to the Duke in September 1901 with a report on Florence Colliery.
In his report, featured above, Menzies notes that there had been some disruption with engineering work at the site requiring the pit to stop working. He tells that Duke that the pit had re-opened ‘exactly 14 days after stopping’ adding that this was ‘wonderfully good time’. A company called Messrs Walker had completed the necessary work on the ‘New Drum Shaft’. Menzies remarks that the work had required ‘skill and experience’ and suggests a remuneration of at least one hundred pounds for the men involved.
George Menzies’ report tells us that ‘Output’ at the Colliery had ‘at least touched 4,000 tons per week’. He notes that most of the output was for ‘Steam and Potters coal’ which unfortunately did not ‘yield the best prices’. This demonstrates the dominance of industry in Longton at the start of the twentieth century. Despite the poor profits made on the output from the Colliery, Menzies remarks that ‘household demand’ was ‘again awakening’ which would soon encourage an ‘increase in profit’.
Menzies’ report includes notes on the ‘Washer’, and ‘work on the Screens’ which had been completed. His report also provides details about work which had commenced on an ‘Electric Light plant’ and the placing of an order for ‘a Coal Cutter’. The Coal Cutter was required urgently at Florence owing to ‘daily increasing difficulties’ which Menzies was experiencing in ‘managing the men’ who worked cutting coal, who Menzies refers to as ‘(“the holders”)’.
Contextual Information from: ‘Longton’, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 8 (1963), pp. 224-46. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=53377 and 'Florence Colliery' on Staffordshire Past Track http://www.staffspasttrack.org.uk/exhibit/coal/collieries/florence.htm