Description:Local builder and engineer James Trubshaw was born in Colwich in 1777. Best known for his work on the Grosvenor Bridge over the River Dee in Chester, Trubshaw also worked on the Wolseley Bridge in Staffordshire.
Trubshaw was trained by his father James, a local stonemason. Working alongside his father at Sandon Hall, James Trubshaw went on to work at Buckingham Palace before receiving commissions to build prestigious local residences such as Ashcombe Hall.
Trubshaw’s success with local commissions led to his involvement in the rebuilding of Trentham Hall which began in 1834, overseen by the architect Charles Barry (1795-1860). The Sutherland Papers contain a number of vouchers and accounts relating to Trubshaw’s work at Trentham, including the account book featured above.
‘Cash Paid to Workmen & Others on Account of the Works at Trentham Hall’: James Trubshaw’s Accounts in the Sutherland Papers
The image above shows an extract from a volume of accounts kept by James Trubshaw during the rebuilding of Trentham Hall between 1834 and 1838. The page featured shows accounts for 28th June 1834. Trubshaw’s accounts listed the names of workmen employed to rebuild the Hall and details of the wages they were paid. Trubshaw categorised the workmen according to their trade, with their names classed in groups including carpenters, plasterers and bricklayers.
Notes under the wages refer to additional expenditure on labour and materials. The page featured above details a payment of one shilling and fourpence to a man named Bates for ‘Sawing Timber’. Other sundry payments were made for ‘Getting Gravel’ and dressing bricks.
Trubshaw’s accounts provide an insight into his involvement with the rebuilding of Trentham Hall in the 1830s, telling us about his responsibilities overseeing the workmen and payment for labour and materials.
Biographical information about James Trubshaw from E. I. Carlyle, ‘Trubshaw, James (1777–1853)’, rev. Ralph Harrington, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/27772]