It seems probable, therefore, that for five hundred years coal has been gotten out of the sides of these hills at Madeley Wood, either for use in local forges or for export by the river Severn, or both; and the more so that old levels are numerous along their side where coal crops out, and that wooden shovels, wooden rails, and other primitive implements have been found in them.
Some of the shafts sunk by Mr. Reynolds came down upon old workings for smiths, or furnace coal, as at the Lodge Pit, as shown by the section.
This shaft, after passing through five yards of sand, six of brick and tile clays, thirteen of rough rock, and thirteen of other measures, came upon the Penneystone, the Sulphur coal, the Vigor coal, the Two-foot coal, the Ganey coal, the Best coal, and the Middle coal, which, like the Penney measure, were all entire; but instead of the Clod coal they found Clod-coal gob (the refuse thrown into the space from which the coal had been removed).
William Reynolds, the proprietor of these works, died at the Tuckies House, in 1803, and was followed to his grave in the burial-ground adjoining the Quaker’s chapel, in the Dale, by a very large concourse of friends and old neighbours. His son, Joseph Reynolds, and Mr. William Anstice succeeded to the works, the latter being the managing partner; and in consequence of the mines being exhausted on the Madeley Wood side of the field, new shafts were sunk to the east, the first of importance being the Hill’s Lane pits. The Halesfield, and then the Kemberton, followed; and the mines having been thus proved on that side, the idea first suggested by William Reynolds, of removing the works to that side, was acted upon by Mr. William Anstice, who built his first furnace at Blisser’s Hill in 1832. A second was built in 1840, and a third in 1844. Of these and other works we propose to speak in connection with events of a later period.
Events relating to the Social and Political History of Madeley, from the 13th to the 19th Centuries, not previously noticed.
We have no means at command for giving anything like such a consecutive account of Madeley as would show its growth and progress from the feudal times, when first noticed in the Domesday Survey, to the present time; and the facts that we have to offer on this head must necessarily appear disjointed and isolated.
The next notice we find succeeding that in Domesday is one in 1291, when it was taxed to the Ninth, twelve merks, but whether of gold or silver we cannot say, probably the latter, as one merk of gold was equal to five of silver—to £3 16s. 8d.
Land was being gradually won from the forests, but it was as yet of small value. Thus we read, under date of March 28th, 1322, of a man named Bercar and his wife, who, for the payment (or fine) of three shillings, bought small parcels of new land in the fields of Madeley and of Caldbrook (Coalbrookdale), of William, the bailiff, to hold for their lives.
In the year 1341 the parish was assessed at £2 16s. 0d., but the reason assigned for the low assessment was that there had been great storms, want of sheep-stock, and a surrender of the land held by tenants. In 1379 a valuation of the manor is thus mentioned:—“Capital messuage, nothing (this would be the Court, or manor-house); water-mill (the old manor or Court mill), ten shillings; fisheries of two vivaries, three shillings; three caracutes of land (or as much as three teams of oxen could plough in the year), as averaging £1 18s.” Three acres of meadow is set down as worth, when carried, three shillings. The verbiage of the park was valued at three shillings and fourpence. The assized rents of free tenements amounted to £6 16s. 2d., and the pleas and perquisites of the Court (held by the prior at the Court-house) at two shillings. In 1390 the rents of Madeley, including a ferm of coals, and the pleas and fines of the Court, were said to yield £22 18s. 0d. This ferm of coals was probably that granted by the prior in 1322 to Walter de Caldbrook for six shillings.
In the sixteenth century the rental of the manor was returned at £39 18s. 8½d. At the same time—that is in 1534–5—the rectorial tithes are set down at £2, and the vicar’s income at £5 5s. In 1693 an assessment made for Madeley, by order of the justices of the peace, James Lewis, balf., George Weld, and Thos. Crompton, of 4s. 6d. in the £, from sixty-four persons, produced £149 1s. 4d. In this assessment the name of Sarah Wolfe occurs sixth on the list. In 1698 an assessment of 3s. 6d. in the £, by order of Richard Littlehales, balf., and Ralph Browne, from fifty-two persons, produced £112 5s. 0d. In this assessment the iron, coal, and lime works paid £55 14s. 0d. of the above sum. In 1704 an assessment of 4s. 6d. in the £, from forty-six persons, paid £149 to which the iron, coal, and lime works contributed £84. The sum paid in on the 27th of March of the same year for 1697, for window-tax, was £8 14s.; the tax for births, deaths, &c., for the same year, was £4 18s. 4d., for 1698, £4 1s. 7d., and for the following year, £3 5s. 6d. In the same year the land-tax produced £27 14s. 6d. In 1670 the window-tax was £8 6s. 0d. In 1671 the land-tax produced £55 0s. 0d. In 1672 the window-tax was £8 0s. 2d. In 1704 the sum realized for windows had risen to £10 17s. 6d., and that for births, deaths, and marriages to £5 12s. 0d. In 1676 the land-tax paid £36 19s. 4d., for the first quarter, 24th July; for the second quarter, 23rd October, the same; and for the third quarter (paid March 27, 1675), the same; the sum for the fourth quarter was also the same. In 1675 two sums, £31 9s. 8d., and £63 8s. 6d., were paid in for land-tax, and £16 2s. 2d. the following March. On the 4th of May, 1706, “John Boden paid in full of ye last year’s land-tax, £36 17s. 0d.” The fourth quarterly payment of the poll for Madeley, made April 15, 1695, was £14 14s. 6d.