18th October, 2007
Victorian Wigan owed much of its prosperity to the coal and textile industries. Many speculators exploited the available opportunities and amassed considerable fortunes.
Mill owners were often local people from humble origins, who invested wisely and became very rich. Mine ownership, however, was restricted to those who owned coal bearing estates, or who could afford the large cost of buying such properties.
There were many coal owners in the Wigan area but for the purposes of this article, I intend to investigate only two families connected with the Orrell/Winstanley area. The Orrell Coalfield was developed early in the industrial revolution because excellent quality "cannel" coal lay close to the surface and was easily accessible.
In 1596 James Bankes, a London banker and goldsmith, bought Winstanley Hall and estate, complete with mining rights, from Edmund Winstanley. The Winstanley family had been connected with the manor since before 1212.
The earliest record of coal mining on the estate was in 1507, but it is likely that mining began before this date. In 1676 the output was 639 tons. By 1693 it had risen to 2,074 tons. The maximum annual production in the 1790s is estimated to have been about 5,000 tons.
The Blundell family began to invest in the Orrell Coalfield in 1774, when Jonathan Blundell became a partner in a business which transported coal from Orrell to the nearby Douglas Navigation and the newly opened Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Both waterways transported this valuable commodity to markets in Liverpool where it was needed to fuel rapidly expanding industries. The business opened offices and coal yards in Old Hall Street, Liverpool, near the terminus of the canal. In 1788, £10,000 worth of coal was sold.
In 1780, Jonathan Blundell invested directly in the Orrell Coalfield when he bought the Orrell house estate.
In the 1790s maximum annual production of Blundell's Orrell mines was about 55,000 tones.
Although both the Bankes and the Blundell family originated outside Wigan, they impacted greatly on the region. Unlike many of the mill owners (see Thomas Darwell), they seem to have gained at least a little respect, despite the dreadful conditions under which most mine workers laboured
The eccentric Meyerick Bankes, (1811-81), was affectionately known as "th' owd squire".
Although the Blundell family gained some of their fortune from the slave trade, they seemed to have been great benefactors. In 1867, Colonal Blundell bequeathed the "Tin Chapel", to the local community. It was a combined school and church situated in Highfield. The school was known as the "Pemberton Colliery Church School". Ten years later Colonel Blundell gave aid to those who were bereaved in the King Pit explosion.
The Bankes family owned Winstanley Hall until it was recently sold. Unfortunately it is many years since it was last inhabited and has fallen into a state of disrepair. Plans to convert the hall into luxury apartments have not been approved and the future of the hall is uncertain.
The Blundells, too, remained in the area. Orrell House, which was purchased by Jonathan Blundell in 1780, remained in the family until the death of Major Blundell in 1947.