I'm writing this on October 21st and the celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the canal are in full swing. In 1796 the Leeds and Liverpool canal was open between Leeds and Burnley following the completion of the tunnel at Foulridge. This was the point where Barlick gained access by water to the coalfields of both Yorkshire and Burnley. Before then only the wealthiest people could afford to burn coal for domestic heating. The majority burned wood if they could get it but mainly peat gathered on the moor. I have no evidence of 'peat merchants' but they must have existed, not everyone could afford a horse and cart to bring fuel into the town. We know that small tradesmen could make a living delivering clean water to houses so I think we're fairly safe in assuming that others did the same with peat. As soon as canal transport could bring in coal in forty ton boatloads the price fell dramatically and we see the rise of specialised coal merchants who bought coal from the mine owners, shipped it into Barlick and sold it using horse transport. Because of the topography, Coates Wharf became the entry point for coal into Barlick and Salterforth was where Earby got its supplies. Even though both wharves are on the same level, Salterforth to Barlick is uphill while it is downhill from Coates. Earby is slightly downhill from Salterforth. This situation didn't change until the advent of the railway in 1870 at Barlick and 1848 in Earby.
The first thing to recognise is that in 1800 the demand was for domestic fuel, there was no steam driven industry until at the earliest, 1820. I have no direct evidence of the price of coal in Barlick in 1800 but can make some educated guesses by working back from the price at Coates wharf in 1900, I reckon 1/- a cwt bag delivered in 1800. (A hundredweight (cwt) is 112lbs or 51kg in metric measure.) A small coal fire would burn at least 1cwt a week and if we take 10/- as the average wage and allow for transport from the wharf and the coal merchant's profit we can guess at a tenth of an average workman's income for one bag of coal a week. This was expensive but supportable especially if more than one person in a family was in work, peat probably cost almost as much.
We know the names of some of the Barlick coal merchants down the years, Peter Bilsbrough, Holgate Marsden, Jonas Cockshot, Brooks and Pickup, James Bracewell, Henry Green, John Starkie, John Wright, John Widdup, William King, Christopher Green, George Andrews, Lemuel Widdup, Chris Cryer, Joseph Wiseman, Fred William Thornton, William Harrison, William King, John and William Green of Gill Hall, William Arthur Smith, Robert Arthur Hebden and Eric Ireland. That gives some idea of the extent of the domestic trade. We'll have a look at the mills next week.
Bagged coal delivery in about 1900.
