THE WELLS FAMILY AND COAL

1. Reminiscences of Mosborough by George Foster, 1886, and

2. Church records

Around 1830, George Wells, an Eckington man, started working a gin pit on the Little Hill. Some two years later he sank two more on the Common in the field where the Bridle path crosses it. Next he built coke ovens for them. He then worked an engine pit much higher up in the same area. His next venture was to buy Sales and Bibb's pit at Moor Hole for £2,400. George died in 1844 with sons Joseph and George carrying on the business.

The new firm of J. and G. Wells immediately began sinking the bottom side mine at Moor Hole. Joseph was the driving force of the concern and it was largely due to him that J. and G. Wells became one of the largest colliery owners in England. They owned many pits in the area and, in 1870 at their Holbrook Colliery alone, over 500 men and boys were employed underground. It could be truly said in those days that coal was king.

The family built both Eckington Hall (situated in Mosborough) and Elmwood. Joseph decided to build in Mosborough because he couldn't find a site he liked in Eckington.

In those days Mosborough was riddled with pits and this continued well into this century. The coal industry has sadly gone and I am doing a lot of research into where all the different sites were, with the help of maps from the old National Coal Board.

Joseph Wells was born in Eckington on October 3rd, 1816, and lived there most of his life,' only spending a short time at Eckington Hall, where he died suddenly on October 6th, 1873. He is described as being tall, very powerfully built and of a cheerful, ruddy countenance.

The family had close connections with St. Mark's Church. Mary Wells laid the foundation stone in 1886, the electrical lighting installed in 1937 is in memory of Sophia Jane Wells, whilst Margaret Wells, the last of the family to reside at Elmwood, who died in 1977, was a life-long member of St. Mark's congregation.