Monday 29th December 1834

I signed the administration Release to Mrs. Clarke, Mr. Parker hence received it from Scotland, with my Sister & Captain S[utherland]’s signature on saturday afternoon – Hinscliffe came, had Mr. W. Brooke about Greaves’ farm – in the evening wrote to Mr. Beattie to tell him I had fixed upon my tenant & to Mrs. Greaves to say her husband must quit the farm at the usual times. Wrote to Mr. Brooke to say I would take him as tenant provided he agreed to my terms – viz £28. a year rent, to pay all taxes, & a written agreement

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale WYC:1525/7/1/5/1/35

[up at] 8 25/..
[to bed at] 12 1/2

no kiss A- [Adney] had her cousin fine frosty morning breakfast at 9 1/2 – Adney had Mr. Parker at 10 1/4 about the administration release business and signed the release to Mrs. Clarke and I had Holt – walked with him to the fish pond to see about the line of drift – explained where I wished it to be, and how have the stuff thrown up against the high road-wall – the men asked 4/6 per yard for driving – Holt had offered them 4/. and thought it quite enough – could have it done for 3/3, but thought the Manns had better have the job – said I would rather they had it, and was satisfied with what he had offered – he said if they would not take it, he would advertise the drift to let – I never said a syllable about the delay there
had been – that the drift should have been begun 3 months ago, or at the time they began sinking the pit which must now stand 3 months till the drift is done – on coming in (having left Holt to go across the fields) found Hinscliffe waiting for me – Left him for a minute or 2 to speak to one of Turner’s sons who came from the top of common wood delph about stone posts – said he must speak to Charles Howarth – and to speak to Mrs. Bottomley sister to Mrs. Dewhirst and to Pearson, who came to ask if I had any objection to a woman for
tenant of Stump Cross Inn – I said no! I had no objection to anybody who was a good tenant – the place would be let by ticket on the 16th of next month and anyone was at liberty to bid; and I supposed those who wanted it, would bid – Mrs. Dewhirst had come to me twice about
the Mytholm farm before the letting but had put in no ticket so I supposed she did not then want the farm, and I meant her to quit the place – then resumed with Hinscliffe – he said the drift ought to have been begun when the pit was – but Holt had neglected – in fact, he
neglected his own concerns, and drank so, he was not the man he used to be as his own brother at the Woolpack told him – but this I was not on any account to name – Hinscliffe then gave me some information how the drift ought to be done, and advised my looking after
it myself – said it should be rather barrel-shaped

2 feet 6 inches at the bottom
3 feet in the middle for elbow room, and
3 feet or 3 feet 6 inches high

this drift if the measures are hard enough to stand, will be much the best not walled at the sides – a and b are the 2 sides of the drift and c the line of vent-stone reared against the side of the drift, the vent stone from c to d not to be less than 18 inches and not less than 1 1/2
inches thick – these vent stones to be good stuff, good sandstone, freestone, not rag – to be very well squared, that is, ‘regular fettling’ as for flags or slates – for these ventstones should be set in clay, and all the joints well stopt with clay so as to be thoroughly air-tight, or else
we should lose our vent – and when we got to the pit (to go in the dirt band, and then as the 2 Manns said spend our level, that is get gradually (within about 30 yards of the pit) into the coal band 8 feet below the dirt-band) – we should have to bore to the old upper bed works?
or carry air down in tubes? Boring done at from 2/. to 5/. or 6/. a yard according to the hardness of the measures and depth to go – the 2 Manns had said the boring would cost 7/. a yard – Hinscliffe said we should want a chimney for the drift about 1/2 way the length –
would have not exactly over but on one side of the drift because then it would not injure the top of the drift – Vent stones should be 18 inches broad, and not less than 1 1/2 inches thick, and lengths not less than 18 inches varying to 2, or 3, or more feet as might be, but not too long, because the stratum would be too heavy and bad to get in and out of the drift – these strata 18 inches broad should be 4d a yard because flags sold at 8d per yard of 9 square feet therefore 18 broad x 3 feet long = 1/2 yard of flag or 4d and 4d a yard enough to give – try 3d or 3 1/2d pence per yard – because we could take all lengths, and the quarries had not this advantage in the sale of flags – Several yards length of the drift at its beginning would have to be covered in – to get 2 feet broad x 3 feet 6 inches long rag covers at 4d per yard – much obliged to Hinscliffe for all this information – said I wanted all the water I could get – indifferent about getting coal – I should look after Mr. Rawson all the rest was as hereafter might be – On the subject of the Spiggs Colliery thought the loose worth £400 to be paid £20 a year for 20 years – but Keighleys should pay one 1/2 and Samuel Holdsworth the other 1/2 – but Samuel Holdsworth difficult to make pay, ‘bad to geer’ – Holt had led the Keighleys in by telling them they could get £300 or £400 from Samuel Holdsworth for the loose he would want, and then went and told Samuel Holdsworth how to manage without paying them anything – I could stop him, but not without stopping the Keighleys too – Said I did not want to be hard on the Keighleys had no objection to £20 a year as proposed for the coal they had were getting at present Samuel Holdsworth paying 1/2 – if they could make him but if they bought more coal (of Mr. Dean for instance) I thought I ought to have 1/2 the worth of it for the loose – it made no difference to them – it was to Mr. Dean the difference was, and I was not inclined to give him my property – Samuel Holdsworth bought the coal he is getting of Colonel Dearden at £40 (each bed I suppose i.e. £80 per acre for 2 beds?) – that coal-loose worth £20 per acre for each bed – and if the Keighleys paid Mr. Dean the same price as paid to Mr. Dearden and me £20 per acre for each bed I thought it would only be fair – Hinscliffe could not or did not say anything against this – but agreed to speak to William Keighley in a friendly way, and try to make a proper agreement with Samuel Holdsworth – I thought the Keighleys had better get out of the concern and let Samuel Holdsworth have it all – to which Hinscliffe agreed – took Hinscliffe into the low land – to the old pit in Godley field – to the ‘livering drift’ i.e. the goit thro’ the Wellroyde holmes, and we then walked by Mytholm and Gonda and Cowgate road to see the Mytholm far fields; and what sort of Loose belongs to the upper brea   Wilkinson could do nothing without an engine – and Stocks had better give me £100 a year for the loose I could give him than take Wilson’s for nothing but keeping it going – parted with Hinscliffe at Hannah Green’s at 2 10/.. – then went up to the pit – sinkers not there – Pickels carting the stuff away – the road very bad – all the upper Conery wall giving way – had better lay rag wheel-stones on the low side – would be 8d per yard – told Pickels to see about getting then walked down with him to Whiskum Cottage where he had 3 men sinking the reservoir he is to have for water having drained in John Bottomley’s field to get water off the coal-stone to fill it – ordered that the reservoir to be 3 yards square should stand 5 feet deep of water – home at 2 50/.. – got Adney out at 2 55/.. and we walked an hour in the walk – then with Charles Howarth in the shop preparing bees wax for doing the wainscotting of the north parlour – Charles and James Howarth at it all Saturday afternoon and all Friday and all today – came upstairs at 5 – some time talking to Adney then wrote and copied 1 1/4 page small and close to Mr. Grey asking what could be done by Adney and myself against the hunters – sealed and gave (before dinner) for John to put into the post this evening my letter to ‘Jonathan Grey Esquire Minster yard York’ – Adney had not sent another notice according to the form Mr. Grey had given but had just got one signed by her tenantry and was on the point of sending it – the hunters had been in ground occupied by herself last Friday week, could she not bring an action on the strength of the notice already sent? and could not I bring one (explained) for their ranging and finding a hare in one of my woods, of all of which I pay the taxes? (found the hare last Friday week in Yewtrees wood) – dinner at 6 25/.. – coffee – a little while with my father and Marian – wrote all but the 1st 7 lines of yesterday – 1/2 hour with my aunt – saw Adney into bed and gave her warm wine and water – from 10 1/2 to 12 wrote the whole of today – very fine frosty day Fahrenheit 41 1/2° now at midnight in my study – I have sat writing in the blue room – my study much too cold without fire in the library stove –

[In margin:]
dimension of etc.
Drift
price and dimensions of vent stone
Spiggs Colliery

Courtesy of West Yorkshire Archive Service, Calderdale SH:7/ML/E/17/0132 & SH:7/ML/E/17/0133