Cusop History Group
A Search for Coal in Cusop Mystery and the Jones family
Many thanks to Roddy Williams for the following information, posted on our Facebook page:
Roddy:This report was in the Hereford Times 1833. This is just a part of it. Powell was from Birmingham and had obviously seen Mr Jones, known to be a quarry man working for Sir George Cornwalle of Moccas, digging a level into Cusop Hill to look for coal. The Jones family were quite well known for prospecting but anyway Powell had witnessed this mine being dug. No coal of course but everyone put money into these ventures all over Radnorshire and parts of Breconshire like Hay.
See Roddy's article http://www.ewyaslacy.org.uk/-/A-search-for-coal-in-Cusop-investigations-by-Roderick-Williams/1800s/nw_cus_0068
Sir Roderick Murchison
Whilst searching the internet. I came across a copy of Sir Roderick Murchison's famous book, The Silurian System, think it was published circa 1835 >. He mentions the Cusop Hill coal trial mine. I shall post it on here as a photo, but the description is rather ambiguous. However I am now sure he describes the diggings or excavations you can still see scarring the hillside. Unless of course there is still something we have missed. He does say the remains of some of the works which suggests there is more?
Sir Roderick Murchison's actual field notes tells us little more than we already know but money was wasted on the enterprise which caused ructions. How far the tunnel went into the hill we may never know unless it can be rediscovered. There is this the mystery square building at the Criggy ( Crigau ) not so far from Ty Coch, (map reference SO 248406). I would say past owners of the land have tried to cover up the mine entrance unless the building may have been built over a vertical shaft that then went horizontally into the hillside. There is good reason with permission of course and safety in mind to look at the inside of the building. The more I think about it the more I am sure this building had something to do with it and may have had ropes and pulleys to lift out the waste rock. There is a 'walled' spring which may have been a drainage adit not far away and below the building. There is also again not too far off a hole covered by a large flat rock which may again be some earlier attempt.
The Jones Family
As stone masons in Cusop, the Jones Family are said to have built the main staircase in Maesllwch Castle. They were also involved in silver prospecting in the Black Mountains circa 1800. They did find lead ores that may well have contained silver but there is a further mystery which connects the Cusop coal mine and the trials for lead / silver in the Gospel Pass and that both projects were contemporary 1799/1880, and a death brought both projects to an end. Who died and how? This is still unknown.
John Percival Jones was born on January 27, 1829 in Herefordshire, England. He was of 13 children born to Thomas Jones and Mary Ann Pugh. John and his family immigrated to the United States in 1831 sailing from Liverpool and went to Cleveland, Ohio.The Jones family set up as Marble Masons and one or two of the family did very well in banking. John Percival Jones became a US Senator 3 times. John went to California in 1849 to participate in the California Gold Rush, and settled in Trinity County. While in California, he also served as the county sheriff and was a member of the California state senate. Made a fortune in Nevada's Virginia City silver mines where there was a big fire at the Yellow Jacket mine, he saved 40 men. He was also in partnership building railroads and founded the city of Santa Monica. John moved to Gold Hill, Nevada in 1868. There he served as the superintendent of the Crown Point Silver Mine. In 1873, he was elected to the United States Senate representing Nevada. There are still relatives in Herefordshire and Pritchard the Tailors in Hereford are related. One time JPJ had his suits made for him there so they say. JPJ died about 1912. His one daughter became a women's champion tennis player.There are a lot of private family papers and letters kept in the archives over there some no doubt from the UK. There is a story to be told about the man named Jones who came from Cusop and went to OHIO as a baby and then lived in the Wild West when in his 20's. Apparently JPJ was a very amiable gentleman and great friends with Mark Twain the American author and one time journalist. Twain always one for a joke would write stories about people in the local paper but upset a few who didn't see the funny side who came gunning for him. He got out of Virginia City by the skin of his teeth.
Brian Webb: I believe Pritchards in Hereford have records going back to when they started so you could probably check that
Roddy:Regarding Pritchard's records that would be worth following up.
Mandy Appleby: Think how different the Dingle would look today if anything had been found
Roddy: Oh yes had coal been found in quantity things would have been very different. This coal fever in 1800 or just before had spread far and wide more so than gold fever. Certainly in Radnorshire not far from Kington there were coal trials there at Birlingjobb, as there was this false assumption where there was limestone coal was close by. Seeing some of the Silurian limestones they were confused with the younger Carboniferous limestones although there was a story some coal was actually found near Presteigne. This was a bit of a tall story I would say as the nearest Carboniferous coal was on the Clee Hills. Coal was an expensive commodity, roads were bad for heavy transport. Things did not improve until the first railways were built albeit horse drawn. The Hay Railway and Kington Railway both tramroads linked at Eardisley. The Hay Railway meets the Newport -Abergavenny- Brecon Canal at Brecon which of course tapped into the S Wales coal in the hills above Abergavenny. Prices rapidly dropped once the railway was complete. The benefits of the industrial revolution required iron forges which sprung up once cheap coal was available. Cusop was spared the ravages of coal mining purely on the misunderstanding of geology which was a new science in the late 18th Century. However the Jones's of Redlay farm were convinced there was coal in Cusop Hill and technically they were correct as I have seen it but in very small quantities I have seen it in rock near Ty Coch farm and it will smoke and burn but it is very bituminous. Edward Powell of Birmingham mining engineer must have observed the Mr Jones circa 1800 digging this gallery, as Murchison called it "in an absurd attempt to find coal". Murchison a self trained geologist passed the site about 1834 when riding his pony eventually turning up the Esgyrn Brook onto Hay Bluff. By that time of course the mine was abandoned. Fair play to Murchison being a very observant gentleman he wrote that great tome, The Silurian System, after eventually sorting out the rock pile in the cliffs near Erwood. Quite an amazing book if you can ever afford one with maps, well over a grand. The cheaper reprint version called Siluria may cost you £50. I wonder if the failure to find coal actually may have had some long term negative affects on the Jones family. His landlord Sir George Cornewall sank money into the venture and at least two others Colonel Powell of Hardwick and Mr Trownsep of the Sheep House near Hay. How much money they lost we may never know but it must have hit Jones's credibility. It may be that is why some of the immediate family Jones eventually went to America to start anew. We must not forget there was a death mentioned by Murchson at the time of this dig and the trial for lead and subsequently silver at the Gospel Pass. There were three projectors there as well. This is mentioned by Theophilus Jones [not a relative] in his History of Breconshire. This project failed to find any useful amount of ore worthwhile as again I have seen it there in the stream bed. One investor dying could have called it all to a halt. There is circumstantial evidence that less than a mile further west along the face of the Black Mountains they found a low grade copper deposit which can still be seen today. It is mentioned in the' Beating of the bounds of Llanigon' as" the copper works". Official records so far have failed to tie in the Jones family to their metallic ore exploration but the late Geoffrey Fairs the author of 'The History of Hay' told me in a letter I still have that it was known that the Jones family prospected for silver in the Black Mountains. He gave no hint where he had heard that tale.
I asked the owner of Ty Coch many years ago what this square building was on the Craigau but he didn't know nor did he know of any tunnel. I accepted him at his word. We are talking about nearly 220 years ago since the level was supposedly dug. The written evidence which I only found a couple of years ago and was witnessed is the 1833 report in the Hereford Times which in itself was written 33 years after the event.