Samuel Barlow Coal Co Ltd - the Establishing of the Company

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Samuel Barlow Coal Co Ltd - the Establishing of the Company

This article was authored by Christopher Jones who very kindly permitted us to reproduce.

Samuel Barlow was the eldest son of John Barlow , a boatman from Bedworth and his wife Mary , ribbon weaver.

In the early 1860s the family moved to Bedworth Hill in Exhall parish to an area dominated by canal related industries and families. Contrary to some traditional views of canal families it seems on the whole Mary and the younger children worked the handlooms at home and John worked the boats – perhaps with his brother Thomas – and the older boys. It is tempting to believe it is in these years that Samuel decides that working alongside his father on the coal and stone boats into the locally expanding cities or further a field he will follow this line of employment rather than the declining handloom industry.

In 1867 the 20 year old Samuel married Mary Ann Compton , a boatman daughter at Exhall. Mary’s ancestry is still under investigation but we know her father Thomas was from Tividale in the Black Country. Witnesses at the wedding include another boatman – Francis Woodhead – and interestingly neither Samuel or Mary Ann can sign their name.

Interestingly Samuel’s sibling Susanna 3 years later marries into the Bates canal boating family and then in 1873 their brother Thomas marries Samuel’s sister in law Hannah Compton. Two brothers married two sisters and this relationship is to be key to the company development.

The other Barlow siblings in the following years also all marry into boat families – John (or Jack) marries Hannah Tedds, James marries Mary Tonks, Lucy and Catherine marry two Shiers brothers and Sarah marries George Griffiths, These family relationships are also of importance to consider.

 Through the Griffiths’ Samuel had access to a boat building yard , his brother Jack was working boats for Charles Abell at Hartshill Quarries, James worked boats for both Griffiths and Shiers families.

However we know little of the working of the boats until 1879 when Samuel registers in his own right the ownership of four boats at Coventry- the Ellen, Mary Ann, Live and Learn and Friendship. There is some evidence that by 1877 Samuel has established himself as an owner-boatman at Bulkington Lane, Bedworth but quite how he manages to raise the capital to purchase four boats at the age of 32 with a large young family of his own is not known – however as his father was named captain of the Mary Ann – and brother Jack was captain of the Live and Learn – they may have been old boats bought from his father or through the Griffiths’.

In September that year Samuel moved his family north some twenty miles to the growing village of Glascote, near Tamworth. This is to be an inspired move.

The collieries around Tamworth had only begun to be properly exploited from around 1870 – but the northern edge of the Warwickshire coalfield was proving to be very profitable with 5 collieries already linked by railway to the canal around Tamworth. On the higher ground to the South of the town more collieries were opening up and at Glascote was ample land to develop canal docks and associated industries. Soon terracotta, brick and industrial ceramic works would be established in the surrounding villages.

In addition some two miles north of Glascote was the junction of the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal giving easy access to the heart of the expanding city and some 8 miles beyond was Fradley Junction on the Trent and Mersey canal.

For Samuel the move to Glascote must have been somewhat of a jolt – moving away from the family but census data suggest he retained a home at Bedworth as his children continued to be born there for some years.

We know the family had been working in the area as early as 1872 when Samuel’s daughter Mary Ann dies of smallpox on board a boat at Amington aged 18months.

By 1881 Samuel is residing at 17 John Street, Glascote in a property not far from the canal with his wife, mother and children. It is assumed at this time that the four boats are worked by Samuel, John, and Samuel’s brothers Jack and Thomas.

Thomas moves his family ( and therefore his wife’s sister also) to Glascote in 1884 and they live in the same street as Samuel. The relationship between the families in very close and evidence seems to suggest that they are beginning to pool resources to establish the company in the village. By 1890 Samuel has registered some eleven boats mainly named after members of the family as was the company tradition in the early years and work has commenced on building a family home, business office and stabling in John Street which still exists.

One of the unusual features of the Barlow family is their religious beliefs. Unlike many canals families – though not uniquely – Samuel and Thomas’ families are members of the Methodist church and following their over to Glascote they become very involved in the local chapel. There is some evidence that the Methodist revival of the 1870-80s had some influence on some canal boat families – it is known boatmen attended the Union Chapel at Paddington – and it is suspected that it is around this time that the Barlows became Methodists – before that time as church records prove they married in Church of England places of worship.

The Methodist belief in hard work paid off for the family – as well as their close family ties and soon the business had expanded into coal merchants as well as canal carrying. The company also began to buy land around the canal and the village of Glascote to graze the horses and as well as investment properties. With an expanding business more boatmen moved their families to the area and Barlow let out his properties in the village to them.

However on Boxing day 1894 Samuel collapsed and died of a heart attack on his way to the christening of the son Frederick Sephton, owner of the nearby boatyard at Polesworth. He was 47 years old and had suffered with chest pains for some time.

In his will Samuel left some £2800.00 – now worth around £1,000,000. Not a bad return for man unable to sign his own marriage certificate but who could write when his brother married in 1880 some seven years later.

The company would continue under the guidance of his sons,widow and brother.

The 15 years from 1879-1894 had been the making of the company and now it would flourish under Samuel’s siblings.