| Description | Manuscript sections and plans of St Anthon's Colliery [St Anthony's Colliery], Newcastle, comprising: 'Section of strata to the Low Main, Coal at St.Anthon's Colliery', and 'Plan of the workings in the Low Main Coal, St.Anthon's Colliery', [1799-1807]. The section makes reference to a box of specimens which Banks donated at the same time, and which are no longer held by the Society. |
| Administrative History | The section is likely to have been based in part on the one which appears in the book: Faujas de Saint-Fond, B. 'Travels in England, Scotland, and the Hebrides; undertaken for the purpose of examining the state of the arts, the sciences, natural history and manners, in Great Britain ...' London: Printed for James Ridgway (1799), originally published in French in 1797. Although Banks is referred to in Faujas de Saint-Fond’s book, the origins of the section and plan may also be related to the colliery’s owner – a George Johnson Esq – who sent copies of the engraved section to a number of people including Erasmus Darwin in 1799.
St Anthony’s Colliery is typical of the mines and quarries of the period, in that it was privately owned. Plans such as this were created to be sent out to prospective investors. The High Main Colliery of St Anthony’s was all but spent, so during this period Johnson is concerned with exploiting the Low Main Colliery. It turned out that the coal in the Low Main Colliery was of poor quality so it could not be mined to any advantage. |