Joseph Wilkes
Encyclopedia
Joseph Wilkes was an 18th-century English industrialist and agricultural improver born in the village of Overseal
in Derbyshire
but more commonly associated with the village of Measham
in Leicestershire
.
From a farming family, Joseph Wilkes displayed a true entrepreneurial flair to become one of the leading businessmen in the area during the early part of the Industrial Revolution
in England.
with his brothers from William Wollaston in 1777 for £56,000, he undertook the development and expansion of the village, opening a bank, an inn, building factories, a boat yard, a market house and a vicarage, and constructing affordable housing for his workers. Many signs of this development are still visible today.
To commemorate Wilkes, a mosaic sundial displaying many of his enterprises has been constructed near Wilkes Avenue in Measham.
, that important mineral which was to fuel the furnaces of the Industrial revolution sweeping the nation at that time. In 1767 Joseph Wilkes leased the rights from William Wollaston to mine coal in Measham area, he later went on to own collieries
in Measham, Oakthorpe
, Donisthorpe
, Moira
and Brinsley
in Nottinghamshire
.
Wilkes sunk many new pits, employing Newcomen engines
to pump water from their works which allowed coal to be mined at much greater depths. He also went on to employ steam winding gear at his Oakthorpe colliery which allowed men to be transported down, and coal to be brought up from the coalface more efficiently. To connect these collieries to the wider markets made available by the canal
s, Wilkes laid down horse-drawn iron tramways
which made the movement of heavy loads of coal overland far more cost effective.
s Wilkes was far from dormant, collaborating with at one time, Sir Robert Peel
in building cotton mill
s in Tamworth
and Fazeley
. He also leased and improved a bleach mill on the river Mease in 1774 and constructed huge cotton and carding
mills in Measham and Ashby de la Zouch
, harnessing water wheel
s and the latest Boulton and Watt
steam engines to drive their apparatus. He also initiated local cottage industries, building many weaving
shops in Measham and Appleby Magna
.
and turnpike
roads in and around Measham, These he built along his own design, utilizing a 'concave surface' which was more durable and easier to maintain.
He was also active in developing other transport networks, water transport
being the most cost effective means of bulk shipment in those days, he was a member of a consortium calling itself the “Burton Boat Company” which leased the rights to make the River Trent navigable to barges in 1762. In the latter part of his life he was a real promoter, and at one time treasurer, of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal
. Obviously well aware of the economic benefits the canal would bring to the district, Wilkes pushed local landowners such as the Earl of Moira
to expedite its completion and was also to supply bricks for its construction. The canal was originally intended to link the Coventry Canal to the River Trent, it was finally completed over budget in 1804 and unfortunately never lived up to expectations.
Wilkes also saw the early potential in another means of transportation which was eventually to supersede the canals, namely, railways
. Before the advent of the steam locomotive
, horse-drawn carts on iron rails
were the most efficient means of moving heavy loads overland. Wilkes promoted the use of these tramways in his article "On the Utility of Iron Rail-Ways"(1800), and in conjunction with Benjamin Outram
was to construct iron tramways connecting his collieries to canals.
, which was levied on every thousand bricks used. A few buildings exhibiting Wilkes' signature recessed arches and his oversized bricks can still be seen in Measham and the surrounding area today.
writing in 1815 lamented "Would that every district in Britain had its Joseph Wilkes! in which case we need not import Corn, even for our increased population, or be half so dependent on foreign nations as we are". Intent on improving the productivity of his farmland and not adverse to trying new methods, he experimented with different ways of fertilizing his soils, advocating the deep ploughing and burning of the soil, and even experimenting with fertilizing his land by throwing over water pumped from his mines. Wilkes also constructed a series of irrigation
canals in the area around Measham and was a firm believer in using new farming machinery, such as Cooke's Horse-hoe.
In animal husbandry Wilkes was no less forward thinking, experimenting in techniques for storing animals underground, fed from overhead hoppers, he was also interested in the new science of selective breeding, being a member of the Leicestershire tup
society, inaugurating the Smithfield Club, and breeding one of Robert Bakewell's
celebrated rams.
Wilkes married Elizabeth Wood from Burton upon Trent
in 1759 and together they had many children, and although unfortunately his only son didn't survive past infancy, some of his daughters however, did grow up and were married. Wilkes' own married life was relatively short, as tragically his wife Elizabeth was to die in 1767. It was a little while after her death, that Wilkes probably expecting to marry again, began the building of the stately Overseale House around 1775. Wilkes' life finally ended in Croydon
in 1805 and is buried there.
Overseal
Overseal is a village situated 3 miles south of Swadlincote, in South Derbyshire. It is sometimes locally pronounced as "Ovversale" and is the southernmost settlement in Derbyshire, on the border with Leicestershire.-Geography:...
in Derbyshire
Derbyshire
Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...
but more commonly associated with the village of Measham
Measham
Measham is a village in Leicestershire, near the Staffordshire and Derbyshire border, located just off the A42 just south of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and within the National Forest...
in Leicestershire
Leicestershire
Leicestershire is a landlocked county in the English Midlands. It takes its name from the heavily populated City of Leicester, traditionally its administrative centre, although the City of Leicester unitary authority is today administered separately from the rest of Leicestershire...
.
From a farming family, Joseph Wilkes displayed a true entrepreneurial flair to become one of the leading businessmen in the area during the early part of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
in England.
Career
Joseph Wilkes' business enterprises were many and varied, and during his lifetime he transformed Measham from a tiny mining village to a model settlement of the Industrial Revolution. Purchasing the manorManorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
with his brothers from William Wollaston in 1777 for £56,000, he undertook the development and expansion of the village, opening a bank, an inn, building factories, a boat yard, a market house and a vicarage, and constructing affordable housing for his workers. Many signs of this development are still visible today.
To commemorate Wilkes, a mosaic sundial displaying many of his enterprises has been constructed near Wilkes Avenue in Measham.
Coal mining
One aspect of this industrial development was the mining of coalCoal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, that important mineral which was to fuel the furnaces of the Industrial revolution sweeping the nation at that time. In 1767 Joseph Wilkes leased the rights from William Wollaston to mine coal in Measham area, he later went on to own collieries
Coal mining
The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...
in Measham, Oakthorpe
Oakthorpe
For the area in London, see Oakthorpe ParkOakthorpe is a village in the English county of Leicestershire.In 1086, Oakthorpe was in Derbyshire and was amonngst several manors in Derbyshire given to Nigel of Stafford by William the Conquereor. Until 1897 Oakthorpe, and its neighbours Measham and...
, Donisthorpe
Donisthorpe
Donisthorpe is a village in the East Midlands of England, administered as part of the Leicestershire district of North West Leicestershire.The historic county boundary between Leicestershire and Derbyshire is the River Mease, which runs through the village, with the village centre being on the...
, Moira
Moira, Leicestershire
Moira is a former mining village about west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in North West Leicestershire, England. The village is about miles south of the Derbyshire town of Swadlincote and is close to the county boundary....
and Brinsley
Brinsley
Brinsley is a village in Nottinghamshire, England. The church of St James was built in 1837-38 from Mansfield stone, the chancel being added in 1877....
in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
.
Wilkes sunk many new pits, employing Newcomen engines
Newcomen steam engine
The atmospheric engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine , was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines,...
to pump water from their works which allowed coal to be mined at much greater depths. He also went on to employ steam winding gear at his Oakthorpe colliery which allowed men to be transported down, and coal to be brought up from the coalface more efficiently. To connect these collieries to the wider markets made available by the canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s, Wilkes laid down horse-drawn iron tramways
Tramway (mineral)
Tramways are lightly laid railways, sometimes worked without locomotives. The term is in common use in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and elsewhere. In New Zealand, they are commonly known as bush tramways...
which made the movement of heavy loads of coal overland far more cost effective.
Textiles
In the area of textileTextile
A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...
s Wilkes was far from dormant, collaborating with at one time, Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet
Sir Robert Peel, 1st Baronet , was a British politician and industrialist and one of early textile manufacturers of the Industrial Revolution...
in building cotton mill
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
s in Tamworth
Tamworth
Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...
and Fazeley
Fazeley
Fazeley is a small town and civil parish in the District of Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. Fazeley is located on the outskirts of Tamworth and the civil parish of Fazeley also includes Mile Oak and Bonehill....
. He also leased and improved a bleach mill on the river Mease in 1774 and constructed huge cotton and carding
Carding
Carding is a mechanical process that breaks up locks and unorganised clumps of fibre and then aligns the individual fibres so that they are more or less parallel with each other. The word is derived from the Latin carduus meaning teasel, as dried vegetable teasels were first used to comb the raw wool...
mills in Measham and Ashby de la Zouch
Ashby-de-la-Zouch
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, — Zouch being pronounced "Zoosh" — often shortened to Ashby, is a small market town and civil parish in North West Leicestershire, England, within the National Forest. It is twinned with Pithiviers in north-central France....
, harnessing water wheel
Water wheel
A water wheel is a machine for converting the energy of free-flowing or falling water into useful forms of power. A water wheel consists of a large wooden or metal wheel, with a number of blades or buckets arranged on the outside rim forming the driving surface...
s and the latest Boulton and Watt
Boulton and Watt
The firm of Boulton & Watt was initially a partnership between Matthew Boulton and James Watt.-The engine partnership:The partnership was formed in 1775 to exploit Watt's patent for a steam engine with a separate condenser. This made much more efficient use of its fuel than the older Newcomen engine...
steam engines to drive their apparatus. He also initiated local cottage industries, building many weaving
Weaving
Weaving is a method of fabric production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. The other methods are knitting, lace making and felting. The longitudinal threads are called the warp and the lateral threads are the weft or filling...
shops in Measham and Appleby Magna
Appleby Magna
Appleby Magna is a village and civil parish in the district of North West Leicestershire, England.The civil parish, as well as Appleby Magna, includes the small Hamlet of Appleby Parva and the Villages of Norton-Juxta-Twycross, Snarestone and Swepstone...
.
Transport
In an effort to improve the transport links and open up the area, and more importantly his wares to distant markets, he was active in building a coaching innCoaching inn
In Europe, from approximately the mid-17th century for a period of about 200 years, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital part of the inland transport infrastructure, as an inn serving coach travelers...
and turnpike
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
roads in and around Measham, These he built along his own design, utilizing a 'concave surface' which was more durable and easier to maintain.
He was also active in developing other transport networks, water transport
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
being the most cost effective means of bulk shipment in those days, he was a member of a consortium calling itself the “Burton Boat Company” which leased the rights to make the River Trent navigable to barges in 1762. In the latter part of his life he was a real promoter, and at one time treasurer, of the Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal
Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal
The Ashby-de-la-Zouch Canal is a long canal in England which connected the mining district around Moira, just outside the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, with the Coventry Canal at Bedworth in Warwickshire. It was opened in 1804, and a number of tramways were constructed at its northern end, to service...
. Obviously well aware of the economic benefits the canal would bring to the district, Wilkes pushed local landowners such as the Earl of Moira
Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings
Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings KG PC , styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762 and as The Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783 and known as The Earl of Moira between 1793 and 1816, was an Irish-British politician and military officer who served as...
to expedite its completion and was also to supply bricks for its construction. The canal was originally intended to link the Coventry Canal to the River Trent, it was finally completed over budget in 1804 and unfortunately never lived up to expectations.
Wilkes also saw the early potential in another means of transportation which was eventually to supersede the canals, namely, railways
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...
. Before the advent of the steam locomotive
Steam locomotive
A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine...
, horse-drawn carts on iron rails
Tramway (mineral)
Tramways are lightly laid railways, sometimes worked without locomotives. The term is in common use in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, and elsewhere. In New Zealand, they are commonly known as bush tramways...
were the most efficient means of moving heavy loads overland. Wilkes promoted the use of these tramways in his article "On the Utility of Iron Rail-Ways"(1800), and in conjunction with Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram
Benjamin Outram was an English civil engineer, surveyor and industrialist. He was a pioneer in the building of canals and tramways.-Personal life:...
was to construct iron tramways connecting his collieries to canals.
Brick making
Many buildings of Wilkes' empire were built with bricks manufactured by his own brickyard in Measham, including his Jumb or Gob bricks, for which he is well known. These double sized bricks were manufactured between 1784 and 1803 and were intended to lessen the burden of the brick taxBrick tax
The brick tax was introduced in Great Britain in 1784, during the reign of King George III, to help pay for the wars in the American Colonies. Bricks were initially taxed at 4s per thousand. To mitigate the effect of the tax, manufacturers began to increase the size of their bricks, up to a maximum...
, which was levied on every thousand bricks used. A few buildings exhibiting Wilkes' signature recessed arches and his oversized bricks can still be seen in Measham and the surrounding area today.
Agriculture
Joseph Wilkes' efforts weren’t limited solely to industry, following in, and advancing, his father's footsteps into farming, Wilkes was a keen agricultural experimenter and improver and was described by the agricultural writer Arthur Young as "a breeder, and a farmer on no slight scale" and John FareyJohn Farey, Sr.
John Farey, Sr. was an English geologist and writer. However, he is better known for a mathematical construct, the Farey sequence named after him.-Biography:...
writing in 1815 lamented "Would that every district in Britain had its Joseph Wilkes! in which case we need not import Corn, even for our increased population, or be half so dependent on foreign nations as we are". Intent on improving the productivity of his farmland and not adverse to trying new methods, he experimented with different ways of fertilizing his soils, advocating the deep ploughing and burning of the soil, and even experimenting with fertilizing his land by throwing over water pumped from his mines. Wilkes also constructed a series of irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...
canals in the area around Measham and was a firm believer in using new farming machinery, such as Cooke's Horse-hoe.
In animal husbandry Wilkes was no less forward thinking, experimenting in techniques for storing animals underground, fed from overhead hoppers, he was also interested in the new science of selective breeding, being a member of the Leicestershire tup
Tup
Tup or TUP may mean:*Tup or ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Tupping, copulation in sheep, or the sheep mating season*Tup, short for tuppence, two pence*Tup, nickname for recording artist Tupac Shakur*Technological University of the Philippines...
society, inaugurating the Smithfield Club, and breeding one of Robert Bakewell's
Robert Bakewell (farmer)
Robert Bakewell was a British agriculturalist, now recognized as one of the most important figures in the British Agricultural Revolution. In addition to work in agronomy, Bakewell is particularly notable as the first to implement systematic selective breeding of livestock...
celebrated rams.
Personal life
Joseph Wilkes was born into a large and moderately well off family in 1733. His father, also named Joseph Wilkes was a yeoman farmer, and owned a farm in Overseal. Joseph Wilkes appears to have been close to his brothers, with whom he was to have many business dealings throughout his life.Wilkes married Elizabeth Wood from Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....
in 1759 and together they had many children, and although unfortunately his only son didn't survive past infancy, some of his daughters however, did grow up and were married. Wilkes' own married life was relatively short, as tragically his wife Elizabeth was to die in 1767. It was a little while after her death, that Wilkes probably expecting to marry again, began the building of the stately Overseale House around 1775. Wilkes' life finally ended in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
in 1805 and is buried there.