HF97/6/7/3

Letter to W F A Fletcher from John W Hadwen

7 February 1922

From: 1922 To: 1922

‘…I’m rather more optimistic about the future of the company and others in the district than some people. You say that when we were making large profits at the Obeus, the Controller was making up our losses at the pits – but there was no control in 1913 or 1912 when we made very large profits at the Obeus solely out of local demand. We have now got a trade for export of coke to France and Sweden which is always a bigger price than for home users. Our pit costs will go down once we work full time, and prices always harden after a slump. Coke to the local furnaces is up 1/1 1/2d for det over 1 an. And for France we are getting 24/6 instead of 22/6 for a 1500 ton boat next week (our proportion about 500 Tons) At Clifton we are increasing our output monthly, and all from the Little Main Seam – which is the best House Coal in the district and sells at 5/- more than shipping coal – Up till quite recently no house coal was sold at Clifton, now nearly 100 Tons a day, and I think by next Sept we should get 300 Tons or so – This higher selling price will go a long way to compensating us for our small seams. During control and a little before we worked two seams the White Metal + Rallter, which due to the bad quality would not sell now they were easilly won. This was done to keep our output up (after Brayton Knave closed) and so claim our losses to be made up to our Standard period. All this was based on out put as you will remember. After the stoppage Macdonald and I decided that it was best to tackle the thing straight away and go for the Little main coal which will always sell. It meant a big sacrifice in output but we could not have sold the coal with the bad seams in it lately. Our output is now about 600 Tons a day and equal to last January (1921) That is why I think the prospects are better than they look from a purely balance sheet point of view…’

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Fletcher, William Frederick Ashby,
Hadwen, John Walter

France, Sweden, Cumberland, coal, fuel trade, TRADE & INDUSTRY