The Merseyside Coal Trade 1830–1845

IN 1830 almost all the coal leaving St. Helens went to the Cheshire wiches ; John Whitley, secretary of the Railway Company, wrote in that year that the Railway was “ intended to facilitate the transmission of Coals to the Cheshire Salt Works.” ¹ By the mid-1840s, however, the saltfield had ceased to be the only large market outside the St. Helens area for local coal. In 1845, as has been seen, ² almost 700,000 tons were carried down to the Mersey by Canal and Railway ; but considerably less than 200,000 tons of this went on to the saltworks. ³ Extensive new markets had obviously been acquired during the fifteen years between 1830 and 1845. They were a direct result of the introduction to Merseyside of the steamboat.