Friday, 15 January 2010

Medway Coal Company, Tonbridge

Coal merchants, part 2 (part 1)

The future of the second sign for the Medway Coal Company seems mor secure. A quick search on the internet doesn't reveal much about the company apart from a few pictures. One shows its Tonbridge office, which was located in a different building than the one where the sign is. Another picture shows one of their horse-drawn carts in what could be their Priory Street coal yard. Finally a third one shows its office in Tunbridge Wells.

Estb 1845
Medway Coal Compy
And At
Tunbridge Wells, Hastings,
London & Elsewhere.

Elsewhere included Maidstone, and Edenbridge, where the company had a wharf next to the Southeastern Railway Station, as I learnt from some court proceedings. In 1853 one servant called Reed had been sent to the Medway Coal Company's wharf with his master's cart for some coal but on the way back disposed of some of it to one Peerless. For that Reed was convicted of the crime of larceny and sent to jail.

Location: Priory Street, Tonbridge, Kent / Picture taken on: 14/06/2009

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