Joseph Wilkes
Joseph Wilkes | |
---|---|
Spouse(s) | Elizabeth Wood |
Parent(s) | Joseph Wilkes (farmer) |
Joseph Wilkes (1733–1805) 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, Wilkes was one of the leading businessmen in the area during the early part of the Industrial Revolution 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 manor 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, by the artist Steve Field, has been constructed near Wilkes Avenue in Measham.
Coal mining
One aspect of this industrial development was the mining of
in Nottinghamshire.Wilkes sunk many new pits, employing
Textiles
In the area of textiles Wilkes collaborated with at one time,
Transport
In an effort to improve the transport links and open up the area to distant markets, he was active in building a coaching inn and turnpike roads in and around Measham, These he built along his own design, using a 'concave surface' which was more durable and easier to maintain.[2]
He was also active in developing other transport networks,
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
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 tax, 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
Wilkes was a keen agricultural experimenter and improver and was described by the agricultural writer
In animal husbandry Wilkes experimented 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
Personal life
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.
Wilkes married Elizabeth Wood from Burton upon Trent in 1759. Wilkes' married life was relatively short, as his wife Elizabeth died in 1767. Although his only son did not survive past infancy, some of his daughters did grow up and were married; Joyce and Matilda married, respectively, brothers Rev. Thomas Fisher, of Idlicote, Warwickshire, and Rev. John Fisher, lord of the manor and rector of Higham on the Hill. They were sons of Thomas Fisher, of Caldecote Hall, Leicestershire, the Fisher family coming originally from Foremark, Derbyshire. Matilda and John Fisher were great-grandparents of Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961.[7] Wilkes died in Croydon in 1805 and is buried there.
References
- ^ Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History, p.9
- ^ William Pitt, 1809, A General View of the Agriculture in the County of Leicester
- ^ David Cranstone, The Moira Furnace, 1985, p.9
- ^ Northamptonshire's First Railway, The Blisworth Hill Railway 1800–1805[permanent dead link]
- ^ Arthur Young's Tour from Birmingham to Suffolk, 1791
- ^ John Farey, A General View of the Agriculture and Minerals of Derbyshire, 1815, Vol.II p.362
- ^ A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland, fifth edition, vol. II, ed. Sir Bernard Burke, Harrison, Pall Mall, 1871, p. 1588