Leeswood Main Coal, Cannel & Oil Co. Ltd.

The company is listed in the 1865 coal commission report as having works at Leeswood and Hope, and in the 1868 Slater's trade directory as producing crude oil at Leeswood. The firm was the last of the new joint stock companies to be promoted during the oil mania and was launched at a time when oil prices were falling fast. It could be that the company struggled to meets its inital objectives and instead operated a small scale oil works at Hope Station.

Horner Middleton & Co. of Cambrian Oil Works petitioned for the wind-up of the company in 1867.

PROSPECTUS

THE LEESWOOD MAIN COAL, CANNEL, and OIL COMPANY (Limited) Capital £60,000 in 3000 Shares of £20 each. Half the Shares are already subscribed for, the remainder being now offered to the public. Deposit on Application £1, and £1 on Allotment. Calls (if necessary) not exceeding £2 10s. per Share, at intervals of not less than three months.

DIRECTORS

• WILLIAM BUXTON, Esq., Castle-hill, Stafford, Chairman (Ex-Mayor of Stafford, and Director of the Stafford and Uttoxeter Railway).
• Henry Taylor, Esq , Flookersbrooke House, Chester (Colliery Proprietor).
• Frederick Septimus Bateson, Esq , Vale Cottage, Mold, Flint-shire (Cotton Spinner).
• Julius C. J. Bailey, Esq., C.E., Newton-le-Willows. Lancashire (Mining Engineer).
• William Gregory, Esq., York-buildings, Liverpool.
• William Wright Craig, Esq., Leeswood. Mold, Flintshire, (Colliery Proprietor).

BANKERS

• The Union Bank of London, Charing Cross Branch.
• Messrs. Dixon and Company, Bankers, Chester. Manchester and County Bank, Manchester.

SOLICITORS.

• Messrs. Finchett-Maddock and Horden, Abbey-square, Chester. Messrs. Roberts, Kelly, and Keene, Mold, Flintshire

BROKERS.

• Henry White, Esq., 7, Tokenhouse-yard, Lothbury, London. John Jones, Esq., Westminster-buildings, Chester. Joseph Davies, Esq., Warrington.

Temporary Office

• 2, Spring-Gardens, S.W., London ; 4, Abbey-square, Chester.

ABRIDGED PROSPECTUS.

This Company is formed for the purpose of purchasing and further developing the well-known Leeswood Main Coal Colliery, situate at Leeswood, near Mold, Flintshire, and erecting a refinery for the manufacture of Paraffin and other Oils. The Colliery is at present raising upwards of 1000 tons per week, and these raisings the Directors propose immediately to double. Since the discovery of the Leeswood Coal this district, previously known for the first-rate quality of its Main Coal, has become a rich and rapidly increasing centre of industrial importance, owing to the unequalled quality of its distilled mineral Oils and associated useful products. Retorts for the manufacture of oil from the Coal and Cannel will be immediately erected: and from the fact of the following adjoining companies, vis. : —

• The Coppa Oil Company,
• The Flintshire Oil Company,
• The North Wales Oil Company

(established for objects similar to those of this Company), having declared dividends equal to 10 per cent., in addition to carrying over considerable sums to their next account, the Directors can confidently recommend investments in this Company, inasmuch as by working their own Cannel, and having a large acreage of Main Coal, they expect to be able to pay larger dividends. Forms of Application for Shares and all other information may be obtained from, and Articles of Association Inspected at, the Company's Bankers and Brokers and the Company's offices.

The London Standard, 6th November 1865