Coal Posts (2)
With the expansion of the railway network offering coal merchants new routes into London, a more complex system of marking the boundary where coal duty became liable was required. In 1845 the area was established as a twenty mile radius from the General Post Office in St Martin’s Le Grand, stretching from Langley in the west to Gravesend in the east, and from Ware in the north to Redhill in the south. About fifty markers, bearing references to the Act, were installed around the circumference of the area in 1851.
In 1861 the area was altered to match that of the Metropolitan Police District and the City of London, and now ran from Colnbrook in the west to Crayford Ness, at the mouth of the River Darent, in the east, and from Wormley in Hertfordshire in the north to Banstead Heath in Surrey in the south. As the enabling bill was passing through Parliament, the City Architect ordered fifty new markers to be commissioned but as the Act’s number was not certain, they were just inscribed with the sovereign’s regnal year, 24 VICT, and dated 1861.
Once the Act became law, subsequent plates were inscribed with the regnal year and the specific chapter of the Act, viz 24 & 25 Vict, Cap 42. In all around 280 markers were positioned around the boundary along the major transport routes used to transport coal. Their position was chosen to maximise their visibility on the routes, becoming, rather like ULEZ cameras, a physical and legal reminder of the points at which coal tax became payable.
In all there were five types of coal posts. Granite obelisks standing about 4 feet tall were generally erected alongside canals and navigable rivers whilst the most common were cast iron posts positioned alongside roads, again about four feet tall, painted white with the a shield containing the shield of the City of London coat of arms painted in red. These were cast by Henry Grissell at his Regents canal iron works. Sometimes, nine inch-square plates were built into parapets of bridges. Along railway tracks the coal posts stood larger structures, initially stone or cast iron obelisks about fifteen feet tall but after 1865 six-foot tall cast iron obelisks became the norm.
However, with the exception of the Grand Junction canal, where a permanent residence for the collector was erected at Stockers Lock near Rickmansworth and the Queens Head public house in Colney Heath where “a canted front bay was used for the collection of coal tax”, duties were not paid at the boundary posts. Instead railway and canal companies and coal merchants would calculate the amount due and submit the fees directly to the Corporation of London.
As we shall see though, within thirty years of their erection, the tax had been abolished.
