page_title: George Insole
section_title: Coal producer
hierarchical_section_title: George Insole / Coal producer
caption_attribution_description: English: Pierhead painting, Alexander Wilson (1796-1874), 1840. See https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/pierhead-cardiff-160599. Photo credit: National Museum of Wales.
context_page_description: George Insole was an English entrepreneur who built an extensive coal mining and shipping business in South Wales.
  A younger son of an English tenant farmer in Worcestershire, Insole made judicious use of significant financial assistance from his wider family to move to Cardiff, Wales, in 1828, to enter into partnership there as a brick, timber and coal merchant, and to become an independent coal producer and shipper in 1832. He pioneered the introduction and early success of South Wales steam coal in the London and international markets and his coal contracts underpinned Lucy Thomas's reputation as "the mother of the Welsh steam coal trade".
  Insole is claimed to have been the first to supply the London market, the international market, and the Royal Navy with South Wales steam coal. Insole was for many years the largest shipper of steam coal at Cardiff.
context_section_description: In 1832 Insole leased the Maesmawr pit (Llantwit Fardre) to become a coal producer and shipper in his own right. He was one of the first to open offices at the Cardiff Docks when the Bute West Dock was opened in 1839. When his son James Harvey Insole came of age in 1842, Insole took him into partnership as George Insole & Son.
  In 1844, as the Maesmawr seam was becoming depleted, they leased and revived collieries at Cymmer and in 1848 opened 36 coking ovens to supply the Taff Vale Railway Company, of which Insole was a principal promoter. Up to 1847 the Insoles mainly supplied the coastal markets of the Bristol Channel (Bristol, Gloucester), the Cornish ports (St. Ives, Penzance, Fowey), and the Irish markets (Limerick, Dublin, Youghal, Waterford, Cork) with steam coal. Insole continued to develop his international trade and afterwards supplied markets in France, the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and South America and became the largest shipper of steam coal at Cardiff.
  In Cardiff, Insole was associated with St John's Church in 1830 (where his daughter was baptised) and afterwards with the independent meetings at the Bethany Baptist Chapel (where his infant son was buried in 1837) and the New Trinity Congregational Chapel (making significant contributions to its rebuilding in 1846). Insole was involved in the introduction of British Schools in Cardiff and served as a town councillor for the South Ward of Cardiff.
caption: Entrance to the West Docks, Cardiff, in 1840, where Insole had his commercial offices; also see this view of the docks in 1849
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