page_title: James Harvey Insole
section_title: Remarriage, death, and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: James Harvey Insole / Remarriage, death, and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Insole Court, Llandaff, Cardiff The building, owned by Cardiff Council, has been derelict for some time, but work is now being done on it.
context_page_description: James Harvey Insole JP was an English businessman who consolidated and developed the extensive South Wales coal mining and shipping business begun by his father George Insole.
  Insole became a partner in his father's business in 1842. They leased and revived the Cymmer bituminous coal pits in 1844 and developed their coastal and international markets together. When his father died in 1851, Insole took sole control of the company. Disaster struck in 1856 when an underground explosion of gas at the Cymmer mine resulted in a "sacrifice of human life to an extent unparalleled in the history of coal mining of this country". In 1862 Insole purchased the Abergorki mine in the upper Rhondda Valley. His company continued to develop the rich steam coal seams of the Rhondda and by the end of that century was one of the main exporters of South Wales steam coal. The company operated until 1940.
  Insole also played a significant role in the development of Cardiff, Wales, as a coal shipping port, especially in connection with improving the means of loading coal ships and the construction of the new dock at Penarth which opened in 1865.
context_section_description: Insole was widowed in 1882. In 1890 he married Marian Louisa Carey (née Eagle), the widowed daughter of his former Dublin agent and sister-in-law of his eldest son who lived nearby in his Pencisely House mansion.
  Insole died on 20 January 1901, aged 79, at his residence Ely Court, Llandaff, and was buried at the Llandaff Cathedral burial grounds on 24 January 1901. His estate was valued at £245,388 (approximately equivalent to £26,837,000 in 2019). 
  Insole's death was overshadowed by the death of Queen Victoria two days later, but his numerous obituaries praised his contributions to the South Wales coal industry and the development of Cardiff as a shipping port (the loss to the horticultural world also being noted). and his funeral was attended by many Cardiff dignitaries and businessmen.
  Insole's profits were underpinned by the harsh and dangerous working conditions imposed on miners, and these caused the devastating effects of the 1856 Cymmer disaster.
  
  Insole's dynastic land-owning vision came to nought when the Luxborough estate was sold in 1920. The Insole coal company closed in 1940 amidst the general decline of the South Wales coal industry. Ely Court (now Insole Court) passed from family hands in 1932 and eventually fell into disrepair. However, after significant restoration, in 2017 the mansion was reopened to visitors for a wide range of community activities and events, and the gardens that Insole so loved are now a municipal park for public use.
caption: Insole Court (south front) in 2008
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