Madame Widor and the Nationalisation of the Standish Coal Seams
From Standish Wiki
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After the sale of Standish Hall, grounds, farms, houses and cottages, Madame Standish, the widow of the last Lord of the Standish Manor, Henry Noailles Widdrington Standish, still owned all the coal under the Standish estate and the Colliery sites . All these pits were at that time owned by the Wigan Coal & Iron Company and from them she received the certain rents and footage rents for the mines, as well as the surface rents, which together were a considerable sum.
She died on 12th October 1933 when she was succeeded by her adopted niece, the former Mlle. Mathilde Marie Anne Elizabeth de Montesquiou Fezenzac, now married to Charles Marie Jean Widor, French composer and Organ Professor at the Paris Conservatoire.
After 1930 the Wigan Coal Corporation, an amalgamation of Wigan Coal & Iron Co. Ltd, with Pearson and Knowles and other companies, became the principle lessee and money provider of Madame Fezenzac Widor, but on 1st July 1942 all seams of coal and powers to work them were taken over by the State, and Madame Widor was duly compensated for this under the Coal Act 1938, the valuation amounting to £100,148.
Madame Widor's income from the Standish Estate for the year ending 31st December 1938 amounted to £13,184 3s. 3d. Of this 9,053 14s. 10d. was mineral royalty whilst there was £2,287 5s. 4d. dividends on investment. The balance was made up of trespass rent, tithe, return of tax, bank interest, and a small ground rent. More than half of this large income went in super tax, mineral rights duty, mineral agents fees, lawyers fees, accession duty, annuities etc., so that Madame Widor was left with £5,510 2s. 10d. which wasn't bad considering it came form a place she had probably never seen and where she neither recognised nor performed any duties to the people who earned the money for her; nor did she give any benefactions to the district.
Madame Widor died in the early 1960's when the Vicomte de Noailles became entitled to what was left of the estate. He decided to sell his English properties and the remaining mineral and surface rights were purchased by a Wigan business company, and so, shorn of it's farms, cottages, manor house, park, collieries and coal seams, the ancient Standish estate continues.[1]
- ↑ D.Anderson, J.Lane & A.A.France, The Standish Collieries (Published by D. Anderson. With thanks to Mr Anderson and his family for the right to reproduce parts of his publication.)
