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Sir John Plowright Houfton, born 13th December 1857, was a British colliery owner and politician. He was born in Eyre Street, Chesterfield, where his father, Charles, was the manager of the Wingerworth Iron Company’s pits. John was educated at Eastwood National School and Mr. Slater’s Private School in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire. At the age of 14, John entered Messrs. Barber, Walker and Company, Eastwood Collieries. His father had moved to work for that company when John was four years old. In 1874, John moved with his father to Garforth, as Charles had been appointed the first Manager of Peckfield Colliery. John gained experience of sinking and the development of collieries while he was at Micklefield, and obtained his manager’s certificate there in 1881. On 30th December 1884, John married Frances Morley (1851-1939) in Garforth. Frances was the fourth daughter of George Morley (1816-1888) who was the Land Agent for Thomas Davison Bland, of Kippax Park Hall. In 1886, John left Garforth after being appointed Certified Manager of the Bradford Collieries in Manchester, and two years later, at the age of 30, he took charge of The Lane End Collieries, near Stoke on Trent. In February 1890, John was appointed the first General Manager of the Bolsover Colliery Company, and supervised the sinking and development of the pit. In 1894, John was appointed General Manager after the foundation of Creswell Colliery.
After learning about the Peckfield Colliery Disaster, John made his way back to Micklefield to help his father with the rescue efforts. On 1st May 1896, John was in a rescue group alongside Robert Routledge, General Manager of Garforth Colliery, who later described their movements: “Mr J Houfton and I formed another exploring party to explore the 1st SA where we found a man the name of Fielding Pickard burnt. We then went down Moakes Drift. Here we found a boy and his pony both dead and burnt. Hurrying forward to the pit bottom nothing more was found. From coming out we were told no men were working down here. Back we went further down No.1 South and found other three men altogether not burnt. Went forward and found two men lying just beyond Barkers old gate. These men were both on their knees and their faces in direction of the working face. Their names were W. Stead and W Barker. We proceeded to their stall and found a lot of ripping down as though a shot had been fired. No evidence of powder marks. Neither of these men were burnt, although one of their jackets was burnt to a cinder. Their Nos were 89 and 69. Went down again at 3pm with Mr J Houfton and 12 men to explore the No.1 rise bord. Here we found a tremendous fall of stone, some thousands of tons. The empty run had evidently been going up when the explosion occurred and smashed the tubs to atoms. In one of the tubs I found a boy named Benson, dead. He was also burnt. A little further up I found the deputy Benson, burnt and wedged in between the first full tub and the wall side in the passbye. Going forward past the No.2 East level to the No.6 East level and about 30 yards on found a dead horse, then a little further we found a man named Noah Ball. He was lying with his head towards the pit bottom. He was not in any way burnt. Working forwards a man named Swift was found with his head towards the bottom. This man was also not burnt. Exploring to the end of No.6 level and going straight up for 200 yards and finding it blocked, we explored a road to the left, but found no more bodies. Two are supposed to be up here yet.”
Returning home, John joined the Scarsdale Lodge Freemasons in Chesterfield on 17th March 1897, and then commissioned a series of ‘model villages’ of which New Bolsover, was the prototype. John’s cousin, Percy Bond Houfton (1873-1926), came to work at the Bolsover Colliery Company, and Percy designed many of these developments. John was also active as a school and local board member in Bolsover. He was also a member of the Urban District Council and represented Bolsover on Derbyshire County Council. He was chairman of the Bolsover Gas Company and of the Bolsover Home Grown Fruit Preserving Company. In 1908 John left Bolsover to live in Mansfield. Here he was elected a councillor in 1909, becoming Mayor in 1912. He was also president of Mansfield Woodhouse District Hospital, and Chairman of the Mansfield Railway, but despite his busy life, he was a keen golfer and one of the founders of Sherwood Forest Golf Club, plus a member of the Committee of Derbyshire County Cricket Club. John stood for election to Parliament at a by-election in May 1914, when he was the Liberal Party candidate for North East Derbyshire, but lost by a margin to 314 votes (1.9%) to the Conservative candidate.
John and Frances had four children: Agnes, Charles, Frances and George. George became a commissioned officer with the Sherwood Foresters. He survived the First World War, but was seriously wounded by a high explosive shell on June 25th 1917 near Ypres. He died in 1962. Their other son, Charles Morley Houfton, was killed by a German snipper on 12th November 1915 after receiving a single shot to the head. John and Frances kept a letter addressed to Frances by Charles on 20th June 1915, which read:
“My own darling mother, I know that when I die your first question will be “was he ready?” The answer my dear mother is “yes.” I can tell you now that all through my life I have had a deep sense of all God’s goodness to me and I have never done anything however small without first asking for help from above and my prayers have not been in vain. Above all I have tried to live with Christ so please don’t grieve over the loss, we shall meet again before long in a fairer place. I thank you my dearest mother for all that you have been to me and for all that you have done for me, truly ‘the best mother in the world.’ I also thank father and my sisters and brother for everything. I have had a very happy life so please don’t mourn too much. You need not put on mourning. Why do so for a man who was not afraid to die and who has tried to live decently? You will find my will with this letter which will explain my last desires. If I die on the battlefield for my country, glorious England, I should be satisfied. God is with us always. So cheer up my dear mother. I am not really dead but coming to a higher state where you will join me one day.
With my best loved to you, father, Agnes, May and George.
I am always your ever loving son, Charlie” (pictured below).
John retired from the Bolsover Colliery Company in 1919, although he remained a director and consulting engineer to the company. He stood again for Parliament in 1922, in the Nottingham East constituency by-election, and after a campaign described by The Times newspaper as “strenuous”, John won the seat with 52% of the votes. He was re-elected at the general election in December 1922, but was defeated at the 1923 general election by the Liberal candidate Norman Birkett.
Sir John Plowright Houfton was knighted in the King’s Birthday Honours in June 1929, “for political and public services”, and had also become a Justice of the Peace for Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. However, he passed away on 18th November 1929, aged 71. He lived at Moley House, The Park, Mansfield, and left the modern equivalent of £4m. On his death, the Derbyshire Times commented: “…his career was one of the romances of the industrial world, and proving what can be done by indomitable perseverance, a great capacity for work, signal ability and a profound knowledge of men.”
30th April 1896. The Peckfield Colliery Disaster at Micklefield 