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147WINTER

2008

This year’s annual conference was at LackhamCollege near Chippenham, where delegates wereable to visit the agricultural museum on site.Amazingly the weather stayed dry for all theweek. A full programme of lectures and tourswith superb notes was organised by PamSlocombe and members of the IndustrialArchaeology Committee of the WiltshireArchaeological & Natural History Society. Extramaterial for this report has been provided byBarry Hood, Richard Hartree and Tony Jervis.

Roger Ford

Friday was, as usual, seminar day (see page xxx),the main conference commencing after dinnerwith a welcome from retiring AIA ChairmanProfessor Marilyn Palmer. Peter Stanier then gavean exhaustive talk outlining IA in Wiltshire,covering almost every type of endeavour carriedout in the county.

In a departure from the usual format,Saturday was spent on campus. The first speakerwas Ken Rogers who discoursed on the Wiltshirewoollen industry, which, surprisingly, attained itsapogee in the reign of Henry VIII. There remainsmuch evidence of the industry in and aroundTrowbridge which saw factory developments inthe nineteenth century. Next up was David Hydeon the activities of the Great Western at Swindon,where many thousands were employed in theengineering works which extended to 320 acres.The morning was rounded off by Mike Stone,curator of Chippenham Heritage Centre, whospoke about Rowland Brotherhood and thehistory of Westinghouse Brakes, this firm startingin railway engineering in 1841. The founder was afriend of both Brunel and Gooch. Westinghousemoved in 2005 from Chippenham to a purpose-built factory in Melksham, under the guise ofKnorr-Bremse KG.

In the afternoon came members’contributions, ranging from a DVD on therestoration and use of a 1914 threshing machine,through John Watts’ amazing range of water-pumppictures, to John Selby who talked on IA fromunexpected sources. Geoff Wallis then pointed outthe lengths that so-called ‘health and safety’ cango in defiance of common sense. The session aftertea was devoted to the various AIA awards, whenwinners gave brief presentations (see page 8). TheAnnual Dinner took place in the original LackhamManor House, a well panelled plushy ex-statelyhome, now much in demand for weddings etc.

Sunday morning began with the AGM of theAIA, with Barry Hood gave his Secretary’s reportof the Council and Bruce Hedge outlined hisTreasurer’s report. With Marilyn Palmer standingdown, Tony Crosby was elected our newChairman, with Mark Sissons as Vice-Chairman.This was followed by two short presentations,first by Paul Saulter who is organising a Romaniavisit in April 2009, and then by Neil Wright whogave a preview of the 2009 conference at theUniversity of Lincoln, 4-l0 September.

After refreshments, Wayne Cocroft deliveredthe Rolt Memorial Lecture entitled ‘Dan Dare’sLair – the industrial archaeology of Britain’s post-war technological renaissance.’ While WWI wasthe chemists’ war, WW2 was the scientists’ warout of which grew atomic technology and the eraof Big Science. Wayne’s wide ranging lecturecovered wind tunnels, guided weaponsestablishments, the Blue Streak rocket project, theSpade Adam and Needles rocket test sites, andplaces such as Fort Halstead, Foulness,Orfordness, Harwell, Sellafield, and Jodrell Bank.Not forgotten were the facilities, offices andemployees’ housing at many of these researchsites. This ended the formal conference.

That afternoon came first outings of theconference, all with a canal theme. Nick

2—INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS—147

INDUSTRIALARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS 147Winter 2008

Honorary PresidentProf Angus Buchanan13 Hensley Road, Bath BA2 2DRChairmanTony Crosby261 Stansted Road, Bishop’s Stortford, HertfordshireCM23 2BTVice-ChairmanMark Sissons33 Burgate, Pickering, North Yorkshire YO18 7AUSecretaryBarry Hood9 Kennerty Park, Peterculter, Aberdeen AB14 0LETreasurerBruce Hedge7 Clement Close, Wantage, Oxfordshire OX12 7EDIA Review EditorDr David GwynNant y Felin, Llanllyfni Road, Pen y Groes,Caernarfon LL54 6LYIA News EditorDr Peter Stanier49 Breach Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8LFAffiliated Societies OfficerChristine Ball75 Banner Cross Road, Sheffield S11 9HQConference SecretaryJohn McGuinness24 Belmont Road, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 1REEndangered Sites OfficerDr Mike Nevell, DirectorUniversity of Manchester Archaeology Unit, University ofManchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PLLibrarian and ArchivistJohn Powellc/o IGMT, Ironbridge, Telford, Shropshire TF8 7DQPublicity OfficerMark Sissons33 Burgate, Pickering, North Yorkshire YO18 7AURecording Awards OfficerDr Victoria Beauchamp3 Parsonage Court, Parsonage Crescent, Walkley,Sheffield S6 5BJSales OfficerRoger FordBarn Cottage, Bridge Street, Bridgnorth WV15 6AFCouncil MembersDavid Alderton (Heritage Link)Mike BoneDr Robert Carr (BA Awards)Dr Paul Collins (Partnerships)David de Haan (Liaison Office)Richard Hartree (AIA Council projects)David Lyne (Conservation Award)Michael Messenger (Conference Bookings & website)Stephen MilesRoy MurphyDr Miles Oglethorpe (TICCIH)Prof Marilyn PalmerPaul Saulter (Overseas trips)Ian West (Health & Safety)Honorary Vice-PresidentsSir Neil Cossons Prof John Hume Stuart B. Smith

Liaison OfficerAnne Lowes, AIA Liaison Office, The Ironbridge Institute,Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX.Tel: 01325 359846. e-mail: [email protected]: www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk

COVER PICTURETending the Lancashire boiler at the Crofton PumpingStation during the visit by AIA conference delegates(see page 3) Photo: Steve Dewhirst

AIA Wiltshire Conference 2008

Crofton pumping station and chimney, seen from theKennet & Avon Canal Photo: Barry Hood

The beam of the 1812 Boulton & Watt engine at CroftonPhoto: Steve Dewhirst

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS—147—3

McRamsey led one tour to Claverton pumpingstation to see the giant waterwheel, which drivesa beam engine capable of pumping 98,750gallons per hour up to the Kennet & Avon Canal;its restoration gained our award from the 1992conference. The trust volunteers are also restoringa crane from Burbage Wharf. Next there was acanalside stroll to admire the Dundas aqueductand a short section of the Somerset Coal Canal.

Other delegates went with Doug Roseamaneast on the Kennet & Avon Canal to visit thefamous beam engines at Crofton where thepumping station was built in 1807 to raise water40 ft to the canal’s summit level, via a feeder leat.On arrival we were greeted by the localvolunteers, all very smart in their white overalls. Itwas a busy site and it was pleasing to see somany families with their children. The twomagnificent beam engines are steamed from acoal-fired Lancashire boiler on Bank Holidays andother special days. The 1812 engine is the oldestBoulton & Watt beam engine still in use in itsoriginal setting in the world. It was brought backto life in 1970, followed by its 1846 companion in1971. Crofton is one of the best preserved IA sitesin the region and manned by an enthusiastic andcompetent team of volunteers.

Pam Slocombe guided the third group toPewsham near Chippenham where members ofthe Wilts & Berks Canal Trust showed the remainsof the three locks, a spillway, a dry dock and apartially collapsed culvert. The party returned tothe National Trust village of Lacock, containing amid-sixteenth century converted abbey, tithe barnand original brewhouse, for tea and a visit to theFox-Talbot museum of photography. Pamdelivered the evening lecture on Wiltshireagriculture. The county has a varied selection ofmalthouses and brewhouses amongst manydifferent architectural styles, whilst one of itscuriosities is the occurrence of very hard sarsenstones which occur at random in the fields andcan be dressed and incorporated into stonebuildings.

On Bank Holiday Monday, Ivor Slocombe leda tour first to Honeystreet Wharf on the Kennet &Avon Canal, where the nineteenth-centuryHuntley’s yard remained in the family until 1986.Then to the Barge Inn (1810, renovated 1858after a fire, and originally a staging post for canalhorses), admiring 1874 workers’ canalsidecottages. By coach then, via a field of sarsenstones at Lockeridge Dene, past Silbury Hill, toBeckhampton racing stables. These started life asan inn opened beside the new Bath-Calneturnpike road in 1745, with extensive stabling tocater for the necessary changes of horses. Afterthe railway arrived, a West-country trainer boughtthe inn and converted it to racing stables. Theoriginal buildings around the courtyard (laid withsarsen setts) now house thoroughbreds, andvisitors are even able to touch the Royal racingcolours – said to cure scrofula. Following lunch atthe Crown, Broad Hinton, we boarded a train onthe Swindon & Cricklade Railway, and inspectedthe shed contents at Hayes Knoll station.

Meanwhile a second group visited Bradford-on-Avon with Pam Slocombe. A zig-zag descent

‘Salmon’ tank locomotive at Blunsdon station on the Swindon & Cricklade Railway. This Andrew Barclay loco of 1942 wasrestored over seven years Photo: Barry Hood

The Barge Inn at Honey Street Photo: Barry Hood

The stable yard at Beckhampton Photo: Barry Hood

passed the site of a rug factory and emphasisedthe residential developments of the seventeenthto nineteenth centuries, most of which can onlybe reached on foot. At their base is the Ladywell,which originally powered an undergroundwaterwheel, still in situ, then fed the cisterns ofthe Seven Stars Brewery. This was a complex ofbuildings dating from at least the late sixteenthcentury. There was a tanyard and a cloth factoryin the mid-nineteenth century, the locus beingconverted to offices and flats in 1990. Next port-of-call was Avoncliff, a classic IA site containingrelics of many past industries on the River Avon,the Kennet & Avon Canal and the railway, butwith difficult road access. A weir on the river gaverise to a flock mill, now a private house, and onthe north side a dilapidated small building wasonce was a chemical factory. The remarkableworkhouse buildings became the HQ of theBritish Museum during WWII. Mike Stone led apost-lunch walk around Chippenham to take inthe site of the first Rowland Brotherhood works,the remains of Silcock’s foundry, Westinghouseand Saxby & Farmers former locations, thencontinuing over the footbridge, giving a stationoverview, then on to the restored and re-erectedButtercross.

Monday evening’s diversion consisted of aDVD by David Pollard (introduced as ‘Mr Quarry’)of the Bath stone mines, shot five years ago. It isestimated that 5 million cubic feet have beenextracted; current production exceeds 10,000tons annually.

Pam Slocombe was busy again on theTuesday, taking a party to Trowbridge where theemphasis was on the woollen textile industry.Trowbridge was described as the Manchester ofthe South West by 1820 but the woollen industrycould not compete with cheaper imports andgradually declined during the nineteenth andtwentieth centuries. The closure of Salter’s HomeMills in 1982 marked the end of the West ofEngland wool producing industry. The mill now

In steam at the Crofton beam enginesPhoto: Steve Dewhirst


Tony Yoward picks up a few insider tips at the Beckhampton racing stables Photo: Mark Sissons

Textile mill landscape at Bradford on Avon Photo: Steve Dewhirst

An extremely derelict water mill at the Avoncliff weir Photo: Steve Dewhirst

houses the Trowbridge Museum which isdedicated to the history of the town and itsformer industry. Our guide, Ken Rogers, took us toCastle Court Factory (1830), once full of spinningjennies, and the adjacent Castle Factory (1828).Both building now house offices. We also saw ateasel drying house, domestic weaving shops,other spinning workshops, terraces of weavers’houses and some handsome clothiers’ houses.There was a lunchtime stop in Great Hinton at TheLinnet which has an attached woollen workshopof 1816 which became the pub’s brewhouse. Theafternoon visit was to Alex Moulton Bicycles andthe Moulton Development Factory at The Hall,Bradford-on-Avon. We spent a very pleasant halfhour with Dr Alex Moulton, a renowned engineerwho has spent his life developing suspensionsystems for cars, buses and other vehicles. Hedesigned the suspension for the Mini car in the1950s and for the design and production of theMoulton bicycle from 1962. He showed us ‘TheHall’ of 1620 and a large 1901 greenhouseconverted into a museum for Moulton Bicycles.The last visit was to J. & T. Beavan’s tannery,Sawtell’s feather and bedding factory and a spa,all at Midlands, Holt.

Nicol Smith took a second group to the Knorr-Bremse Rail Systems factory in Melksham wherewe saw an amazing video on the production ofstation platform door systems, which are indemand from metro systems worldwide. Thebiggest project currently is an order of 1,100 setsfor Dubai. We then toured the works, particularlythe areas where Westinghouse fittings arrive fromthe train operating companies for complete repairand refurbishment. Our trip then took us rightacross Salisbury Plain, with John Watts providingthe travelogue in his inimitable style. We tooklunch at Harnham Mill, a fifteenth-centurybuilding, replacing a much earlier structure builtoriginally as a paper mill. There are no less thanthree millraces. After many industrialmetamorphoses the mill became a hotel and

Honey Street Wharf on the Kennet & Avon CanalPhoto: Barry Hood


The former Westinghouse premises at Chippenham Photo: Steve Dewhirst

Castle Mill at Trowbridge Photo: Steve Dewhirst

A Trowbridge clothier’s house with attached workshops Photo: Steve Dewhirst

restaurant in 1938. The afternoon was devoted toa walk around the water meadows, originallyleased from the cathedral, where the varioussluices (hatches) and water channels designed toflood the area to bring on the grass for foragingwere explained by Hadrian Cook.

The third group, led by Doug Roseaman,started at the Kennet & Avon Canal Trust’smuseum in the old wharf warehouse at Devizes.This was followed by a 1½ mile walk down thespectacular restored Calne flight of 29 locks tocreate an appetite well satisfied by lunch at theBarge Inn, Seend. Mike Stone then led a walkthrough Calne, taking in such diverse sights asthe pond where Joseph Priestley did hisexperiments with oxygen, the rent offices of theWilts & Berks Canal Co. and the site whereMessrs Harris cured their bacon. This mostenjoyable day concluded at the Atwell-Wilsonmotor museum on the outskirts of the town.

On Tuesday evening all enjoyed a visit to theChippenham Museum and Heritage Centre,where, following a welcome from the lady Mayor,we partook of an excellent buffet, afterwardsadjoining for a conducted tour of the new £11million Swindon & Wiltshire History Centre,formally opened by the Princess Royal earlier thisyear. An evening to savour.

Wednesday was the last day of multipletours, Pam Slocombe being in charge of a visit toWarminster, once famous for its woollen clothtrade and corn market. In 1720 there were 36malt houses in town, now only one. WarminsterMaltings has over 200 customers in the UK and50 worldwide. The owner Robin Appel showed usall the processes of malting and kilning. Britain’soldest working floor malting and was founded bythe Morgan family in 1840 and remodelled in1879. Edwin Sloper Beavan joined WestminsterMaltings and produced the very first geneticallytrue variety of English Malting Barley calledPlumage Archer in 1905. It remained unchangedfor 50 years and Beavan was awarded an


The ‘Glue Pot’ in the Swindon Railway VillagePhoto: Barry Hood

Warminster Maltings Photo: Steve Dewhirst

One of the traditional malting floors at Warminster Photo: Steve Dewhirst

Wadworth’s brewery of 1885 is a prominent feature in the centre of Devizes Photo: Steve Dewhirst

Honorary Doctorate by Cambridge University, notbad for a farmer’s son who left school at 14! Innearby Westbury we viewed the oldest publicswimming pool in the country, given to the townin 1887 by the textile mill owner, W.H. Laverton.The building has recently been refurbished and isin splendid condition under an ornate iron roof.

After lunch at Devizes we visited Wadworth’sBrewery Visitors’ Centre and the NorthgateBrewery of 1885 which has been a majorinfluence on the town’s economy and provider ofbeer in the south of England. We were taken tothe stables to meet the four Shire horses whichpull the drays in Devizes, then the sign writingsection and were impressed by the artistry andtalent of the sign writers. We then toured thebrewery section. The nice young lady who wasour guide promised us five different beer samples.The male members of the AIA were working theirway through an interesting and tasteful selectionwhen they were grabbed and marched out of thesaloon to attend afternoon tea at the WiltshireHeritage Museum! Here is one of the finest smallmuseums that you can visit, a surprising treasuretrove and a credit to the foresight of its foundersand to the society that is running museum. It isrun by the Wiltshire Archaeological & NaturalHistory Society, founded in 1853, and moved toits current location in Long Street in 1873.

The second tour was in the hands of IvorSlocombe and David Pollard. The first stop was atthe Eastlays complex of Octavian, where the first12 who had booked this tour descended 157steps into Corsham cellars. After passing throughairlocks to control the humidity, they entered avast complex, 90 feet below ground, originally astone mine, then a C.A.D., which now housespallets of wine, estimated to be worth a billionpounds in total. An 8-cylinder Lister engineprovides the ventilation. The rest of the partywent to Bradford-on-Avon to admire Brunel’sbroad gauge ‘wayside station’ of 1850 and theElizabethan buildings close to the bridge. After ashort visit to the museum which contains anentire pharmacy, the party returned to collect thetroglodytes and then went on to Monks ParkQuarry which started in 1877 and worked untilthree years ago. Numbers of big blocks ofbuilding stone (Jurassic limestone), valued athundreds of pounds apiece, are stacked at thissite. 212 steps lead down to 72 acres ofsubterranean workings, where there are manymore cut. After a generous lunch at the Barge Innbeside the Kennet & Avon Canal at Seend Cleeve,we walked over the fields to see remnants of theiron ore pits, tramway and the site of the blastfurnaces works. The original ironmaster’s househas furnace slag incorporated into the gateposts.Next, up onto Box Hill for gargantuan portions ofcakes and tea at the Quarryman’s Arms beforeexploring the face of Hazelbury Quarry, situatedin a back garden. Worked from Roman times until1968, it extends underground to 320 acres, overthe top of Box railway tunnel in places.

The third group was taken by Nicol Smith tothe Invicta Car Co. at Chippenham, a businessfounded in 2000 by Michael Bristow as a modernre-creation of its historic forebear. Output is less

than 12 cars a year. We visited the body andassembly workshops where everything wasimpeccably clean and the work done with greatcare. Michael gave us his full attention for anunforgettable visit. Next, to Malmesbury whereRatcliff’s Foundry of 1870 was a small foundry,forge and engineering shop for repairingagricultural machinery and traction engines. Laterinvolved with Morris cars, and even servicingdomestic radios, the place now mainly repairshedge cutters and mowers, while the forge isused by an artistic blacksmith who acted as ourguide. The final stop was Dauntsey Lock on theWilts & Berks Canal. Our guide was RachelBanyard who is one of the prime movers in aventure to restore 2 miles of the canal. Fivecanalside cottages have been renovated, a lockrepaired and the canal dredged, but a road bridgeremains a major obstacle. It was a privilege toview this ambitious project.

On Wednesday evening Peter Cavis, keeper ofNestles archives showed a fascinating film of thefactory at Staverton. This started as a cloth millwhich closed in 1891. It was bought by the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Co. in 1897, which mergedwith Henry Nestle’s firm in 1905. The originalplant, which at one time made 2 tons of butterper day, lasted till 1935, with the addition of a tin-can making facility. In 1920 the first 12 lorrieswere bought; in the 1960s production switchedfrom being railway-based to become road-based,and Nestle bought Crosse & Blackwell. It nowmakes breakfast cereals and yoghourt. MikeStone finished the evening with a discourse onGeorge Hathaway’s butter churn making businessof 1867 in Chippenham. Refrigeration soundedthe death-knell for this occupation, and theyturned to constructing carpet sweepers with apatent of 1929. Being over-engineered, these

were too expensive and caused closure in 1937.The final day’s outings offered a choice of

visiting the National Monuments Record Centrein the GWR drawing offices at Swindon under thetutelage of Keith Falconer, or STEAM, the muchupdated and improved (since our 1992 visit)museum of the GWR, housed in part of thelocomotive, carriage and wagon works, under theguidance of David Hyde. Highlights included oneof Queen Victoria’s train carriages. Both partiesthen sallied round the railway village, one of thebest surviving examples of industrial housing. Toa hotel in Marlborough High Street for asubstantial lunch, then to the Avonside foundry inPewsey, supposedly built with left-over stonefrom the railway embankment, and now a smallheritage museum. When a Devizes well-boringmachinery works went broke in 1899, the ownersof this establishment bought all the factory’scontents, and moved it into here, running it byline-shafting from a steam engine. They laterprogressed onto servicing traction engines andthe museum contains the remains of a forge,together with its implements, also a patentartesian well-boring machine, mounted on an ex-RAF bomb trolley.

It had been an interesting and instructiveweek, based in a truly beautiful setting. Gratefulthanks particularly to the Slocombes and theirhelpers for organising the trips, and to JohnMcGuiness et al for organising the conference.Audio-visual technician Mike Read was on handto ensure the smooth running of all the lectures.We look forward to Lincoln 2009.


The 1925 replica of the broad gauge locomotive ‘North Star’ in the GWR Steam Museum at SwindonPhoto: Barry Hood


The topic for the 2008 pre-conference seminar atLackham was chosen because the terrain ofWiltshire proved suitable for large-scale militaryuse in the twentieth century. The seminar was afascinating occasion, bringing togetherprofessionals and non-professionals, both groupsmaking a significant contribution to the study andevaluation of twentieth century military sites.

Marilyn Palmer

Wiltshire’s chalk plateau, which had seenextensive ritual use in prehistoric times, leavingmonuments like Stonehenge and Avebury, thensaw airfields and tank training grounds as well assettlements whose inhabitants suffered forcibleeviction for military purposes. The first two paperswere focussed on the Salisbury Plain TrainingArea belonging to the MoD, which covers an areaof 37,000 hectares, a space roughly the same sizeas the Isle of Wight. The advantages of this largelyflat and open terrain were obvious to thoselooking for new training grounds for cavalry inthe late nineteenth century. Land purchases in1897 started a process in which all other types ofland-use and users were forced out, as RexSawyer, a local historian and author, pointed out.His topic was Little Imber on the Down, a remotevillage which until 65 years ago carried on its lifeto a large extent untouched by the outside world.In 1943 the villagers were all required to leave, tohand over Imber to the army for military training.Everyone believed that, after the war, thoseevicted would be allowed to return and Rexdescribed and illustrated the long campaignagainst officialdom which was waged by theirsupporters. In the end, this was unsuccessful andImber is now deserted and largely destroyed.

Terry Crawford, also a local historian andauthor, claimed that few places in Britainexperienced more upheaval during the Great Warthan Wiltshire. Soon after hostilities commenced,hutted camps on and around Salisbury Plain werehastily erected for more than 100,000 men ofKitchener’s New Armies. A Canadian contingentof 31,000 men endured the extremely wet winterof 1914-15 there, mostly in tents, and Terrypointed out that with them was the originalWinnie-the-Pooh, a bear brought to England bythe regiment as an unofficial mascot who wasthen given to London Zoo!! He also describedhow evidence of military activities can still befound in many places, ranging from pre-waraircraft hangars and railway platforms to theregimental badges carved in the chalk hillsidesnear Fovant, on which regular maintenance iscarried out by a voluntary group known as theFovant Badges Society. This is an interestingparallel with the older chalk figures in Wiltshiresuch as the Westbury White Horse. EnglishHeritage regard the Salisbury Plain Training Areaas an area of unique archaeological survival inEngland, because its use by the army for over acentury has meant that it has not been subject to

the same agricultural regime that has levelledmany prehistoric remains elsewhere in thecountry. It is only recently, however, that thetwentieth century military remains themselveshave also been thought to be of archaeologicalsignificance!

Not far from the conference centre atLackham College is the multi-layered site of MODCorsham, with components above and belowground relating to nineteenth and twentiethcentury industrial and military heritage. JanePhimester described how English Heritage hadcommissioned Oxford Archaeology to complete aCharacterisation Study of the area, aimed atachieving a holistic understanding of the site. Shedescribed and illustrated how the nineteenth-century underground stone mines and quarries,where tools and artefacts still survive, were takenover during World War II for military purposes.Tunnel Quarry was converted in 1938 forammunition storage, and today this vast facilityretains a high level of survival, with anunderground platform and the conveyor beltsused to carry ammunition extending into the 10storage districts. Spring Quarry was converted asa Ministry of Aircraft Production factory in 1943,primarily for the production of aircraft engines.Such operations entailed a huge influx of workersand above ground a military landscapedeveloped, the prominent feature of which werethe welfare facilities including dance halls, shopsand dining areas. Nor did activity cease at the endof the war: in 1961 the factory was converted tothe Central Government War Headquarters fromwhich the Prime Minister and a nucleus ofministers and senior officials would conduct thesurvival and restoration phases of the Cold War.This vast nuclear bunker could accommodate4,000 staff for 30 days, completely divorced fromthe outside world. Today, this bunker is symbolicof the mutual distrust that existed between Eastand West, housing an extensive assemblage ofthe artefacts required to communicate, governthe country and sustain life.

Sue Morecroft from the Council for BritishArchaeology continued this below-ground storywith an account of her research on the St John’sschool air raid shelters at Redhill in Surrey (see IANews 144, pp 5-6). Whilst oral history suggeststhat occupants of the girls’ shelter learned to knitduring air alerts, the surviving wall art in the boys’shelter shows that the boys spent their timepainting the flat shelter walls with panoramicmurals of adventure stories such as TreasureIsland, Robinson Crusoe and Beowulf.Archaeological survey of the wall art hasprovided an interpretation of the phasing of themurals, insight into the organisation and workingmethods of the painters, and an awareness ofsocial relationships between the occupants of theshelter. A comparison of each mural with writtentexts has further suggested that the murals mayhave been the focus for didactic instructionrelating to wartime protocols, safety measuresand perhaps future expectations. Sue provided afascinating insight into life underground forchildren in the Second World War. The muralshave been conserved with aid of an HLF grantunder the Local Heritage Initiative and some ofthe murals can be seen on the LHI website,www.lhi.org.uk.

Later in the day, we moved on to considerwork on twentieth-century military heritage in awider context. Historic Scotland has been takinga strong interest in this topic, and Talya Bagwelland Dr Elizabeth McCrone from their Schedulingand Listing Teams gave an illustrated account ofthe audit they are undertaking of Scotland’snineteenth and twentieth century militarysurvivals. Since the coastline, for example, is notso developed as in England, there is remarkablesurvival of ephemeral structures like anti-tankblocks, coastal batteries and pill boxes. Theirpaper raised the perennial question whenthinking about twentieth century structureswhich were not intended to survive: poormaterials and hasty construction, combined withthe devastating forces of coastal erosion, make

The military badges cut on the chalk downs above the military camp and firing range at Fovant in Wiltshire during the GreatWar, seen here c.1918

Modern Military Matters: the twentieth century defenceheritage of Britain


these fascinating remains of Scotland’s wartimehistory a major conservation problem.

Equally, Alan Johnson from English Heritagediscussed the complexity of the Ministry ofDefence historic estate in England, which includes657 listed buildings which vary enormously in ageand character from purpose-designed militarystructures such as barracks, armouries, dockyardsand airfields to farmhouses, cottages and countryhouses. In addition there are 664 scheduledmonuments which include standing structuressuch as fortifications as well as earthworks, ruinsand buried remains. He pointed out that althoughmany of the listed or scheduled buildingscontinue to make an operational contribution,some are redundant or in poor repair.Consequently, the architects and historicbuildings inspectors of Government HistoricEstates Unit (GHEU) of English Heritage areincreasingly involved in advising on the rescue ofbuildings in this latter category. Some areclassified as Buildings at Risk (BARs) and theMoD has more of these than any othergovernment department. The increasinglyspecialised forms of modern military structureserected closer to the present day often posebigger challenges for conservation, adaptationand re-use. Decisions about their future need tobe based on a thorough understanding of theirheritage value which can be summarised in astatement of significance. Some buildings andmonuments merit recording and architecturalinvestigation and this type of research can beused as the basis for a conservation managementplan, setting out policies to guide future use. Alantherefore provided an insight into the problems ofcaring for such sites and buildings, a problem alsofaced by Historic Scotland.

Jeremy Lake described how English Heritagehas also become involved in discussions over thefuture of Bletchley Park, which many AIA membersvisited from the Hatfield conference. This site has,since its secret history was announced to thepublic in 1979, gained global renown as a code-breaking centre where (as a result of thedevelopment of machinery to process and decryptdata) the world’s first stored programmecomputer was developed. It is widely valued, butopinions have differed over its precise role andlegends (not always accurate) have been formedout of its extraordinary role and remarkable

personalities. Public consultation, and thecompletion of a detailed survey of the buildingsand their landscape setting, informed the finaldrafting of a Values paper and its incorporationinto the master planning for the site and itsdevelopment as both a museum and businesspark linked in to its wider area. This flexibleapproach has enabled the character, value andsensitivity to change of identified areas of the siteto be made available on the point of need.

Jeremy made it clear, though, that it is notalways plain sailing on this project and that manyproblems still remain to be resolved. The viablelong-term conservation of such sites is heavilyreliant on cooperation and joint-workingbetween a wide variety of interests anddisciplines. They can be some of the mostchallenging historic sites to conserve for futuregenerations, and ‘experts’ need to develop newways of informing debates at a local and nationallevel. There is a broad range of values associatedwith historic places, which include anunderstanding of evident historic andarchitectural importance through to associatedand less tangible values, such as their value to thecommunity and their sense of place. Military sitesrepresent or reflect shared values and meaningsin a number of ways, each of which have animpact on the way that they are managed andpresented to present and future generations.

Jon Lowe of CgMs then demonstrated howthe role of archaeology has become increasinglyimportant in the decision making process and inthe securing of adequate records of military sites.As an archaeological contractor, he discussedhow modern military sites pose new andinteresting challenges and how contractors mightcontribute to an understanding of the materiallegacy and the role of such places. His paper wasillumined by his experiences at some of the mostfascinating sites presented in the course of theseminar, including the USAF/RAF GreenhamCommon base, the WWII Harris Lebus factorystaff air raid shelter in Tottenham and the MazePrison in Belfast. Many of the speakers hadreferred in the course of their papers to theemotions generated by working as anarchaeologist on such sites which are nowhistoric, and Jon’s photographs brought thishome to his audience. John Schofield described itas ‘heritage that hurts’.

It was John Schofield, the Convenor ofEnglish Heritage’s Military and Naval StrategyGroup, who fronted the Modern Military Mattersresearch agenda which was published by the CBAin 2005. As a prehistorian, John has always beeninterested in how the processes of change andcreation shaped the landscape and generatednew types of monument and material culturefrom which archaeologists try to interpret andunderstand the past. He has turned his attentionto the contemporary past, the world which weourselves shape and influence in our everydaylives. His views have been published in EnglishHeritage’s Change and Creation: England’sLandscape Character 1950-2000 and in Images ofChange: an Archaeology of England’sContemporary Landscape, edited by SefrynPenrose and published in 2007. In hispresentation, John reviewed some of the workcarried out by English Heritage on modernmilitary matters but also asked whether it wasindeed right to separate out modern military frommodern ‘everything else’? He pointed out that welump diverse activities together for earlier periodsbecause it makes more sense to consider them inthis way, and because themes such as military,industrial and settlement etc are generally inter-connected. In the modern period, he suggested,the connections are even more significant andarguably even more interesting: the connectionsbetween military and industrial activity is, ofcourse, especially strong in the twentieth century,something highly relevant to the interests of AIA.He therefore suggested that perhaps we shouldnot think just about military sites per se, but towork in a more holistic, multi-dimensional andcross-thematic framework which would include,of course, the values that different people placeon these sites which have significant meaningsand even memories for many of them.

I am very grateful to all our speakers whocontributed to this seminar. Next year’s seminarat Lincoln also hopes to bring different groups ofpeople together, on this occasion not justindustrial archaeologists but also those withinterests in local history or family history who arecontributing in some way to the study of ourindustrial past. If you have any ideas for this, thendo please contact Richard Hartree via theIronbridge Office as he will be convening nextyear’s seminar.

The ANZAC cemetery at the site of the large WW1 military camp at Codford on the edge ofSalisbury Plain Photo: Peter Stanier

The future of Bletchley Park, the renowned WW2 code-breaking centre in Hertfordshire, isunder discussion

AIA Awards 2008The number of awards now given annually by theAssociation for Industrial Archaeology has grownso much as a result of generous legacies anddonations that we devoted half an afternoon atthe Annual Conference in Wiltshire to hearingpresentations from the winners about what theyhad done. The actual awards were presented laterby Professor Angus Buchanan, the Society’sPresident, at the Annual Dinner.

The Peter Neaverson AwardThis is a new award to honour the memory ofPeter Neaverson, a long-standing Councilmember and joint Editor of IndustrialArchaeology Review for nearly 20 years. It isgiven for outstanding scholarship in industrialarchaeology. The first of these awards was madeto last year’s Rolt Memorial Lecturer, Dr ColinRynne of the University of Cork, for hismagnificent Industrial Ireland 1750-1930: anArchaeology. This well illustrated book strikes anice balance between the two sides in the currentdebates about the future directions of industrialarchaeology, setting the scene in the first chapterbut then covering familiar topics such animal,wind and water power, roads and bridges, textilesand so on.

The Dorothea Award forConservationThe 2008 Dorothea Award went to The KewBridge Steam Museum volunteers for theconservation and restoration of the 70-inch BullType Cornish engine, still on its original site. Oneof five original steam pumping engines situatedat Kew Bridge Steam Museum, West London (theformer Brentford pumping station), the enginewas built by Harvey & Co. of Hayle between 1857and 1859 and ran until the station wasdecommissioned in 1944. This type of engine wasdeveloped in Cornwall in the late eighteenthcentury by Edward Bull in direct competition withthe conventional beam engines being producedby Boulton & Watt. Bull’s design dispensed withthe need for the massive cast iron beam & enginehouse which were typical of the conventionalWatt beam engine. One of the majoradvantages of this configuration was that the Bullengines were cheaper to buy than beam enginesas they were much more compact and easier toerect, needing considerably smaller engine

houses and requiring fewer metal castings. TVpresenter Anna Ford performed the operationinitiation ceremony on 12 May 2008 (see IA News146, page 11). The award was accepted at theAIA conference by Nick Morgan secretary of theBull Engine Restoration Committee

Fieldwork and Recording AwardsThe entries for the 2008 Fieldwork and RecordingAwards were of an exceptionally high standard.The Main Award winner this year was MikeWilliams (together with Lucy Jessop) from EnglishHeritage who produced a detailed report on theTone Works near Wellington Somerset (NBR76469 ISSN 1749 8775). This was a cloth finishingand dye works which had belonged to FoxBrothers & Co. The report combines detailedrecording of the buildings and machinery withsurviving documentary evidence, demonstratingeffectively how the site functioned and evolvedover time. The site itself, located on the RiverTone, comprises a large ‘well-preserved complexof one and two-storeyed buildings, ponds andwatercourses ranging, ranging from the earlynineteenth to the early twentieth century’. Mostof the machinery for the dying and finishingprocesses remain in nearly working condition,and there is also good survival of the powersystems. The excellent company records allowedEH to date accurately many of the features of thebuilding and machinery.

The Initiative Award went to Ron Martin ofSussex Industrial Society for Barlavington, WestSussex, Duncton Water Mill Report. This again isan excellent example of the recording of acomplex site. Ron’s superbly detailed drawingsreveal the development of the site and give someinsight into how it functioned, including anunusual sack hoist. This entry highlights the

important work local societies do by recordinglocal sites, thus adding to the national data aboutof our industrial heritage.

The Student Winner was Lee Gregory for hisMA dissertation (University of Manchester)‘Under Slate Grey Victorian Sky’. This was anexcellent piece of research which marriedexcavation evidence with census data to create apicture of the Victorian Slums of Ancoats. Not onlywere the buildings examined but the also thecommunity that inhabited them, a mixture of Irishand Italian immigrants, distributed amongst localpeople who were predominately employed in thetextile trades. Gregory found that while the Irishpredominately came to work in the textile trade,the Italians appear to colonise one street, GunStreet, and brought other trades to the area suchas ice cream maker (9 in Gun Street in 1901!)biscuit maker (2) and Organ Grinder/Player (3). Tothese people the area was not a slum but theirhome.

The organiser for these awards, Dr VictoriaBeauchamp, would like to throw open for debateamongst the membership the possibility ofchanging the titles of this group of awards.Increasingly, we are receiving for considerationexcellent professionally produced reports such asthis year’s winner and we hope will continue.However, we also recognise that many of youmay not be entering because you feel you cannotcompete even though, as Ron Martin has shown,you are producing excellent pieces of fieldworkand recording of important local sites. Victoriawould therefore like to propose we split the mainaward into: (a) Professional Archaeologist (someone who is

paid for the work)(b) Local Industrial Archaeologist/Society Award

(voluntary and not paid!)and that we retain the Student Award toencourage the industrial archaeologists of thefuture.

Please send any comments to Victoria [email protected] or send a letter to IANews. She would particularly value suggestionsas to the title of the awards.


AIA NEWS

Colin Rynne (Peter Neaverson Award)

Nick Morgan (Dorothea Award for Conservation)

Mike Williams (Main Fieldwork and Recording Award)

Ron Martin (Initiative Award)

VISIT THE AIAWEBSITE

www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk


AIA NEWS

Publication AwardsThese received a lot of entries this year as a resultof our new leaflet but please keep them coming.

The Occasional Publications went to KenRedmore, Society for Lincolnshire History andArchaeology, for his Ploughs, Chaff Cutters andSteam Engines, a well illustrated account ofvarious agricultural implement makers inLincolnshire.

The Journals Award was presented to AlanBrittan of the Leicester Industrial History Societyfor a memorial issue of their journal whichcommemorated two of their former members,Dick Thomson and Peter Neaverson. Peter hadbeen the Editor of this journal for twenty yearsand Alan republished – with much better maps –some of the articles with which Peter had beeninvolved over the years.

The Newsletters Award, a category for whichwe had the largest number of entries, went onceagain to the Waterworks Museum, Hereford, fortheir Waterworlds, Autumn, 2007. This isproduced on glossy paper which resulted inexcellent reproduction of the many photographsit contained. This award was received by DerekDuffett on behalf of the Museum.

Essay AwardThe aim of this award particularly is to encourageyounger people to send in essays often written aspart of their courses on industrial or post-medieval archaeology. This year’s winner wasHilary Orange of University College, London, forher essay based on her PhD research on publicperceptions and experiences of Cornish tin andcopper mining landscape, entitled ‘IndustrialArchaeology: its place within the academicdiscipline, the public realm and the heritageindustry’. We wish her every success in her future.

You are all reminded that the deadline for theFieldwork and Recording Awards. PublicationsAwards and Essay Award for 2009 is 31 March.The Peter Neaverson Award has an earlierdeadline of 1 December 2008 to enable thejudges to get hold of the nominated books orarticles and read them! Entries for the DorotheaAward for Conservation can be received at anytime.

Please send all entries to the AIA LiaisonOfficer, AIA Office, The Ironbridge Institute,Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale,Telford, Shropshire TF8 7DX

Victoria Beauchamp, David Lyne, Marilyn Palmer & Ian West

NOTE: All photographs by Mark Sissons exceptfor that of Mike Williams which was taken by NickMorgan.

THE AIA OFFICE HAS MOVEDThe AIA Office is now located at Ironbridge. Thecontact details are: Anne Lowes, AIA LiaisonOffice, The Ironbridge Institute, Ironbridge GorgeMuseum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX.Telephone: 01325 359846, Email: [email protected].

New membersThe AIA welcomes the following new members:

M.A. Blackburn, LlanfairfechanP.J.J. Gibbons, ReadingA. Lowes, DarlingtonA.T. Robb, PenzanceJuan Manuel Cano Sanchiz, CordobaMr & Mrs D.P. Timmons, ThaxtedMr & Mrs J.F.G. Warren, Wellingborough

Affiliated Societies Weekend atIronbridge 4-5 April 2009:‘Conservation Planning forCollections’We propose to offer a weekend to considerplanning for long-term sustainability andmaintenance of Societies’ collections –everything from engines to archives. We hope toinclude topics relating to the following questions:

• How does your society look after itsobjects/archives?

• Who will succeed your maintenanceteam/person?

• SPAB Mills Section has a programme to trainmillwrighting apprentices; where is theequivalent for other kinds of sites?

• Can we put together a network of ‘experts’who could be called on to help (not just‘professionals’). There must be a lot ofexpertise at a local level which someone inanother region would be grateful to be ableto contact. Or is there?

• How do you store your archives/paperwork?Is some/all of it in need of attention andbetter storage? What are you doing with allthose photographs and slides?

• How can you secure the long-term future ofyour collection (and your site)?

In many areas we are getting to be twogenerations away from those who worked withand maintained engines and other machines. Iwent to a very good day meeting several yearsago where succession planning for long-termmaintenance had been thought about, andimplemented: basically a form of apprenticeshipwithin the museum. A volunteer was assigned tothe person who currently maintained themachine, to learn and to keep a record of repairsand the quirks and peculiarities of its operation.How could this kind of approach be implementedin the long term? Is it a satisfactory way of doingthings? What have been your experiences?

There are two references which relate to theconservation of collections of artefacts at sitesand in museums in Kate Clark’s book InformedConservation (2001). On page 65, under 6.3Management Plans: ‘curatorial professions mayalso produce collections management plans’, andon page 67 under Conservation Plans ‘[they] canbe useful where …the site has several differenttypes of heritage and cultural assets (e.g.buildings, landscapes, collections, ecology).’Buildings, landscapes and ecology have all beentargeted over the past few years – what aboutcollections?

I am asking for potential speakers/participants who can share their knowledge andadvice – what to do, and what not to do.

Christine Ball, Affiliated Societies [email protected]

Ken Redmore (Occasional Publications Award)

Hilary Orange (Essay Award)

Alan Brittan (Journals Award)

Derek Duffett (Newsletter Award)

Ashley Mill in OldhamIA News 146 contained an item in Roger Holden’sNorth West England column which was of greatpersonal interest, namely the closure of theAshley Mill in Oldham. The mill featured greatly inour family life, since my mother, Lilian, was aweaver there. She started there, aged 12, as ahalf-timer in 1919. There was such a shortage ofmill hands that although the school-leaving agehad been raised to 14, those over 12 could workfor half a day and attend school the other half,alternating mornings and afternoons on a weeklybasis. Her first week’s earning was a six pennypiece, given to her by the lady who was teachingher. She took to it like a duck to water and by thetime she was 16 she was looking after six looms.Four was the usual number.

The Ashley Mill was about 250 yards from herparental home. By the time she was in her early20s she was the sample weaver, that is, the onewho wove the show pieces by which the firmgained its orders. She married my father, Fred, acotton mule spinner, in 1932, and was promptlysacked as it was company policy and the generalpractice of the industry not to employ marriedwomen. But, the depression had arrived. The firmneeded all the orders it could get, and she wasasked to come back by the owner, Benjamin Lees,son of the founder of the same name. I was bornin 1936 and she stopped weaving.

The mill was known by most of us as ‘BennyLees’ (work)shop’. There were 500 looms, you canimagine the racket. As kids we were allowed tolook in the weaving shed and wave to familyfriends – of my mother’s that is.

I was very happy to be allowed to give aMember’s Contribution at last year’s Conference.I spoke about my family and the district we livedin. We were ‘all cotton’: dad a spinner, mother aweaver, auntie a reeler, as was grandma; mother’sfather a foreman fitter at the great New HartfordWorks, belonging to Platt Brothers; uncle workedthere, also a fitter; paternal grandpa, who I neverknew, worked in on of Platt’s foundries.

Now, with the Ashley gone, an era ends. I willgo back to visit my old district (Westwood) inOldham, and I will pick up faint echoes of rattlingweaving sheds and spinning mills as I look at thenew houses.

P.S. the firm owning the Ashley at the end wasLees-Newsome, not ‘Less’.

Fred BrookRedburn, Bardon Mill, Northumberland

Industrial preservation in Canada– advice soughtI work for my city’s Heritage Preservation Office inPeterborough, Ontario Canada. Peterborough hasan extremely rich and diverse history with manymuseums, living history sites and other culturallandscapes making it a great place to live. Thehistory of Peterborough is intrinsically related tothe development of industry. From its beginningsin the 1820s lumber milling was the first majorprocessing industry followed closely by grain

milling. Later in the 1850s the focus shifted to themanufacturing of saw mill machinery, agriculturaltools and boat building. In last hundred yearsindustry powerhouses such as Canadian GeneralElectric and Quaker Oats became the base forPeterborough’s modern industrial development.The Otonabee River was the important factor isall of this and still is a focal point of the city.

Our city’s Heritage Preservation Office is veryyoung, only 5 or 6 years old, but there has been agreat movement of built heritage preservationhere since the early 1970s. I have been grantedtime to research and write a policy/proceduraltype document to use as a template for dealingwith historic/industrial sites and recording themin both the archaeological and heritage records.What I wish to ask from you at the Association forIndustrial Archaeology, a known leader in thepreservation of industrial sites, are somecomments or recommendations for the processesof identifying and preserving the history andstories of these sites. Additionally a large part ofthis initiative will be placed on education andpromoting awareness that needs to be firstestablished to provide access to these culturalresources.

Andrew Nichols, Heritage Researcher, Heritage Preservation Office,

City of Peterborough, Ontario, Canadae-mail: [email protected]

A unique valley?Michael Nevell, in his article ‘The Archaeology ofIndustrialisation and the Textile Industry’, inIndustrial Archaeology Review volume XXX.1(p.46), claimed that ‘The Kirklees Valley is uniquein the region in being exclusively dominated by

the finishing trades throughout its industrial life.By the early 19th century there were 12 textilefinishing sites along a 4km stretch of valley, ofwhich six were founded in the late 18th century.The first of these sites established was theWoodhill Bleach and Dye Works opened in 1786,whilst the last working site was the KirkleesBleach Works which closed in the 1960’s’.

Much of this statement is incorrect. Seven ofthe 12 mills did not originate as finishing sites.Woodhill Bleach & Dye Works was notestablished until 1857, reusing a Woolen Millerected in 1806; Kirklees Mill was built as acotton spinning mill in 1791, and was listed in theCrompton census of 1811; Tottington Mill wasgrinding corn in the 18th century and spinningcotton until 1821; and Woolfold Bleach Workswas converted to a paper mill in 1860.Furthermore, Brookhouse Mill, Croston CloughMill, Ferns Cotton Mill, and Bottoms Mill were allbuilt for spinning cotton, and none of thesebecame finishing sites. Hardly a unique valley,then.

Anyone wishing to enlighten themselvesregarding the origins and nature of textilemanufacture in the Pennine uplands shouldacquire a copy of the excellent pioneering workby A.V. Sandiford & T.E. Ashworth The ForgottenValley, published in 1981, by the Bury LocalHistory Society (www.burylhs.org.uk). Frequentlyoverlooked by later researchers, this is athoroughly well-researched and well-illustratedbooklet, and can still be used as a field guide tothe industrial archaeology of the fascinatingCheesden Valley, to the north of Manchester.

Mark FletcherMatrix Archaeology Ltd, Kenwood House,

Kenwood Road, Stretford, Manchester M32 8PT


LETTERS

AIA VISIT TO ROMANIA APRIL 2009The mountain area of Banat, an importantformer industrial region in north-easternRomania, is the main objective in this 4 to5 day visit being arranged for us by IrinaIamandescu from Romanian Associationfor Industrial Archaeology. Among thesites are a series of 22 preserved andoperational horizontal water mills andassociated timber dams, some still grindinggrain, an extraordinary site of exceptionalvalue considered worthy of internationalrecognition; a spectacular mountainrailway serving an important former coalmine with a huge early twentieth centurysteam winding engine manufactured inBudapest, and a working hydroelectricsystem of canals, power stations and anarrow gauge railway. The plan is toassemble in Bucharest on 20 April beforetravelling by train to Timisoara, the maincity of Banat, for excursions in the area andeventual return by coach to Bucharest.

See the insert with this mailing for furtherdetails.

One of a series of 22 horizontal water mills, Rudaria Valley

Hydroelectric power station, Grebla


NEWS

Robin and her rivetsIn June the SS Robin resembled aThames upriver ‘flatiron’ collier; herfunnel, masts and ventilators havingbeen removed to reduce her airdraught ready for the move toLowestoft and repair. To get Robinout from her old berth at West IndiaQuay, London, and to a place wherea sea going tug could be employedwas relatively difficult, numerousbridges both fixed and movable hadto be negotiated. On 14 June 2008 apair of launch-type dock tugstogether with some smallsupporting craft accomplished thefirst part of the journey. This wasbeset with some difficulty but in afew hours Robin was safelyreberthed about half a mile to thesoutheast in South Dock, near theentrance lock, where she waited fortwo weeks.

On Saturday 28 June 2008 thesea-going tug Napia, 900hp,propelled Robin stern firstdownriver and out into the ThamesEstuary in the manner of a dumbbarge. From here Robin was towedbow first in a conventional manner.Fortunately the weather remainedfair and Robin‘s hull surprisinglywatertight. The next morning Robinarrived to a good welcome inLowestoft. She was later put on aslipway at Small’s Yard, in itself notthat straightforward as Robin wastoo long for the cradle and extrasupport had to be devised for thestern. Out of the water Robin nowlooks superb.

Now in Lowestoft there hasbeen a dilemma as to how the workon Robin is to be carried out. Shouldthe new work be rivetted orwelded? Rivetting is still done inplaces abroad. Apparently there areplenty of rivetters in Norway. InGermany replacement steel girdersfor historic bridges are stillconstructed traditionally usingrivets, and closer to home DorotheaRestoration has carried out this kindof work.

The paddle steamer MedwayQueen is if anything in a worse statethan Robin and it is likely that thevessel will be virtually rebuilt. Acompletely new rivetted ship shouldemerge. We might compare thissituation with the extensiverefurbishment of PS Waverley (seeIA News 128 pages 2 & 3). Having anew coastal paddle steamer capableof carrying passengers for manyyears to come is an attractiveproposition if funds can be found.

Robin is in need of a berth. Sheis likely to remain in Lowestoft untilafter Crossrail’s work in London hascommenced. The east end of theWest India Import Dock will then beimpassable for a number of years soshe can’t go back to her old berth atthe west end of the Dock near theMuseum in Docklands. Trinity BuoyWharf at the mouth of Bow Creek inLondon would be unsuitable asships there have to sit on the mud atlow water. VIC 56 used to be kepthere and although this small ship,an enlarged version of a Clydepuffer, was better suited to thistreatment than Robin would be, itwas not good for the VIC. Shemoved to a better location atChatham in Autumn 2005.

Robin presently looks veryexciting out of the water and herfine lines can now be betterappreciated. For some it seems apity to put her back in the water andhide much of that beautiful hull.However if Robin is to remain in thedry she would need to be very wellsupported and in any case it is notgood for a ship to remain like thisindefinitely.

The steam drifter Lydia Eva (seeIA News 126 page 15) has recentlyhad extensive repairs with aconsiderable proportion of her hullplates being replaced. This was doneby welding, imitation rivet headsbeing welded on to give a moreauthentic appearance. Howeverimitation rivet heads can lookdreadful on a ship’s hull – obviouslyfake. The steel ship’s boat currentlyon board SS Great Britain in Bristolis a good example of this. There aretoo many rivet heads close together,clearly not doing anything as thereare no overlapping plates. It hasbeen hoped if possible to avoid thiswith Robin.

Extensive advice has beensought and the consensus is thatrivetting is definitely better thanwelding – the plates are pulledtightly together when a red-hot rivetcools. However, rivetting skills arescarce and large numbers of rivetswould be required. Traditionally therivetting of ships hulls was done bya gang of men who could workquickly, something like bricklayersused to. In the UK there are notpeople with these skills. The currenttechnology is welding and there aremany workers with good skills and itis reliable. There are alsoappropriate surveyors experiencedin approving this work and

obtaining insurance certification. Rivetting is still carried out for

traditional steam boilers but herethe number of rivets is relativelysmall compared with that for a shipshull where thousands rather thanabout a hundred may be required.Priors at Yarmouth (see IA News 128page 3) did do some rivetting on P SWaverley and they are proud of theirwork but at most this involved just afew hundred rivets. With largenumbers of rivets there areproblems with health and safetylegislation, drafted to cover coldrivetting with a power hammer.Rivetters doing this work can sufferfrom ‘white knuckle syndrome’ ifthey do too much and the number ofrivets a man can do in this way isrestricted by law. For SS Robin weare considering hot rivetting forwhich the rivet is soft andvibrational health hazardsconsiderably less. However thehealth and safety rules cover allrivetting whether hot or cold.

If extensive welding has to bedone on SS Robin we have a classicdilemma. We will be replacing ahistoric artefact at least in partswith a modern pastiche in order thatthe whole exhibit can survive, and inthe recent past there has been muchagonising over the ethics of thissituation, e.g. by the major NationalMuseums. Advice is that if parts ofRobin are to be replaced some goodsamples of the original work shouldbe kept for display in order toillustrate late nineteenth centuryrivetting techniques.

Instead of rivetting, tensioncontrolled bolts (TCB) can besubstituted which look the same onthe outside but these are probablyless than ideal for a ship’s hull. Onemight also consider a more up-to-date way of carrying out the workby using a rivetting machine toavoid the white-knuckle problem.The machine might be computercontrolled with the holes in theplates and frames flame cut. Thiscould easily achieve very greatprecision and a really excellentresult, unobtainable by hand. In anycase it is desirable that the holes beflame cut or drilled, the old methodof punching holes introduces stressand the finished structure isconsequently weaker.

The traditional hydraulicrivetting machine usually has a G-clamp shape. It has to be suspendedover the work and can’t reacheverywhere on a ship. Some hand

rivetting is always necessary andthere can be especially awkwardplaces. In a gang of men the chiefrivetter was often the one whocould do it left-handed over hishead. With skills like this, such aperson could command high wages.

In mid August a television crewvisited Robin on the slipway inLowestoft and recorded rivetting inprogress. Some of this footageshould appear in the BBC TVprogramme ‘Coast’. Passengerstravelling by train in and out ofLowestoft railway station get anexcellent view of Robin close to thetrack to the south. It is hoped toreport further on the progress of thework.

Robert Carr

Goonvean Engine goinghome?At one time the dismantling,transportation and re-erection ofCornish beam engines was acommon activity in their homecounty. Not so today, but thosefortunate enough to be at theGoonvean china clay pit near St.Austell in early September were ableto witness such a rare event.

The 50-inch beam engine atGoonvean was one of only tworemaining in the china clay country.It was built by Harvey of Hayle in1863 for the Penhalls Mine, near St.Agnes. In 1885 it moved to thenearby Trevaunance Mine and in1902 moved again to Gooninnis,still in the St. Agnes area. In 1910 itcame to Goonvean, and the date isincised over the cylinder doorway ofthe engine house. The transfer of

The stern of SS Robin on the slip atLowestoft, July 2008

Photo: R J M Carr


NEWS

engines from Cornish mines to chinaclay pits was a common occurrenceat this time. In 1928 the originalbeam of the engine was found tohave cracked. Holman Brothers ofCamborne cast a new beam, whichthis was certainly the last beam evermade in Cornwall and probably inthe world. At the same time thecylinder was re-bored. The enginepumped at the Goonvean pit until1956.

For some time the Goonvean &Rostowrack China Clay Co. has beenseeking to remove the engine anddemolish its house and ancillarybuildings. This is to enable clay to beextracted from the site. Becauseboth engine and engine house werelisted Grade II*, some complexnegotiations had to take place tofacilitate this. The building, on theedge of the pit had become unstableand, exceptionally, English Heritagedid not object to its demolition andthe relocation of the engine.Agreement having been reached,plans were made by a team fromKew Bridge to dismantle the engine.It would then be moved to Hayle,where it was built, and re-erected bythe Harvey’s Foundry Trust.

The engine was thought to be ina relatively poor state. It had beenidle since 1956 and there was aperiod in the late 1980s when theengine house had no roof and theplug door was missing, allowingwater ingress. The team from KewBridge was consequently surprisedhow easily the various pieces cameapart. The most difficult activity wasto remove the outdoor nose pinsupporting the pump rod. Heattreatment and hydraulic pullerswere needed 85 feet up on a cherrypicker!

As dismantling progressed theengine revealed another secret. Thecladding of the valve chest hadclearly been renewed at some time,as it bore the name of Sara’sFoundry, Camborne. This may havebeen part of the 1928 rebuild. Theengine was also fitted with a ‘St.Austell Governor’, a locally devisedmechanism to ensure the enginemaintained a regular stroke.

On 2 September the Kew teamremoved the top part of the engineand the remaining pump rodsattached to the beam. The next daycontractors took the roof off theengine house. Seven days later,before an invited audience, thebeam was lifted from its bearingsand swung to the ground.Contemporary accounts quote theweight of the Holman beam at 20tons and the crane weighed it at 19¾ tons. On 19 September the 50-inch cylinder, exhaust pipe, steampipe and remaining timbers werelifted out. All items were thenlabelled and packed into a containerpending transfer to Hayle.

The engine will eventually be re-erected at Hayle, where the Harvey’sFoundry Trust, ING and The Prince’sRegeneration Trust have formed apartnership to do this. They intend torestore the engine to working orderand install it in a new building on theOld Gasworks Site with full publicaccess. When the house at Goonveanis demolished, the 1910 incisedkeystone and some coins will bepreserved with the engine in Hayle.

Now only one Cornish engineremains in the clay country, whereonce there were dozens. The 50-inchengine at Parkandillack, built byHarvey’s rivals at CopperhouseFoundry in Hayle, is preserved in situ

by English China Clays. It runs oncompressed air and is run onoccasional Open Days. Otherengines from the clay are the 30-inch engine from Greensplat atWendron Forge and the 22-inchrotary from Rostowrack in pieces atKing Edward Mine, while theScience Museum owns a 40-inchHarvey engine from Carpalla pit,stored in a dismantled state.

My thanks to Kingsley Rickardof the Trevithick Society foradditional information andphotographs.

Graham Thorne

The Red List – England’sindustrial heritage atrisk English Heritage published itsHeritage at Risk Register in July2008, extending the previousBuildings at Risk surveys to includeScheduled Monuments, RegisteredParks and Gardens, RegisteredBattlefields and Protected WreckSites. Clearly there are significantadvantages in bringing together allthe sites of historic or othersignificance into one volume. TheRegister has 1,680 entries, varyingfrom buildings in a state of collapsewith no moves toward a restorationscheme, to others where restorationis already well under way and thefuture seems assured. While in mostcases the problems are caused byneglect and decay, in some cases thethreat may be land or coast erosion.For most of England only ScheduledMonuments and buildings listedGrade 1 or 2* are included, but inLondon coverage extends to allGrade 2 buildings.

It should be of interest to AIAmembers that I have compiled a listfrom 212 sites found on the registerdeemed to be of industrialarchaeological interest and thereforeof concern to us all. This can beviewed on the AIA’s website:www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk.The properties are grouped, as in theoriginal publication, by region andlocal planning authority. The fullregister can be viewed on the EnglishHeritage website: www.english-heritage.org.uk. Within it, go toHeritage at Risk and the appropriateregion.

The condition of each structureis graded as: Very Bad, Poor, Fair andGood. The level of risk is assessed ona scale of A to F, with ‘A’ at risk ofrapid decay or collapse with no plan

or scheme for restoration agreed,and ‘F’ schemes of restoration oradaption already under way, withfinal use identified. With exceptionsfor what seem to me to beparticularly significant sites, I haveonly included properties assessed A,B (rapid deterioration likely, solutionagreed but not implemented) and C(slow decay, no solution agreed) orwhere the condition is Very Bad.Otherwise I have selected thoseproperties most likely to besignificant to the study of theindustrial period, with the exceptionof specialist industrial buildingsearlier than about 1700. Bridges areonly included if they are of technicalinterest. Also included arespecialised workers’ housing, andbuildings built to service the newfarming methods of the eighteenthand early nineteenth centuries.Buildings associated with largecountry houses and estates are onlyincluded if they used new buildingmaterials such as iron or concrete,housed industries or providedservices such as water, gas orelectricity supply. Fortifications areonly included if their constructionused new building materials.

Remember that the AIA cannotpossibly write to the relevantauthorities about all these sites, andit is up to individuals in each area totake action, rally support and make acase for the rescue and preservationof sites they believe to be important.In many areas the local planningauthorities maintain a Buildings atRisk register, which will includeGrade 2 buildings not covered in thisnational survey, and for thoseconcerned about a particular areaenquiries to the planning authorityare the first step. There is no clearrural/urban pattern of authoritieswhich do maintain a register. Mostimportant, perhaps, is the fact thatmany planning authorities and listinginspectors have been very reluctantand, despite recent changes inguidance, remain reluctant to list anypost-1800 buildings unless they areconsidered to be of architecturalmerit, with the occasional exceptionof structures associated with wellknown and significant engineers orinnovators. Certainly, there are manystructures of great industrialarchaeological significance which areunlisted and only local awarenessand action can do anything to ensuretheir survival or at the very leastmake a proper record.

David AldertonLifting out the massive beam at Goonvean pit Photo: Kingsley Rickard


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Lancashire textile millsassessment surveyDuring the 1980s, county-widesurveys of textile mills in WestYorkshire, Greater Manchester, andEast Cheshire were supported by theformer Royal Commission on theHistorical Monuments of England(RCHME). The principal aim of thesesurveys was to produce as full arecord as possible of the buildings ofthe textile industry, and to examinetheir importance in the architecturalheritage of the region. The surveysalso created a reliable informationbase to provide consistentinformation on all the extant mills,which could be used by the DistrictPlanning Authorities when assessingapplications for new developments.For several reasons, however,historic textile-manufacturing sitesin Lancashire were not subject to asurvey at that time and,consequently, an adequateinformation base that can beconsulted to assess developmentproposals and their impact on thesurviving industrial heritage ispresently lacking; there are thoughtto be between 2,000 and 2,500textile-manufacturing sites inLancashire, although there are onlyapproximately 1,000 recorded onthe county Historic EnvironmentRecord (HER).

The twenty-first century hasbrought increasing pressures for theredevelopment of mills andassociated historic industrial sites,not least through the government’sUrban Task Force, which has

highlighted regeneration of urbanareas and the ‘recycling’ ofexisting land and buildings withthe development of ‘brownfield’sites. Moreover, the continuingdecline of traditionalmanufacturing industry has led toeconomic diversification and thecontinuing loss of former textilemills.

In response to the currentthreat to the county’s richindustrial heritage, the LancashireTextile Mills Assessment Surveyhas been initiated by LancashireCounty Council, in partnershipwith English Heritage, who hasprovided the funding. Theprincipal aim is to develop adatabase of the state of textile-manufacturing sites in Lancashire,based on cartographicinformation and other primarysources. Textile-manufacturingsites are taken to comprise thepreparation, spinning, weavingand finishing of organic textiles,including cotton, wool, silk,fustian, and jute, and man-madefabrics, such as oilcloth and rayon.Ancillary works that weredemonstrably part of the textileindustry, such as finishing works,iron foundries, and engineeringworks that produced textilemachinery, are also to be included.

The specific objectives of theproject are to identify from primarysources all the textile-manufacturing sites in Lancashire,review the existing baseline data onsuch sites held in the Lancashire

HER, develop an initial databasethat is coupled to a geographicinformation system (GIS), produce adesk-based survey, and update theLancashire HER. It is intended thatthe results will also be used fordetermining more precisely whatfurther stages of field assessmentwill need to be developed tosafeguard the remains of thecounty’s internationally significantindustrial heritage.

The assessment survey is beingcarried out on behalf of LancashireCounty Council by OxfordArchaeology North, and the processof data gathering is now firmlyunderway. Further information onthe project can be obtained from theProject Manager, Ian Miller, atOxford Archaeology North([email protected]).

Ian Miller

Is IMATT for you?A major survey carried out in late2005 made clear the precariousstate of traditional skills across thesector. The message was thatsomething needed to be done nowto stop these vital skills dying out

completely. The Industrial, Maritime,Aviation and Transport Technologies(IMATT) Training Scheme isadministered and co-ordinated byHampshire County CouncilMuseums and Archives Service. TheHeritage Lottery Fund has awarded£360,500 to provide bursaries inheritage skills training over a four-year period. Aimed specifically atrestoration and conservationpractitioners in the industrial andtransport heritage sector, thesebursaries offer applicants thechance to enhance their skills andexperience.

The scheme is open equally tovolunteers and paid staff. It is basedon a national network of trainingcentres at established heritageinstitutions that can offer specialisttraining. The very wide range ofskills being offered include practical‘on the bench’ training and practicaloperational skills in themaintenance and operation ofmachinery/transport. Apart from themain areas of practical training in allthe transport disciplines the schemecan offer specialist training in themaintenance and operation of

Talbot Mill, Chorley, was the largest integrated spinning and weaving mill in Lancashirewhen built in 1906/7. The mill was demolished in 2002 Photo: © Crown copyright. NMR


NEWS

industrial machinery includingtextile, printing and early machinetools.

Applicants might be aconservator with some IndustrialCollections experience, looking toadd more practical skills to theirportfolio and to developing newskills towards full PACRaccreditation; a postgraduatelooking to enter the IndustrialConservation sector and seekingpractical skills from a placement; aprofessional working in related skillslooking for a career change; aMuseum Technician with IndustrialCollections experience looking toadd more practical skills to theirportfolio and possibly workingtowards conservator status; anindustrial heritage site, preservedrailway or transport museumemployee looking to gain furtherexperience in the operation and careof their collections; a volunteerworking within a railway/transportsociety or industrial heritageinstitution, looking to add furtherskills and undertake increasedresponsibility for the maintenanceand operation of the collections intheir care; or a 3rd or 4th yearapprentice working within amuseum, industrial heritageinstitution, transport society or acommercial heritage engineeringcompany, who would be looking foropportunities to broaden theirunderstanding and practical skillsbase in addition to their formaltraining programme.

If you work in the transport andindustrial heritage sector in a paidor volunteer role and think aHeritage Lottery Funded TrainingBursary could help you, visit thewebsite: www3.hants.gov.uk/museum/imatt.htm for full details ofthe project. Applications should bemade to: The Training Manager, HLFSkills Training Bursary Scheme(IMATT), Hampshire County CouncilMuseums and Archives Service,Chilcomb House, Chilcomb Lane,Winchester, SO23 8RD.

Spike receivesConservation AwardThe 2008 Conservation Award of theSurrey Industrial History Group waspresented to the CharlottevilleJubilee Trust on 12 July for therestoration of ‘The Spike’, the formerCasual Ward of the Guildford UnionWorkhouse. The award wascommemorated by the presentation

of a plaque to Mr John Redpath(Chairman, Charlotteville JubileeTrust) by Mr Robert Bryson(Chairman, SIHG). This is the 26thannual conservation award made bythe SIHG.

‘The Spike’ was the colloquialname given to all the casual wardsfor vagrants attached to the manyworkhouses established throughoutthe country under the Poor LawReform Act of 1834. This one wasattached to the Guildford UnionWorkhouse and is a rare survival. Itwas built in 1906. After theworkhouse site was taken over by StLuke’s Hospital it was used for thestorage of medical records, to whichit probably owes its survival.The work involved the restoration ofmany of the cells and other facilitiesused by the vagrants, both for thosewith some money and those whohad to earn their night’s lodging bybreaking stones, wood-cutting oroakum-picking. The remainder ofthe building has been converted forcommunity use, with meeting andeducation rooms, and a day-nursery.It was formally opened in January2008.The work was supported bythe Heritage Lottery Fund, SurreyCounty Council and GuildfordBorough Council. For furtherinformation visit the website atwww.charlotteville.co.uk .

Americans honourBritish engine of 1841On 2 July 2008 the American Societyof Mechanical Engineers held aceremony to designate the Pennoscillating engine in the paddlesteamer Diesbar as a ‘HistoricalMechanical Engineering Landmark’.

This engine has been in service insteamers on the Elbe since 1841when it was installed in theBohemia. Penn’s design ofoscillating engine with the valvechest removed from the centraltrunnions became the ‘standard’concept for all other makers andenabled the oscillating engine tobecome favoured for paddlesteamers until the arrival of thecompound engine. The cylinders are24½ x 27 in, the pressure 36psi andthe max power 110hp. Thecrankshaft was replaced in 1853(with a 10 year guarantee), onecylinder was replaced in 1870 andboth in 2002. Its more than 160years of service is truly remarkable.

Richard Hartree

Tinsley Towers toppledSheffield’s Tinsley cooling towerswere blown up at 3am on Sunday24 August, watched by a largecrowd assembled at the nearbyMeadowhall Shopping Centre. Thetwo 76m (250ft) towers remainedfrom a group of seven after theBlackburn Meadows electricitygenerating station was demolishedin the 1970s. The landmarks next tothe M1 were called the ‘Gateway toYorkshire by passing motorists.Despite a petition to save them, theywere found to be structurallyunsafe. The owner E.on is to developa biomass power station on the site.

Smoking stacks ‘Mine and Yours’, a week of eventscelebrating Cornwall’s past,included the lighting of 21 minechimney fires using straw and haynear Camborne at the end of June.

Thousands turned out to watch thespectacle which re-created theskyline smoking engine housechimneys of the nineteenth century.

Medieval canalsdiscoveredMartin Redding of the WithamValley Archaeology ResearchCommittee, has used aerialphotographs to discover a networkof almost 60 miles of medievalcanals in the Lincolnshire Fens. Nowcompletely silted-up, they may havebeen built by monks for transportingstone.

Contacting Herefordwaterworks Please note that the telephonenumber for contacting theWaterworks Museum at Hereford(reported in IA News 146, page 7)should be 01600 890118.

InternationalMolinologyThe International MolinologySociety (TIMS) fosters worldwideinterest and understanding of wind,water, human and animal poweredmills, as well as encouragingresearch and promoting therestoration of mills. Every four yearsan International Symposium is heldin one of the member countries. Thelatest edition of the journalInternational Molinology, No.76,July 2008, includes articles on earlyAmerican flour mills, windmillwashers of the Pacific (ingeniouswind-powered washing machinesbuilt by American servicemen inwartime Pacific), mills in Slovenia,the water-powered Orton Bradleysawmill in New Zealand, mills onSouth African stamps, and manyshorter items. It is available at £6.50incl. p&p from the editor, TonyBonson, TIMS, 14 Falmouth Road,Congleton, Cheshire CW12 3BH.Details of membership of TIMS canbe found on the website:www.timsmills.info.

The 1841 Penn oscillating engine in the paddle steamer Diesbar is now a ‘HistoricalMechanical Engineering Landmark’ Photo: Richard Hartree

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REGIONAL NEWS

South West England Probably the most significant newsthis year was the acquisition by theNational Trust of Wheal Trewavas asreported in IA News 146.Conservation work on the site islikely to run through to at leastautumn 2009. September 2008 alsosaw the remarkable activity torescue the 1863 Harvey beamengine from Goonvean clay pit,reported elsewhere in this issue.

On the debit side there has beenvandalism on Cornish sites withmany thousands of pounds worth ofdamage at Geevor Mine and majorproblems at Cornwall’s firstgeological reserve, St. Erth Pits, nearHayle. Formerly known as Harvey’sPit, and in the care of CornwallWildlife Trust since 1986, the site wasworked for clay and sand from the1830s. The clay was used by, amongothers, legendary potter BernardLeach, and the sand was used atHarvey’s Hayle Foundry for moulding.BMX and mountain bike riders havedamaged trees and quarry faces, andtorn down walkways.

Other losses include the ‘OldHolman Shed’ an early prefabricatedbuilding erected at Dolcoath Mine inthe 1890s to house CalifornianStamps. In the 1940s it was movedto Pool and used to make parts forBailey Bridges and MulberryHarbours. Ownership had passed viaHolman Brothers and South Croftyto Kerrier District Council, whodecided to demolish it. Despite thefact that its pitch pine frame andgalvanised iron cladding madedismantling and reassemblyfeasible, the council decided inSeptember 2007 to scrap it butannounced triumphantly that thetimber would be reused at itsproposed Robinson’s Shaft heritagesite. This seemed only slightly betterthan burning the building and

saving the ashes. A more recentstructure to disappear was theremaining headgear at MountWellington Mine, near Truro. Unusedsince 1992 it was finally demolishedin November 2007.

A number of redevelopmentprojects, affecting industrial sites inCornwall, secured planningconsents during the year. Theseincluded the Heartlands Project atPool, based around the formerRobinson’s Shaft of South Crofty(awarded £22 million of Lotteryfunding), the former HolmanBrothers No. 3 Rock Drill Works inCamborne and the Perran Foundrysite at Perranarworthal. It remainsto be seen how the current financialcrisis will impact on such projects.Baseresult continued with theirplans to reopen South Crofty mine,having formed a new company,Western United Mines, for thepurpose and secured £50 million infunding in late 2007.

Autumn 2008 saw completionof the £3.8 million project toconserve some 20 listed buildingson the Geevor site; the opening of‘Hard Rock’, Geevor’s new miningmuseum was scheduled for Octoberand the mine also announced itsintention to open up more of theshallow levels at Wheal Mexico tovisitors. Geevor also shared withPorthcurno Telegraph and two othermuseums a £1 million packagesecured by the Universities of Exeterand Falmouth in August. The fundswill be used to update physicaldisplays and create web-basedexhibitions.

The last beam engine to workcommercially in Cornwall, the 30-inch Greensplat engine, which hasbeen at Wendron Forge since 1974,has been completely refurbishedand is now pumping water from aflooded shaft.

Cornwall County Councilcontinues work on the MineralTramways Project with new linksplanned including one from CarnMarth to Twelveheads viaCarharrack and Wheal Maidfollowing part of the former Redruthand Chasewater Railway.

The wider influence of Cornwalland its people continues to berecognised. In September 2007 aCornish contingent attended theopening of the Allihies Copper MineMuseum in West Cork by Ireland’sPresident. The museum is housed inan 1845 chapel built by Cornishminers. Many Cornish captains andminers worked at Allihies between1812 and 1884. One John RichardsReed was manager there for 30years and there is a spectacularengine house built for an engineinstalled by Michael Loam & Son in1862. Early in 2008 formal twinninglinks were set up with Mexico,Camborne being linked to Pachucaand Redruth to Real del Monte. TheCornish Mining World Heritage SiteOffice at Cornwall County Council isexploring the extension of the siteto Cornish Mining sites abroad. Sitesunder consideration are New

Zealand, Australia, South Africa,Spain, Ireland and Mexico.

Spring gales in March destroyedthe sea lock gates of the historicBude Canal, with the cost of repairsput at £250,000. The aim was tocomplete repairs in May, combinedwith a dredging project originallyplanned for the autumn. The Budegates are the only ones in the countryto open directly into the Atlantic. InJuly the celebrated West Countryschooner Kathleen & May docked atPenzance from Brest with a cargo of30,000 bottles of Languedoc wine enroute to Dublin. She was undercharter to the French Compagnie deTransport Maritime a la Voile.

In Devon, early 2008 saw thedisappearance of a major feature onPlymouth’s waterfront when thegrain silo dating from 1942 at thecity’s Millbay Docks was demolished.Designed by noted structuralengineer Oscar Faber, andmemorably characterised by Pevsneras ‘a secularises Albi Cathedral’, itwas built to enable wartime graincargoes from North America to makethe earliest possible landfall, but hadbeen disused for many years. It isalleged to have survived for many


Mount Wellington Mine began tin production in 1976 Photo: Peter Stanier

years due to its acting as a‘windbreak’ for docking BrittanyFerries. Its dense and heavilyreinforced structure and poor siteaccess made re-use impractical. Thesite will be a lorry park. One ofPlymouth’s oldest industrial sites, themedieval Blackfriars Gin Distillery onthe Barbican, was damaged by fire inMarch. Members will, I am sure, berelieved to hear that the fire wasconfined to an upstairs kitchen andproduction was unaffected.

On a brighter note, acombination of intense local andnational campaigning saw thelisting of the surviving Brunelatmospheric pumping station atTotnes as a first step towardsensuring its survival and re-use.

In 2007 archaeological activityat Morwellham Quay uncovered the1858 tunnel of the Devon GreatConsols Railway and this was due tobe consolidated this summer. Otherwork included excavation of theupper deck and well of aneighteenth-century limekiln; thiswould uncover a quantity ofnineteenth-century domestic rubbishfrom the neighbouring Ship Inn. Forthe coming winter plans includereinstatement of the overheadrailway on the Great Dock ore floors,and further excavations at theLimestone and Lower Copper Quays.There are plans to link Morwellhamwith the Devon Great Consols site bya multi-use trail and a tunnelbeneath the A390 at Gulworthy.Mining in Devon may see a revival.Wolf Minerals, an Australiancompany, have announced theirintention to reopen the Hemerdonwolfram mine, near Plymouth, withwork starting in 2010.

Finally I am conscious thatCornish news is somewhatpreponderant in this report. I shouldvery much welcome more reportsfrom Devon, particularly the northand east of the county.

Graham Thorne

South East EnglandThe year 2008 saw the 100thanniversary of the flight atFarnborough on 16 October 1908 ofBritish Army Aircraft No.1A, pilotedby Samuel Franklin Cody. That thiswas the first demonstration in Britainof controlled, powered flight is nowgenerally accepted. The rival claim ofA.V. Roe’s aircraft, which may havelifted off the ground in June 1908,can be held invalid because it couldnot have been a demonstration of

controlled flight, as the aircraft,having no fin or rudder and anopenwork fuselage, would have beenuncontrollable in yaw.

A non-flying replica of Cody’saircraft and its engine has beenconstructed by the Farnborough AirSciences Trust, involving a projectteam of over 40 people. It wasdisplayed at the Farnborough AirShow in July, and will be installedpermanently adjacent to the FASTMuseum at Trenchard House atFarnborough. This is in itself anhistoric site as it was the headquartersof the RE Balloon School, and fromAugust 1914 of the Royal FlyingCorps. A replica of A.V. Roe’s aircrafthas also been constructed, again by asubstantial project team, at theBrooklands Museum. This is intendedto be flown, and was shown taxiing atthe celebration of its 100thanniversary at Brooklands in June.

In Hampshire, calamity struckthe project to restore the motorlaunch Medusa (HDML 1387) whenthe workshop building at Hythe,Southampton, caught fire in October2007. The three engines within werebadly damaged, one beyond repair,and aluminium and brass compon-ents melted. Many internal fittingsfor the boat were destroyed, as werefurniture, tools and woodworkingmachinery. Fortunately Medusaitself was not affected and the twodamaged engines are being rebuilt.It is still hoped to complete therestoration project in 2008. Aproject by the British MilitaryPowerboat Trust to restore the FMBArk Royal was also affected, in thatan engine and gearbox weredamaged, although the boat itselfwas unharmed.

Meanwhile, the PS Monarchsteamed from its former home inKent to the Isle of Wight, where itbegan operating on the RiverMedina in the spring of 2008. At42ft, the vessel is thought to be thesmallest commercially-operatedpaddle steamer in the world.

In Sussex, a notable event in therestoration programme of the Weyand Arun Canal was thebreakthrough on 2 June of thetunnel under the B2133 road atLoxwood. The hump-backed bridgeat this site was removed after thecanal closed. To replace it with alevel bridge required the canal bedto be lowered and a new lockconstructed beyond the bridge toreturn it to its original level. This lockwas completed in May 2007.

Construction of the new bridge/tunnel under the road began inJanuary 2008 and is now welladvanced. It is constructed ofreinforced concrete and is costing£1.5m, raised by the Trust’s ownefforts.

The Volks Electric RailwayAssociation has rescued the originaldynamo which provided power forVolks Electric Railway at Brighton in1883. It was, with other historicmachines, in imminent danger ofbeing scrapped by the ElectricalEngineering Department of BrightonUniversity. It can now be seen at theSussex Heritage Centre at Hassocks.The dynamo was manufactured bySiemens at Woolwich in 1878 andgenerates 50 volts DC at 46 amps. Itwas driven by an Otto gas engine,now lost.

Planning permission has beengranted for the rebuilding ofAshcombe Windmill at Kingston-near-Lewes. This was a six-sweeppost mill destroyed in a gale in 1916,but sufficient photographs areavailable to allow it to bereconstructed so as to be almostindistinguishable externally from theoriginal. Some iron parts even remainscattered about the site. Internally,however, things will be different.Although one pair of stones will beinstalled, the mill will principally beused to generate electricity. Amaximum of about 35 kW is expectedto be available. It is a planningrequirement that any surplus shouldbe exported to the grid in accordancewith the renewable energy policy ofthe future South Downs NationalPark. It is thought that the mill will bekept turning for about 70% of thetime. Work should start at thebeginning of 2009.

The Amberley Working Museumhas received a grant of some

£400,000 from the Heritage LotteryFund for the restoration of their DeWitt lime kilns and for the creationof an interpretative display. Thelime-burning industry at Amberleylasted from the early 1800s to 1969.The kilns are a Scheduled AncientMonument and are at present onthe English Heritage ‘At Risk’register. Support has also been givenby the West Sussex County Council,Horsham District Council and theFriends of Amberley WorkingMuseum.

In Kent, the ‘New RoperyExperience’ at Chatham was openedin July by Prince Michael of Kent(Patron, Chatham Historic DockyardVolunteer Service). This is a newgallery formed in the ¼ mile longropewalk to demonstrate to visitorsthe processes of ropemaking as usedsince 1816. The Prince also viewedsome of the other work the CHDVShas carried out over the past year.

The Surrey Industrial HistoryGroup has been making awards tonotable conservation projects in thecounty since 1983, commemoratedby the presentation of a plaque fordisplay at the site. A new bookletentitled 25 Years of ConservationAwards 1983 -2007 describes eachof the award sites and its presentcondition and accessibility. The 2008award was given to theCharlotteville Jubilee Trust for therestoration of ‘The Spike’, the formercasual ward of the Guildford UnionWorkhouse, as reported elsewherein this issue.

The works of Swallow Tiles Ltd.at Cranleigh have closed down,having been refused planningpermission for redevelopment. Theymade, by hand, clay roofing tiles, andhad been in operation since 1860.

Alan Thomas


REGIONAL NEWS

The Cody Flyer at the Farnborough Air Show Photo: Farnborough Air Sciences Trust


PUBLICATIONS

Local Society and other periodicals received

Abstracts will appear in Industrial Archaeology Review.

Berkshire Industrial Archaeology Group News, 17, Spring 2008Brewery History, 128Brewery History Society Newsletter, 42, Summer 2008; 43, Autumn2008Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society Bulletin, 124, Summer 2008Conservation Bulletin (English Heritage), 58, Summer 2008 Cumbria Industrial History Society Bulletin, 71, August 2008Dorset Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 21, May 2008Greater London Industrial Archaeology Journal, 9, 2008Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 236, June2008; 237, August 2008 Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society Journal, 16, 2008Hampshire Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 70, July 2008Hampshire Mills Group Newsletter, 81, Summer 2008Histelec News: Newsletter of the South Western Electricity HistoricalSociety, 39, August 2008Historic Gas Times, 55, June 2008International Molinology: the Journal of the InternationalMolinology Society, 76, July 2008Leicestershire Industrial History Society Newsletter, Summer 2008Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 125,August 2008Merseyside Industrial Heritage Society Newsletter, 286, June 2008 Museum of Bath at Work Newsletter, Summer 2008Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group Newsletter, 107,Summer 2008 SAVE Britain’s Heritage Newsletter, December 2007Scottish Industrial Heritage Society Bulletin, 48, September 2008Suffolk Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 101, May 2008Surrey Industrial History Group Newsletter, 164, July 2008; 165,September 2008Sussex Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 139, July 2008Sussex Mills Group Newsletter, 139, July 2008Trevithick Society Newsletter, 140, July 2008WaterWords: News from the Waterworks Museum, Hereford, Summer2008Yorkshire Archaeological Society Industrial History SectionNewsletter, 73, Late Spring 2008

Books received

Bishop Rock Lighthouse, by Elisabeth Stanbrook, Twelveheads Press,2008. 184 pages, 86 illus. ISBN 978 0 906294 69 7. Soft back £16.00.

The famous rock lighthouse off the Western Rocks of the Isles of Scilly,with nothing but the Atlantic between here and America. Three generationsof the Douglass family (Nicholas, James and William Tregarthen) worked asengineers for Trinity House on the three lights established here. JamesWalker’s first iron lighthouse was hardly finished when it was destroyed by astorm in 1850. This was replaced by a granite tower in 1858 but the relentlessbattering by sea and weather caused weaknesses so the whole structure wasenclosed and heightened to a magnificent tower 147ft high in the 1880s. Theworkforce struggled with great skill, courage and tenacity on the wave-sweptrock. Supplies of building materials, the accommodation for the workmen,initially on the remote rocky islet of Rosevear, and communications werechallenging in the extreme. Despite the lighthouse the dangerous rocks stilltook their toll, with horrendous shipwrecks such as the German liner Schillerin 1875, when the keepers could do nothing but watch the helpless survivors;this was long before there was a system of communicating with the rescueauthorities. This well-produced book tells the story of the lighthouse’sconstruction, the workers who built and maintained it, the keepers whoensured it was always available, and the relief boatmen who provided thevital link. The book draws extensively on original documents, photographsand plans, many published for the first time.

A Guide to the IndustrialArchaeology of Wiltshire, ed. byPamela M. Slocombe, Associationfor Industrial Archaeology, 2008.64pp, 90 illus & maps, mostly incolour. ISBN 978 0 9560251 0 4.£5.50.

Published for the AnnualConference at Lackham in August2008, this is the first AIA guide toinclude colour illustrationsthroughout. There are over 400sites in the five districts listed inthe gazetteer, demonstrating thewide variety of industries, includingrural breweries, maltings, ironworking sites, underground stonequarries, tanneries, glove making,mills, woollen, silk and flax textiles,as well as road, canal and rail transport. The county has iconic sites such asJohn Rennie’s magnificent flight of locks on the Kennet & Avon Canal at CaenHill, Devizes, and I.K. Brunel’s 1841 Box tunnel on the Great Western Railway.

John Penn and Sons of Greenwich, by Richard Hartree, 2008. 128pp, 83illus. ISBN 9-781-84306-411-4. £14.99. Obtainable, plus £1.50 p&p fromRichard Hartree, Stables Cottage, Sibford Ferris, Banbury OX15 5RE, email:[email protected].

Established at Greenwich in the 1790s, John Penn I’s firm grew throughthree generations into a leading marine engine supplier to the Royal Navyand other world navies. Nearly half the navy’s engines were supplied byPenn in the 1850s, including gunboats used at the Crimea. Theymanufactured reliable trunk engines, such as used in HMS Warrior, andoscillating engines, a survivor of which on the steamer Diesbar wasrecognised in July 2008 as a ‘Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark’(see page 16). A three-cylinder compound engine was less successful. Otherinnovations included John Penn II’s successful lignum vitae propeller shaftbearings, patented in 1854. The Greenwich engineering site, however, waspoorly sited and there were always difficulties transporting heavy loadsthrough the streets to the Thames where ships were fitted out. Financialdifficulties resulted in the firm being bought in 1899 by the famousshipbuilders Thames Ironworks, but the works finally closed in 1912. Thebook tells a fascinating story and gives an insight into the Royal navy’sattitude towards steam and engineers. The care the Penns took with theiremployees is also highlighted. An epilogue by Prudence Penn tells of thefamily’s contrasting twentieth-century role of 60 years service in the RoyalHousehold.

The Victorian Asylum, by Sarah Rutherford, Shire Publications, 2008. 56pp,76 illus, many in colour. ISBN 978 0 7478 0669 1. £5.99.

In the new-look Shire Library series, this book gives an insight intoVictorian asylums, their history, their often imposing architecture and theirlater decline. Britain’s nineteenth-century asylums provide a unique windowon how the Victorians housed and treated the mentally ill. Despite goodintentions, they became warehouses for society’s outcasts. Hidden in thecountryside, there were 120 or so in England and Wales alone. Today manyasylum buildings have gone or are threatened, or turned into private homes,their original uses forgotten. The book includes contemporary illustrationsand plans of the buildings and their surrounding grounds.

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DIARY

19-20 NOVEMBER 2008ON THE WATERFRONTCONFERENCEat Liverpool, the European Capital ofCulture 2008, a major internationalEnglish Heritage conference toexplore the future of port cities,from Shanghai to Mumbai. There isa full programme of workshops andLiverpool city walks. To book a placevisit www.english-heritage.org.uk/onthewaterfront.

4-5 APRIL 2009AIA AFFILIATED SOCIETIESWEEKEND: ‘CONSERVATIONPLANNING FORCOLLECTIONS’at Ironbridge, advance notice only.See page 11 for more details.

25 APRIL 2009SERIAC at the Guildhall, Winchester, theSouth East Region IA Conference onthe theme of IA in Hampshire andthe Isle of Wight, with a post-conference visit to TwyfordWaterworks. Hosted by HampshireIA Society. Advance notice.

16 MAY 2009SW&WRIACat The Charles Hastings EducationCentre, Worcester, the South Wales& West Region IA Conference,organised by Worcester IA and LocalHistory Society. Advance notice. Forfurther details and a booking formplease contact Christine Silvester, 12Upper Park Street, Worcester, WR51EX. Email enquiries to RogerTapping at: [email protected]

3-7 JUNE 2009 FE 09 COALBROOKDALE 300– FOOTPRINTS OF INDUSTRY at Ironbridge, a celebration of 300years of coke smelting of iron and50 years since the restoration of theold furnace at Coalbrookdale, withlectures, keynote addresses and fieldvisits. Hosted by the IronbridgeGorge Museum Trust, with the AIA,Historical Metallurgy Society,Society for Post-MedievalArchaeology and the NewcomenSociety. See the AIA website formore details.

3O AUGUST – 5 SEPTEMBER2009 TICCIH 14TH CONGRESS :INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE,ECOLOGY AND ECONOMY at Freiberg, Germany. Advancenotice only.

4 SEPTEMBER 2009 THE STUDY OF OURINDUSTRIAL PAST at the University of Lincoln, the pre-conference seminar. Advance noticeonly.

4-10 SEPTEMBER 2009 AIA ANNUAL CONFERENCE at the University of Lincoln. Advancenotice only.

5-8 NOVEMBER 2009ARCHAEOLOGY OF BRIDGES at Regensburg, Germany, thisinternational congress aims toprovide a discussion forum for theidentification of locations,development and constructionprinciples of bridges in differentregions and countries, fromprehistory to the beginning of the

nineteenth century, based onarchaeological and historicalresearch. The formal Call for Paperswill be published in October 2008.Papers and posters can besubmitted as from now. For furtherinformation send an e-mail [email protected].

SS Robin leaves the West India Docks and the financial world behind, 28 June 2008 (see inside, page 13)Photo: R J M Carr

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS(formerly AIA Bulletin ISSN 0309-0051)ISSN 1354-1455

Editor: Dr Peter Stanier

Published by the Association for IndustrialArchaeology. Contributions should besent to the Editor, Dr Peter Stanier, 49Breach Lane, Shaftesbury, Dorset SP7 8LF.News and press releases may be sent tothe Editor or the appropriate AIA RegionalCorrespondents. The Editor may betelephoned on 01747 854707 or e-mail:[email protected].

Final copy dates are as follows:

1 January for February mailing1 April for May mailing1 July for August mailing1 October for November mailing

The AIA was established in 1973 to promotethe study of Industrial Archaeology andencourage improved standards of recording,research, conservation and publication. Itaims to assist and support regional andspecialist survey groups and bodies involvedin the preservation of industrial monuments,to represent the interests of IndustrialArchaeology at national level, to holdconferences and seminars and to publish theresults of research. The AIA publishes anannual Review and quarterly News bulletin.Further details may be obtained from theLiaison Officer, AIA Liaison Office, TheIronbridge Institute, Ironbridge GorgeMuseum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX. Tel: 01325 359846.

The views expressed in this bulletin arenot necessarily those of the Associationfor Industrial Archaeology.

Information for the diary shouldbe sent directly to the Editor assoon as it is available. Dates ofmailing and last dates forreceipt of copy are given below.Items will normally appear insuccessive issues up to the dateof the event. Please ensuredetails are sent in if you wishyour event to be advised.

industrial archaeologynews...this year’s annual conference was at lackham college near chippenham,...

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