AIA News 140 Spring 2007 - industrial-archaeology.org

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

NEWSTHE BULLETIN OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY FREE TO MEMBERS OF AIA

Cork Conference � Heritage Lottery Fund � Marie NisserSS Robin � Record Fine for Demolition � Swedish Postscript

159WINTER

2011

AIA ConferenceCork 2010

Seventy five delegates assembled for this year’sConference held at the University College Cork,our first in a foreign land and, amazingly, theweather remained dry and fine throughout.

Roger Ford

Star turn was Dr. Colin Rynne, President of theIndustrial Heritage Society of Ireland and 2007Rolt Memorial Lecturer, whose knowledge of Irish– particularly social – history and anecdotes ofthe local scene was very evident as he guided uson all the field trips. Time is a somewhat flexiblecommodity in the Emerald Isle, which delegateshad to make allowances for. Accommodation wasabsolutely first rate; unfortunately it was situateda mile or so from the venue for the lectures andthe staff dining room (the latter producing amplenourishing food). This would have tested the longdistance mobility of some of our older colleaguesto the limit had not lifts been available.

First day, Friday, was seminar day until2.30pm, with several good papers by some of thestudents from the University of Cork. Afterwards,delegates were bussed to the preserved Midletondistillery. These buildings have a very mixedhistory having been converted from a mill tothree malting kilns in 1830 (from which thedistillery evolved) and are now preserved purelyas a tourist site. This activity dates from the1850s, capacity gradually building from 400,000gallons per year to 2 ½ million litres (the Irish liketo mix their measurements) in 1974, the last yearof operation. There is a splendid 22 footbreastshot wheel by Fairbairns of Manchester,working from 1852 until closure, which still has

all its associated machinery intact and often turns-but not for our party- supplemented by a secondhand steam engine, also from Manchester. Theprize exhibit is the largest pot still in the worldwith a capacity of 31,648 gallons.

Dr. Rynne delivered the Friday evening lectureon the IA of the Munster region. Unsurprisingly,because of the climate, such industries as existedwere primarily water powered, as Ireland has nocoal and the peat has a low calorific value. Somequarrying went on in the area, the local limestonehaving the hardness, quality and appearance ofmarble. Principal activities were food and drinkrelated – distilling, brewing and butterproduction.

Saturday morning’s talks started with PeterFoynes, curator of the Cork Butter ExchangeMuseum, on its archaeology – at its height400,000 firkins of 70lbs capacity were exportedall over the world. The trade in the 1870s earnedin excess of £1,500,000 each year.

Next up, Dr Rynne talked on County Cork’sbrewing and distilling, the power for which camefrom the many streams descending from themountains, whilst the water came from artesianwells. By 1780 1,228 distilleries were producingcheap gin and whisky – beer only came intofashion in the nineteenth century. Cooperage wasa major skilled trade at this time and land toallow the casks to mature was at a premium.

The morning concluded with a wonderful1947 documentary film of the Monard waterpowered spade mills – in Ireland 1,100 differentvarieties of spade were in use for the varioustasks. The same water was used at three differentlevels of millponds, work progressing steadilyfrom one mill to the next, as the water turned thewheels.

Short presentations ranging from industrialarchaeology in Malta to reconstruction of aVictorian station roof kept us interested during

2—INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS—159

INDUSTRIALARCHAEOLOGY

NEWS 159Winter 2011

Honorary PresidentProf Marilyn Palmer63 Sycamore Drive, Groby, Leicester LE6 0EWChairmanMark Sissons 33 Burgate, Pickering, North Yorkshire YO18 7AUVice-ChairmanVacantSecretaryDavid de HaanAIA Liaison Office, Ironbridge Gorge Museum,Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DXTreasurerBruce Hedge7 Clement Close, Wantage, Oxon OX12 7EDIA Review EditorsHelen Gomersall & Dr Mike Nevell14 Church Hill, Luddenden, Halifax HX2 6PZIA News EditorChris BarneyThe Barn, Back Lane, Birdingbury CV23 8ENAffiliated Societies OfficerVacantConference SecretaryJohn McGuinness29 Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PBEndangered Sites OfficerAmber PatrickFlat 2, 14 Lypiatt Terrace, Cheltenham GL50 2SXLibrarian and ArchivistJohn PowellIronbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DXPublicity OfficerRoy Murphy3 Wellington Road, Ombersley, Worcs WR9 0DZRecording Awards OfficerShane KelleherSales OfficerRoger FordBarn Cottage, Bridge Street, Bridgnorth, Shropshire WV15 6AFCouncil MembersDavid Alderton (Heritage Alliance)Bill Barksfield (overseas trips)Mike Bone (Heritage Alliance)Dr Robert Carr (BA Awards)Dr Paul Collins (Conservation Award & Partnerships)Tony CrosbySteve Dewhirst (Conservation Award)Michael Messenger (Website manager)Stephen Miles (Conference bookings)Paul Saulter (overseas trips)Peter StanierMark Watson (TICCIH GB National Rep)Dr Ian West (Health & Safety)Honorary Vice-PresidentsProf Angus Buchanan Sir Neil CossonsProf John Hume Stuart B. Smith

Liaison OfficerDavid de Haan and Anne Sutherland (assistant), AIA LiaisonOffice, The Ironbridge Institute, Ironbridge Gorge Museum,Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX. Tel: 01325 359846. E-mail: [email protected]: www.industrial-archaeology.org

COVER PICTURE

Generator Hall at Ardnacrusha. In 1931 these threeSiemens-Shuckert machines produced 96% of theelectricity in the Irish Free State

Photo: Chris Barney Jamesons Midleton Distrillery Warehouse Photo: Peter Stanier

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS—159—3

the afternoon. Particularly noteworthy was acontribution entitled ‘Industrial past of Czechlands’ from our visitors from Czechoslovakia ledby Vaclav Matousek. We hope to see them again.The conference dinner was held in the River LeeHotel where we all enjoyed a treat, alcohol withdinner – there being none available in the staffdining room. The menu featured delicious Irishdishes and was much appreciated.

Sunday took the usual form of an outline ofproposed foreign trips in 2012, the AssociationAGM and the Rolt Memorial Lecture. Delivered byProfessor Patrick Malone, this covered thedevelopment of the vast and complex waterpower system in Lowell, Massachusetts andparticularly the need to guard against theoccasional but potentially devastating floods onthe Merrimac River. Professor Malone’s book onthe subject Waterpower in Lowell won the AIAPeter Neaverson Award in 2010 so it was good tohear him speak on the subject and be able to askquestions. It was the first time the Rolt lecture hasbeen delivered by an American.

In the afternoon we enjoyed a saunterthrough a public park where, in 1794, wereestablished the Ballincollig gunpowder mills, at431 acres second only to Waltham Abbey workswhich we had visited during the Hatfieldconference. Not a lot remains of the originalbuildings, complex watercourses, wheel pits anddams, though a turbine that drove anincorporating mill still exists beneath a restoredbut closed off building. Security of the site duringthe various troubles was always a problem for theBritish authorities who subsequently sold the sitein 1833, demand having slumped after theNapoleonic Wars. One citizen stole powder fromhere, storing it in his loft – not a good idea in anage when lighting was by candle. When it wentup it took twelve acres of the city with it!

The evening lecture was about the coppermines of County Kerry, delivered by the Head ofthe Department of Archaeology at Cork, WilliamO’Brien, a noted prehistorian who neverthelessfascinated a group of industrial archaeologists!These were first worked about 2500BC and axesand other artefacts made from this copper havebeen found in many parts of Britain. It was lastworked, on a modest scale, between 1707 and1912. The most active period was 1804 to 1810when Cornish miners raised 3200 tons of orewhich went to Swansea for smelting, coal beingbrought back for the engines to keep the minedrained.

This prepared us for Monday’s trip, on aglorious sunny day. First stop was the disusedChetwynd railway viaduct, 1000 tons ofspectacular cast and wrought iron, constructed in1847. Next to Bandon town with a brief stop toview Overton cotton mill; an interesting site,totally derelict, which we didn’t have time toinspect. On to Bantry Bay to savour the superbcoastal scenery and then around the Ring ofBeara on a bumpy road to the Allihies coppermine where an absolute feast awaited us,prepared by the volunteer staff of the excellentmuseum. The welcome was so generous that itwas 4pm before all had partaken. A trek up the

Dr Colin Rynne and delegates at the Ballincollig Gunpowder Mills Photo: Bill Barksfield

Bantry Harbour Old Quay Photo: Peter Stanier

Restored Man-Engine House at Allihies Copper Mine Photo: Bill Barksfield


mountain followed to visit the spectacularconserved shell of Ireland’s only known man-engine which was also used for winding.

One way and another departure wasn’t until5.30pm (arrival back had been scheduled for5pm) and we actually made it at 9.30, by whichtime everyone, including the catering staff, hadlocked up and gone home. A very enjoyable daynevertheless and the Chinese takeaway next tothe accommodation registered a boost in takings.

Tuesday started with a visit to the CorkCorporation waterworks, the best preservedpumping station in Ireland. Here sit three triple-expansion Combe and Barbour steam enginesfrom 1905 with Corliss valve gear fed by twoLancashire boilers and connected to ram pumps.There is also a turbine house of 1888 with twinFourneyon turbines. The steam engines operateduntil superseded by electric centrifugal pumps in1938. They were retained as standby and usedoccasionally during and after the Second WorldWar.

After examining this splendid machinery andadmiring the impressive lunatic asylum buildingson the hilltop behind, the party forayed into thecentre of Cork where Dr. Rynne gave a conductedtour of what is left of its industrial archaeology.We started at Beamish and Crawford’s 1792porter brewery, modernised in the 1860s, itsextensive maltings now offices of the university.Adaptively reused warehousing was seen enroute to the Castle with its reputed panoramicview of the city (denied us because the gate waslocked). We found a small boatbuilding shedwhere the workers were happy to show us theirexpertise in constructing, amongst other craft,traditional coracles.

The tidal River Lee runs through the centre ofthe city in two main channels and there are somefine bridges – the original section of one goesback to 1713. Following lunch, the tour continuedto the site of the North Mall distillery from circa1782 until it burnt down in 1920. We passed asmall bit of the fifteenth century town wall whichsurvives as well as the vegetable and meatmarkets. The Harbour Commissioner’s bondedwarehouse of 1818 was admired and weobserved the site of Henry Ford’s 1912 tractorfactory. By 1920 it was obvious that this was awhite elephant and production was switched tothe model T. Closed in the 1980s, the factory isnow used for storage.

In the evening we all attended a scrumptiousspread, accompanied by wine laid on by Dr.Rynne’s wife Stella at the Cork Public Museum, ofwhich she is Director. The Museum has a finecollection of objects, including some remains of DrRynne’s excavations of early water mills. Wereturned to the university for dinner, thus gettingtwo feeds to compensate for the previous evening.

On Wednesday the field trip first visitedMallow Station of G.S.&W.R. where the original1847 building stands at right angles to therealigned station now in use. From there toLimerick on the Shannon, the country’s longestand widest river. This was first bridged in 950 andthe still working docks were viewed along withremnants of the gasworks etc.

Cork City Water Works with County Asylum behind Photo: Chris Barney

Penstocks at Ardnacrusha able to delivery 100 tons per second Photo: Bill Barksfield

Original Control Room at Ardnacrusha Power Station Photo: Chris Barney

After more hostelry research the partyadjourned to the amazing hydro-electric works atArdnacrusha. This impressive construction,German designed, took 5000 workers to bring itabout between 1926 and 1929, absorbing a largeproportion of the national budget. A dual tracknarrow gauge railway with 130 locomotives and3000 wagons were used to construct the 7 ½ milecanal bringing water to the 100 foot high damwhere the headrace delivers 100 tons of waterper second to four Siemens-Shuckert turbines. In1931 this station generated 96% of the currentused in the 26 counties. One of the mostimpressive aspects is a double lock, each with afall of 50 feet for pleasure boats, taking an hourto lock up or down. There is also a hydraulicsalmon lift to allow fish to pass the works.

On our return to Cork we were againindulged with a cheese and wine reception – thistime courtesy of Kerrygold – at the Butter MarketMuseum, a small museum but full of interest,before returning for dinner. The conference didn’timprove our waistlines any.

The last day we headed for Cork Harbour,again in fine weather (amazing), stopping inCobh where the tenders from transatlantic linersput in, and the last port of call for the Titanic (123passengers joined here). There is a memorial tothe victims of the 1916 torpedoing of theLusitania; the bodies were brought here forburial. We climbed up for a panoramic view ofHaulbowline Island which once housed the BritishNavy’s victualling yards and is now a base for theIrish Navy.

After lunch we went to Kinsale Head, offwhich the Lusitania went down. At this venue weexpected to visit the old light house. However, thearea is now a private golf club and we wererefused admittance as the owners had changedtheir minds. We had to make do with whatremains of a headland cottage which functioned

as a semaphore signal station from 1814 and waslived in until the 1940s.

Thus ended a conference which was quitedifferent from any of our previous ones, enlivenedby numerous amusing episodes. Everyone hadbent over backwards to be as helpful as possible– no jobsworths in Ireland. We look forward toChelmsford in 2012.

Professor MarieNisser (1937-2011)

Marie Nisser, who died in August, was one of thepioneers of industrial archaeology in Sweden andplayed an influential role on the internationalstage, most notably in TICCIH, The InternationalCommittee for the Conservation of the IndustrialHeritage. Throughout her career she workedclosely with people and organisations in Britainand frequently attended meetings here. From1967 she came to the Bath conferences thatpreceded the founding of the AIA and attendedthe First International Congress on theConservation of Industrial Monuments, held inIronbridge in 1973, that led to the formation ofTICCIH. She published widely and workedtirelessly and effectively across the boundaries ofart, architecture and technology as well asindustry, government and academia, to promoteindustrial heritage studies and practice. Thiscatholicity of knowledge, her fluency in severallanguages, and a burning commitment anddetermination were among her foremoststrengths.

Neil Cossons

Marie Nisser was born in Stockholm in 1937. Shestudied at the University of Uppsala, where shetook a degree in the history of art, with adissertation on Swedish fortifications of theseventeenth to nineteenth centuries, their design

and engineering, followed by a year at theKungliga Konsthogskölan, the Royal Institute ofArt, Stockholm, with a project on Nordic woodentowns, some of which were then under seriousthreat of demolition.

Marie Nisser’s work in the field of industrialheritage began when she was a ResearchAssistant in the Department of the History of Artsat Uppsala University. From 1968 she played aleading role in the first initiatives in Sweden torecord industrial heritage. In the 1970s sheworked with the Association of Pulp and PaperEngineers, leading a major project to documentpulp and paper mills in the forested region ofVärmland and Dalsland. Her position in Uppsalaalso provided the locus for her to undertakenumerous projects recording working industriesas well as remains of those no longer inoperation; these included pulp and paper, ironand steel, hydropower, textiles, and canals. It isindicative of Marie’s powers of persuasion thatshe was able to find funding for these projectsfrom industrial corporations and tradeassociations as well local government, national,regional and local museums. It was Marie herselfwho initiated many of the projects, found thebacking and managed the teams who engaged inthe work. She also set up historical committees inthe branch associations of the iron and steel, pulpand paper and hydropower industries, where shesoon became accepted as a colleague.

In the context of the emerging awareness inSweden during the 1960s of working people andplaces, Marie’s interest in culture, technology andarchitecture enabled her to awaken a broaderpublic interest in the historic industrialenvironment. She was a powerful advocate whospoke with passion, authority and, increasingly,with sound practical experience.

In 1992, the Swedish Research Foundationfor Humanities (HSFR) recognized the growingimportance of Marie’s work and of industrialheritage by awarding her a Chair in IndustrialHeritage Research which she chose to establish at


1905 Combe and Barbour engine at Cork City WaterworksPhoto: Bill Barksfield

Neil Cossons, Michael Rix (1913-81), Angus Buchanan, Frank Atkinson, Robert Vogel and Marie Nisser (1937-2011)Photo: Bath Chronicle 4 November 1967 © Angus Buchanan

the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Royal Instituteof Technology, or KTH. Here she pioneered a PhDprogramme, mentoring numerous successfulstudents, and conducted a wide range of ground-breaking studies. One of these was aninternational training programme called theNordic/Baltic Industrial Heritage Platform, whichlinked representatives from the Nordic nationswith their Baltic neighbours in training andresearch projects and was designed to overcomesome of the barriers that had divided them duringthe Soviet era. Marie was especially proud of theopportunities provided to young professionals tostudy and practice in industrial heritage. It wasduring her time at KTH that she saw EngelsbergBruk inscribed on the World Heritage List (1993),along with the Great Copper Mountain in Falun(2001), and numerous other industrial sitesrecognized by national and regional government.

Internationally, Marie was one of the earlyscholars studying industrial heritage in Europe.She organised the TICCIH Conference in Swedenin 1978 and subsequently played a central role inits direction, hosting meetings, serving on theBoard, and was elected President. In recent years,and by now professor emeritus, Marie remainedvigorous and prominent, providing guidance tostudents and colleagues around the world. And,she was very much present and active at the lastTICCIH Congress, held in Freiberg during 2009.

Hers will remain an influential voice for allwho knew her, thanks to her unique combinationof intellect, critical thinking, energy and care forthose around her. She brought a deeply principledapproach to everything she did and was never shyin expressing her disapprobation of what shethought was wrong or unwise. An, at times,impish sense of humour more than balancedthese sometimes stern admonishments, but it willbe Marie’s generosity of spirit and dedicatedcommitment to the future of the industrialheritage that will be her lasting legacy.

After several years of stoical struggle withcancer Marie died on the night of 11/12 August ather home in Stockholm.

Heritage LotteryFund’s support forIndustrial Heritage

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is taking theopportunity to review its support for theconservation of sites, buildings, artefacts and thestories behind our Industrial, Maritime andTransport heritage (IM&T) during the year whenEnglish Heritage is focusing on Industrial Heritageat Risk. Since it was established in 1994 HLF hasawarded over £4.5 billion of Lottery good causesmoney to the full range of the UK’s heritage. Ofthis, an impressive £780 million has beenawarded to over 2350 IM&T projects covering avast array of different industries, types oftransport, and maritime sites and vessels. Thisarticle presents an overview of some of the morerecent projects funded and the impact HLFfunding has had on preserving the UK’s industrialheritage.

Tony Crosby

Despite the popularity of living and working inhistoric buildings and areas, especially thoseadjacent to water, our industrial heritage isparticularly at risk in the present economicclimate – owners are finding it difficult tomaintain their businesses and buildings;development in and regeneration of formerindustrial areas has slowed down; and grantfunding sources are diminishing. HLF funding,however, has resulted in over 20 former industrialsites being taken off English Heritage’s at riskregister. The two most recent are at BestwoodColliery, Nottinghamshire, where the designatedengine winding house and headstocks have beenrestored and interpreted; and the Grade II* listedDerby Roundhouse where the once derelictbuilding is now at the heart of Derby College.Others include the consolidation and

interpretation of the Grade II listed andScheduled Wheal Peevor engine houses inCornwall; the conservation of the remains of theScheduled sixteenth century Oare GunpowderWorks within a country park in Kent; and theGrade II listed Gayle Mill in Wensleydale which isnow a net producer of electricity.

The breadth of the types of industrial andtransport heritage that HLF supports is wellillustrated by a number of awards made this year.These range from the Middlesbrough TransporterBridge, one of only two currently operational inthe UK, through HMS Alliance, the only surviving‘A’class Second World War submarine, and SSNomadic, the tender ship which deliveredpassengers to the Titanic in 1912, to the pavilionon Penarth Pier and the 1771 Grade I listedArkwright cotton mill at Cromford. These are allmulti-million pound Heritage Grants projects, butrecent projects that have had Heritage Grants ofless than a million include the Newman BrothersCoffin Works in Birmingham, the Lune Aqueducton the Lancaster Canal, Woodbridge Tide Mill inSuffolk, the North Eastern Railway 1903 petrolelectric autocar and coach and the ClevelandMining Museum at Skinningrove.

You do not need to spend hundreds ofthousands of pounds. Modest amounts can makea difference to our industrial heritage andpeople’s engagement with it, as some examplesof projects in HLF’s Your Heritage and YoungRoots grant programmes (all under £50k)illustrate. At the Babbacombe Cliff Railway thestation buildings have been refurbished andinterpretive material provided with a grant of£31,000; and at the North of England Institute ofMining and Mechanical Engineers theconservation and care of the Institute’s uniquecollection of manuscripts, books, hand drawn andprinted maps, plans, drawings, artefacts andworks of art has been funded with a grant of£49,700. Preservation of our industrial past alsoincludes the recording of stories, memories andtraditions of how industries operated and theirimpact on the people involved. Again using smallgrants, in the Fishing Families of Lough Neaghproject the memories of members of thisNorthern Ireland fishing community wererecorded and preserved for posterity in apermanent archive; and the stories of people whoworked at the Brooke Bond tea packing factory inBristol in the second half of the twentieth centuryhave been captured through an oral historyproject.

Engaging young people with our industrialheritage is vital if future generations are to helpsustain it. Through our Young Roots grantprogramme a group of disadvantaged teenagersin Lanarkshire were introduced to the heritage ofmotorcycles and motorcycling culture when theyrestored and interpreted a B.S.A. Banthammotorcycle; while in the Northwest another groupworked with the Waterways Trust and ManchesterLibraries to research and document the heritageof the Rochdale Canal and the impact it had ontheir community. In Northeast London a group ofyoung black people researched and documentedthe contributions of African shipwrights and


Derby Roundhouse now part of Derby College


sailors to UK maritime history. Another exampleof engaging a non-traditional audience withtransport heritage is the group of visuallyimpaired people who helped create accessible,tactile interpretation of the locks on the Leedsand Liverpool Canal. While the large projects willbe run by local authorities, national bodies suchas British Waterways and the national museums,the majority of these small grant projects are runby small local heritage societies and communitygroups.

Mention was made above of the shipwrightsand sailors of African origin, and immigrants haveplayed a major role in UK industry over manycenturies. Their contribution has been recordedthrough a number of projects including theirinvolvement with the brickmaking industry ofMarston Vale, Bedfordshire which provided workfor many people from immigrant communitiessuch as Italians, Sikhs, African-Caribbeans andEastern Europeans. The Bradford textile mills oralhistory project brought together young and oldfrom across the Bradford communities, includingthe Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Pakistani, African-Caribbean and indigenous population to recordand celebrate the city’s rich textile industryheritage through the personal histories of itsinhabitants, which are often hidden from thepublic.

Conservation related skills and those neededto maintain working industrial exhibits inmuseums and on site have long been identified asbeing at risk of loss and HLF’s Skills for the Futuregrants are addressing this major issue, funding 67training places. The Mid-Hants Railway is trainingapprentices on all aspects of heavy mechanicalengineering as applied to steam engines andrailway coaches. Traditional boatbuilding skillsare being taught at the Grimsay Boatshed projecton the Isle of North Uist and at the WaterwaysMuseum at Ellesmere Port. Maintaining workingindustrial machinery means that people can learnabout and appreciate former industrial processeswhich are no longer practiced. At the ApsleyPaper Trail in Hertfordshire visitors can have a goat hand paper-making as well as observing themass production of paper on a hundred year-oldmachine. They can also get a taste of the workingconditions hundreds of feet down at the coal faceat The Big Pit Museum in Blaenavon and at theNational Mining Museum at Caphouse Colliery,Wakefield.

Over the last 17 years HLF’s unparalleledinvestment has helped support the UK’s locally,regionally and nationally important industrialheritage with grants from just a few thousand toseveral million pounds. As for the future, from2012 HLF will have around £300 million a year toallocate to new projects, but competition for thissubstantial sum continues to increase as othersources of grant funding reduce or dry up alltogether. We will, though, have greater capacityto support more IM&T projects in future, so if youhave a project in mind do contact your country orregional HLF office (see www.hlf.org.uk) to getpre-application help and locally based supportwith your application. In our consultation on ourstrategy for 2013 – 2019 earlier this year, we

Lune Aqueduct on the Lancaster Canal Photo: British Waterways

Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge Photo: Graham Brooks

Jackfield Tile Museum where the HLF grant also funded the new Fusion building Photo: Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust


raised issues about giving greater emphasis toheritage at risk, organisational resilience andrecognising the role of the private sector. TheIM&T sector’s responses to these issues willinfluence the Strategic Plan which will bepublished next year and which will set out howLottery funds can best be used to sustain andtransform our heritage, making a difference toplaces and people.

Sweden – APostscript

Following the AIA Tour, Sally and I took theopportunity to visit a few more Swedish sites, inparticular two of the important remainingironworks – Österbybruk and Karlholmsbruk,respectively about 25 and 50 miles north ofUppsala.

Colin Bowden

Österbybruk is the only remaining examplesurviving in Sweden of a Walloon forge, in whichboth finery and chafery hearths are used. In itspresent form, the forge dates from areconstruction and enlargement in 1794 and isbelieved to have been little changed since;production ended in 1906. In the Walloonprocess, as here, the raw material, pig iron sows,is first heated in the finery, using charcoal as thefuel, reducing the carbon content, then furtherrefined in the chafery before being forged into bariron, using the waterwheel driven helve hammer.Blast for the hearths was provided by a 3-crankvertical cylinder blowing engine, driven byanother waterwheel. According to a writtennotice, this was an Ekman-type blast machine,manufactured by Motala Verkstad in 1837, apredecessor of the Bagge engine, from which,

however, it appeared to be little different. (Wehad seen two Bagge-type blowers atEngelsbergsbruk and another at Trångfors.)Gustaf Ekman was the Swedish metallurgistcredited with having introduced the Lancashireforge, largely replacing the previous methods ofmaking bar iron from around 1850.

In the early nineteenth century, only aboutten per cent of Sweden’s bar iron was made bythe Walloon method, the remainder, which was ofgenerally lower quality, being by the so-calledGerman method. The higher quality Walloon iron,such as Österbybruk’s, much of it exported toSheffield for steel-making, was dependant on theuse of pig iron derived from the non-phosphoricores from the Dannemora mines, some threemiles away.

With Dannemora’s Newcomen connection, itwas impossible to resist making a brief visit.Having operated over a period of more than 500

years, supplying ore to about 30 iron works in thearea, mining ended in 1992. Associated surfacebuildings which remain seemed not very exciting,and the main feature is the number of opencastpits, about 40 of which are still to be seen. Thelargest and most dramatic is the Storrymningen(“the great shaft”), about 200 metres long and100 metres deep, created, it is said, by fire-setting. The Newcomen engine, designed anderected by Marten Triewald in 1728 (the first inSweden) was not a success, but its engine houseremains a symbolic relic.

Despite its present tranquil and picturesquesetting, Karlholmsbruk is one of Sweden’s mostsignificant industrial monuments, a relativelylarge works, remarkable for its completeness andthe variety of its remaining plant. When opened in1727-1730, the works had its own blast furnace,with further processing by the Walloon forgingmethod although after 1843, when the furnacewas demolished, its pig iron had come fromelsewhere. However, in 1879-80, the Walloonmethod was superseded by Lancashire forging,and Karlholmsbruk was reconstructed. Sincethen, although production stopped in 1931 andthere was some restoration work in 1973, theappearance of the interior and its equipment hasseen little change.

At one end of the main room are sixLancashire hearths, side-by-side, equipped withmechanical rabbling devices, driven fromoverhead shafting by a steam engine in the roombeyond, which also contains a blast engine andthree boilers. The steam engine (presumably areplacement) is an inverted vertical compoundbuilt by J. & C.G. Bolinder Mekaniska VerkstadsA.B. of Stockholm in 1889, which was installedsecond-hand around 1900. This also drove theRoots-type blower, which came from (and waspossibly built by) Brevensbruk, Örebro,contrasting with the perhaps more usual Bagge-type cylinder machines seen elsewhere. Thehearths worked in conjunction with a shinglinghammer, a waterwheel driven nose helve, toproduce blooms. For the further processing ofKarlholmsbruk: Lancashire Hearths Photo: Colin Bowden Bolinder Steam Engine Photo: Colin Bowden

Wlloon Forge, Österbybruk Photo: Colin Bowden


these, there was a reheating (welding) furnace, awater turbine driven rolling mill, two waterwheeldriven belly helve hammers, and two steamhammers. The reheating furnace brought the ironto a temperature high enough for bar iron to beproduced by rolling as well as by the alternativeof hammering.

While staying at Uppsala, we also visited“Pumphuset”, the Museum of MunicipalEngineering, housed in the former UppsalaWaterworks Pumping Station. The earliestpumping machinery of 1875 and 1901 had beenreplaced in 1909 by two water turbines, eachdriving a horizontal pump by Tullgarns Gjuteri &Mekaniska Verkstads, Uppsala, but one of theseturbines and the two pumps (one partiallysectioned), together with two electrically drivencentrifugal pumps added in 1915, have beenpreserved. There are museum displays coveringthe sewerage system, electricity and gas supply,and the district heating system, which wasstarted in 1962 and by the 1990s covered 95percent of Uppsala.

Our extended stay in Sweden was concludedby a boat trip from Stockholm to Waxholm on theStorskär, the largest of three steam vesselsoperated by the Waxholm company – with a 659hp triple expansion engine, and built atLindholmens yard, Gothenburg, in 1908. On ourtrip, the engineers were making use of the heatfrom the cylinders to dry their washing!

(N.B Österbybruk is apparently almost alwaysopen for visits, but Karlholmsbruk is open muchless frequently and for access we were greatlyindebted to the kind assistance of IngegerdMartinelle.)

The DounreaySphere

The future of this unique structure is far frombeing settled.

Robert Carr

Built close to the Dounreay airfield about 9 milesto the west of the town of Thurso in Caithness,this structure is claimed to be the first and largestspherical building in the Britain, seehttp://www.dounreaydome.org.uk/. Within thecurrent decommissioning programme of theDounreay nuclear complex the sphere willprobably be decontaminated but even so may notbe completely accessible for about thirty years.The question arises as to what should be donewith it. It is likely to be eventually demolished butin the meantime the engineering of this structureshould be of interest.

In the 1950s Britain was a world leader inatomic energy and the Dounreay fast breederreactor (FBR) first became critical on 14November 1959. An FBR is a fast neutron reactordesigned to produce more fissile material than itconsumes. The 1950s FBR at Dounreay suppliedelectric power to the National Grid from 1963 to1977. It was housed in a massive blast-proof steelsphere one-inch thick and nearly 200 feet indiameter. Two Scottish engineering companieswere involved in the construction: MotherwellBridge Engineering for the sphere itself and JWCarruthers for a large crane inside the sphere,

known as Goliath, required for the handling ofmaterials.

More reactors have since been built atDounreay and the establishment formed animportant part of the local economy until 1994when, with nuclear power out of favour, thegovernment ordered all the reactors to bepermanently shut down; a large work force hasbeen engaged in the cleaning-up of the site andthis is expected to continue until at least 2025.The Dounreay site was originally chosen as thereis a prevailing offshore wind there and it is a longway from London and the South East.

Current government policy makes it unlikelythat the Sphere will be decontaminated before atleast 2020 and probably not before 2030. Leftuntouched it will not be possible to allow freepublic access this century and meanwhilemaintenance will be difficult. Skilled workers whoare in great demand are required fordecontamination and their precious annualradiation dosage is quickly used up. The usualprocedure would be to decontaminate to a levelthat allows the steel to be classified as low-levelwaste, making burial and storage comparativelycheap. To continue the work so that the steel canbe classified as accessible for maintenance, andthen make the Sphere suitable for the public toenter will be costly. This cost will not be knownuntil about 2025 and over the past 50 years costestimates in this field have always been too low.If suitable robots are developed fordecontamination work, acceptable costs might beachieved. The ultimate fate of the Sphere largelydepends on government attitudes to nuclearpower.

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AIA NEWS

Restoration Funding –an update.With the generous assistance of ouranonymous donor the AIA continueswith its programme to assistrestoration.

Four further projects are nowcompleted. The Fourdrinier machinefor the Apsley Paper Trail is reportedbelow. The project at the North ofEngland Open Air Museum to re-build 4 chaldron wagons, therefurbishment of the foredeck of thenarrow boat Tarporley for theCamden Canals & NarrowboatAssociation and the Towynweighbridge for the Talyllyn Railwaywill all be reported on in the nextedition.

Work on Box Boat 337 at theNational Waterways Museum atEllesmere Port had been delayeduntil suitable timber was sourced.This has now been delivered to themuseum and it is hoped that workon the restoration of this historiccraft will begin soon.

Funding has been agreed inprincipal for work on the 1841 PetrieBeam Engine now housed atEllenroad Steam Museum. Thisengine was originally installed inWhitelees Mill, Littleborough and in1957, when the mill closed, wasmoved back to the site of Petrie’sfactory in Rochdale where it wasexhibited in a glass fronted buildingin front of the factory. Those of youwith a long memory may rememberseeing it at the AIA Manchesterconference in 1977. In 1992 this sitewas redeveloped and the enginemoved to the Ellenroad SteamMuseum. After the engine wasoriginally moved to Ellenroad therewere problems with the alignment.

It is now proposed to substantiallydismantle the engine to correctthese problems which involve thealignment of the cylinder, crankshaft and parallel motion.

Two other project for which theAssociation has agreed funding inprinciple are still currently on holduntil final details are sorted out. There-erection of one of the formerWells firework factory buildings atAmberley Museum and work on theroof at Hoylandswaine Nail Forgenear Barnsley should progress soon.

Restoration ofFourdrinier papermaking machineEarlier this year the Associationawarded a Restoration Grant of£9,870 to the Apsley Paper Trail forthe restoration to working order oftheir pilot paper-making machinelocated at their Frogmore Mill atApsley in Hertfordshire. This smallFourdrinier paper-making machinewas built in 1902 by Hemmer AG ofNeidenfels in Germany, having beencommissioned by the Corporation ofManchester for installation in theMunicipal School of Technology(now UMIST). It was the world’s firstspecialist research and developmentpaper-making machine. Given to thePaper Trail by Bury College in 2003,it was installed at Frogmore Mill, thesite where in 1803 the Fourdriniermachine, the world’s firstcommercial paper-making machinewas developed and operated. Thepilot machine and its accompanyingsheeter (given to the Paper Trail byUMIST in 2008) had been partlyrestored but the grant was neededto complete the work and

commission it to full workingproduction. It now offers visitors theunique opportunity to see theprocess of commercial paper-making at close quarters. The paperproduced is used for all of the PaperTrail’s community and adult learningcourses, as well as supplying paperto the local schools who haveprovided waste paper to the PaperTrail for recycling.

Tony Crosby

Next Year in EssexThe 2012 conference will be basedat Writtle College near Chelmsfordin Essex from Friday 10 August toThursday 16 August, and will followthe usual pattern of a seminar,lectures and visits.

In the nineteenth century Essexwas primarily an agricultural county,with the usual agriculturedependent industries such asironfounding, agriculturalengineering, milling, malting, limeburning, brewing and brickmaking.It is particularly rich in restoredmills: wind, water, tide and steam.

The Essex coast line is claimedto be the longest of any Englishcounty, and the need to supplyLondon made its rivers, fisheries(notably oysters), havens andcoasting vessels – the famousThames barges – important. Theextensive flats were ideal for saltpans and the sea salt industry stillsurvives in Maldon.

Essex has always been the lastline of defence between continentalforces and London, and so is rich indefence archaeology, from Stuartforts to nuclear war bunkers, viaairfields from both world wars.

The medieval woollen industryalong the Suffolk/Essex bordermade this one of the richest parts ofEngland in the sixteenth centuryand, though this declined sharplythereafter, by the nineteenth centuryit was replaced by the related silkweaving, horsehair processing andweaving and coconut mat making,all of which survived until the end ofthe twentieth century, with silkweaving continuing to this day inSudbury. In turn, silk weaving led tothe twentieth century introductionof artificial silks, notably rayon, byCourtaulds.

Many new industries wereestablished in the twentieth century.In Braintree, as well as rayonweaving there was Crittall's steelwindows, with a company village atSilver End; in Chelmsford, Marconiradio communications, Crompton'selectric lighting and Hoffmanballbearings and in Colchester;Paxman's diesels. Along the Thamesin particular a number of newindustries were established, mostimportantly Fords at Dagenham, stillproducing a quarter of all Fords'diesel engines, but also Blue CircleCement in Thurrock as well asmargarine and soap factories. TheCzech shoe firm Bata built factoriesand a company village in EastTilbury.

So, there will be something old,something new, things that humand whirr as well as puff and chug.This is your chance to explore newareas and more recent industries.Get away from the Olympics in mindif not in distance. Come and join us!

David Alderton

1841 Petrie Beam Engine Photo: Ellenroad Steam Museum

Foudrinier paper making machine at Apsley Photo: Tony Crosby


Lancashire HearthsCan I point out an error in thecaption to the picture on page 3 ofthe last edition – the ‘LancashireHearth’, at Engelsberg andelsewhere, was an adaptation of thefinery process (which had alwaysused charcoal), not of puddling(which as a reverberatory-furnaceprocess could not use charcoal,though it could, at least in theory,use wood). In fact the ‘SwedishLancashire Hearth’ (as we know it)is the main evidence for very lateBritish developments of the fineryfrom an open hearth into anenclosed structure, not documentedover here - it was seen by a Swedishvisitor in 1828 in a forge nearUlverston, by which time the fineryprocess had been almost completelyreplaced by coal-fuelled puddlingwithin Britain, and widely adoptedin Sweden where due to the lack ofcoal it proved to be a very viableprocess.

David Cranston

Sorry, my fault; I added theextension to the caption. It showshow much I know aboutironworking. Ed

The appeal of modernindustry as a field ofstudyThe GLIAS newsletter, number 255,for August contains an interestingarticle on the development and useof early computers. I found thisarticle of interest in several respects.Firstly, it describes the developmentof the LEO computer, which wasground breaking, secondly, itrecalled my own experiences in theuse of computers in the late 1960sand thirdly, it further demonstrateswhat I have been realising for somemonths, which is that industrialBritain did not die because it ceasedto be a world leader in textiles, shipbuilding and other heavy industryand that little of modern industryhas left anything in the way of

archaeology in the sense of on-sitephysical remains as opposed toartefacts.

I can vaguely remember myfather mentioning that the Lyonscompany had ‘a mechanical brain’.As company accountant for W & AGilbey, he introduced mechanisedaccounting systems provided by‘Power Sammus’ (I have probablyspelt this incorrectly). This was apunched card system and the punchcard was their trade mark.

My own experience was withpunched tape. The computing wasdone at Elliot Computers atBorehamwood. Unless time could bebooked in advance, work had to becarried out at night, usually aftermidnight, since all daytime hourswere booked several days inadvance. Just as described in theGLIAS article the programme had tobe entered first for each operation.With frequent use the tapes becamestretched and eventually so much sothat they were misread by the tapereader, causing the machine tomalfunction with the resultantwaste of time.

As time progresses so the dates,which divide current, recent andhistoric events, move forward. Whatwas current ten years ago is nowthe recent past and that whichhappened thirty or fifty years ago ishistory. For most of us it is recenthistory which holds the mostfascination. As a child I could relateto Victorian and Edwardian times,since while they were different fromthe 1950s they were not so differentthat they could not be understood. Ihave little doubt that for today’syoungsters, life in 1960 Britain canbe more easily understood than lifein 1860. The same principle appliesto working adults, who can relatemore easily to twentieth centuryindustry than to nineteenth.

Is it not time that the study oftwentieth century Industrial Historyshould be brought more to the foreand encouraged as an under-investigated field?

John McGuiness

The Power of the Past –‘Mighty things fromsmall beginnings grow’This note is a plea to consider powerstations and post-excavationarchaeological needs. I have justbeen reading a 38 page booklet bythe late Francis Haveron (TheBrilliant Ray) which describes ‘howthe Electric Light was brought toGodalming in 1881’. It’s interestingto know that this little town in thesouth of England had a ‘world first’for a short period from 1881 whenthe town Council decided to transferfrom gas lighting and install electriclighting for part of the town’sstreets and for some residents. Thewater power from the river wasfurther enhanced by steam powergeneration by a manufacturer,Wallace and Stevens, fromBasingstoke, Hants. Notes in TheGraphic of 21 November 1881 and22 July 1882 provide contemporaryinformation.

Having years ago trained insome power station laboratories (allnow demolished), before beingattracted to the world of museumsand archaeological conservation, Ifind myself being rather irritated bythe constant press reports regardingthe ‘Turbine Hall’ of the Tate ModernGallery or the sad state of theremaining interesting walls ofBattersea Power Station in London.These are just shells with noremaining machinery. Are there anycomplete large power stationsavailable for the public to inspectand marvel? I expect few peoplehave visited the interiors of thesehuge, cathedral like edifices. I haveyet to meet any who have, but theseconstructions are at the very heartof our civilisation. Without theprovision of massive amounts ofpower where would we be?

A ‘retired’ power station or twowould provide superb examples ofthe work of designers, electrical,mechanical and civil engineers aswell as the contributions ofchemists, water purification workers

and other disciplines who help tomanage a complex industrial plant.Surely every school child in Britainshould experience at least one visit– gaining inspiration from theengineering aspects required andimbibing a sense of wondermentthat these large, absolutely essentialconstructions convey. It’s not exactlyNational Trust territory but wouldprovide excellent background tovarious studies and potentialinterests in engineering careers.

There is also, as some readerswill know, increasing concern in thearchaeological world regarding theshrinking capacity for storingarchaeological finds produced fromthe many excavations carried outeach year. Here is a chance to helpsolve problems in some parts of theUK as there could be veryconsiderable amounts of valuablespace locked up in a disused powerplant – excellent opportunities forregional stores. Laboratories couldalso be converted for scientific andconservation uses for post-excavation archaeological needs.

There are lists of power stationsdestined to have run their naturallife and are approaching demolition.Could it be suggested thatinterested parties form a charity inorder to lobby for the retention of aselection for further use asimportant technological educationalcentres and possibly a most helpfulfacility for modern dayarchaeological studies? OurMinister of Culture thinks it is aninteresting idea. We have thousandsof other ‘heritage’ structures. Whynot preserve examples of whatsurvives of twentieth century powergeneration practice ?

John Price01252 721 455

arc.con@btinternet .com19, Crondall Lane, Farnham, Surrey

GU9 7BG

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NEWS

The IWA responds tothe GovernmentConsultationThe Inland Waterways Association(IWA) has submitted its detailedresponse to Defra’s consultationdocument – A New Era for theWaterways – on the Government’sproposals to transfer the canals andrivers managed by BritishWaterways to a charitable body.

The 25 page response by IWAnot only answers the questionsposed by Defra in its consultationdocument, but raises other issuesthat Government has, in IWA’sopinion, missed and that the interimtrustees need to additionally takeinto account. It also offers practicaladvice and solutions for many of theissues raised.

Clive Henderson, IWA nationalchairman, said:

“IWA still sees clear advantagesfor Britain’s navigable inlandwaterways being managed by athird sector body. However, severalconcerns about the consultationproposals remain, primarily is theapparent lack of funding necessaryto maintain the waterways in a safeand usable condition, a matter onwhich IWA recently gave evidenceto the All Party ParliamentaryWaterways Group chaired by the RtHon Alun Michael MP.

We believe that the indicativefunding currently does not appear tostack up in delivering a sustainablecharity. It appears conservatively tobe some £15- £45 million p.a. shortof what is required. Incidentally, byway of comparison, that is betweenaround 180- 550 metres worth ofthe Government’s proposed HighSpeed rail project. Additionally, BWhas already revised its figures forcharitable giving down from £8.5mas stated in the consultationdocument to £5.5-6m. We alwaysthought the figures were toooptimistic, and they may be they stillare.

IWA believe that much of theoverall funding deficit could beameliorated by adopting simplesolutions such as Governmentretaining the liability for the pensionfund for current retired BWemployees and simple indexing ofthe Government’s fundingsettlement.

We additionally hope that ourresponse document will inform andaid others in their efforts to respondfully to the consultation.”

SS Robin arrives inLondonAfter an absence of over three years(I A News 147 pages 13 & 20) SSRobin arrived back in London onWednesday 13 July 2011. It was avery dull day, making photographydifficult and Robin on its pontoonand accompanying tugs werealready in the King George Ventrance lock by 10.00 am. Theappearance of Robin now resemblesmore that of a real ship followingexposure to the weather at Tilburyand the full-sized model or ‘giantship-in-a-bottle’ effect we noticedwhen she first arrived in the ThamesEstuary has mellowed.

About eleven o’clock the tugstook the venerable steam coaster toa berth on the north side of RoyalAlbert Dock not far from theConnaught Road swing bridgewhere the vessel was welcomed tothe London Borough of Newham bythe Mayor, Sir Robin Wales, andformal speeches were made. Later inthe day, with the official businessover the tugs took the Robin on herpontoon through the Connaughtpassage into Royal Victoria dockand the small party of onlookerswere treated to the now quite rarespectacle of the swing bridge inoperation.

It has been suggested thatRobin might go to the historic shipscollection which may be set up atthe former Blackwall point powerstation jetty, but an attitudeexpressed in Newham is that‘Greenwich already has the CuttySark and they let her burn down.Robin was built on Bow Creek and isours’. (See I A News 142 page 17).

The present intention is thatRobin will stay in Victoria Dock nearthe Millennium Mills while furtherfitting-out work takes place. Inparticular the pontoon, the inside ofwhich presently resembles theempty interior of an oil tanker, hasto be converted to provide publicaccommodation. This will include asubstantial display gallery for artand other events, together witheating, educational and officefacilities. Additional funding alsohas to be raised to complete theproject and enable Robin to befinancially viable for years ahead.There was television coverage ofRobin’s arrival in London thatevening and the followingWednesday the Stratford Recordermentioned the event on the front

page with an illustrated articleinside reporting the speeches of SirRobin Wales and Nishani Kampfnerof the SS Robin Trust.

Robert Carr

John Wilkinson andBrymbo HallIn July 2011, members ofManchester Region IndustrialArchaeology Society, as part of afive-day residential course, visitedthe former iron and steel works atBrymbo in Denbighshire. In 1792John Wilkinson bought the BrymboHall estate of c. 500 acres, not farfrom Bersham, where furnaces andother plant had already beeninstalled by Wilkinson. The estatehad coal and iron ore and in 1796Wilkinson established a newironworks. He built the blastfurnace, known as Old No.1, whichran until 1894. It was then used as a

sand store for the adjacent foundryand still survives. After his death andthe decline of his industrial empire,the ironworks lay idle for someyears until 1842. It became onceagain an important works andeventually closed in 1991. The site isstill privately owned but a dedicatedteam of enthusiasts is workingtowards restoration when funding isavailable. They have a massive taskahead.

Brymbo is also a site of nationaland international geologicalimportance. About 14m of CoalMeasures are exposed along withtwo coal seams. In 2005 the remainsof a stand of fossil club mosses andhorsetails (Calamites) were found inposition of growth having beendrowned almost instantaneously bythe deposition of sediment andpreserved (This is 290m years ago).The preserved upright stumps are upto two metres high. The discovery

SS Robin in KGV entrance lock 13 July 2011 Photo: Robert Carr

Wilkinson’s Furnace at Brymbo, July 2011Photo: Derek Brumhead

John WilkinsonPhoto: Wolverhampton Arts

and Museums Service


NEWS

has been compared with the mostfamous Coal Measures fossil forestof all at Joggins in the Bay of Fundy.

Derek Brumhead

Surrey HeathArchaeological andHeritage Trust receivesConservation AwardThe 2011 Conservation Award of theSurrey Industrial History Group waspresented to the Surrey HeathArchaeology and Heritage Trust onSaturday 9 July 2011 in recognitionof its rescue and maintenance of theformer County Police Station at 4-10London Road, Bagshot, and itsadaptation and use as the SurreyHeath Archaeology Centre. Theaward was commemorated by thepresentation of a plaque by MrRobert Bryson (Chairman, SurreyIndustrial History Group) to MrMalcolm Henderson (Chairman,Surrey Heath Archaeological andHeritage Trust). The award is the29th in the series of annual awardsmade by the Surrey IndustrialHistory Group.

The Surrey HeathArchaeological and Heritage Trustwas formed in 1989 from a branchof the Surrey Archaeological Society.It was given a 20-year lease of theBagshot police-station building bythe Surrey County Council, at apeppercorn rent (later increased to£300 p.a.) while the Trust restored it

The present building succeededone built in 1849. It was built onland provided by the Duke ofConnaught for use in perpetuity bythe police or the county. It containednot only police offices and cells butaccommodation for three officersand their families. In 1985 thebuilding was no longer required bythe police, and it became verydilapidated. Various grants for therestoration were made, includingone from ADAPT (Access forDisabled People to Arts PremisesToday)’

Woodstock RailwayStationWoodstock station, in a pleasantneoclassical style, was built in 1890at the end of a 4 miles long branchline from the GWR at Kidlington. Itserved the village of Woodstock andmore importantly nearby BlenheimPalace. In its heyday passengersincluded Winston Churchill, the

Prince of Wales and the futureKaiser Wilhelm II (Kaiser Bill).

Trains ran to and fromKidlington with some through trainsto Oxford. The GWR 517 class 0-4-2tank locomotive 1473, named ‘FairRosamund’ for a royal visit in 1898,was the regular engine and workedthe branch from the 1890s at leastup to the late 1930s. Howeverfollowing competition from localbus services the number of trains onthe line was progressively reducedand by 1952 there were only sixtrains a day, the line finally closingin February 1957. The track waslifted but the station buildingsurvived.

Many residents of Woodstockwere fond of the station buildingand were generally in favour of itsretention, regarding it as part of theheritage of the area. In this theywere vigorously supported by thelocal council. The station had beenacquired by Berkeley Homes andthere has been a long-runningdebate over the redevelopment ofthe site with two planningapplications refused. A press reportearlier this year indicated that aconsensus had been reached, avaried range of houses was to bebuilt and the station retained,probably with adaptive reuse.However a recent visit found nostation and two sizeable executivehomes. With changes in planninglegislation on the way this could bea presage of things to come.

Robert Carr

Bunnygate – a FenlandFuroreFenland District Council caused astir across the sector in June whenits Leader, Cllr Alan Melton,delivered a speech declaring thatthe planning authority wouldremove provisions forarchaeological investigation in thedistrict, and “relax conservationrules, particularly aroundsustainability and listed buildings”.

Referring to historicenvironment professionals as“bunnyhuggers” (for which he laterapologised during a radiointerview), Cllr Melton went beyondthe legal powers available to hiscouncil in announcing the measuresas part of his “defining policystatement and announcement of theyear.” As Dr Simon Collcutt ofOxford Archaeological Associatespointed out in a letter to Fenland

DC, “it is simply not within thejurisdiction of Local Authorities,irrespective of whether or not theLocalism Bill becomes statute in itscurrent form, to ignore nationalPlanning guidance, existing heritagestatute and relevant case law.”

Debate and further reactioncontinued across the sector.Respondents include – amongstothers – Alliance members theCouncil for British Archaeology(CBA) via the The ArchaeologyForum, the Institute forArchaeologists and Rescue. MikeHeyworth, CBA Director and AllianceTrustee, took part in an interviewwith Cllr Melton on BBC Radio 4’sPM programme, in which hereinforced the point that CllrMelton’s proposals were not onlyillegal, but would also be damagingto rate payers and developers.

A poll of readers on local newswebsite EDP24 suggested a strongdegree of opposition to the move,with a vote of 93 per cent against CllrMelton’s proposals. A petitionagainst Fenland DC’s plans has so farcollected over 2,500 signatures, anda Facebook campaign attracted 1159members in just over one week.

Whilst an isolated incident,‘Bunnygate’ is concerning in aclimate of increasingly business-ledplanning. As the Archaeology Forumcomments in its statement, CllrMelton’s proposals are “aninteresting illustration of what thefuture of business-led,neighbourhood planning might looklike in a deregulated world.”

Later Cllr Alan Melton, theleader of Fenland District Council,‘clarified’ his stance on archaeologyvia a statement on the Council’sweb site, saying his controversialspeech aimed to highlight that “theCouncil wish to pursue a pro activeapproach to housing growth,economic development andinfrastructure provision”.

First Challenge Fundgrants announcedThe Coker Rope and Sail Trust inSomerset, George Street Chapel inOldham and Clophill Heritage Trustin Bedfordshire have received grantsof £180,000, £100,000 and£100,000 respectively to rescuetheir historic buildings. The grantsare the first to be disbursed from the

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NEWS

Challenge Fund – a £2 million fundcomprising £1 million from theAndrew Lloyd Webber Foundationmatched by £1m from EnglishHeritage, administered by AllianceMember the Architectural HeritageFund (AHF).

The Dawes Twine Worksbuilding is believed to be the mostcomplete surviving example of arural rope works in the country. Therealignment will involve moving theentire roof and returning the sunkenstructure to its original footprint andis the first of a number of distinct,separate phases that thepartnership, which includes theCoker Rope and Sail Trust, SouthSomerset District Council and theIndustrial Buildings PreservationTrust, will deliver. The partnershipwants to bring the Dawes TwineWorks back to life as a destinationcentre for the history of rope andsail. The next steps will include a fullstructural repair and then therefurbishment of the machinery andworkings. South Somerset DistrictCouncil is fully supporting this work.

Record fine forunauthoriseddemolitionA record fine of £80,000 plus£42,500 costs has been awarded forthe unauthorised demolition of anunlisted £1m Victorian house in theTrafalgar Road Conservation Area ofTwickenham, south-west London. In the case of Royal Borough of

Richmond upon Thames Councilversus John Johnson, the Judgemade some helpful comments aboutthe importance of retaining originalhistoric fabric as opposed tocreating a replica, and spoke of thecontribution that individualbuildings make to the character of aConservation Area.

In July 2007 Mr Johnson and hiswife bought a semi-detached houseat 6 Trafalgar Road in Twickenhamfor just over a million pounds. Thehouse was an old but elegant lateRegency/early Victorian villa in theheart of the Trafalgar RoadConservation Area. It was believedto be at least 165 years old and hadbeen designated as a “Building ofTownscape Merit” (sometimesreferred to as “locally listed”). Itssmaller scale detailing enjoyed theprotection of an “Article 4 (1)Direction” removing permitteddevelopment rights. The twelve pairsof houses on Trafalgar Roadrepresented one of the earliestexamples of the erection of anestate of semi-detached buildings inthe country. In 1979 the LondonBorough of Richmond’s“Conservation Study for theTrafalgar Road Conservation Area”noted: “Any demolition of originalbuildings in this area wouldrepresent a great loss in the historyand uniqueness of this area andwould permanently damage itsappearance”.

However in January 2011 MrJohnson ordered its completedemolition. Although he had

previously obtained planningpermissions for some partialdemolitions in order to refurbish andextend the house, he had neverapplied for the necessaryConservation Area Consent todemolish the entire building. Had hedone so it is likely that planningofficers would have recommendedrefusal. The demolition led to angerand consternation among MrJohnson’s neighbours who wererightly proud of their ratherbeautiful conservation area.

Mr Johnson pleaded guilty athis first appearance in themagistrates’ court. He asked to besentenced there and then. Howeversince the maximum fine available inthe magistrates’ court was only£20,000 (and/or 6 monthsimprisonment) the prosecutionargued that the case was tooserious to justify the limitedpenalties available in themagistrates’ court. The magistratesagreed and committed Mr Johnsonfor sentence to Kingston CrownCourt where the fine is unlimited(and two years imprisonment isavailable, although a prisonsentence was never consideredappropriate in this case).

The defence argued thatfollowing a rebuild any damagewould be minimal. The prosecutiondisagreed and the issue was decidedat a “Newton-trial” (which is amini-trial before a Judge-alone todecide issues that may impactsignificantly on the level ofsentence).

Conservation and heritageexperts were called by both theProsecution and Defence. Oneprosecution expert memorablyopined: “There is a fundamentalcultural difference between anoriginal artefact of historical andaesthetic interest, which hassurvived from history, and a modernreplica. If not, then there would beno reason why, for instance, theNational Gallery should not replaceall its original paintings withphotographic replicas”.

After two days of submissionsand evidence, His Honour JudgeDodgson ruled that this was “one ofthe worst cases of its kind”. MrJohnson was “highly culpable” andthe effect on his closest neighbour(whose semi was now divorced fromits partner) was characterised as“devastating”. “It may be” theJudge stated “that in a few years, toa casual observer, the visual impact[of the rebuild] will be unnoticeable,but nothing can alter the fact that itis a replica”.

The defendant was fined£80,000, which is believed to be thehighest recorded fine for an offenceof demolishing an unlisted house inConservation Area. In addition MrJohnson was ordered to pay£42,500 prosecution costs (as wellas his own substantial legal costs).In default of payment, thedefendant would have to serve 21months imprisonment.

More details from localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk


Archives, Artefacts,Amateurs andAcademicsThe Derby Conference Centre20-21 April 2012

This workshop, organised andsupported by the Business ArchivesCouncil and the Historical ModelRailway Society, seeks to exploreand expand co-operation betweenvolunteer-led societies involved inthe transport heritage and businesshistory fields and the academics,archivists and museumprofessionals working in the sameareas. The event aims to prompt anawareness of what these variousgroups are doing, and to start adialogue between the enthusiast

and academic which maylead to co-operation in preserving and usingcollections, and furthering ourunderstanding of the past and itsrelevance to the future.

During the workshop use will bemade of several sites within theDerby area, each with significancefor transport, business, and heritagestudies.

The Derby Conference Centre,formerly the London Midland andScottish Railway School ofTransport, will provideaccommodation and host theopening sessions, including thekeynote address. The followingmorning the workshop will move tothe Historical Model RailwaySociety’s Museum and Study Centreat Swanwick. In the afternoon the

currently mothballed Derby Silk MillMuseum, which contains theMidland Railway Archive, will bespecially opened to hold theconcluding sessions.

Transport between the variousvenues will be provided by vintagebus.

The sessions will featurespeakers from both the amateur andprofessional fields. The keynoteaddress will be given by Peter StoneOBE, Professor of Heritage Studiesand Head of the School of Arts andCultures at Newcastle University.From 1998 to 2008 Professor Stonewas Hon. Chief Executive Officer ofthe World Archaeological Congress.Peter has been involved with theintegration of amateurs andprofessionals in archaeology and

heritage management since theearly 1980s.

Other speakers include DrValerie Johnson, Research andPolicy Manager at the NationalArchives, Tim Procter; Archivist atthe National Railway Museum, andRoger Shelley; Principal Keeper,Derby Museum. There will also bepresentations by the Scottish-basedBallast Trust, plus members of theRoy Burrow’s Midland Railway Trust,the Railway Canal and HistoricalSociety and the Historical ModelRailway Society.

For more details contact: Dr RoyEdwards, Faculty of Business & Law,Building 2, University ofSouthampton, Highfield,Southampton, SO17 1BJ.

NOTICES


REGIONAL NEWS

LincolnshireSleaford MaltingsMembers attending the AIA LincolnConference in 2009 were taken tothe Grade II* Bass Maltings atSleaford, described as the finestexample of industrial-scale floormaltings in Britain (see AIA News151, p3). This fabulous range ofbuildings (some of which have beendamaged by fire) has been aheadache for planners andpreservationists alike through thesheer size and number of buildingsinvolved. In 2003 the Prince ofWales’s Phoenix Trust commissioneda feasibility study into how thesebuildings could be reused and at thetime of the Conference visitambitious plans for a developmentof mixed uses were described byGladedale Special Projects Ltd. Ithas taken years of hard work and alot of money to bring this to theplanning approval stage, with thedesign of windows being aparticular problem. However, earlierthis year full planning permissionwas granted and it is hoped thateconomics and the availability oftenants will enable work to start onreturning these buildings tooccupation soon.Stephen Betteridge via David Lyne

South WestEnglandHayleThe port of Hayle was a creation ofthe Industrial Revolution and for200 years served the mines andfoundries of West Cornwall. Most ofthe port and harbour remained inprivate ownership, latterly that ofHarvey & Co, a company which inthe nineteenth century had anational and internationalreputation. By the time of Harvey’sbicentenary in 1979 they were partof a large company of builders’merchants. In 1983 the entire port ofHayle, some 550 acres, was put upfor sale in 10 lots. A propertycompany bought most of the landand unveiled redevelopmentproposals. These were to be the firstof a series from an ever- changingcast of owners, in a roller coasterride of unfulfilled aspirations, whichhas continued virtually to thepresent day.

Now, over twenty years, laterthere seems the possibility thatHayle may be on the verge of

change. The work of developers INGand that of the Harveys FoundryTrust could signify a new future forthe port, and one which takesaccount of its very special history.Activity in recent months hasuncovered such aspects of its historyas a sand drag on the former branchrailway to the wharves (dating from1852), early sluicing arrangementsfor the harbour which could bereinstated, and wooden slipwaysgoing back to the port’s eighteenthcentury origins. Meanwhile theFoundry Trust has continued its workin conserving and reusing the

historic buildings around the quays.An interesting article in the localpress highlighted another lessknown part of Hayle’s story – thebromine factory established there inthe 1930s. This produced bromine,required as an anti-knock additivefor aviation fuel, from seawater.Local miners dug a tunnel beneaththe harbour to feed the plant. INGhas now lodged a series of planningapplications and has also indicatedthat it might convey the harbouritself to a local trust funded fromground rents.

Camborne and RedruthRegeneration work in nearbyCamborne has resulted in the loss ofmore buildings related to the town’sengineering giant Holman Brothers.At a time when interest in their storyhas never been higher, as witnessedby the very successful showingsfrom the Holman Film Archiveorganised by the Trevithick Society,the remains of the enterprise on theground grow fewer and fewer. Thatthe general public locally do careabout this was demonstrated by theoutcry when yet another piece ofHolman heritage, the formerAssembly Rooms, once the Holmancompany museum, were to bedemolished. In this case senseprevailed and it would seem thatthe building should now survive. Sotoo will part of the frontage toNumber 3 Rock Drill Works.

Activity such as in Cambornehas led to a degree of scepticismabout the benefits of World Heritagestatus for Cornish Mining. So it wasgood to see some activity in thisarea over the summer. First aJapanese delegation visited on afact-finding mission and secondly alarge meeting was convened toreview the benefits of WHS statusand how it might be maximised in

Sleaford Maltings Photo: David Lyne

Holman Number 3 Works, frontage to be retained Photo: Trevithick Society

future. The MP for Camborne-Redruth, the heart of the miningarea, was very much involved; suchinterest can only be welcomed.

The Heartlands Project at Poolbetween Redruth and Camborneseeks to regenerate 19 acres ofderelict former mining land forpublic benefit, using some £22million pounds of Lottery money.Work began in 2010 and is due tofinish later this year. The full scopeof the project is beyond these notesbut at the centre of the site is theformer Robinson’s Shaft of SouthCrofty Mine with its 1854 Cornishengine and steel headgear. Theproject seeks to restore the engine –possibly to steam – as a gateway tothe World Heritage site. The enginestopped in 1954 and was preservedin grease in its house. There aremany who believe, first that theproject is underestimating thedifficulty and complexity ofrestoring such a large engine, andsecondly that the opening of afurther mining heritage site so closeto a number of other sites couldhave a deleterious effect on theNational Trust’s Cornish engines,now rebadged as East Pool Mine,King Edward Mine, Tolgus Tin andeven Geevor Mine. While theopening of Robinson’s to the publiccan only be welcome, there is surelya danger of overestimating theappetite of most visitors forindustrial heritage. Also the delaysover the years to the Robinson’sproject mean that most of the othermachinery around the shaft hasdisappeared, leaving, as is so oftenthe case, a beam engine denied itscontext.

South CroftyThe reopening of South Crofty mineis another long drawn out saga. Itnow appears that the company,whose ultimate owners seem tochange regularly, have reachedagreement with the local authorityfor a ‘land swap’. This will see themine buildings relocated in theTuckingmill Valley near the 1980sincline shaft. The current mine sitearound Cook’s Shaft will then becleared of all bar the iconic doubleheadgear, which again will standdevoid of all context. The 1980sheadgear erected by South Croftysome years ago on the New RoskearShaft of Dolcoath has already beendemolished.

LevantIt seems a relatively short time sincethe efforts of the Trevithick Society‘Greasy Gang’ brought the 1840beam winding engine at LevantMine back into steam. So it wassomething of a shock to read thatthe boiler installed for the project is18 years old and in need ofreplacement. Volunteers have beenworking this year on the inclinewhich rises up the stamps engine;they have discovered that the

original double track tramway,dating from the nineteenth century,was covered over towards the endof the mine’s life by a single tracksystem, probably when the new millopened circa 1921.

King Edward MineThe Trevithick Society is also inprocess of dismantling andrecovering a Ruston 10HRC dieselengine and Chicago Pneumatic

Compressor from Tor Down Quarry.At the time of writing thecompressor had arrived at KingEdward Mine and the engine now inmanageable pieces was due tofollow shortly. At KEM itself the MayOpen Day saw the mine’s HolmanJaw Crusher being run by a portablesteam engine. Work continues onthe Holman display in the replicawinder house. A recent acquisition isan early pattern Cornish boiler. Thishad had the fire tube and grateremoved, the back flue hole platedover and a door inserted at thefront. It seems it had then beenburied for use as an air raid shelter.

Morwellham QuayMorwellham Quay has reopenedunder its new owners and for the2011 season has been reaping thebenefit of its appearance in theBBC’s “Edwardian Farm” series.There is a rumour that anotherseries could be based at the port butthis is so far unconfirmed. TheFriends of Morwellham, whichsupported the previous owners,have now become The Friends of theTamar Valley and will support theAONB, which covers the area. TheFriends’ annual journal ‘Tamar’ willcontinue; the 2010 issue was thethirty-second. The previous issue for2009 contains a most useful shortsurvey of the archaeologicalexcavations at Morwellham from2002 to 2008. It is to be hoped thatat some point these will bepublished in the detail and qualityformat which they merit.

Graham Thorne

REGIONAL NEWS


Robinson’s Shaft, South Crofty, see at 2010 AIA Conference Photo: Graham Thorne

Holman destruction, assembly rooms to left, Trevithick looks on in despair Photo: Trevithick Society


LondonKempton Park and KewBridgeWork by the Metropolitan WaterBoard Railway Society at KemptonPark pumping station is progressingon the restoration of part of theHampton and Kempton ParkWaterworks railway, dismantled in1947. This 2 feet gauge lineoperated three steam locomotivesand connected the pumping stationwith the Thames for the supply ofcoal, the removal of boiler ash andthe distribution of sand for thewaterworks filter beds. It is mostunlikely that the whole of line couldever be restored but it is intended torun trains on a section of restoredtrack in conjunction with KemptonGreat Engines Trust.

The Kew Bridge Engines Trustand Water Supply Museum Limitedhas been successful in getting adevelopment grant of £127,600from the Heritage Lottery Fund. Thiswill be used to pay for administrativework to facilitate a substantial bid ofnearly £1.8million. Together withfunding already agreed from ThamesWater Utilities Ltd this would enablethe Trust to proceed with thedetailed planning phase of theirproposals for re-developing theMuseum. There is to be greateremphasis on water supply with thestationary steam engines placedmore in context. The Museum maybe closed for the first five months of2013 for major building work to takeplace, with a grand public reopeningthat June.

King’s CrossAt King’s Cross railway station wecan now anticipate what the newextension at the southwest cornerwill look like. Initially described by adetractor as ‘resembling a bracketfungus’, it is now more attractiveand viewed from the northwest has,perhaps, the appearance of the1951 Dome of Discovery. With a roofspan of 465 feet it was ‘unveiled’ inearly August this year – its mainpurpose will be for queuing.

To the north on the formergoods yard site the University of theArts London is now opening. Thisnew University is a combination ofart schools from more central partsof London. The Cubitt granary of1851, its flanking buildings and theeast and west wings to the northhave been retained. New buildings

now occupy the former covered areabetween the wings which onceaccommodated railway trains.

Two GovernmentbuildingsThe Western Central District PostOffice (dpo) built about fifty yearsago was a huge postal sorting centresituated over a station on the PostOffice Railway. Although no longer inuse for its original purpose thebuilding survives, occupying almostthe whole block bounded by NewOxford Street, High Holborn andMuseum Street. It is not immediatelynoticeable and its great size, 8 to 9storeys high, is quite well disguised,blending in fairly well with thesurrounding buildings. When thePost Office moved out it was used bythe British Museum and it has sincebeen a venue for art, fashion andmarketing events. It is nowbecoming vandalised. Presumablythere was a previous, perhapssmaller, Post Office building on thesite as the Post Office Railway wascertainly in use by 1928.

There is some similaritybetween the present WesternCentral dpo and the Fleet Building,70 Farringdon Street EC1, anotherenormous creation whose giant sizeis also quite well disguised. It isfairly certain that the architect forboth was Eric Bedford, chiefarchitect for the Ministry of PublicBuilding and Works from 1951 to1970, famous for designing the PostOffice Tower. The Fleet Building,which is by Eric Bedford, and theWestern Central dpo do appear tobe products of the same school.Both are well finished prestigiouspublic edifices, clad in Portland

stone and not concrete as somepopular writers would have it.

Despite its now somewhatprosaic external appearance, theFleet Building, completed in 1960, isreally an exciting place in whichhistorically important eventsoccurred. It was a gianttelecommunications centre 11stories high, occupying the wholesite between Shoe Lane andFarringdon Street. The installation of

the Fleet Telex Exchange began herein May 1959 before the wholebuilding was completed and in 1963the new cordless international telexswitchboard was opened. Fleet hada capacity for 12,000 subscriberlines and until 1970 was the onlyinternational telex exchange in thecountry. At 11am on 8 March 1963the first International SubscriberDialling (ISD) call was made fromhere by the Lord Mayor of London,Sir Ralph Perring. Calling from theFleet Building he dialled 13 digitsand was connected to MonsieurJacques Marette, the FrenchMinister of Posts, Telegraphs andTelephones, in Paris.

As part of the telephone STDnetwork, a Varley ND I/C exchangeusing ferrite core register-translatorsopened in the Fleet Building in1968. The building also had a‘museum of telecommunicationsequipment and techniques’ andsome of the exhibits will have beentransferred to the British TelecomMuseum, and later to ConnectedEarth

See www.connected-earth.com/Aboutus/index.htm and wikipedia.org/wiki/Connected_Earth

REGIONAL NEWS

Tiles by Dorothy Annan on Fleet Building, Farringdon Street Photo: Robert Carr


REGIONAL NEWS

Nine of the 1960 murals byDorothy Annan in Farringdon Streetwhich depict the exciting new ageof telecommunications haverecently been quite well restored.Although the artist is relativelyobscure, these hand painted tiles areworth a visit (see photograph). Afterfifty years both these GovernmentBuildings, the WC1 dpo and theFleet, are now painfully out offashion and may soon bedemolished.

Urban riverimprovementsIn Lewisham the River Ravensbourneused to be confined in a concretechannel and had an unattractiveappearance. Following currenttrends towards ‘naturalisation’, inCornmill Gardens the concrete hasbeen replaced by sloping earthbanks and there are steps down tothe water. Stones have been placedin the river bed to produce ripplesand local residents are nowencouraged to linger and admire theview. There is a boarded walk andseats are provided. To the south onthe west side of Molesworth Street,the watermill building dating fromc.1830 (Pevsner London 2 South,1983 edition page 425) has beenrestored (see photograph) with theaddition of a waterwheel on thesouthwest side.

Further south at Ladywell Fieldsthe Ravensbourne now meandersbetween earth banks creating amost attractive local park. There is acafé and in the recent hot weatheradults as well as children weremaking use of the facility to paddlein the river. These changes to theRavensbourne are by no meansexceptional; there is a London RiversAction Plan with similar schemesbeing implemented on other riverssuch as the Quaggy, Mayes Brook,Roding, Brent and Wandle etc.

The area south and west ofLewisham High Street is interestingfor its industrial archaeology, withsome striking period architectureand street furniture. To the east ofLadywell railway station about ahundred years ago a local buildergave family names to a group ofseven parallel streets with the resultthat it is now possible to haveaddresses ranging from PhoebethRoad, through Arthurdon Road toElsiemaud Road. On the road bridgejust north of Ladywell station whatappears to be a painted signsurviving from the Second WorldWar proclaims ‘Shelter for 700’. Justto the east the visually interesting1938 art deco factory building ofAdhesive Specialities Ltd has beendemolished. Originally NeukLaundry, it was listed locally inSeptember 2002. However additionsenhancing the period style of the

building were made by a localbuilding firm in 1988-9 and itappears that these fake‘improvements’ rendered the factoryunlistable nationally. Seewww.flickr.com/photos/8866197@N07/1124044235/ andladywell.blogspot.com/2010/08/so-farewell.html]

Walthamstow andCrossnessAs reported in IA News 157 page12, the Pump House Steam &Transport Museum in Walthamstowis losing about half its storagespace, necessitating the removal ofartefacts to other sites. For instancethe driving brake trailer from a 307class electric multiple unit, built atEastleigh c.1955, now has a newhome at the Electric RailwayMuseum in Rowley Road, Baginton,on the north side of CoventryAirport.

An event and vehicle pageant isbeing planned for 10 June 2012 at

Walthamstow to celebrate thecentenary of the London busbuilders AEC, the AssociatedEquipment Company. This companywas formed at Walthamstow in1912 and moved to Southall in1979. It is hoped that about twentydifferent types of AEC vehicles fromthe early 1900s to 1979 will takepart. It is intended to have themuseum development atWalthamstow completed by the endof 2012.

At Crossness pumping stationfunding from several sourcesincluding HLF, English Heritage andthe Homes and CommunitiesAgency is enabling the CrossnessEngines Trust to complete someurgent restoration work on the mainbuildings as well as an entirely newexhibition, improved visitor facilitiesand new access road. Followingclosure it is intended to officially re-open in 2012.

Robert Carr

1830 Mill building, Lewisham Photo: Robert Carr Crossness Pumping Station, Bexley, London Photo: Ian Mansfield

AEC ‘B’ Type converted to mobile pigeon loft during World War I


PUBLICATIONS

Local Society and other periodicals received

Abstracts will appear in Industrial Archaeology Review.

Brewery History, 141; 142, Summer 2011

Brewery History Society Newsletter, 54, Autumn 2011

Bristol Industrial Archaeological Society Bulletin, 133, Summer 2011

Cumbria Industrial History Society Bulletin, 80, August 2011

Greater London Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 255,August 2011; 256, October 2011

Hampshire Mills Group Newsletter, 92, Spring 93, Summer, 94 Autumn2011

Histelec News, South Western Electricity Historical Society, 48,August 2011

Historic Gas Times, 68, September 2011

ICE panel for Historical Engineering Works Newsletter, 130, June2011; 131, September 2011

Industrial Heritage Vol 35, No 2, 2010

Industrial Heritage Association of Ireland Newsletter, 37, August2011

Manchester Region Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 135,February 2011

Merseyside Industrial Heritage Society Newsletter, 309, June 2011;310, August/September 2011

Midland Wind and Watermills Group Newsletter, 100, August 2011

Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group Newsletter, 117,Winter 2011; 119, Summer 2011

North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society, Newsletter43, August 2011

Northern Mills Newsletter, 1, June 2011

Piers: the Journal of the National Piers Society, 100, Summer 2011

Scottish Industrial Heritage Society Bulletin, 60, September 2011

Search: the Bulletin of the South Wilts IA Society, 94, September2011

Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society Bulletin, 117, August2011

Suffolk Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter, 114, August 2011

Surrey Industrial History Group Newsletter, 181, May; 182, July 2011

WaterWords: News from the Waterworks Museum, Hereford,Summer 2011

Worcestershire IA and Local History Society, Newsletter, August2011

Yorkshire Archaeological Society Industrial History SectionNewsletter, 81, Spring; 83, Autumn 2011

Books

Landscape with Technology, Essays in honour of LTC Rolt, edited byProf Angus Buchanan, Millstream Books, 2011. 128pp, 36illus. ISBN 978-0-948975-92-9. £10.

Issued in memory of Tom Rolt, this volume comprises nine essays by RoltFellows and members of the History of Technology Seminar at the Universityof Bath. It would be difficult to imagine a wider variety of subjects whichrange from ‘The Birth of British Gunpowder Engineering Overseas: the caseof the Mole at Tangier’ by Brenda Buchanan to ‘Engineering Education inthe age of Microelectronics’ by Robin Morris. On the way there are essayson ‘The Lost Distilleries of Bristol and Bath, 1775-1815’ by Mike Bone,‘Managing a West Indian Sugar Estate’ by Owen Ward, ‘James Nasmyth:Engineering Astronomer’ by Angus Buchanan, ‘Testing Times: Aerospace

and Historic Engines’ by Peter Stokes and the ‘New Great Space Race’ byDavid Ashford. There are also contributions on current issues of conservationby Keith Falconer; ‘Industrial World Heritage Sites: from icons to landscapes’and by Geoff Wallis on ‘Working Historic Machinery – can it be safe?’.

Anyone with an interest in technological history would find this ainteresting and thought provoking collection. It would provide a Rolt-likediscussion around a bar as to which the great man would read first.

Yorkshire Windmills through Time, by Alan Whitworth, AmberleyPublishing, 2011, 96 pp, 180illus. ISBN 978-1-4456-0605-7. £14.99.

A comprehensive and impressive collection of historic andcontemporary photographs of Yorkshire mills with a knowledgeablecommentary on their history and present state. This follows two previousbooks on the subject and the author has accumulated an encyclopaedicknowledge which he conveys clearly and succinctly. Although the mills arelisted in alphabetic order of site, it is a pity that there is no index as some ofthe entries are by name of mill, although sequenced by their, sometimesunnamed, location. A map would have been even better.

ExhibitionJohn Smeaton of Austhorpe (1724 – 1792), Father of CivilEngineering in England. Temple Newsam House, Leeds, 27 May to 2October 2011

Temple Newsam was an appropriate venue for an exhibition on JohnSmeaton, as his home, Austhorpe Lodge, was nearby. Born at Austhorpe in1724, he attended Leeds Grammar School. The brilliant clock and instrumentmaker, Henry Hindley of York, introduced Smeaton to the world ofmechanics. Smeaton became a scientific instrument maker in London andbegan to attend meetings of the Royal Society, becoming a Fellow in 1753.He became interested in engineering applications and went on to receive (in1759) the Royal Society’s prestigious Copley Medal for investigations intowind and water power applications.

Smeaton’s great breakthrough was his successful rebuilding of theEddystone Lighthouse, outside Plymouth, and he subsequently became thefirst man to describe himself as a Civil Engineer. The exhibition included 11wall panels, each featuring an aspect of Smeaton’s life and work. Otherexhibits included two portraits, a collection of tools which Smeaton hadmade himself and a treadle lathe which he used. The Eddystone Lighthousewas explained by models and pages from descriptive books of the time. Alocal link included drawings and details of the “Engine erected for the L(or)dVisc(oun)t Irwin at Temple Newsam in 1770”. This was a type of hydraulicram which supplied water to the house. Another local link was that Smeatonpresented Lady Irwin with “The best account he is able to give of theweights and measures used in the Coal Trade, so far as they have come tohis notice”. Lady Irwin was concerned to be sure that she was receivingcorrect payment for coal being carried over her land which lay across theroute of the Middleton Railway, south of the River Aire.

Other panels listed and described Smeaton’s work on wind and watermills, steam engines, bridges, harbours and canals. Smeaton’s major landdrainage work covered Hatfield Chase in Lincolnshire, where 17,000 acreswere tackled between 1776 and 1789.

A comprehensive and interesting exhibition, although mounted on thesecond floor of Temple Newsam, near the end of the “visitor route”. Perhapsa more direct route to the Smeaton displays could have been signposted –and the doorway into the exhibition itself could also have been more clearlymarked.

Henry Gunston

IA News would be pleased to publish reports on special exhibitions.However, the production schedule means that in most cases they will not bedistributed until after the exhibition has closed.

Ed

VISIT THE AIA WEBSITEwww.industrial-archaeology.org

20 © Association for Industrial Archaeology, November 2011Registered in England under the Companies Act 1948 (No. 1326854) and the Charities Act 1960 (No. 277511)

Registered office: c/o IGMT, Coach Road, Coalbrookdale, Telford, Shropshire TF8 7DQProduced by TBC Print Services, Blandford Forum, Dorset DT11 7DX

DIARY

14 – 16 DECEMBER 2011 RAILWAYS AND SPEED International conference. Twocenturies of speed on the railways,thirty years of high-speed trains.International Union of Railways, 9,rue du Château-Landon, F-75010Paris www.ahicf.com

20 – 21 APRIL 2012 ARCHIVES, ARTEFACTS,AMATEURS ANDACADEMICSWorkshop at the Derby ConferenceCentre. See page 14 for details

21 APRIL 2012 INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE ATRISK At Ironbridge. Speakers includeShane Gould who is leading theEnglish Heritage programme toidentify industrial heritage at risk.AIA Awards and their cheques willalso be presented that day.

21 APRIL 2012SWWRIAC The South Wales and West Region IAConference will be held at the Kingsof Wessex School in Cheddar, hostedby Somerset IA Society.

22 – 28 APRIL 2012MALTA THE (AMERICAN)SOCIETY FOR INDUSTRIALARCHAEOLOGY 2012 STUDYTOUR Looking at how the island hasexperienced the high technologythat comes with being a militarybase and meeting place of manycultures.Full details: www.sia-web.org

28 APRIL 2012SERIAC 2012St Bartholomew’s School, Newburyhosted by Berkshire IndustrialArchaeology Group. www.biag.org.uk. Details andBooking Form from Graham Smith114 Shaw Road Newbury RG14 [email protected]

7 – 12 JUNE 2012 FIFTH INTERNATIONALEARLY RAILWAYSCONFERENCE CAERNARFON For further information seewww.erc5.org.uk

10 – 16 AUGUST 2012AIA ESSEX CONFERENCE Chelmsford Essex See page 10

4-11 NOVEMBER 2012XV TICCIH INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE: POST-COLONIALISM &INDUSTRIALISATION – THEINDUSTRIAL HERITAGE OFOTHERS TAIPEI TAIWAN The meeting will examine the closeconnections between historical,political, racial, environmental,economical, technical, and socialquestions of industrial heritage. Infoand draft timetable: www.ticcih.orgContact: Dr. Hsiao-Wei Lin:[email protected]

8- 10 NOVEMBER 2012IRON 2012, INTERNATIONALCONFERENCE, IRONBRIDGE Following on from the successfulFe09 conference, Iron 2012 willbring together metallurgy, heritage,landscape and archaeologicalexperts from home and abroad topresent and discuss recent, currentand future strategies of research,including the management andfuture of historic iron-relatedindustrial landscapes. Further detailsand a call for papers will beannounced in late 2011/early 2012.Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust.

Copper wash still on display at Midleton Distillery Photo: Bill Barksfield

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

Editor: Chris Barney

Published by the Association for IndustrialArchaeology. Contributions should be sentto the Editor, Chris Barney, The Barn, BackLane, Birdingbury, Rugby CV23 8EN.News and press releases may be sent tothe Editor or the appropriate AIA RegionalCorrespondents. The Editor may betelephoned on 01926 632094 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 diaryshould be sent directly to theEditor as soon as it isavailable. Dates of mailingand last dates for receipt ofcopy are given below. Itemswill normally appear insuccessive issues up to thedate of the event. Pleaseensure details are sent in ifyou wish your event to beadvised.

More Diary Dates can befound on the AIA website at

www.industrial-archaeology.org

AIA News 140 Spring 2007 - industrial-archaeology.org

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