| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

The Other Archaeology

Page history last edited by Tess Barrett 13 years, 1 month ago

 

 

Industrial Archaeology: the study of the remains of man's industrial processes. A very curt attempt at a definition which is admittedly inadequate. Perhaps it is easier to say what the subject does not include: for example, domestic architecture and artefacts, the actual process of mining and quarrying, agriculture unless organised on intensive estate lines, trade and transport. Even this list may be immediately contradicted. Many books on IA include elements from one or other of these categories. And a close definition, after all, may well inhibit profitable study. The period properly covered by IA is similarly open to dispute. Though there is an increasing consensus that it should include all industrial remains from any period - and I would argue that the Langdale stone axe factory in the Lake District is as much a part of our industrial heritage as Abraham Darby's historic ironworks at Coalbrookedale in Shropshire - some would exclude anything predating the start of the Industrial Revolution in the early 18th century.

 

Much work in IA had been carried out under other headings prior to the mid-1950s, but it was only then that the term ‘Industrial Archaeology’ became common. And not until the mid-1960s, after a period of popular but haphazard growth, did the overall organisation of the field begin, largely under the influence of such pioneers as Kenneth Hudson, Rex Wailes, Neil Cossins and R.A.Buchanan of Bath University of Technology. The decision of the Council for British Archaeology to form the National Record of Industrial Monuments (NRIM) under the surveillance of the Centre for the Study of the History of Technology at Bath was a vital one. It put the study of IA on a coordinated and academically respectable basis - though it must be remembered, nonetheless, that IA is not an end in itself but an adjunct to the study of history, as are other branches of archaeology.

 

The inadequacy of the archaeological records of many important industrial sites now destroyed emphasises the importance of systematic recording, photography and research into historical references. Though only the foundations may remain of an industrial building, it is possible even for a novice to make a reasonable survey with a 20m and a 2m measure, simple drawing equipment and a decent camera. After checking for the existence of any historical records with the site owners and local library and other archives, a record adequate for a minor site such as a small water mill or workshop can be drawn up. It should then be made available to others interested by being entered on an NRIM record card and sent to Bath. Very few sites require the traditional archaeological trowel treatment - a very skilled operation which should be left to the experienced excavator.

 

Words of warning. All sites are on private property and some are now closed to the amateur investigator because of inconsiderate behaviour in the past. Even if you want only a brief look, get permission. Remember also that a derelict blinding can be exceedingly dangerous. Masonry, for example, and floors may be decayed. And many industrial processes hive involved large pits and aegis which in time may have become covered with debris. A good rule is never to survey an empty building alone. Finally, don't look upon a site visit as an opportunity to stock your own private museum uninvited.

 

There are many thousands of derelict sites up and down the country, the vast majority of which have not recorded. Perhaps the most impressive, interesting and widespread monuments are wind and water mills. Indeed, it was these which attracted the first organised study of industrial remains under the auspices of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings Wind and Watermill Section, which was started in the early 1930s. Locally, the York Excavation Group is coordinating a survey of water mills in the area of the old North Riding. Mills of both sorts were used not only for grinding corn - at a rough estimate only about 30 percent served this purpose - but also for pulping, working blowers, providing power in textile and other industries, grinding other foodstuffs and minerals, and diverse other purposes. Many towns have evidence of metal-working dating back to the 19th century and before, when working was not concentrated into large manufactories. Earlier sites may be very isolated, as are the monastic bloomers of the North York Moors. The exploitation of ‘new’ materials has left a trail of fascinating remains, including early iron and steel works, electricity generating stations, gas works and, moving into the 20th century, the factories which produced the first artificial materials. To those interested in the ontogeny of a particulars industry, the age of a site relative to the age of the industry will be important. Machinery for the production of plastics dating from 1950 is historically more important than, say, glass-making equipment of the same date. A l0-year-old computer may veil find its steam equivalent in a Newcomen beam engine of the early 18th century.

 

The City of York may well have received more historical attention than anywhere outside London - but its industrial heritage has suffered comparative neglect. Yet the city's minor role as an industrial centre had many ramifications in political and economic spheres. Scarcely a street in areas developed prior to the early part of this century is without some significant industrial remains. These range from the large and dramatic, such as the Holgate windmill, the flax milt in Lawrence Street, the railway workshops of 1846 - until recently the Railway Museum - and the warehouses in Queen's Staith and Skeldergate, to the small workshops in the Groves, Bishophill and many of the other 19th century areas which adjoin the walls. Indeed, a walk round the walls armed with a large-scale map, preferably Victorian, would reveal an enormous number of industrial buildings, many of which have been converted to other uses. Even where the physical remains of industry have disappeared, reminders survive in the form of street and place names. Many streets include mimic in their name, and yet in only one of them are there any substantial mill remains. Where are the mills of Leadmill Lane, Windmill Lane, the two Mill Lanes and Mill Mount? All long gone. The name of The Slip Inn in Clementhorpe is not merely an invitation, but a reference to the boatbuilding yard and shipway once adjoining it but filled in many years ago. Chicory Yard off Layerthorpe took its name from the now dead agricultural industry of the York-Dunnington area - the country's leading chicory producing area a hundred years ago. Anyone knowing York will have no difficulty in expanding the list.

 

We have heard much of Rescue Archaeology recently, and rightly so. It seems to me that there is also a need for Rescue IA. Many significant sites have disappeared without trace and no adequate record survives. In York itself, many sites are unrecorded and stand in clearance areas earmarked for redevelopment. Should these not be recorded adequately - if not for present use, then for the use of future historians?

 

D.W. Copson

 

(D.W. Copson is a member of The York Excavation Group)

 

Some select reading:

Raistrick, A. Industrial Archaeology: an Historical Survey, London 1972 (probably the best general work)

 

Hudson, K. Industrial Archaeology, London 1963 (a brief introduction)

 

Pannell, J.P.M. The Techniques of Industrial Archaeology, Newton Abbott 1966 (covers practical aspects of the subject)

 

Industrial Archaeology (quarterly journal)

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.