An Archaeology of the East Midlands Class 8. Radcliffe Autumn 2014

An Archaeology of the
East Midlands
Class 8: Themes in Industrial and Early
Modern Archaeology.
Tutor: Keith Challis
east-midlands-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk

Recap: Last Week
• What is Post Medieval Archaeology
• Transitions in Towns, Countryside and
Industry
• Enclosure in the Countryside
• The Great House and Hardwick Hall

Class Summary
• What is Industrial Archaeology?
• 1750-1900 Continuity and Change
• Primary Industry in the Midlands
• Secondary Industry in the Midlands
• Discussion
• Towns
• Transport
• George Sanderson: Mapping the Industrial
Revolution

Section 1: What is Industrial
Archaeology

What is Industrial Archaeology
• The generally accepted current definition of industrial archaeology
is, “the systematic study of structures and artefacts as a means of
enlarging our understanding of the industrial past”.
• Industrial archaeology is not only be responsible for recording the
appearance of structures and artefacts of the recent past, and
attempting to set them in an economic and technological context,
but also trying to explain how they indicate change or continuity in
human behaviour.
• Very rich regionally – “It was the people of Derbyshire who
pioneered the industrial development which was to change the world
during the last 200 years. Nowhere will you find such a
concentration of human genius and heritage sites.”

Origins and Protagonists
•For no other period do we have so much physical
evidence, so much in the way of material culture.
•Ignored by archaeologists until mid 1980s –
excluded from regional surveys, - remained field of
enthusiastic volunteer groups and societies
•Because of the sheer numbers of remains, industrial
archaeology tends to fix on firsts and lasts (first use of
prestressed concrete, the first bobbin net machine,
the last remaining example of a conical tip, or the last
set of pithead buildings).
•Most material culture of this period is neither a first
nor a last, and is therefore at great risk of loss.

Science or Fetish?
•A discipline of extremes from those who
concentrate on the “wheels and widgets”, to the
historians, “who are set about with vast amounts
of fresh primary evidence, but still capable of
wildly differing interpretations of the same black
and white texts according to their own political
shades”.
•The Industrial period is the one which most non-archaeologists
think they understand; it is their
world or the world of their parents, and
grandparents, it is the most accessible bit of the
past for the majority of the population.
•Its very accessibility makes it easy to
misrepresent, and undervalue.

Archaeology and History
•Industrial Archaeology used to be about
the technological development of industry
and the examination of these
developments using archaeological
methods.
•It is increasingly now seen as a study of
the society of the industrial age, using
archaeological methods to do so in
addition to conventional historical methods
of research but can also operate without
reference to written records or
documentary sources

Historical Archaeology
•Question of terminology: for the Old
World, this sort of study is known as
‘Industrial Archaeology’ (a term coined
in the 1950s).
•In the New World, notably north
America, this is ‘Historical Archaeology’
since their prehistory extends up to the
16th cent CE
•Tendency to focus on colonial
archaeology – intensely politicised

Section 2: 1750-1900
Continuity and Change

1750-1900 Continuity and Change
• .

• .
WG Hoskins

Section 3: Primary Industry
in the Midlands

Primary Industry
Coal (and Iron)
•Based on Midlands exposed coal field.
Small scale exploitation to late C18 (eg in
1774 Notts 14 mines from Wollaton to
Eastwood)
•In Derbyshire similar pits from Dronfield to
Belper.
•Deep pits from 1850 explored concealed
coal field (21 by 1860) using steam power
for winding gear and pumping.
•Output from Notts collieries 6m tons pa in
1897 – most important export from County.
•In Derbyshire coincidence of coal and
ironstone led to companies with interests in
both (Butterley Co, founded in 1790) and
Stanton Ironworks Co

Primary Industry
Coal
•Iron industry and railways required coke
initially from open oven and later from
beehive coke ovens. Very polluting
industry!
•From mid C20 coal required to supply
Trent Valley power stations
•Late C20 decline in industry (demand,
technology, politics)
•Nottinghamshire’s last deep mine,
Thoresby Colliery, to close in 2015
•After abandonment mine buildings tend
to be demolished. Concerted effort to
document and preserve by EH

Primary Industry
Lead
•Important regional industry in Derbyshire
from Roman period onward – a defining and
formative feature of the Peak District
•Very extensive earthwork remain of lead
rakes – often hard to date
•Early mining from surface – following lead
veins in limestone
•After mid C18 larger deep mines took
extraction underground
•Improvements in drainage allowed deeper
mines – under researched due to difficulties
in access
•Improvements in smelting techniques also
lad to reworking of old veins and waste –
destroying evidence for earlier mining

Primary Industry
Lead
•Processing of lead ore (crushing and
smelting) tended to be at or near point of
extraction
•Numerous survivals of smelting hearths
and later more technologically advanced
cupola
•Lead industry shaped the Peak District
landscape, both before and at enclosure
•Pollutants from historic lead working
continue to affect vegetation and soils –
and pose a problem

Primary Industry
Limestone and Lime
Burning
•In Derbyshire important extractive
industry with stone for construction work
from small scale quarries to large
quarries
•Post enclosure increasing demand for
lime to improve clay soils
•Numerous kilns from simple single and
double pye to large commecial
complexes such as at Grin Low an Dove
Holes – usually nar to canals and
tramways (later railways – eg Cromford
and High peak) for transport of raw
material and product

Section 4: Secondary
Industry in the Midlands

Secondary Industry
Iron and Steel
•In Derbyshire localised ironstone
deposits often with coal lead to
widespread extraction (surface
extraction and bell-pits) and growth
of iron and steel industry
•In C17 water powered furnaces
pioneered blast furnace technology
– coincidence of iron, wood and
water (eg Sitwell’s 1652 furnace at
Foxbrooke with water powered
bellows and numerous bell-pits)

Secondary Industry
Iron and Steel
•Large iron works (Butterley,
Staveley, Codnor Park, etc)
developed with technological
improvements and increase in
demand for iron
•Regional focus on iron rails
(railways) and iron bridges.
•Butterley Co pioneered rolling and
forge welding techniques
nationally – made possible
structures such as roof of St
Pancras Station (Midland Railway
London Terminus)
Butterley 1817 Photograph

Secondary Industry
Textiles
•Lombe’s silk mill in Derby (1721)
Britain’s first factory?
•Used water power from Derwent to
drive 12 large Italian machines for
throwing silk
•Demand for cotton lead Arkwright and
Strutt to set up mills at Cromford in
1771, the first using Arkwright’s
patented spinning technology
•Arkwright pioneered the planned
industrial town (Cromford) with better
quality workers’ housing, a market and
hotel

Secondary Industry
Textiles
•Strutt developed substantial water
powered mills at Belper from 1776
transforming Belper from a small
village to Derbyshire second town
by 1811
•Derwent Valley Mills a World
Heritage Site – noted for the
concentration of so many important
and largely unaltered early factories
•Little documentary evidence
survives

Secondary Industry
Textiles
•Nottingham textile industry – focused on
hosiery, cotton and lace – prospered as
Hargreaves moved his patented spinning
machinery construction to Notts because
of impact of machine breaking in
Lancashire
•Relatively poor water power from River
Leen lead to early introduction of steam
power to mills in Nottingham
•Both knitting and hosiery manufacture
remain largely outside the factory system
until relatively late – relying instead on
localised networks of framework knitters
controlled by overseeing putters out

Secondary Industry
Discussion
Take a look at Marilyn Palmer’s paper on the
Leicester Framework Knitters.
Can you summarise the developments in this
industry from the 18th to 19th centuries
How did the industry change over this period? What
drove the changes? What is the nature of the
evidence?

Secondary Industry
Leicester Frame Knitters
•Fame knitting a conservative
craft/industry driven by changes
in men’s fashion
•Initially frames rented by
individual families of knitters in
adapted traditional houses or
purpose built houses
constructed by speculators

Secondary Industry
•Initial phase of home
knitting gives rise to
concentration of industry in
workshops with overseer
(“Topshops”)
•Cramped, dangerous and
unpleasant
•Vested interests of
middlemen govern industry

Secondary Industry
•Move to factory setting
comes late (1850s on) with
adoption of mechanised
knitting and new fashions and
products
•Factories in Leicester less
grand than the Nottingham
Lace Market examples as did
not serve as
showrooms/salesrooms

Transport
Roads
•At the beginning of the period the
Midlands was distinguished by a road
infrastructure in lamentable state of
disarray
•By late C18 most major roads had been
converted to Turnpikes (eg Great North
Road re-routed to Retford, 90
coaches/day plus wagons and pack
horses).
•Roads have major impact on town
development (eg Retford, Tuxfod,
Newark)
•By Late C18 most heavily used roads
unable to support weight of freight
movement, which transfers to canals

Transport
Canals
•Canal construction in Late
C18 largely driven by need to
move raw materials around
region – eg coal
•Coal companies such as
Barber and Walker
instrumental in setting up
canals but later transferring
carriage of coal to rail

Transport
The Railway
•Initial focus on movement of freight and expansion into coalfield by rival
companies – multiplicity of lines and stations
•Midlands industrial landscapes see proliferation of tramways and light
railways linking scattered industry to wharfage on canals and rivers

Towns
• .

Towns

Section 6: George
Sanderson, Mapping the
Industrial Revolution

George Sanderson
• .

An Archaeology of the East Midlands Class 8. Radcliffe Autumn 2014

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