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usually led by Peter Chater. Thisyear Peter elected to try adifferent approach and proposeda series of walks on Sundaymornings, at fortnightly intervals.At the time of writing, two ofthese have taken place, sadly withpoor support from members.

The first walk saw fivemembers meet on a beautiful latespring morning at Leamington’sVictoria Park, for a walk to theEmscote area of Warwick, via theLeam riverside path and theGrand Union Canal.

En route, there proved to bemany points of industrial interest,starting with the Princes Drivebridge over the River Leam; anearly example of a concrete builtbridge. At the Grand UnionCanal both the aqueducts overthe railway and the River Avonwere studied, a peculiar feature ofthe former being that the railwayfalls from Leamington to gounder the structure, beforeclimbing again to cross the Avon.In the lee of the Avon aqueductPeter pointed out an apparentlyinsignificant ditch, all thatremains of the tailrace fromEmscote Mill. This mill, whichwas demolished some years ago,was unusual in that it used theoverflow from the canal as itspower source.

After traversing Tesco’s carpark, once the site of Emscotepower station, the walk continuedacross Emscote Road to CharlesStreet. Here, the only evidenceremaining of Nelson’s GelatineWorks is the imposing brick-builtsocial club. However, further upCharles Street are a number ofconcrete built houses, dating

EDITORIAL

from the latter half of the 19thCentury and provided byNelson’s as worker’saccommodation. Two morelarger houses, of similarconstruction (provided formanagement?), exist on All SaintsRoad.

The canal was then regained byway of All Saints Road and theenvirons of All Saints Church, forthe return to the start.

The second walk was precededby an almost biblical deluge andwas consequently even less wellsupported than the first, with justtwo members walking fromHatton Station, along the GrandUnion Canal, to Shrewley andback.

This commenced with a lookat the now unmanned HattonStation, where Peter was onceStation Master with no fewer than19 staff! Then, after a hunt forGWR boundary markers in thehedge along the canal, the walkcontinued to Shrewley with a stopat the Shrewley Canal Tunnel.Here considerable time was spentdiscussing how horse and boatmight be efficiently separated,there being no towpath throughthe tunnel. The evidence of anin-situ rubbing post on the horsepath and a roller at theBirmingham end of the tunnel,supports Peter’s theory that therope remained attached to thehorse while it traversed the horsepath.

The return to Hatton Stationwas made by field paths.Fortunately the weather held!

Mark W. AbbottPlease see overleaf for advance details ofthe Society’s new season of meetings.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

A constant source ofsurprise to me is justhow much industrial

archaeology there is inWarwickshire. I suspect thatmany outsider’s impression of thecounty is one of a rural shire andperhaps not the most likely placeto find evidence of past industrialactivity.

The truth is rather different ofcourse. Both Birmingham andCoventry, once major industrialcentres, were part ofWarwickshire, while the rest ofthe modern county has evidenceof industrial activity almostanywhere one cares to search;something that Peter Chater’sindustrial walks ably demonstrate.It is therefore disappointing toreport below the apparent lack ofinterest amongst members forthese short excursions. Each wasa fascinating snapshot of ourindustrial heritage, as those whodid attend will testify.

Mark W. Abbott

A feature of the Society’sprogramme for many years,

have been evening walks in a localarea with industrial connections,

NUMBER 7 JUNE 2002

WIASIndustrial Archaeology SocietyWARWICKSHIRE

SOCIETY NEWS

WIAS

Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter: Number 72

T he sheer density and variety of industrieswhich sprang up in the North-west regionof the UK during the industrial revolution

and thereafter meant that it was an extremelyimportant area for the development and applicationof all types of power units. It is entirely fitting,therefore, that the Museum of Science and Industryin Manchester should have what is possibly anunrivalled collection specifically dedicated to ‘Man’suse of power’. And it was the good fortune of WIASto have Anthony Coulls, the Curator of Energy atthat very Museum, as the speaker at its March 2002meeting.

Anthony covered the entire field of Man’s effortsto apply power to manufacturing, from early windand water mills to the most advanced turbines, butunderstandably his main focus was firstly on steamengines, then on oil and gas engines, and finally onthe generation and application of electricity. TheMuseum’s collection of historic, restored, and mostimportantly working units in each of those fields oftechnology is most impressive, and as a resourceboth for research and for the enlightenment of theyoung it can have few rivals in the UK.

The museum and its exhibits are designed on theinteractive pattern which is increasingly populartoday, with an emphasis on ‘working’ as distinctfrom ‘static’ exhibits. Considerable effort has alsobeen put into explaining the operating principles ofeach type of power unit. Using an excellent set ofslides, Anthony in effect led us through theMuseum, from early water wheels to a 1/3rd scalemodel of a Newcomen atmospheric engine, andonwards through oil, gas and internal combustionengines in general to examples of large high-speedsteam turbines. In this journey it became apparenthow many engine-building companies onceflourished in the UK in general, and in theNorth-west in particular, and just how important apart they played in the development of all types ofindustrial power units.

The technological advances made by theseengine-builders were frequently driven by the usersof power themselves, who were based virtually ontheir doorsteps and who constantly clamoured forengines with greater output to drive more and moremachines in larger and larger factories. Not least,the textile mills of the North-west were massiveconsumers of power and, as Anthony remarked, thesize of those mills, the numbers of machinesinstalled in them, and the thousands of workers theyemployed, are difficult to imagine today. But not all

engine development was aimed at horsepowersmeasured in the hundreds.

Anthony showed, for example, a slide of a tinysingle-cylinder steam engine designed to drive anequally small dynamo which was installed in onecorner of a shop window. The engine and dynamoprovided just enough electricity to light the bulbswhich illuminated the shopkeeper’s display ofgoods. This was groundbreaking ‘marketing’ in itstime and must have drawn the crowds!

Anthony’s presentation went on to cover hot-airengines, the generation and storage of Town’s gas,early means of generating electricity, and finally hetouched on hydraulic power. For over 100 years, thecity of Manchester had a hydraulic ‘ring-main’carrying water at a pressure of 1,100 psi throughthick-walled underground cast iron pipes.Manufacturing companies could literally plug-in tothis main and use the hydraulic pressure as motivepower. The system itself is long since out of use, ofcourse, but the pipes are still in situ and today havebeen ‘rediscovered’. They are being put to use forcarrying cable TV!

Meeting Reports by Arthur AstropMarch 2002 Anthony Coulls:Power in Manchester

L ooking forward to September 2002 and thenew season of meetings, the following speakers

have been booked:

12th September 2002Roger Cragg: The Stratford to Moreton Tramway.10th October 2002Charles Catt: Why Roads Exist.14th November 2002Dr. John Bland: Coal Mining in North Warwickshire.12th December 2002Paul Howells: Restoring the Royal Pump Rooms,Leamington Spa. To be confirmed.9th January 2003Peter Coulls: A Look at the History of FairgroundMachines.13th February 2003Anthony Grantham MBE: Gas Making. To beconfirmed.

A full programme for the 2002/2003 season ofmeetings will appear in the September 2002 editionof this Newsletter. A number of dates currentlyremain vacant, so suggestions of potential speakersremain welcome. Please pass details to a member ofthe committee.

New Season Programme

WIAS

Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter: Number 7 3

Nineteenth Century RoadbuildingApril 2002 Jo Bell:Thomas Telford’s Holyhead Road

A long walk, mostly in the rain! That washow Jo Bell described the exhaustivesurvey which she and a colleague

undertook, in 1998, of the 83-mile stretch ofTelford’s Holyhead Road which traverses east/westacross Wales. Telford is recorded as havingexpressed the wish that this road, built between 1811and 1824, should be his ‘memorial’ and it isundoubtledly one of his masterpieces.

To set the scene, Jo sketched in the generalparlous state of Britain’s major roads at the timewhen they were built by private venture, for privategain and with private vested interests having amarked influence on the routes they took. It wasonly at the beginning of the 19th century when, forpolitical, economic and military reasons, theGovernment started to take an interest in roadroutes and their construction that things began tochange for the better.

Telford planned his roads, and the HolyheadRoad was no exception, on rational routes ignoring(if not actually riding roughshod over) vestedinterests, and introducing tight control over designand construction. Under Telford’s management, theWelsh section of the route for the Holyhead Roadwas divided into discrete blocks of varying lengthsbut of approximately equal work content.

These blocks were bid for by contractors who,once they had won a contract, came undercontinuous scrutiny for adherence both tospecification and to start and finish dates. Telford’s‘site inspectors’ were empowered to ordercontractors to tear up and remake, at their ownexpense, any stretch of road which fell short ofspecification. Quality control, as we would know ittoday, was imposed on all aspects of construction,including the use of gauges to monitor the sizes ofthe aggregates used.

Telford could impose such tight specificationsbecause he had Government money behind him,and he also had at his disposal the craft skills and thetechnology (i.e. sheer blasting power!) to follow hischosen route and simply force the road through anyobstacles which lay in its path. Gradient control wasvery important to Telford, and he aimed never toexceed an incline steeper than 1 in 30. At variouspoints along its route, the road had to cross water,and traversing the Menai Straits was probablyTelford’s greatest challenge. The suspension bridgehe designed to span the Straits, which was the largestof its type at the time, was built between 1824 and1826.

Jo showed a number of excellent slides takenduring her survey in which even parts of Telford’soriginal constructions could still be seen. Also stillto be seen are some of the Telford-designed tollhouses on the road, together with smaller items ofroad furniture such as ‘sunburst’ gates and hisstandard pattern of milestones. Jo announced thatthe complete survey of the Welsh section ofTelford’s Holyhead Road will be published in bookform later this year.

The April meeting concluded with shortcontributions from two WIAS members, namelyRoger Cragg and Martin Green. Roger gave anaccount of an organised visit to various industrialarchaeological sites in Limerick. He touched on thecanal from Dublin to Shannon; the BarringtonBridge built in 1818 and featuring some interestingwrought-iron tubular construction; and ahydroelectric power station built in 1929 by SiemensSchukert and fed by water with a 100 ft head. Thisstation at its peak supplied 80 per cent of Ireland’selectricity. Other sites described by Roger includedLimerick Docks and the Foynes flying-boat terminaland rail head.

Finally, Martin Green described a short visit toLondonderry, showing pictures of the ‘walled city’,the route of the Bloody Sunday March, and somepoignant shots of the city’s now silent flax millswhich, at one time, employed many thousands ofworkers.

M embers are reminded that the Society is anaffiliated member of The Association for

Industrial Archaeology. This entitles the Society toreceive a copy of the AIA’s publications; thebiannual Industrial Archaeology Review and the quarterlyIndustrial Archaeology News. These are held by theTreasurer and are available to members on request.

Those with a general interest in IA may find thejournal Archive more to their taste. This is picture ledand the current edition (Issue 34), includes an articleon the Argyll Motor Works; a description of theBude Canal and the second part of a two instalmentlook at the Cardiff (Llanishen) Royal OrdnanceFactory. Again, the Society subscribes to thispublication and copies may be borrowed throughthe Treasurer.

Regrettably, for logistical reasons, it is notpossible to formally offer the loan of these journalsat meetings.

Society Library

WIAS


WARWICKSHIRE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY SOCIETYE-mail: [email protected]

CreditsDesign and editing:Mark W. AbbottAdditional material:Arthur Astrop

TREASURERM. W. Abbott53 Stowe DriveSouthamWarwickshireCV47 1NZ( 01926 813155

SECRETARYM. J. Green‘Argyll’ 2(b) Union RoadLeamington SpaWarwickshireCV32 5LT( 01926 313782

AFFILIATED TO THE ASSOCIATION FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

24 Portland StreetLeamington SpaWarwickshireCV32 5EY( 01926 425987

CHAIRMANL. F. Cave

and at one time there were no fewer than 10breweries in Northampton town alone. The samewas also once true of the iron foundry industry in theCounty, of which slides of pattern-making,moulding and iron-melting cupolas were shown.Today one foundry alone survives.

In the field of ‘utilities’, Geoffrey concentrated onNorthamptonshire waterworks and showed somesplendid slides of beam engines, filter beds, pumpingstations, the Ravensthorpe reservoir and the 1868Castle Ashby water tower. The latter, incidentally,was scornfully dismissed by Pevsner as being of‘little interest’, but today is cherished as a splendidexample of well-designed and executed ‘waterworks’architecture.

Finally, Geoffrey turned to transport where hisCounty, in the famous Watford Gap area, has aunique juxtaposition of the old and the new in theshape of Roman roads, canals, railways, and 20thcentury motorways all competing for the attentionof the industrial archaeologist. Aerial photographsof the area, showing the splendid brick-builtventilation shafts of the Blisworth tunnel from anangle rarely seen, were included.

An important point for NIAG came in the 1990swhen a County Sites and Monuments Officer wasappointed, and the Group recognised that itsprocedures had to be revised and its activitiesneeded to become more ‘professional’. This hasbeen achieved, and today some of its enthusiastic‘amateur’ workers have even moved into the laptopera!

W ith a history to date of at least 40 years,the Northamptonshire IndustrialArchaeology Group (NIAG) must be

one of the strongest and most vigorous in theMidlands and, as such, is both an example and aninspiration to others in the region. Its range ofactivities, and the authoritative position it hasestablished, were vividly described by GeoffreyStarmer, a stalwart of NIAG and an enthusiast for allaspects of IA.

Indeed, Geoffrey’s enthusiasm illuminated hiscoverage of every aspect of IA which has beentackled by his Group, including the iron oreindustry, footwear, transport (road, rail, canals), theutilities, breweries and foundries. The iron oreindustry, centred around Lamport, Brixworth andScaldwell, was once of major significance to theCounty and Geoffrey had a number of slidesshowing workings when it was at its height. Theseincluded an extensive pylon-supported ropeway bywhich the ore was carried over long distances, highabove ground, to processing plants. Narrow-gaugerailways and blast furnaces also featured in his slides.

The boot and shoe trade has been of greatimportance to Northamptonshire and Geoffrey hada series of slides showing practices in that industry inits early days, when everything was carried outmanually by skilled craftsmen working in what were,by today’s standards, Dickensian conditions. Someof those practices, moreover, prevailed until wellpast the middle of the 20th century, must haveconstituted a Factory Inspector’s nightmare, andmay have contributed to the industry’s subsequentdecline. The shoe industry was originally basedprimarily on ‘out-workers’, labouring away in theirown homes, and it was not in fact until 1857 that thefirst ‘shoe factory’ proper was built. Some of theslides showing skilled workers making the uppers forsurgical shoes from hand-drawn ‘brown paperpatterns’ were fascinating.

Northamptonshire has a long history of brewing

IA in NorthantsFebruary 2002 Geoffrey Starmer:Industrial Archaeology in Northamptonshire

ADVANCE NOTICE OF THE AGM

The AGM of the Society will be held on Thursday11th July at 7.30 pm. Some changes to thecommittee are anticipated, so the attendance of allmembers is requested.

CreditsDesign and editing:Mark W. AbbottAdditional material:Arthur AstropToby CavePrinting:Martin Green \Warwick School

mailto:[email protected]

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ensure that all our informationabout members was accurate andup-to-date, to discover whetherthere were any members willingto make a fuller contribution tothe work of the Society, and toseek members’ views on thefuture development of theSociety. The members’ survey isdistributed with this Newsletter,and I do hope you will be able tocomplete this in the near future.

I very much look forward tomy new position as Chairman andsincerely hope that the nexttwelve months will be a happy,busy and successful time for theSociety and its members.

Martin Green

CHAIRMAN’S MESSAGE

meetings await confirmation of aspeaker and members will ofcourse be advised ofdevelopments.

With the election of MartinGreen as Chairman at the AGM,responsibility now passes to himfor the organisation of theprogramme. As ever, suggestionsof potential speakers arewelcome; all the more so if youhave personal experience of theirability.

John Turner FestivalThe Society has been invited

by Southam and District LionsClub to appear in the HobbiesSection of the 2002 John TurnerFestival. This will take place atSoutham College, Welsh RoadWest, Southam, on the 1st and2nd November 2002. Openingtimes will be 6.00pm to 9.30pmon Friday 1st November and10.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday2nd November.

Members SurveyAs the Chairman noted in his

opening message above, thecommittee has agreed to issue amembers survey form with thisedition of the Newsletter. Aprincipal aim of this survey is toupdate the Society membershiprecords. Currently themembership database containsaround 60 names, many of whichlack corresponding telephonenumbers and e-mail details. Inparticular, the committee is keenthat the Society has an up-to-datee-mail address for all memberswho have a one, as this is a quickand economical means ofcommunication.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

Ifelt that I could not let thisissue of the Newsletter passwithout officially recording

the Society’s – and my own –gratitude to my predecessor asChairman of WIAS, Mr. TobyCave. Toby has been the guidinglight of the Society since itsformation in 1989, workingtirelessly to raise the profile ofindustrial archaeology bothlocally and beyond, takingresponsibility for securingspeakers for the monthlymeetings, and making his ownpersonal contributions to therecording of the industrial historyand industrial archaeology ofWarwickshire. I was delightedthat he was willing to accept theposition of President of WIAS,and we look forward to hiscontinued influence on theSociety.

The new committee is madeup of the President, theChairman, the Secretary – Mr.Dennis Crips – and the Treasurer– Mr. Mark Abbott, with theapproval of the AGM to co-optfurther members. The firstdecision taken at the recentmeeting of the new committeewas to issue a members’ survey to

SOCIETY NEWS

NUMBER 8 SEPTEMBER 2002


SubscriptionsMembers are reminded that

following the agreement of theAGM to retain subscriptions attheir 2002 / 2002 levels, these arenow due. The amount is £10.00per person inclusive of partner. Afurther £1.00 per person ispayable at each meeting to helpmeet the cost of refreshments.Please make cheques payable toWarwickshire IndustrialArchaeology Society. To save onpostage costs, any paymentsreceived by post will beacknowledged by receipt at thesubsequent meeting.

ProgrammeA full programme for the

forthcoming season is set out onthe back page of this Newsletter.Once again this represents thesole work of the retiringChairman, Toby Cave, to whomour thanks are due. Two

WIAS


At the June meeting, the scheduled speakerwas unavoidably prevented from attendingand Roger Cragg came to the Society’s

rescue. At a mere six-hours notice, Roger was able tobring forward his talk on the Stratford to MoretonTramway (originally programmed for September2002), and produced one of his highly professionalpresentations.

The story of the Stratford to Moreton Tramwaystarted in the early 19th century when William Jamesconceived the idea of a rail connection betweenStratford-upon-Avon and London (no less). The16-mile stretch from Stratford upon Avon toMoreton-in-Marsh, with a branch line toShipston-on-Stour, was to be the first link in thishighly ambitious project. As it happened, it turnedout to be the only link in the project! James gotpermission to go ahead but only on condition thatwhere his line ran close to the turnpike road ‘nosteam locomotives would be allowed’! Sinceapproximately the first third of his proposed routedid precisely that, this was an onerous condition byany standards, and one with far-reachingconsequences. Motive power was consequentlyrestricted to horses, which also meant thatconventional sleepers could not be used and eachrail chair had to be set on its own square stone block.Very many thousands of these blocks were neededto build the line, and astonishingly Roger discoveredone, in the undergrowth, and has a colour slide toprove it.

Work on the tramway started in 1824. Wroughtiron rails in 15-ft lengths were laid at 4-ft 81/2-inchgauge, with the chairs at 3-ft spacing. Between eachpair of chairs, the rail had a fish-back profile on itsunderside. Eventually it became clear than theoriginal estimate of around £35,000 to build the linewas inadequate and that another £11,000 would beneeded. (Plus ça change…!). Two shareholders alonethen bravely donated £5,000 each, to make sure theline was completed, and in 1826 it was officiallyopened. The branch line to Shipston-on-Stour,however, did not materialise for another 10 years.

Following canal practice, any carrier was allowedto use the tramway provided he had wagons of theappropriate gauge, complied with the Company’srules and regulations and, of course, paid thestatutory fee. The track was single-line, with passingplaces at ¼ mile intervals, and a post was placed atthe precise midpoint between each pair of passingplaces so that there should be no argument as towho should back-off! Predominantly used for

transporting freight, the line typically carried coal,Cotswold stone, lime etc, and the maximum load perwagon was set at 4 tons. By 1853, there was alsosome passenger traffic, and the journey time fromStratford to Moreton-in-Marsh was a mere twohours!

In a series of slides, Roger highlighted itemstestifying to the existence of the tramway which canstill be seen to this day, including bridges, junctionhouses, residual track routes and so on. In 1854, theline was leased by the Oxford, Worcester andWolverhampton railway, and in 1858 passengerservices on the line ceased. In 1863, the OW &Wline was taken over by GWR, and in 1869 theoriginal tramway company was finally wound up.

To conclude the June meeting, Toby Cave gave ashort paper on ‘historic concrete structures’,illustrating the use of unreinforced concrete in anextremely wide range of applications, from theproduction of classical statuary and decorative itemsto a wide variety of buildings. With an excellentseries of slides, Toby covered the uses of this veryversatile material from lighthouses to viaducts, fromhumble dwellings to mock castles, and from statelyhomes to follies. Examples included as widelydisparate structures as the 1870 Marine Crescent inFolkestone, a 21-span viaduct in Scotland, amock-Elizabethan manor in Wales, a 65-metre hightower in the New Forest and a group of NormanShaw-designed houses in Croydon.

Toby’s talk was by way of a trailer to the moreextensive one on the Warwickshire Cement Industrywhich he subsequently presented in July, followingthe formal business of the Annual General Meeting.

Meeting Reports by Arthur AstropJune 2002 Roger Cragg:The Stratford to Moreton Tramway

T hanks to the generosity of Huw Jones,Coventry’s Keeper of Industrial History, the

Society has been donated a run of the IndustrialArchaeology Journal from Volume 1 (1965) toVolume 16 (1981). Although undoubtedly much ofthe content will now be rather dated, a glance at theaccompanying bound index reveals many articles ofpossible interest to members. This index will beavailable for inspection at Society meetings andmembers who wish to borrow copies of this Journalshould advise Toby Cave of the relevant dates.

Unfortunately, because of the number of journalsinvolved and the difficulty in keeping track ofborrowings, it will not be possible to have the entirecollection at meetings for members to browse.

Industrial Archaeology Journal

WIAS


M embers who read the short piece on thecopper mines of Parys Mountain in the

September 2001 edition of the Newsletter, mightlike to visit www.parysmountain.co.uk.; thehomepage of the Parys Mountain Underground Group.Here, the link ‘Go Underground’ gives access to acomprehensive body of information on thisindustrial site of world importance.

There are pages devoted to the location, historyand unusual geology of the area. Further pagesdetail how the ore was processed, the use of steampower and the locations of the various steamengines on the mountain; together with photographsof the engine houses in the past and now. All 163known shafts and adits are described, located withsix or eight figure grid references and for themajority, modern photographs are provided. Thisinformation is also available to download as a textfile for those who wish to study the remains in thefield.

Perhaps of more interest to members, given thedistance of this site from Warwickshire, are theillustrated Virtual Tours. These give an excellentimpression of the important mining features and thesurreal landscape of the mining ground.

There is also a link to the informative sisterwebsite of the Amlwch Industrial Heritage Trust.

As a whole, this website is a superb example ofthe positive aspect of the Internet. A bonus is that itpresents industrial archaeology in an interesting andaccessible manner. Yes, the design of the site maybe a little fussy for some tastes and a number of theimages suffer from heavy compression, but these areminor points in the face of the sheer wealth ofinformation provided. This is almost as good asvisiting the mountain itself and even those familiarwith the locality will find something new here.

Mark W. Abbott

3

Local Lime and CementApril 2002 Lyndon Cave:The Warwickshire Cement Industry

Even before the era of universal DIY, andcertainly after it, there can be few peoplewho have not at some time or other found

themselves wielding a shovel and following theclassic recipe of ‘three of sand and one of cement’!From the traditional one hundredweight paper sack(of which only one third was usually used, leavingthe remainder to set solid!), to the dainty 1 kg plasticbag of ‘readymix’ we have all used the stuff, withprobably few of us realising that the Romans in theirtime were doing likewise with a not dissimilarsubstance.

Since the early 18th century, our County has beena major producer of cement and it was thedevelopment of that industry in Warwickshire whichLyndon Cave traced in his address to the Julymeeting. The origins of the industry in Warwickshirelay first in lime workings, with clusters of kilnsaround the Arbury Estate and Chilvers Coton beingrecorded in 1746. Twenty years later kilns were alsospringing up in the Long Itchington area and by1800 both lime and cement production were alsothriving in the Stockton/Southam areas, with theindustry largely controlled by Warwick businessmenwith premises near the canal.

Of immense significance to the growth of theindustry was the Stockton blue lias ridge, and soonpowerful business men like John Tomes and CharlesHandley began to appear as important figures inlime and cement production. In the first quarter ofthe 19th century John Greaves was anotherpowerful player, by which time Southam was alreadyone of the most important areas in the UK for limeand cement production. By that time also, the firstpatent for ‘artificial cement’ had been granted to oneJames Aspdin, now widely acknowledged as theoriginator of Portland Cement. As often happenswith a new technology or process, the military soonbecame interested and in the 19th century the RoyalEngineers played a very important part in thedevelopment of cement.

The Midlands canal system as a means oftransportation of cement and limestone was crucialuntil towards the end of the 19th century, when therailways took over, but it is interesting to note thatsome working boats were still being used to carrycement as late as 1940.

In 1910, the first ‘combine’ of 32 Britishcompanies involved in cement production wasformed, and such an important industry inevitablyhad its industrial relations problems. In 1924, astrike of cement workers demanding 1/4d per hour

rise and a seven day annual holiday brought theindustry to a standstill. However, the employersstood firm against this outrageous demand, and thestrike collapsed.

Lyndon concluded by sketching the history ofthe industry in Warwickshire in the late 20th century,when once mighty groups like RPCC began to showthe signs of distress which led to take-over battlesand finally, in 2000, to the acquisition of RugbyCement by the Australian Ready Mixed ConcreteCompany.

All the w’s..... Parys Mountain Website

http://www.parysmountain.co.uk

WIAS



CreditsDesign and editing:Mark W. Abbott

Additional material:Arthur AstropMartin Green

Printing: Print andCopy Centre Ltd.

2001

Please note that this programme may be subject to change without notice. If you are particularlyinterested in a specific speaker and subject, it is recommended that confirmation of that meeting is

sought from a member of the committee.

Thursday 12th SeptemberPeter Lee: Railways in the Warwickshire Coalfield.

Thursday 10th OctoberCharles Catt: Why Roads Exist.

Thursday 14th NovemberDr. John Bland: Coal Mining in North Warwickshire.

Thursday 12th DecemberPaul Howells: Restoring the Royal Pump Rooms,

Leamington Spa.

2001

Thursday 9th JanuaryPeter Coulls: A Look at the History of Fairground

Machines.

Thursday 13th FebruarySpeaker and Subject to be Confirmed.

Thursday 13th MarchHuw Jones: Coventry’s Engineering Heritage.

To be Confirmed.

Thursday 10th AprilAlan Cooke: Subject to be Confirmed.

Thursday 8th MayPeter Cross-Rudkin: Some Warwickshire Eighteenth

Century Engineers and Their Work.

Thursday 12th JuneSpeaker and Subject to be Confirmed.

Thursday 10th JulyAnnual General Meeting, followed by Lyndon F.

Cave: Brickmaking in Warwickshire.

2002 2003

Programme 2002 / 2003

WIAS MeetingsMeetings of the Society are held on the secondThursday of each month in the Sixth Form Centre atWarwick School, Myton Road, Warwick, starting at7.30pm. A map of how to find the Sixth FormCentre at Warwick School is available from theSecretary. Visitors should park in the Junior School/ Sports Hall car park. The Sixth Form Centre isnext to the car park.

Subscriptions 2002 / 2003£10.00 per person (or couple).

Cheques payable to Warwickshire IndustrialArchaeology Society please.

An additional payment of £1.00 per person is due ateach meeting to meet the cost of refreshments.

The majority of time at these meetings is occupiedby our speaker, followed by refreshments and asubsequent period for questions and follow upmaterial. The final part of the meeting is thenusually taken up with a brief contribution from oneof our members, often concentrating on an aspect ofthe industrial archaeology of Warwickshire. We arealways keen to have contributions from members orvisitors – do not be afraid to put yourself forwardfor one of these presentations. Occasionaladditional events will also take place during the year,and members will be duly notified of these.

CHAIRMAN TREASURERM. W. Abbott53 Stowe DriveSouthamWarwickshireCV47 1NZ( 01926 813155

SECRETARYD. M. Crips27 St. Nicholas Church StreetWarwickWarwickshireCV34 4DD( 01926 401072


Argyll 2(b) Union RoadLeamington SpaWarwickshireCV32 5LT( 01926 313782

M. J. Green




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opinion it is probably one of thefinest aviation museums in thecountry. The atmosphere istangible and the supportingdisplays are on the one handfascinating, yet poignant andmoving, bringing home theterrible loss of life endured byBomber Command during WW2.

This area of Lincolnshire is,after all, what came to be termedbomber country. East Kirkbywas just one of many operationalBomber Command airfields inthis region. Both 57 Sqn, and later630 Sqn, operated from EastKirkby for about 18 months.Both flew Lancasters, largely onnight raids over Europe. Thechapel, reconstructed as part ofthe museum, illustrates thehuman cost. The side walls arelined with column after columnof names in gold leaf; themembers of 57 Sqn and 630 Sqnwho died on active service whilestationed at East Kirkby. Thereare over 400.

Details of the museum areappended below and I wouldrecommend a visit. It is wellworth the long journey, especiallyif the Lancaster is performing atwilight taxy. There is nowhereelse in the UK that one can get soclose to a living piece of aviationhistory.

Mark W. Abbott

CONTACT:The Lincolnshire AviationHeritage Centre, East KirkbyAirfield, East Kirkby, NearSpilsby, Lincolnshire, PE23 4DE.Telephone: 01790 763207 Email:[email protected]: www.lincsaviation.co.uk

EDITORIAL

The museum is open all yearround apart from the Christmasholiday period. Opening hoursvary depending upon the season.Specific opening times and detailsof any special events, such as thetwilight Lancaster taxy displays,are available from one of theabove sources.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

T his copy of theNewsletter sees a slightchange in layout

compared with previous editions.The reason is the absence of thebooked speaker from theSeptember meeting, a vacancyadmirably filled by the newChairman, Martin Green, at thelast minute. As his subject,Martin took the IndustrialArchaeology of Warwickshire andgave a broad summary of some ofthe important sites in the County,followed by a video ofhat-making in Atherstone. Healso shared with the memberssome thoughts on how he wouldlike to see the Society developover the next few years.

Rather than going over what tomany is probably familiarterritory, the space allocated tothe meeting report has been givenover to a piece about theLincolnshire Aviation HeritageCentre written by John Willock.This has a local link, since theAvro Lancaster that forms itscentrepiece was built atLongbridge.

However, as John points outthere is far more to the museumthan this one aircraft. In my

SOCIETY NEWS

WARWICKSHIRE

NUMBER 9 December 2002


Fenny Compton TunnelThe current edition of Industrial

Archaeology Review (Volume XXIV,Number 2, November 2002) seesthe publication of John Selby’sresearch into the erstwhile FennyCompton Tunnel on the OxfordCanal, and its associatedbrickworks. The account coversthe construction, and opening outin stages, of the tunnel and theestablishment of a brickworks toutilise the clay spoil. The text issupported by some excellentdiagrams and both period andcontemporary photographs.

The Society is of course anAffiliated member if the AIA andso receives a copy of the Reviewthat members may borrow. Ifyou do not personally subscribeto the AIA, but wish to read thearticle, please speak to theTreasurer.

Members SurveyThe response to this has been a

little disappointing, with a slightlyless than 50% reply rate. A primeaim of this exercise was to updatethe Society’s address database, soplease complete the form so therecords can be brought up todate. Also, any suggestions ofpotential speakers would be mostwelcome.


http://www.lincsaviation.co.uk

WIAS


Britain got its first roads because, as is so oftenthe case, it was the army which needed them!In short, it was the Romans and their

determination to get their occupying troops from Ato B as quickly as possible (to put down therecalcitrant natives!), who saw to it that the first hardsurfaces were laid down in this green and pleasantland. And it was from that starting point that CharlesCatt, at our October meeting, began a mostinteresting talk on the development of roads in theUK.

Charles spent a major part of his career in theHighways Department of Warwickshire CountyCouncil, so he was able to relate much of his talk toroads with which we are all familiar. Majorlandmarks in road construction in the Midlands towhich he referred included the Fosse Way, WatlingStreet and Icknield Way. In the South, the road fromLondon to Dover, and thus to a channel port, wasanother vital route.

As a cross-section of the construction of a typicalRoman road showed, the need for a ‘cambered’surface which shed water to either side was alreadywell understood. Unless the water could be shedefficiently, into ditches at either side, the tramp ofcountless legions would soon reduce the road to amuddy morass. And indeed, as Charles explained,water and its almost unstoppable power to penetrateremains to this day the single most common cause ofdamage to roads.

When the Romans left these islands, the roadsthey had bequeathed us progressively deterioratedand road construction, as we understand it today, didnot really start until the 1800s. In fact, roadconstruction proper in Britain started with ThomasTelford (1757-1834) and Robert McAdam(1756-1836), and their pioneering work on basicroad construction and road-surfacing respectivelyremains unparalleled to this day. Showing across-sectional drawing of a modern road, Charlesidentified the many layers required, starting with thedeep sub-base (which rests on natural soil), andincluding successive layers comprising the baseproper, the binder and finally the carriagewaysurface itself. The principal constituents in roadmaking today are stone, sand, filler and bitumen.

The discovery of North Sea oil and natural gashad an unforeseen consequence for Britain’s roadbuilders. Traditionally it was tar, a by-product oftown’s gas, which was used as a binder on topdressing of roads. But with the advent of naturalgas, and the progressive closure of gasworks, tar first

became scarce and then disappeared. Bitumen wasits replacement, but the properties of bitumen arequite different from tar and road builders had tolearn a whole new technology. Unfortunately,bitumen is not as ‘sticky’ as tar but, on the plus side,it is not, like the latter, carcinogenic.

Charles quoted some figures for the weight ofmaterials required for making various types of road.For the very simplest hard surface on which avehicle can be driven (i.e. a drive), 1 ton per sqmetre is needed, for an estate road 1.5 ton is needed,and for a motorway it rises to 2.5 ton per squaremetre. Most of us from time to time havecomplained bitterly about the state of our roads, butCharles put the problem neatly in perspective withhis last slide. This showed a large water-filled‘pothole’ in a metalled road in an unidentifiedthird-world country alongside which sat aman……..fishing!

Meeting Reports by Arthur AstropOctober 2002 Charles Catt:Why Roads Exist

T hanks to David and Thelma Gee, I haverecently been able to scan a couple of old

photographs of the local lime and cement industry.Both reputedly show workers from the Blue Liasworks of Greaves, Bull and Lakin. This wasalongside the canal by the Blue Lias public house,between Stockton and Long Itchington. The site isnow occupied by Dowdswell Engineering. Thisworks was also known locally as The Cally; Callybeing a corruption of California, the original nameof the Blue Lias perhaps?

The more recent of the two pictures contains aslight mystery. It shows a gang of workmen posed ina works setting, one of whom is holding a roughlychalked sign on which the words Silent Ones andRotary 1923 (or possibly 1928) are just visible. Thispresumably refers to the gang’s work location or job,but just what this job was, is not clear.

My best guess is that Rotary refers to either therumblers which screened the quarried rock toremove the unwanted clay, or to the crushers usedboth to reduce the limestone to a fine powdersuitable for the kiln and to mill the kiln output,known as clinker. These processes would have beenvery noisy and any supervising men could only havecommunicated by hand signs or lip reading and thusmight have been known as Silent Ones. However, itmust be stressed that this is only conjecture. A morereliable explanation would be very welcome.

Mark W. Abbott

A MYSTERY

WIAS


Warwickshire Coal MiningNovember 2002 Dr. John Bland:Coal Mining in North Warwickshire

Asplendid pictorial pageant of an industrywhich once dominated a large section ofour County, and indeed became a way of

life for many thousands of families, was unrolled atthe November meeting by Dr John Bland. Dr Blandwas a GP in the Arley area for over 40 years and as aconsequence had intimate contact with the coalmines of north Warwickshire, the minersthemselves, their families and their daily lives. Overthose years he painstakingly amassed a very largenumber of pictures, maps, drawings and anecdotesof practically every aspect of the mining industry inthe midst of which he practised, and consequentlywas able to present a fascinating story of an activityand a way of life which so swiftly came to an end inthe 1980s.

Dr Bland started by showing a map drawn byBateman in about 1600 AD on which the sites of anumber of primitive pits in north Warwickshire wereincluded. He touched on early mining methods,including the bell-pit used in outcrop working, theadit mine, and the ‘dig a bit, leave a bit’ methodwhere natural pillars of coal and rock were left asroof supports. Early mining practices, whichincluded the employment underground of womenand very young children, were also described.

The North Warwickshire coalfields saw some ofthe earliest applications of Newcomen atmosphericengines and later of Boulton & Watt steam engines.Around this time the names of Warwickshirecollieries also began to gain fame and prominence,including Griff, Bedworth, Hawkesbury, Exhall,Newdigate, Binley, Arley, Dawe Mill and, of course,Coventry. Dr Bland had some fine slides of many ofthese pits and the men who managed and workedthem. Inevitably, from time to time, there were pitdisasters and other slides showing scenes around thepitheads, and the early rescue squads with theirprimitive breathing apparatus of the time, were grimreminders of the real price which was paid for coal.

Fathers, sons and grandsons followed each othersuccessively into working in the pits, and theinfrastructure which gradually grew up around thecollieries and their workers, to meet their needs andthose of their families, included hospitals, schoolsand a very wide range of social and cultural activities.Religion also played an important part and manychurches, chapels and organizations such as theChurch Army and the Boys’ Brigade, flourishedmightily. To many of these movements, includingthe brass bands, the colliery owners were substantialbenefactors with gifts of land, or money, or both. In

fact, when one by one the mines closed the loss ofthis support was felt as keenly on the social andcultural levels as it was in terms of employment.

In addition to his talk and slide presentations, DrBland also mounted an exhibition of maps,photographs, models of engines and wagons, andmining memorabilia which added even further to theinterest of a very successful evening.

An Imaginary Conversation with a DonkeyI met this donkey in a small paddock at Norton

Lindsey. He was very proud of his surroundings andhome, and kindly invited me to look over his littlebungalow.

It was a building of substantial brickwork withbattered outside walls and on entering this cosysingle room of about 15’x 9’, one noticed it had beenwell heated as there were the remains of twelvefireplaces and to prove they had at one time beenused there was vitrified brickwork above them. Thedonkey commented that he much preferred his newcorrugated iron roof to the old brick one as it wassafer and kept him so much drier, he also liked hisnew concrete floor as it was so very easy to keepclean. He also loved his little sunken paddock(former clay pit), which protected him from thewinds and is now covered with luscious grass.

I asked if he would reveal his address to me so Icould write a ‘thank you’ letter and others couldcome and see him. He said it had a name and a verylong number, which he kindly gave. The Brickyard,Curlieu Lane, Norton Lindsey. O/S Grid ReferenceSP 222635.

This kiln and old clay pit are visible from theroadside gateway.

Peter Chater

This brings the number of extant brick kilns inWarwickshire, known to the Society, to three: FennyCompton Tunnel; Elms Farm, Bishops Itchingtonand now Curlieu Lane, Norton Lindsey. Do anymembers know of others that may be added to thelist?

A site that I have recently discovered is ToftCottage Farm, Toft, just south of Dunchurch on theA426. There is no kiln now, but an obvious claypitremains, together with a two-storey house that wasoriginally an office or workshop according to acontact I made at a Local History Fair in Coventry.

Mark W. Abbott

ANOTHER BRICK KILN

WIAS



CreditsDesign and editing:Mark W. AbbottAdditional material:Arthur AstropPeter Chater JohnWillockPrinting: Print andCopy Centre Ltd.Kenilworth.

Further Afield





M. J. Green


This very interesting museum, which issituated on the site of a former RAF wartimeairfield, was set up by the Panton brothers,

Fred and Harold, to commemorate their brother,Christopher, who was killed whilst flying onoperations with Bomber Command in 1944. TheHeritage Centre is also dedicated to the memory ofservice personnel of No’s 57 and 630 Squadrons,who operated from East Kirkby during the war.

The Pantons have re-created at East Kirkby allthe atmosphere of an operational wartime BomberCommand airfield, complete with original, fullyequipped Control-Tower, NAFFI, Huts, Air RaidShelter, Hangar and Chapel. Housed in the museumare extensive collections of memorabilia relating tothe RAF Escaping Society, together with theremains of many aircraft and artefacts found onvarious excavations carried out by the LincolnshireAircraft Recovery Group. Also displayed is agenuine Bouncing Bomb, designed by Barnes N.Wallis. It is similar to those used on the famousDam Raid, although the example exhibited is apractice bomb, retrieved from the sea at Reculver, inHerne Bay.

Centrepiece of the museum is Avro Lancaster BMk VII, NX611, Just Jane. This aeroplane was builtby Austin Motors at Longbridge, Birmingham, inApril 1945, and therefore is quite a late wartimeLancaster. One of a batch of 150 machines built toFar Eastern Tropical standards, NX611 wasintended for use in the Pacific theatre of operations.However, the war ended before it could be deployedand the aircraft had a very chequered service career,including maritime reconnaissance use in the Pacificwith the L’Aeronavale. It finally ended itsoperational life in August 1964 at Bankstown,Sydney, Australia.

At about this time a number of individuals startedto take an interest in the aeroplane with a view tosecuring its preservation. NX611 was eventuallyflown back to the UK, to what was to be a rather

uncertain future. After spending time in variouslocations and appearing at a few air displays, NX611ended up at the Squires Gate, Blackpool, AviationMuseum where, in poor condition, the aircraft waseventually offered for sale by public auction. Theoutcome was unsuccessful and the aircraft remainedunsold, failing to reach its reserve price of £12,000.Eventually the owner of NX611 offered themachine on extended loan to the RAF, and aftersome conservation work she became the GateGuardian at RAF Scampton in 1974. In September1983 the Panton brothers bought the aircraft,although it remained for another five years in RAFcustody, before being removed from Scampton toEast Kirkby.

Just Jane has undergone a considerable amount ofconservation work since her arrival at East Kirkby.This has primarily centred on bringing the aircraft upto a ground engine-running standard. The fourRolls-Royce Merlin 24 engines have all beenrefurbished and can be run at full-power for publicdemonstration purposes. Some tail-up taxy runshave also been performed, during filming of a BBCdrama production in the early spring of 2001. Thewriter of this report, together with his son, werefortunate on the 19th October to be aboard Just Janeduring one of these ground-running and taxiingsessions at East Kirkby; a tremendous experience.On the same evening the machine’s engines wereagain run-up in front of an enthusiastic crowd. Itwas an amazing sight to see jets of blue flame, andoccasional showers of sparks stabbing the darkness,from forty-eight Merlin exhaust stubs. Analtogether unforgettable experience; a true workingmuseum of the twentieth century, and an absolutemust for all aviation enthusiasts.

The Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centreby John Willock

ErrataThe meeting report heading which reads April 2002,in the September edition of the Newsletter, shouldread July 2002.



NEW

SLETT

ERTHIS ISSUE

¢ Meeting Reports

¢ Leamington Gas

¢ IA Recordings

¢ Programme to July 2003

17, 1903. By original scientificresearch the Wright Brothersdiscovered the principles ofhuman flight. As inventors,builders, and flyers they furtherdeveloped the aeroplane, taughtman to fly, and opened the era ofaviation.”

Warwickshire industry, ofcourse, once played an importantpart in aviation, although sadlythis is no longer the case now thetechnology has become thepreserve of giant industrialcorporations. That part was,however, significant sinceWarwickshire is the home of themost important element ofmodern aviation, the jet engine.Its inventor, Sir Frank Whittle,was a Warwickshire man; born inCoventry and an attendee ofLeamington College. Heundertook his jet enginedevelopment work inWarwickshire, although he laiddown the principles as early as1929 in a thesis written atCranfield College. After initialtrials at Cranwell, the first Britishjet-powered aircraft, the GlosterE28/39, was tested fromEdgehill. Admittedly, Whittle’sjet engine was not the now widelyused axial flow turbine,subsequently developed in theUSA using Whittle’s theory andGerman wartime experience, butas a practical unit, the jet enginewas first built here inWarwickshire and all suchengines owe a debt to Whittle’swork. Unfortunately, there is nosignificant memorial in thecounty to commemorate thatmomentous achievement.

Mark W. Abbott

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

This year, 2003, marks asignificant anniversary intechnological

achievement. On 17th Decemberit will be 100 years since OrvilleWright first achieved flight in apowered heavier than airmachine; at 10.35 am on 17thDecember 1903, at Kill DevilHills, Kittyhawk, North Carolina.It may only have been a 120 ft, 12second flight, and it is unlikelythat Wilbur and Orville Wrightcould have foreseen theimplications of their achievement,but that flight set in motionaeronautical research anddevelopment that led to theaeroplane becoming a keycomponent of the modern globaleconomy.

The original Wright Flyer isnow in the Smithsonian InstituteCollection, accompanied by thefollowing on a descriptive plaque:

“THE ORIGINAL WRIGHTBROTHERS AEROPLANE:The world’s first power-driven,heavier-than-air machine inwhich man made free, controlledand sustained flight invented andbuilt by Wilbur and OrvilleWright; flown by them at KittyHawk, North Carolina December

SOCIETY NEWS

WARWICKSHIRE

Programme.The programme for the

remainder of the current season isas follows:10th AprilAlan Cooke: Subject to beconfirmed8th MayPeter Cross-Rudkin: SomeWarwickshire Eighteenth CenturyEngineers and their Work.12th JuneSpeaker and Subject to beConfirmed.10th JulySociety AGM, followed byLyndon F. Cave: Brickmaking inWarwickshire.

Society Coach Trip.John Haslam has kindly

volunteered to organise a coachtrip for the Society. Possibledestinations being researched areBlaenavon, Saltaire and/orArmley, Leeds. The provisionaldate is Saturday 16th August2003. Other suggestions are ofcourse welcome.

Subscriptions.A number of subscriptions

remain outstanding. By now,those who have still to pay shouldhave received a written reminder,but if you are in any doubt theTreasurer can confirm paymentor otherwise! If you are in arrears,prompt payment would beappreciated; cheques payable toWarwickshire IndustrialArchaeology Society please.

* * * * *

WIASNUMBER 10 March 2003

Industrial Archaeology SocietyWARWICKSHIRE

WIAS


The restoration of the Royal Pump Roomstogether with the incorporation in thebuilding of the town’s library, musem and art

gallery is undoubtedly a success story forLeamington Spa. It was the history of therestoration, from its start to its triumphant finish,which was the major part of Paul Howell’s addressto our December meeting. But he began bysketching in the origins of the building in the earlyyears of the 19th century and by reminding us thatfrom the very start it had a chequered history. Thealternate periods of success followed by longerperiods of commercial failure and neglect whichcharacterized the late 20th century life of the RoyalPump Rooms were really only echoes of very similarevents in its earlier years.

Using a fine collection of colour slides, Paulshowed a record of restoration ‘work in progress’virtually from Day One to the official opening. Wesaw the state of dereliction of some parts of thebuilding when work began, together with manyarchitectural features which literally ‘saw the light ofday again’ as demolition connected with structuralwork took place. The original spa water spring wasuncovered, as were the various grades of bathsoriginally provided, catering for men and womenand offering water at various temperatures.Underground was exposed the ‘engine’ room of thebuilding, where once vast quantities of water wereheated, and steam for the Turkish Baths was raised.

Part way through the restoration work, the GreatFlood hit Leamington and the building, which at thetime was in a quite vulnerable state, was potentiallyimperilled. Fortunately, the wooden hoarding whichhad been erected around the frontage of the buildingbroke the main force of the surging waters. Somedamage was inevitably sustained, but without theprotection provided by the hoarding it would havebeen very much greater. During the course of therestoration work, the innovatory design of theking-post and roof structure over the deNormanville baths (now the library) was seen in allits ingenuity, and great care has been taken topreserve and highlight it.

The writer is probably not alone in saying that,following Paul’s talk, he sees the restoration of theRoyal Pump Rooms in a different light. Nowknowing exactly what to look for, he will revisitthem with even greater interest.Sheep Washes: John Brace

To conclude the December meeting, it wasappropriate that John Brace should also give a short

talk on baths, this time not for people but for sheep!Sheep manage to get their themselves appallinglyfilthy and shepherds very soon recognised that aclean fleece fetched more money than a dirty one.John traced the history of ‘sheep washes’ in theMidlands from the early use of the village pond, inwhich the poor creatures were forcibly dunked. Hewent on to describe the progressive design anddevelopment of specially constructed ‘washes’where one-way in and one-way out, plus runningrather than static water, significantly increased boththe effectiveness and the productivity of the process.Moreover, with the specially built washes it was onlythe sheep which got wet, and not the shpeherds aswell! If you know where to look, and John surelydoes, remains of some of these ‘sheep washes’ canbe seen to this day.

Meeting Reports by Arthur AstropDecember 2002 Paul Howell:Restoring the Royal Pump Rooms, Leamington Spa

The current edition of Archive; issue 37, has underits Skimpings header, a familiar (to my eyes

anyway), aerial photograph of Leamington SpaGasworks taken in 1933. This is accompanied by aninformative and detailed half page caption, withinwhich a number of minor points are raised that, as aSociety, we ought to be able to follow up in a letterto the publication.

Therefore, I would be pleased to hear from anymember who can provide information about thisnow lost local industry, however minor the detailmight seem. In particular, confirmation of the datewhen the gas holders were finally demolished wouldbe welcome. They were standing when I first cameto Leamington in 1981 and I seem to recall that theylasted at least a decade longer, but I have no recordof the date that demolition took place. I alsorecollect hearing from an unknown source that thebridge under the railway between Waverley Roadand the Sydenham industrial estate, was provided forthe passage of horse drawn carts carrying coal fromthe GWR yard to the gasworks. Can anyoneconfirm or deny this too?

Should any member wish to borrow the relevantedition of Archive, this is available from theTreasurer. Quite apart from the view of thegasworks, it is an interesting exercise to compareother buildings with the modern scene.REFERENCE:Skimpings; Archive Issue 37, Lightmoor Press,Whitney, 2003.

Mark W. Abbott

Leamington Gas

WIAS


Fairgrounds and SteamJanuary 2003 Peter Coulls:Fairground Machinery

One of the most attractive features of thestudy of traditional fairground machinerymust be that it allows one simultaneously

to combine the joys and recollections of earlychildhood (i.e. roundabouts, swings, helter-skeltersetc) with the serious grown-up business of coal,water and fireboxes (i.e. steam engines)! Both endsof this continuum were on display at our Januarymeeting, when Peter Coulls made a most welcomereturn visit to the Society. This time to remind us ofthe magic of the fair as we saw it as children,combined with an insight into both the technologyand the sheer hard work and raw muscle powerwhich lay behind that magic.

Starting with the earliest simple machines, such ashand-driven roundabouts and swings, Petersketched in the development of fairgroundmachinery through the 19th and 20th centuries, andparticularly the great leap forward which occurredwith the advent of the steam engine as the primemover for so many different types of fairground‘rides’. Steam was also the ‘puff’ and actuating forcebehind the magnificent organs which wereprogressively developed, and became such anessential part of fairground magic.

Peter’s collection of colour slides of fairgroundmachinery, from plain Roundabouts to Gallopers,from Swing Boats to Big Wheels, and from SteamYachts to Showmens’ Engines must surely be one ofthe finest, and his knowledge of the technology, alsothe makers of the machines and the history andtradition of fairs and fairground folk, isencyclopaedic.

Slides included shots of the Warwick andStratford Mops in the early years of the 20th centuryand reminded us that, as today, the arrival of thetraditional fair in a town was a once-a-yearlonged-for event. We were also reminded of theamount of physical effort which goes intotransporting, setting-up and dismantling the rides,much of which necessarily takes place in the earlyhours of the morning. Fairground folk zealouslyguard their traditions and pitches in the towns whichthey visit at set times each year. For a local authorityto attempt to make even the smallest alteration tothese traditions, or to change the precise position ofthe ’pitch’ traditionally reserved for a given ‘ride’, isalmost impossible.

The steam-driven engines which hauled the fairsaround the country are a subject for study inthemselves, and Peter spent some time on them.Here again, one was reminded of the effort and

physical endurance involved. Typical recordedjourney times for early engines with iron-shodwheels, hauling heavy loads from town to town,were:-12 hours to cover 91 miles; 14 hours totraverse 109 miles (a single continuous run); andthree days to cover 240 miles. It was most gratifyingto see just how many of these magnificent‘showmens’ engines’ have been saved by enthusiasts.

Increasingly, the Internet is promoted as a sourceof entertainment. However, this overlooks this

modern phenomenon’s greatest resource;information. The access to information that theInternet provides is unrivalled and a commonproblem met is finding exactly what is required,especially if starting with a somewhat general termsuch as industrial archaeology.

As an example, the Google search engine;www.google.com, returns 12 700 references to theterm “industrial archaeology”. Note that the quotationmarks ensure that only references to the two wordstogether on web pages are presented. Without thequotation marks, the search looks for both words,irrespective of whether they are together on a pageor not, and 161 000 references are returned! Apartfrom the sheer number of references listed, the otherproblem with this general approach is that manysites or pages with IA content will not contain thewords industrial archaeology anyway, and so will beoverlooked.

The key is of course to use more precision in theterm selected for the search, or start from acomprehensive page of links that lead to specific IAcontent.

With the latter in mind, a particularly usefulwebsite is www.iarecordings.org. IA Recordings areprobably well known to many members asproducers of videos about industrial archaeology,but their site is a useful general IA resource andcontains a links page with over 520 links to websiteswith specific IA content, all convenientlycategorised under subject headings. Thus, forexample, it is possible to view a list of links onmining, or general organisations connected with IA.As is frequent with such listings, not all the linkswork, but these dead links are few and the standardof the linked sites is high. Altogether an excellentstarting point for anyone with a general interest inIA and one that is recommended to members.

Mark W. Abbott

All the w’s.....IA on the Internet

http://www.google.com

http://www.iarecordings.org

WIAS



CreditsDesign and editing:Mark W. AbbottAdditional material:Arthur AstropMark AbbottPrinting: SouthamOffice Supplies,Market Hill,Southam, CV47 0HF

Archaeology and Planning





M. J. Green


Today, the submission of a planningapplication to a Local Authority routinelytriggers an enquiry to see if any

archaeological sites or monuments are likely to beaffected by the proposed development. In hisposition as Planning Archaeologist, in the Sites andMonuments Office,Warwick, Edward Wilson istherefore often among the first to know whenanything of archaeological interest in the County,including industrial remains, is likely to be affectedby building developers, and at our February meetinghe gave a most interesting insight into the workingsof his Department.

His remit covers everything from Roman timesup to (broadly) the 1920s and the onus lies with thedeveloper who makes a planning application to carryout, and pay for, investigations appropriate to ensurethat no site or monument, industrial or otherwise, isinadvertently destroyed for lack of properprofessional investigation. As an example, Edwardshowed pictures of Coombe Abbey, Coventry, (nowa hotel), for which planning application for anextension to one side was made. It was believed thatthe extension would intrude over an area where late19th century kitchens may once have stood, and trialtrenches were ordered to be dug. Sure enough, notonly the foundations of the kitchen were found but,unexpectedly, the remains of an ice house were alsoexposed. The development to the hotel was notstopped, but the archaeological items of interestfound were meticulously recorded before buildingwork was allowed to start.

Trial trenches dug on the Potterton Factory siteprior to impending redevelopment have shown thatall relics of 19th century industrial activity in the areahave disappeared, but evidence that there was once amedieval bridge over the Avon, near the presentPortobello bridge, was uncovered. By the sametoken, the recent development of Rock Mill,adjacent to the Potterton site, into residentialproperties, was preceded by an investigation and

recording of the interior of the mill, beforeconversion work began.

Edward went on to describe similar finds whichhave been triggered by planning applicationsincluding: the foundations of a windmill at LowerQuinton; Bridge 51 over the Stratford upon Avoncanal; an aquaduct at Yarningale, where work alsorevealed a hitherto unrecorded quarry site; unusualaspects of a late 19th century railway bridge atBrinklow; and the remains of a private sewage plantat Cawston House, near Rugby.

Moving towards more modern times, someinteresting slides were also shown of a group ofanti-aircraft gun platforms and associated buildingserected on the outskirts of Coventry just before theoutbreak of the second world war, and forming partof a ring of defences for the City. The details of thesite were carefully recorded and photographed. Thisinvestigation was triggered, Edward explained, by aplanning application (subsequently approved) by theland owner to turn the remains of the wartimebuildings into stabling for horses!

Much of the burden of Edward’s talk was tostress just how many archaeological sites andevidence, including industrial, still remains to berecorded. Many, indeed, are far from concealed andonly lack the interest, effort and manpower requiredto photograph and record them. The minimum ofphotographic evidence and written description,Edward stressed, is needed to get a site ‘on record’.His message was plain. WIAS members were beingcordially invited to help! Edward Wilson’s office isin The Butts, Warwick; his telphone number is01926 412734, and his e-mail address [email protected].

February 2003 Edward WilsonArchaeological Recording in Warwickshire

Sir Frank Whittle AddendumAn excellent précis of Sir Frank Whittle’s career,

together with much other aviation history, can befound at www.raf.mod.uk/history/whittle1.html.




http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/whittle1.html

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