Industrial Archaeology: Principles and Practice

198 Pages·1998·5.62 MB·English

by  Peter Neaverson

Industrial Archaeology
Industrial archaeology is defined as the study of the tangible evidence of social, economic and technological
development of the period since industrialisation, generally the last 250 years. Marilyn Palmer and Peter
Neaverson argue that industrial archaeology must be firmly placed within the context of mainstream
archaeology, and be set within a methodological framework.
Industrial Archaeology introduces the origins and development of the discipline in its international
context. The first two chapters consider industrial landscapes and buildings as the visible symbols of the
processes of production in both space and time. Landscapes are analysed – such as the linear landscapes
created by rivers, canals and railways – as well as buildings, in terms of function, typology and context,
both topographical and cultural. The authors evaluate the techniques of field survey and documentary
research, finally considering the problems and potential of the cultural resource management of the industrial
heritage.
The authors argue that conventional archaeological techniques and concepts need to be modified because
of the nature of physical evidence and the availability of documentary sources. The analysis of sites and
structures needs to extend beyond the functional to the cultural; only then will the complex nature of
industrialisation be revealed in a more meaningful way than that derived from documents alone.
Marilyn Palmer is Reader in Industrial Archaeology and History at Leicester University. Peter Neaverson
is Honorary Research Fellow at Leicester University. The authors have for many years jointly edited the
Industrial Archaeology Review as well as writing many articles and books, including Industry and the
Landscape: 1700–1900 (Routledge).

Industrial Archaeology
Principles and practice
Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson
London and New York
First published 1998
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1998 Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2001.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by
any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Palmer, Marilyn.
Industrial archaeology : principles and practice / Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Industrial archaeology. I. Neaverson, Peter. II. Title.
T37.P35 1998
609—dc21 97–25430
CIP
ISBN 0-415-16626-8 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-16769-8 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-02299-8 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-08206-0 (Glassbook Format)
Contents
List of plates vii
List of figures x
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xiv
List of abbreviations xv
Chapter One
THE SCOPE OF INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY 1
The origins of industrial archaeology 1
Industrial archaeology and archaeological theory 3
The international context 8
Chapter Two
LANDSCAPES AND TOWNSCAPES 16
Analysing the landscape 16
Types of industrial landscapes 25
Chapter Three
BUILDINGS, STRUCTURES AND MACHINERY 43
Kilns and furnaces 44
Food-processing 55
Textiles 62
Steam power 70
Chapter Four
FIELD TECHNIQUES 78
Site identification 79
Recording 82
Site-surveying methods 90
Building recording methods 92
Recording machinery and processes 95
The written report 96
Excavation 97
Dating 100
• vi • Contents
Chapter Five
DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH 105
The nature of documentary evidence 105
Locating written sources 108
Secondary sources 110
Printed primary sources 112
Pictorial sources 115
Maps and plans 117
Manuscript sources 121
Chapter Six
INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN PRACTICE 129
The Basset Mines of Cornwall 129
The cultural context 137
Chapter Seven
CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT OF THE INDUSTRIAL
HERITAGE IN BRITAIN 141
Artefacts 142
Buildings 145
Landscapes 154
Documents 162
Bibliography 164
Index 172
Plates
1 Manningham Mill, Bradford, in West Yorkshire. 5
2 Workers’ housing at Saltaire, in West Yorkshire. 6
3 Reconstructed blast furnaces at Tannehill, Alabama, USA. 10
4 The landscape of windmills at Kinderdijk in the Netherlands. 11
5 The ship lift at Henrichenburg on the Dortmund–Ems Canal. 12
6 Workers’ housing dominated by slag heaps at Røros in Norway. 13
7 Lead-condensing flues in the Sierra de Almagrera, Spain. 18
8 The ruinous Cheesden Lumb mill near Rochdale in Lancashire. 20
9 The surviving waterwheel in St Mary’s Mill, Chalford, in
Gloucestershire. 20
10 The contrasting North and East mills at Belper in Derbyshire. 21
11 Mills lining the River Colne at Milnsbridge in West Yorkshire. 27
12 The surface buildings of Magpie Mine on Sheldon Moor in
Derbyshire. 30
13 The row of ore storage bins at High Stoney Grooves lead mine in
North Yorkshire. 31
14 A weaving fold at New Tame, Delph, in the parish of Saddleworth in
Greater Manchester. 33
15 The multi-storey workshop complex of Butcher’s Wheel in Arundel
Street, Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 35
16 Abbey Mill, Bradford-on-Avon, in Wiltshire. 36
17 The polychromatic brick water-tower at Finedon in
Northamptonshire. 38
18 The warehouse built for Thomas Adams in the Lace Market,
Nottingham. 39
19 The Butterrow toll-collector’s house at Rodborough in
Gloucestershire. 40
20 The North Staffordshire Railway Company’s elaborate station at
Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. 41
21 The courtyard of the Gladstone Pottery Museum at Longton in
Staffordshire. 47
22 The Sloss Ironworks at Birmingham, Alabama, USA. 48
23 The restored cementation furnace at Derwentcote in County Durham. 49
24 The derelict buildings of the Old Gang smelt mill in Swaledale, North
Yorkshire. 51
25 A sophisticated conical lime-kiln at Sulejow in Poland. 54
• viii • Plates
26 A stone-built tide-mill on the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, France. 57
27 A rare survival of an eight-sailed tower mill at Heckington in
Lincolnshire. 58
28 The whisky distillery at Dalwhinnie in Scotland. 60
29 A salt gradation tower at Ciechocinek, Poland. 61
30 The ‘handle house’ at Studley Mill, Trowbridge, in Wiltshire. 64
31 The elegant Piece Hall at Halifax, West Yorkshire. 65
32 Aerial photograph of Gidlow Mills at Wigan in Greater Manchester. 67
33 Scutching machinery in a derelict water-powered mill at Cleggan in
Northern Ireland. 68
34 The entablature of the beam pumping engine which supplied water
to the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 73
35 The stone-built charcoal iron furnace near Duddon Bridge in
Cumbria. 85
36 Wheal Grenville New Stamps, Cornwall, in 1987. 88
37 Part of the lead-dressing floors at Killhope in County Durham. 98
38 Cyffty mine painted by H. E. Tidmarsh in 1884. 127
39 The pumping engine house at Marriott’s shaft, Basset Mines,
Cornwall. 130
40 West Basset Stamps photographed circa 1906. 135
41 A group of tin dressers at Basset Mines. 138
42 Lyle’s shaft pumping engine at Basset Mines. 139
43 The former Kingswood woollen mill near Wotton-under-Edge in
Gloucestershire. 142
44 The Newcomen engine from Reservoir Colliery in Leicestershire,
now in the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, USA. 143
45 The Levant mine near St Just in Cornwall, circa 1900. 144
46 Part of the village constructed by the Great Western Railway at
Swindon in Wiltshire. 146
47 The vertical steam winding engine house of the former Bestwood
Colliery in Nottinghamshire. 147
48 A reconstructed village street at the Blists Hill Open Air Museum
in the Ironbridge Gorge. 148
49 The glass cone at the Red House Glassworks in Stourbridge, West
Midlands. 149
50 The edge tool works at Abbeydale in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 150
51 Three of the shaft head gears on the Chatterley Whitfield coal mine
near Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. 151
52 The former Chubb’s lock works in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. 152
53 A residential conversion of former oasts at Lamberhurst in Kent. 153
54 Cotton mills converted to residential and office use in Lowell,
Massachusetts, USA. 153
55 The converted Middle Warehouse at Castlefield in Manchester. 154
56 The derelict remains of Brunton calciners at Levant mine in
Cornwall. 155
57 The Hafna lead and zinc ore-dressing mill in the Gwydyr Forest near
Llanwrst in North Wales. 156
58 The Iron Bridge across the Severn Gorge in Shropshire. 159
Plates • ix •
59 Telford’s Galton bridge across the Birmingham Canal near
Smethwick, West Midlands. 161
60 An urban industrial landscape: the gas holders beside the Regent’s
Canal near St Pancras station in London. 161