NEWSLETTER 78 EARLY SPRING 2010

EDITORIAL

Welcome to a new Newsletter and a new decade. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year break and have coped with the arctic conditions. Living on the edge of the Peak District we have had snow drifts of over a foot which I can see now from my window as I write this editorial. This has made getting about difficult, although I did manage a walk along the Rivelin Valley in with its interesting remains of water powered sites on New Year’s Day. The valley once had 20 mills along a 3 mile length, and although buildings survive at only one site there are good examples of how water had been used with numerous remains of weirs, goits and dams. If you would like to find out more I recommend the book Water Power on the Sheffield Rivers 2nd (revised), edited by Christine Ball, David Crossley and Neville Flavell and published by the South Industrial History Society in 2006.

Turning to Section matters, it is pleasing to note that the Section continues to be successful with a good regular attendance at lectures of around 25 members in the first half of the programme and some walking excursions to look forward to this year when the lecture programme finishes. However I have received a comment that the Section does not produce much in the form of occasional papers or research reports, and it is some time since we produced the last walk leaflet. If any members are actively working on something do let me know, we can either include an item in the Newsletter giving details of your research interests or consider a wider form of publication via the main Society. Publication can take the form of an Occasional Paper, Research Report or an article in the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. The YAHS website (www.yas.org.uk) contains information about YAHS publications and you will note that there are very few with industrial history content. It would be good to redress the balance and I am sure that the YAHS Publications Committee would be happy to hear from you.

January means that subscriptions for 2010 are due. Main YAHS members will have received their subscription reminders directly from Claremont, but Industrial History Section only members get their reminders from the Section. If you have not already paid, then a reminder will be enclosed with this Newsletter and you will note that Vice Chairman Robert has kindly taken over the Membership Secretary duties. Since my retirement from the British Library it has been easier for Robert to liaise with the Copy Unit at the BL who produce our copying (at a very reasonable rate) since he lives close to the BL and therefore we felt it was also more practical for him to deal with membership and mailing; Robert’s contact details are given at the end of the Newsletter - please note his new email address. I hope members will continue to support the section by renewing their membership.

The YAHS website contains a lot of information about the Society and its sections including the diary of events. Members who have looked at the diary either online or in hard copy (available from Claremont) will have noticed that the section AGM has been listed for Saturday 3 April and 10 April; so a reminder that the correct date is 10 April. As always nominations are welcome for the positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Lecture Secretary, Membership Secretary, Excursions Secretary and Newsletter Editor. The AGM is followed by a Members’ session; these are always of interest for those attending the meeting so start thinking about whether you can give a short presentation.

Welcome to new section members who have joined since the last Newsletter: Mr T Knox, Miss F Armitage-Smith and Dr C Oxby; I hope you will be able to join us at a future event.

Finally I shall be producing the next Newsletter after the AGM in April, so please send me your news items and short articles for inclusion by 10 April. Please see the item below for a special request for contributions

Margaret Tylee

NEWS OF MEMBERS AND EX-MEMBERS

On behalf of the Section I would like to send our best wishes to Helen Gomersall, who retired from the Archaeology Service at the beginning of November due to ill health. Helen has been a long standing member and supporter of the Section and has given some excellent presentations.

Sadly I have just been told of the death of Nancy Cooper over Christmas. Nancy was a driving force for the Section and its Secretary when I joined in 1979 until I took over in 1992. Nancy was in her late eighties and had moved away from Leeds a few years ago to live in Ashby de la Zouch to be nearer to her son Bob, who had also been an active member. I am sure many longstanding members will have fond memories of Nancy as I have and if members would like to send me their memories of Nancy, I will include them in a special section of the next Newsletter.

HELP WANTED

Do any members have knowledge of the brick industry in the Thirsk area, specifically Carlton Miniott, either personally or of any studies that have been carried out? If so, the Northallerton Local History Society would like details. Please contact Mark Sissons, 33 Burgate, Pickering, YO18 7AU or email [email protected].

NEWS FROM CLAREMONT

A stock check at Claremont has revealed large numbers of back issues of the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, so in order to create much needed space the Management Board has decided that back issues published prior to 2005 can be given away free provided individuals can collect them from Claremont. To help identify appropriate issues, a contents index will shortly be made available on the YAHS website. Details of all YAHS publications can be found on the website. However, in most cases the information available is very limited; therefore it is intended to include more detail about the content with the aim of encouraging more sales.

Claremont is well over 200 years old and is a grade II listed building with 17 Georgian and 15 Victorian windows, comprising a total of 330 panes all of which are in urgent need of refurbishment. To date we have been unsuccessful in obtaining grants to repair the windows and an appeal has been launched for individuals to sponsor a window pane. Main Society members will have received details of the appeal with the December 2009 issue of Update and have been asked to consider sponsoring a pane for £100 however any contribution would be welcome. Donations should be made payable to the Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society and sent to the Hon Treasurer at Claremont.

NEWS ITEMS

The Hawley Collection will be opening at the in Sheffield in spring 2010. This is an important collection of over 100,000 objects including edge tools, measuring tools and tools used in the cutlery and silversmithing trade. They have been collected by Ken Hawley since the late 1950s and provide a unique record of toolmaking past and present. A Grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund enabled a derelict industrial building at the Kelham Island Museum to be refurbished and provide a new home for the collection making it more accessible for the public.

The AIA are visiting Upper Normandy 19-23 April 2010. Based in Rouen there will be an opportunity to visit the port of Rouen, the oldest working windmill in France, see traditional rope making and enjoy a tasting at the Benedictine distillery in Fecamp amongst other things. To express an interest in the visit, please contact Sue Hayton at 31, The High Street, Farnborough, Kent BR6 7BQ, or see the website www.heritageofindustry.co.uk.

The historic Lowther Hotel in Aire Street, Goole, is being renovated with a view to being converted into a 14 bedroom wedding and conference centre. The building was opened in 1824 as the Banks Arms and became a focal point for the developing town of Goole, with the Aire and Calder Navigation Company using it for their meetings. Three first floor rooms had murals painted on every wall and members who visited Goole some years ago may recall Bill Slatcher showing us some of these. Most were covered by layers of paint and wallpaper but have been restored over a period of eight weeks revealing dockside scenes and portraits of prominent people including George IV.

A Cabman’s Shelter in Ripon Market Place has been given a grade II listing. Dating from 1911, the shelter was built for horse-drawn cabmen by Boulton and Paul of Norwich. It is made of timber with an iron balustrade and is 2m x 3m in plan. Boulton and Paul were most famous for aircraft production in the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

Newsome Mill in Lockwood, Huddersfield featured in the Victorian Society’s 2008 list of top ten most endangered buildings. The November 2009 issue of The Victorian gives an update indicating that the building is still in a poor state with the clock faces on the tower smashed and there are no plans for any restoration and conversion. The building dates from the 1880s and was occupied by the worsted firm of Taylor and Littlewood. The original grade II listing of the clock tower was extended to cover the four storey mill building with associated weaving sheds, office building and inscribed gateway arch. The Victorian Society understands that the local authority is reluctant to put pressure on the owner because of the current financial climate.

The 4th International Early Railways Conference was held at University College London, 12-15 June 2008, close to the site where Richard Trevithick had demonstrated the first steam locomotive seen in London 200 years previously. The Bicentenary address given by John Liffen described his research in establishing the location to within a few hundred yards of the site of the conference. The section was represented by Sheila Bye contributing a paper on Regarding old rails: a Middleton Railway miscellany; Andy Guy on Just add boiling water: the elusive railway kettle 1804-25 and Andy with Helen Gomersall on A research agenda for the early British railway. The 22 papers presented at the conference are being published by subscription and all subscribers will receive a copy of the publication Early Railways 4 at a discounted price and have their subscription acknowledged in the book. The subscription price will be £35 including UK postage and the subscription list will close on 15 February 2010. When published the price will be £50. If you would like to subscribe send a cheque with your details to Six Martlets Publishing, PO Box 7480. Sudbury, CO10 9WP. If there are insufficient funds to cover the publication cost all contributions will be returned. For further details email [email protected].

CBA Yorkshire’s annual publication Forum was published at the end of November 2009. It contains short articles, project reports and other information relevant to the archaeology of Yorkshire, including the following of industrial interest: • Investigation of a miner’s cottage at Caphouse Colliery • Providence Smelt Mill near Greenhow • Midland Mills, • Old Bridge Water Mill, Wakefield • 19th century steel works, Savile Street, Sheffield

The Inland Waterways Association has launched a campaign highlighting the potential impact of a 16.7% reduction in the grant-in-aid for British Waterways for financial year 2010/11. The aim of the SOS2010 campaign is to encourage all those interested in their local waterways to work together through such things as towpath events and communication with local media publicising the effect of cuts on the quality of local waterways. For more information see the IWA website www.waterways.org.uk. Details of the publications of the Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society are available via the website www.teesarchaeology.com. These include the contents list of issues 1 – 32 (1974-2208) of the Cleveland Industrial Archaeologist and the titles of their Research Reports nos. 1-9 (1976-2009). There are several interesting articles listed of relevance to Yorkshire’s industry, in particular the alum industry and mining on the North York Moors. FORTHCOMING EVENTS

10 Feb 2010 Railway History: Bradford and the Midland Railway – Robin Lelaux. Bradford Historical & Antiquarian Society (BHAS) lecture. Bradford Central Library. 10.30am. £2 for non members.

15 Feb 2010 Dannemora and more: exploring the history of Swedish iron and steel – Alan Hardman. Industrial History Society (SYIHS) lecture. Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield. 7.30pm. £1 for non members.

18 Feb 2010 Buildings of the Settle and Carlisle railway – Don McLellan. Olicana Historical Society lecture. All Saints Church House, Church Street, . 7.30pm. £2 for non members.

20 Feb 2010 Wortley Top Forge and early ironmaking in South Yorkshire – Derek Bayliss. Joint SYIHS and Rotherham Local History Council lecture. Rotherham Central Library. 10.30am.

25 Feb 2010 Middleton Park, Leeds Mining Sites Survey – Martin Roe. Skipton & Historical Society lecture. Swadford Centre, Swadford Street, Skipton. 7.30pm. £2 for non members.

27 Feb 2010 Queensbury to . Railway Ramblers 6 mile linear walk with pub lunch led by Brian Slater. Includes a crossing of the Thornton Viaduct and viewing the portals of the Queensbury, Clayton and Well Heads Tunnels. Meet at 10am.

8 Mar 2010 Water Power in the Yorkshire Dales – Tom Hay. Upper Field Society lecture. Town Hall, Grassington. 7.30pm. £2 for non members.

10 Mar 2010 The Leeds-Liverpool Canal: its history and current use. BHAS lecture. Details as 10 Feb.

20 Mar 2010 Thorp Arch Royal Ordnance Factory Railway. Railway Ramblers 7 mile walk led by Jane Ellis and Bill Jagger. Café lunch available. Includes viewing (from beneath) Wharf Viaduct which is currently inaccessible. Meet at Thorp Arch level crossing (GR 439465 by the prison) at 10.25am. (770 Harrogate bus from Leeds Bus Station stand 24).

22 Mar 2010 Uncovering Sheffield’s metallurgical past – Dr James Symonds. 19th Kenneth Barraclough Memorial lecture. Joint SYIHS/SMEA meeting. 5.30pm for 6pm at the Holiday inn Royal Victoria Hotel, Sheffield. Admission free. 23 Mar 2010 Penistone from Market town to Industrial town – David Hey. SYIHS Joseph Bramah memorial lecture. Cooper Gallery, Church Street, Barnsley. 7pm.

10 Apr 2010 Leeds: east Hunslet and the river side - Industrial History Section walk. For details see page 5.

17 Apr 2010 Featherstone to Wakefield Kirkgate. Railway Ramblers walk. Details will be available from Jane Ellis T 0113 265 9970.

18 Apr 2010 Walking Tour of Mills - Industrial History Section walk led by Nigel Grizzard, Co-ordinator of the National Mills Conference. For details see page 5.

19 Apr 2010 Roman Water Supplies: the example of Cologne – David Cockman. SYIHS lecture. Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield. 7.30pm. £1 for non members.

9 May 2010 Discovering Wakefield - Industrial History Section walk. For details see page 5.

17 May 2010 Cravens of Darnell: 100 years of history – Howard Turner. SYIHS lecture. Kelham Island Museum, Sheffield. 7.30pm. £12 for non members.

22 May 2010 EMIAC 79. Swanning around Swannington. Day School hosted by Leicestershire Industrial History Society at Swannington Village Hall. Lectures include Leicester to Swannington railway and restoration of Hough Windmill and visit to coal mine excavations. Further information and booking forms from A. Brittan T 01773 710133 or email [email protected].

7-10 June 2010 Waterways and Railways across the Derbyshire Peak. Mike Higginbottom, Interesting Times short break based at the New Bath Hotel, Matlock Bath. Price £425 includes 3 nights half board plus 3 lunches and coach travel. Includes visits to the Cromford Canal, Peak Forest Canal, Cromford & High Peak Railway and Midland Railway sites in Monsal Dale and Miller’s Dale. Final booking date 29 March. Details from [email protected] website www.interestingtimestours.co.uk or T 0114 2420951.

3-9 Sept 2010 AIA Annual Conference. Penryn, Cornwall. Hosted by the Trevithick Society. Advance Notice. Details to follow nearer the time.

14-18 Oct 2010 Cemeteries & Sewage: the Victorian pursuit of cleanliness. Mike Higginbottom, Interesting Times short break based at the Clarendon Hotel, Montpelier Row, Blackheath, London. Price £665 includes 4 nights B&B plus 3 lunches and coach travel. Includes visits to Highgate and Kensal Green Cemeteries, Kew Bridge Steam Museum, Abbey Mills and Crossness Pumping Stations and the Thames Barrier. Final booking date 2 August. Details as above. INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SECTION SPRING WALKS We have three walks planned for spring 2010. The first is on the afternoon of Saturday 10 April following the Section AGM which takes place in the morning. Vice Chair Robert Vickers is continuing his exploration of industrial Leeds, this time concentrating on the east Hunslet area and the river side of east Leeds. Meet Robert at 2pm at the Black Prince statue in Square, Leeds. Robert’s contact details are given on page 10 of this Newsletter.

On Sunday 18 April, Nigel Grizzard, the Co-ordinator of the National Mills Conference will lead a walking tour of the Mills of Saltaire. Nigel gave an interesting and authoritative talk to the Section in December on the regeneration of mills in West Yorkshire and Saltaire was strongly featured. We will meet at 10.30am in the Hockney Art Gallery in and then tour Salts Mill, the New Mill and walk along the towpath to view other mills in Saltaire. We will then visit Victoria Mill and have lunch in the VM lounge. The tour will finish at 1pm and after lunch you can return to Salts Mill for further exploration or shop at your leisure. An event not to be missed!

Finally, on Sunday 9 May, Robert Vickers will lead an industrial history walk in Wakefield, looking at the railways, woolstaplers’ warehouses in and around Westgate, and the waterfront area, including the newly restored Calder and Hebble Navigation warehouse. Meet Robert 11am at Wakefield Westgate station. The tour will include a pub lunch and finish by 4pm.

We hope members and friends will be able to join some, if not all, of the walks. FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF

Forgotten Villages: Raggalds, Mountain and West Scholes. Stan Ledgard. Bobtail Press. 2009. 224pp. ISBN 9780951101391. £12.95 (including P&P) available from RS Ledgard, 22 Main Street, , West Yorkshire, BD22 8DA.

The author moved to the Queensbury area in 1975, later moving to the village of Mountain. Speaking to older residents in the Mountain and West Scholes area and seeing the last remains of local industry, he decided that a record should be made of life in these three villages situated between Thornton, Clayton and Queensbury. Using many local sources, archive records and interviews with older residents, the author has produced an account of the history of the area complete with many photographs.

Textiles in the form of handloom weaving and later larger mills; coal mining, stone quarrying and brick making were the main industries and the book describes their development. There are also descriptions of the development of the transport links and the social history of the area. The histories of many individual buildings are included, for example Mountain Mill and the Speak Institute in Mountain and several pubs and inns. Essentially the book concentrates on the local and social history of the area but there is a section which deals with the local industries. Coal mines operated from 1810 onwards with the final extraction from a clay mine in the 1960s. Sandstone quarrying carried on until the mid 20th century and there were extensive clay pits and fireclay works. Whitehead’s fireclay works at Hole Bottom had an ornate chimney incorporating coloured glazed bricks and continued working until the late 1960s. There are some interesting photographs of the railway and tramway systems in the Queensbury area. The area is new to me and the book is a good example of what can be achieved by an interested and enthusiastic local resident in finding out and recording the history of their area. A short bibliography is included and some line drawn maps showing the position of the areas and features mentions but there is no index.

The author has donated a copy to the YAHS Library in the hope that the subject matter will be of interest to Industrial History members. Individual copies are available from the author and I recommend that if you are interested in this little known area of West Yorkshire that you support his efforts.

Margaret Tylee

Historic Steam Boiler Explosions. Alan McEwan. Sledgehammer Engineering Press Ltd. 2009. 200pp. £24.95 + £2.05 p&p. Available from Sledgehammer Engineering Press Ltd, World from Rough Stones House, Farling Top, Cowling, , West Yorkshire, BD22 0NW.

David George has kindly sent me a book review of this publication; I have not seen the book but reproduce the review for you to decide. The author is a qualified boiler engineer and an industrial historian who has spent over 30 years researching and gathering material for the book including some rare photographs. The book chronicles 23 dramatic and informative stories based on his research of the boiler explosions that claimed the lives of hundreds of people and destroyed property. The explosions occurred in a variety of cotton mills, bleachworks, collieries and ironworks and also included are accounts of traction engines, railway locomotives and marine boiler explosions. In addition to the accounts of the explosions, the book also includes basic histories and technical details of early industrial boilers such as Haystack, Waggon, Rastrick Vertical, Egg-Shaped, Cornish and Lancashire as well as locomotive and marine boilers. Possibly a book for the more specialised reader. This small publisher has a website at www.aledgehammerengineeringpress.co.uk where you can find details of their other publications.

Margaret Tylee

REPORTS OF LECTURES, EVENTS ETC Association for Industrial Archaeology Conference 2009 – Lincoln Held at the University of Lincoln, 4-10 September 2009

The 2009 AIA conference was organised by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology (IA Group) and held at the University of Lincoln at its campus at Brayford Pool in the centre of Lincoln. I attended for the main conference from Friday evening and the associated field trips and lectures from Sunday afternoon until Tuesday afternoon. The conference continued until Thursday 10 September.

For the first time for many years there was no pre-conference seminar; instead there was a choice of walking tours of Lincoln for delegates who could arrive early. The rest of the conference followed the usual pattern of lectures and field trips and for the second year running there were no field trips for the main conference weekend, which personally I find disappointing but apparently was introduced partly because some members had felt the Saturday afternoon field trip was too much of a rush in getting back in time to dress for the Conference dinner in the evening. Due to the University imposing a higher charge for the facilities than was originally expected, there was no tea or coffee provided in the student accommodation neither was there any soap – but fortunately there was a towel and bed linen! Also the university caterers did not work at the weekend, so external caterers had to be brought in who were not allowed to use the university equipment so had to provide their own. Overall they managed pretty well, including having to wash up in bowels of hot water behind the makeshift serving area. The lack of weekend university support also extended to the audio visual facilities and there were several problems with the projection equipment which must have taxed the speakers. However, in spite of all these initial difficulties, overall the conference was very successful and well attended.

The traditional opening lecture giving an overview of the Industrial Archaeology of Lincolnshire and taster of what was to follow was given by Neil Wright, Chairman of the host society. Lincolnshire’s industries were primarily agriculturally based with the development of an engineering industry serving agriculture producing portable steam engines, threshing machines and elevators. Examples were given of the many windmills and fewer watermills in the county. Sleaford Maltings were the largest in the county with direct railway connections to the brewing industry based on Burton on Trent. In the 17th century ports developed at Boston and Gainsborough and work began on the drainage of the Fens. Two railway companies dominated in the county – the Great Northern and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire, latterly the Great Central. The University was built on the site of railway sidings in Lincoln and the library was housed in the old Great Central Warehouse. The railway companies developed the port of Grimsby with its iconic hydraulic tower and later the port of Immingham. In the 1860s iron ore was discovered near Scunthorpe which led to the development of a steel industry. Clearly there was much to see over the next few days.

On Saturday morning there were three lectures; the first on Transport in Lincolnshire was given by Stewart Squires and covered roads, railways, canals and sea transport. Early roads included the Roman Ermine Street and there were packhorse routes conveying salt from the coast. Lincolnshire is effectively an island so it was necessary for many ferries to cross the various water barriers. The fenland drains not only drained the land but also served as waterways links, later canals were built including the Caister, Louth and Grantham Canals and the Trent which still has commercial traffic today. Railways expanded in the mid 19th century, the Nottingham to Lincoln and Leicester to Sleaford were among the first and in 17 years 400miles of track had been built creating a large influx of people. As well as standard gauge there were also tramways and light railways including quarry lines and potato railways (used to carry potatoes from the fields to storage). This was followed by Michael Lewis talking about the Bridges of Lincolnshire; starting from medieval examples such as in Lincoln and Crowland Abbey, numbers increased in the 18th century with the development of turnpikes and the need to replace ferries. Examples were shown of bridges designed by George Leather and John Rennie (father and son); Gainsborough and Boston have some good examples. There was also an 1849 box girder railway bridge designed by John Fowler in Gainsborough. There are opening bridges at Keadby and Sutton Bridge and several small suspension bridges. The talk concluded with some spectacular views of the Humber Bridge which contains 43,000 miles of wire. The final lecture of the morning was on Lincolnshire Mills by Jon Sass. He explained that the use of windpower in the county was well documented but waterpower less so. Mills were used in a variety of industries including chalk grinding, tanning, oil seed crushing, production of linseed oil, wool and flax processing as well as corn grinding and drainage. He described, with examples, the various types of mills – post mills; smock mills and tower mills and the different sail arrangements. Lincolnshire also produced world famous millwrights, Sanderson’s of Louth being one. There was a good example of a watermill at Alvingham. The introduction of rollermilling in the 20th century put most mills out of business but there were several examples of mills that had been restored including Maud Foster Mill, Boston and Hoyle’s Mill, Alford and the unique 8-sailed mill at Heckington.

After lunch, we heard four members’ contributions: The Director’s Window- an early East Midlands oddity by Mark Sissons; The New Mills Hydro by Derek Brumhead; Early Domestic Water Supplies by John Watts and Low Pressure Hydraulic Power by Tim Smith. These were followed by the presentation of AIA Restoration grants; these are grants made available via an anonymous donation, for the restoration of historic buildings or artefacts. There were two awards of around £15,000 these went to the restoration of a box boat at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum and the restoration of chaldron wagons at the Beamish Open Air Museum. Smaller awards were given to the Hoylandswaine Nail Forge for roof repairs and to the Scottish Maritime Museum for conservation work on the VIC32’s boiler. The afternoon closed with the presentation of the student fieldwork and recording award to Kim Jurecki for the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site Landscape project; the Dorothea Award for Conservation to Lea Valley Experience; the Peter Neaverson Award for Outstanding Scholarship to David Gwyn for his book Gwynedd: inheriting a revolution. There were also a number of publication awards – Derek Brumhead’s book on the Kinder Reservoir and its Railway (reviewed in IHS Newsletter 75 by David George) won the Occasional Paper award; the Trevithick Society won the Journal award and the Leicestershire Industrial History Society won the Newsletter award. Later the conference dinner was held in the Engine Shed – a converted locomotive shed now a club for student discos, complete with black walls and flashing lights, just right for AIA delegates, although there was no music or dancing!

Sunday morning saw the serious business of the AGM when we were told that there was to be a subscription increase. There was also good news in that English Heritage had provided grants to enable the programme of Industrial Buildings Day Schools run jointly with the AIA and the Council for British Archaeology to continue for the next two years. One was held recently in Newcastle and others are planned for South West , Surrey and the East Midlands in 2010; details will be available on the AIA website. We were given details of the AIA trip to Upper Normandy in April and the 2010 AIA conference to be held in Cornwall in September. After the coffee break, David Alderton delivered the Rolt Memorial Lecture entitled The Death of the Industrial Past? He examined his home territory of East Anglia comparing field surveys from the present day to those carried out in the 1970s, much had gone but much still remained. There was a choice of three excursions in the afternoon; Dogdyke Pumping Station and Woodhall Spa; The Museum of Lincolnshire Life and Ellis Mill and a walking tour of Gainsborough. I chose the latter and we started by walking alongside the Trent from the 1790 Trent Bridge. Gainsborough is a port which is over 60 miles from the mouth of the Humber and we saw a number of warehouse conversions along the Trent before walking through the town to the site of Marshalls engineering works which produced boilers, steam engines and agricultural machinery and employed around 5,000 before closing in 1985. It is now the site of a large shopping complex which opened in 2007 retaining some of the original buildings including an impressive overhead crane at the entrance to the site. Over coffee we heard how the transformation had come about. The site was adjacent to the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway and we walked outside the site to view the former Great Central Railway Station, a shadow of its former self with only a few trains now stopping. Across the railway is one of the sites of the Gainsborough oilfield with a number of nodding donkeys pumping oil; there are 29 oilwells in production in the area taking oil to the Conoco refinery at Immingham. Returning to Lincoln, the evening lecture was on the Drainage of the Fens given by John Honnor, an ex-engineer with the drainage board. He described how the Fens had been drained from Roman times to reclaim land from the sea and creating wealth from the production of salt and wool. Dutch engineers were the most famous and as the land was drained the peat shrank requiring a complex system of wind engine pumps to regulate the water levels and flows. Wind power was replaced by steam, followed by diesel and electric pumps. The work carries on today with a number of local drainage boards overseeing the operations.

Monday’s field visits were a choice of Sleaford Maltings and Sutton Bridge or Grimsby and Immingham Docks. I went on the latter tour which was by coach and due to port security we were not allowed off the coach, which meant a long day sitting on the coach. Grimsby had been a port in the Middle Ages but trade declined as the harbour silted up. It was not until the coming of the railways that the town and the docks really developed. The Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire Railway built a major dock that opened in 1852 and a branch of the Great Northern Railway connected the port directly to London. Fish developed as the main concern and the docks were extended over a number of years with Fish Dock No.3 opening as late as 1934. By 1910 180,000 tons of fish were landed. The fish were preserved by being packed in ice and an ice factory was built alongside the Fish Docks. This closed in 1990, due to the fact that modern fishing vessels produce their own ice, and it now looks in a very sorry state. We toured the whole site including a close up view (unfortunately from the coach windows) of the famous 303 feet high red brick hydraulic tower built in 1851 and modelled on the campanile of the Palazzo Publico in Sienna. It was used to supply hydraulic power to operate the lock gates and cranes and was replaced in 1892 by a smaller (78 feet) hydraulic tower. From 1980 an electrically driven oil hydraulic system has been used. Fish are still landed in Grimsby but the port also handles timber, grain, cement, ores and minerals. At the nearby Alexandra Dock we saw rows of new Volkswagen, Audi, Seat and other cars unloaded via modern ro-ro facilities.

After a substantial lunch at a nearby very busy carvery we drove to Immingham Docks. Approval was given to expand Grimsby’s docks in 1901, but instead the decision was taken to build a new complex a few miles north at Immingham where there was a deep water approach from the River Humber. The dock was opened in 1912 and the cost underwritten by the Great Central Railway. The scheme included 170 miles of sidings and dock railways and light railways connecting the dock to Grimsby, New Holland and the main line. Immingham has developed into the largest dry bulk handling port in the UK with cargoes including coal, ferrous alloys, pig iron and pyrites. 100 trainloads of power generator coal are shipped each week and Corus lease one bulk terminal for handling iron ore and coal for its Scunthorpe Steel Works. In the 1960s a new jetty was built for importing and exporting oil by pipeline to and from the Lindsey Oil Refinery. The 250 bulk liquid storage tanks make Immingham the UK’s largest independently owned petrochemical storage facility. We were due to carry on to view the Lindsey and Humber Oil Refineries, but due to having spent time watching a ship leaving the dock and cargoes being unloaded, there was no time left before we headed back to Lincoln for a meal and the evening’s lecture. In this case it wasn’t a lecture but a selection of Historic Films of Lincolnshire Industry presented by Peter Ryde of the Lincolnshire Film Archive. The Archive started rescuing and conserving film in 1986 and have saved around 600 showing the life and work in the county. We were shown an interesting selection ranging from a 1901 film of Grimsby trawlers to a 1969 film showing the laying of the Conoco oil pipeline from the Killingholme Refinery to the Humber Estuary. As an aside to the showing of a 1926 film of Rose Brothers of Gainsborough’s packing machines we were told that the origin of the name of Cadbury’s Roses Chocolates was that they were packed by a Rose’s machine. For those interested, the Archive has produced a descriptive catalogue giving details of every film in the Archive and this can be found on the website www.lincsfilm.co.uk They are also keen to hear of any films which feature any aspect of Lincolnshire life and can be contacted at 61, Cathedral Drive, Spalding, PE11 1PG, T 01775 725631.

On Tuesday I chose the visit to Louth, Alvingham Mill and the Marsh; the alternative being a visit to New Bolingbroke, Boston and the Fens. We drove through Louth which has some good examples of 18th and 19th century buildings, viewing the head of the Louth Canal opened in 1770 and the remains of Alvingham Lock before stopping at Alvingham Water Mill. The Mill dates from the 1770s and much of the machinery dates from the 1820s; there are two pairs of stones powered by an 11ft iron breast wheel. Returning for lunch at an excellent fish and chip shop in Louth, we had some time to explore the town - the Market Hall of 1866 was particularly fine. Then it was onto to the Marshland where we visited the Gayton Engine Pumping Station, dating from 1850, built to drain surrounding farmland into the Great Eau River. Originally this was done using a steam powered beam engine, followed by a single cylinder horizontal steam engine and is now powered by a 1945 Petter 2 stroke marine diesel. The pumping station was replaced in 1956 by an electrically operated pumping station at nearby Treddlethorpe but is now operated by the Gayton Engine Preservation Society who restored it in 1992 and opened it to the public. The engine was demonstrated to us and the hot wick/airstart was very impressive. We then travelled to Alford via Mablethorpe and Sutton on Sea but without seeing the sea which was kept back by a line of high sea defences. At Alford we were shown round the 5-sailed windmill built in 1837 by Sam Oxley a local millwright, the mill was restored in 1978 and is owned by Lincolnshire County Council but leased back to the miller who produces a range of organic flours for sale to bakers, health food shops and the public at the mill. Continuing the mill theme we visited the workshop of Thompsons in Alford, a working millwright who had recently worked on Holgate Mill in York.

This ended the conference for me, so I missed visits to RAF sites in Lincolnshire; visits to Pinchbeck, Spalding and Moulton; visits to New Holland, Barton on Humber, Scunthorpe and Owston Ferry as well as lectures on the Restoration of the Vulcan Bomber and Keels and Sloops of North Lincolnshire. However, a comprehensive description of the whole conference can be found in Industrial Archaeology News No.151, this together with the Tour Notes booklet can be found in the YAHS Library.

Margaret Tylee

Articles from Textile History and Business History

David George writes that he has been trawling the journals in Manchester University Library and the Central Library for articles as research into a book on the Archaeology of the North West Textile Industry being prepared by Dr Mike Nevell Head of the new Centre for Applied Archaeology based at the University of Salford. During this he has identified several articles in Textile History with a Yorkshire textile connection and these are listed below:

Textile History Vol 1 The Ossett Mill Company 1968/70 Titus Salt’s Day Book 1834-7 Pildacre Mill: an early West Riding Factory Vol 3 1972 A Pennine Worsted Community in the mid 19th Century Vol 10 1979 The Cotton Industry in Yorkshire 1780-1900 Fulling in the West Riding Woollen Cloth Industry 1689-1770 Vol 13 1982 Enterprise in the Barnsley Linen Industry in the 18th & 19th Centuries Vol 21 1990 Cottages & Mills: the Textile Industry in Wensleydale & Swaledale in the 19th Century Vol 27 1996 Millwrights, Clockmakers and the Origins of Textile Machine Making in Yorkshire Vol 28 1997 Gender Division and Industrial Divide: the Case of the Leeds Clothing Trade 1850-1970 Vol 29 1998 Mechanisation of Yorkshire Card Making After these volumes there is little on the industry or buildings and the articles concentrate on fibres, fabrics and fashion.

There were few relevant articles in Business History, though the following have a Yorkshire theme:

Business History

Vol 41(1) Sources of Innovation in the Woollen and Worsted Industry of 18th Century 1999 Yorkshire. Vol 41(2) Negotiating the Rewards of Invention: the Shopfloor Inventor in Victorian 1999 Britain

David would be interested to know if an industrial archaeological or historical bibliography of the Yorkshire textile industry has ever been produced. Can anyone advise?

INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SECTION OFFICERS 2009-2010 Chairman & Newsletter Vice-Chairman & Membership Lecture Editor Secretary Secretary

Margaret Tylee Robert Vickers Jane

Ellis