Unearthing Industrial York
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Unearthing Industrial York An Insight Report By Rachel S. Cubitt ©York Archaeological Trust for Excavation and Research 2015 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 3 2. THE WALKER FOUNDRY ................................................................................................................... 4 3. PREVIOUS WORK ON THE EXCAVATED IRONWORK ........................................................................ 7 4. THE RESILIENCE PROJECT ................................................................................................................ 8 5. METHODOLOGY ADOPTED FOR THE CURRENT WORK ................................................................. 10 6. RESULTS ......................................................................................................................................... 12 7. THE IRONWORK RECORDING SURVEY........................................................................................... 13 8. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 15 9. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER WORK ................................................................................. 16 10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................. 16 APPENDIX 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 17 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 18 Tables TABLE 1: SUMMARY OF THE DIXON’S YARD IRONWORK ASSEMBLAGE (FROM SANTANA ET AL. 2006, 89–90) ......................................................................................................................... 8 Figures FIGURE 1: VIEW OF THE EXCAVATION IN PROGRESS AT THE DIXON’S YARD SITE, 2004/5 ................... 3 FIGURE 2: WALMGATE IN 1852 SHOWING THE TWO SITES OCCUPIED BY THE WALKER FOUNDRY DURING ITS LIFETIME. 33 WALMGATE IS ON THE LEFT, AND 76 WALMGATE IS THE FOUNDRY ON THE RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF THE IMAGE (YORK HISTORIC TOWNS ATLAS/YAT) .............................................................................................................................................. 3 FIGURE 3: THE COVER OF MALDEN’S REPORT, AS PUBLISHED BY YORKSHIRE ARCHITECTURAL AND YORK ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (1976) ............................................................................. 5 FIGURE 4: THE WALKER GATES AT KEW GARDENS (© RACHEL CUBITT) ............................................... 6 FIGURE 5: ELEMENTS OF THE DIXON’S YARD ASSEMBLAGE UNDER SCRUTINY .................................. 10 FIGURE 6: ONE OF THE FIREPLACE COMPONENTS, BULK FIND 378 .................................................... 11 FIGURE 7: RAILING FRAGMENT BULK FIND 377, PROBABLY PREVIOUSLY IDENTIFIED AS A ROD ....... 13 FIGURE 8: A STREET DRAINAGE GRATE MADE BY THE WALKER FOUNDRY. YSFS 30 .......................... 14 FIGURE 9: THE GATES AND GATE POSTS OF THE YORK UNITARIAN CHAPEL, ST SAVIOURGATE. YSFS 119 ...................................................................................................................................... 15 2 1. Introduction Figure 1: View of the excavation in progress at the Dixon’s Yard site, 2004/5 In 2004/5 York Archaeological Trust undertook an archaeological excavation at Dixon’s Yard, 33 Walmgate, York (see cover image). In the 19th century, this site was occupied by the Walker Foundry, York’s most prestigious iron foundry whose products were sent as far afield as London, Mauritius and India (Malden 1976, 37). Buildings and other features belonging to the foundry were uncovered, adding details to the general plan of the site which was known from the first edition OS map of 1852, shown here in Figure 2. Figure 2: Walmgate in 1852 showing the two sites occupied by the Walker Foundry during its lifetime. 33 Walmgate is on the left, and 76 Walmgate is the foundry on the right-hand side of the image (York Historic Towns Atlas/YAT) 3 A large quantity of artefacts was encountered during the excavation, not least around 1100 fragments of ironwork. This group includes machinery components, tools, failed castings, offcuts and by-products of casting, fittings and various products or parts of products. These were recorded and identified as part of the post-excavation process. That initial assessment recommended further work to fully describe and illustrate the ironwork in order to better understand the nature of the assemblage and the processes occurring on site. By 2014/15 the ironwork was in a poor state of preservation. Combined with the volume of material and the sheer size of some of the fragments, the assemblage presented a pressing problem for curators. It was recognised that the assemblage provided a very valuable insight into the operation of the Walker Foundry and that this material warranted further investigation. Better understanding of the assemblage would also enable the identification of key pieces, and allow rationalisation where there were multiple identical objects. This further investigation of the assemblage has been completed as part of the Museum Resilience-funded work undertaken by York Archaeological Trust in 2015. The need to re- evaluate the Walker assemblage has been used as a springboard for looking at York’s 19th- century industrial heritage and the city’s iron industry in particular. An additional strand of this project was to undertake a pilot study which aims to record products of the York foundries that survive in streets and buildings across the city. This report describes the work undertaken and the results obtained as part of this project before going on to suggest further work on this topic. 2. The Walker Foundry A full history or the Walker foundry has been written by the historian John Malden (1976). The ornate cover of this publication is reproduced in Figure 3. This brief summary is drawn from that work. It intends to provide only the key details as background information to the foregoing discussion about the foundry site and the ironwork uncovered during the excavation. John Walker learnt his trade as an apprentice to Gibson, another founder who had a shop in Pavement and a foundry at Dixon’s Yard. By 1829 Walker and Gibson had gone into partnership. In 1837 Walker bought Gibson out and took over the foundry site at Dixon’s Yard. An advert dating to from the 1840s lists the wide variety of products that the foundry made, over 15 items from stoves and safes to fountains and machinery. However, a particular speciality of the foundry seems to have been gates and railings. Many were supplied for properties in York, as well as for large houses in the local area. 4 Figure 3: The cover of Malden’s report, as published by Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (1976) It was the production of ornate gates that made Walker his name on a national level. In 1845/46 he won the commission to manufacture the gates for Kew Gardens (see Figure 4). This was his first work of national importance and it gained him royal recognition. In 1847 John Walker was appointed ‘iron founder and purveyor of smiths work to her most gracious Majesty the Queen (Malden 1976, 38). 5 Figure 4: The Walker gates at Kew Gardens (© Rachel Cubitt) In 1850 John moved his foundry operation to a large site at 76 Walmgate, which he named the Victoria Foundry, perhaps as a nod to his royal appointment. The foundry continued to operate here until around 1923, passing after John’s death in 1853 to his son William Thomlinson, and in turn to his son, John Richard, in 1911. The Dixon’s Yard foundry was sold in 1856. Particulars at the time of sale described the site which had an asking price of £1000: The dwelling house contains on the Ground Floor – two sitting rooms, two kitchens, larder and store rooms; on the First Floor – four bedrooms, a bath room and a sleeping room for the servants. The necessary out offices are attached. The business premises contain several large and extensive warehouses, smiths’ shops and chambers beside a large building which was used as the foundry. There are also convenient and extensive counting houses, a large yard, stables, cowhouse, harness room, hay chamber and piggeries. The entire premises contains an area of 1639 square yards or thereabouts, with a frontage to the River Foss of 82½ feet (Malden 1976, 39). How the Dixon’s Yard site was used in the six-year period after the main operation moved to 76 Walmgate is one of the many unanswered questions pertaining to the site. Certainly a large quantity of ironwork appears to have been left behind, most likely used to fill in large holes such as the casting pit before the site was sold. It is not known whether this material originated at Dixon’s Yard or was brought from 76 Walmgate to level the site at 6 the time of sale. It should be noted that after the site was sold by the Walkers, it is known to have been used by two other founders at various points in its history. The trade directories for York show that in 1876 part of the site was occupied by William Bagnall, Iron Founder (McComish nd, 9), From 1920 to 1939 Robert Robson and Son, iron founders, are listed as having a presence in Dixon’s Yard (McComish nd, 10). Nothing is known about their business and therefore what