WARWICKSHIRE IndustrialW ArchaeologyI SociASety NUMBER 31 June 2008 PUBLISHED QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER THIS ISSUE it was felt would do nothing to web site, and Internet access further these aims and might becoming more commonplace ¢ Meeting Reports detract from them, as if the amongst the Society membership, current four page layout were what might be the feelings of ¢ From The Editor retained, images would reduce the members be towards stopping the space available for text and practice of posting copies to possibly compromise the meeting those unable to collect them? ¢ Bridges Under Threat reports. Does this represent a conflict This does not mean that with the main stated aim of ¢ Meetings Programme images will never appear in the publishing a Newsletter, namely Newsletter. If all goes to plan, that of making all members feel this edition will be something of a included in the activities of the FROM THE EDITOR milestone since it will be the first Society? y editorial in the to contain an illustration; a Mark Abbott March 2008 edition of diagram appending the report of Mthis Newsletter the May meeting. Hopefully, PROGRAMME concerning possible changes to its similar illustrations will be format brought an unexpected possible in future editions, where Programme. number of offers of practical appropriate and available, as the The programme through to help. These included the offer of technology required to reproduce December 2008 is as follows: a second hand A3 laser printer at them is now quite September 11th a very attractive price; so straightforward. The inclusion of Mr. Lawrence Ince: attractive as to be almost too photographs is not entirely ruled Engine-Building at Boulton and good an opportunity to ignore. out either. The option of printing Watt’s Soho Works. So thank you to all who came these on a separate insert has October 9th forward. Despite none of these been considered and will be Mr. Michael Derby: Coke Quakers offers having been taken up (yet) employed should the need arise. and Charcoal. they were all very much The one aspect of the November 13th appreciated. Newsletter that might be Ms. Gillian Bardsley and Rev. However, after discussion by reconsidered to advantage is the Colin Corke: Car-Making at the Committee, it has been means of distribution. Until now, Longbridge. decided that the current format of distribution has relied upon December 11th the Newsletter continues to fulfil collection at the meeting Mr. Malcolm Hancock: The Rise the perceived need it originally following publication, with a copy and Fall of Rugby Radio Station. sought to address. That is to being sent to those not at that ensure all Society members are meeting. Lately, this posting out Subscriptions kept informed of the activities of of copies has not been Members are reminded that the Society, whether or not they particularly efficient, relying as it subscriptions for the new can attend meetings regularly, the does on an accurate record of 2008/2009 season will become intention being to ensure all who has, or has not, picked up a due from September 2008. The members feel included by the copy from the meeting. This amount, subject to the outcome Society. In addition there has record is something that is of the AGM, is likely to remain at developed a secondary publicity difficult to maintain particularly £10.00 per person or couple and role for the publication, as a copy if, as is increasingly common, I should be paid to Treasurer is sent to local institutions such as am unable to be at that meeting. Richard Hartree. Please make libraries and to the AIA. Therefore, with each Newsletter cheques payable to Warwickshire The inclusion of photographs also being posted on the Society Industrial Archaeology Society. WIAS Meeting Reports by Arthur Astrop March 2008: Mr. Tony Green and Mr. Steve Walker Mapmaking: Past Present and Future he advent of digitization combined with technology in particular, which in the last 20 years or GPS brings the imminent possibility of ‘a so has totally transformed the working practices of Tsingle national seamless database for maps OS. Both those technologies have enabled massive without edges or corners’. As a result, no longer will the relational data bases to be built which not only speed very place you want to visit be on the extreme edge up map making but also allow so-called ‘attributes’ of a map, meaning that you probably need to buy at to be incorporated into maps. Moreover, such maps least two sheets; or in a corner, when you may need can now be displayed in various ways including to buy four! 3-dimensionally, based on data gleaned from aerial So predicted Tony Green and Steve Walker, both photography. of whom have many year’s service with Ordnance Such attributes on maps provide the detailed and Survey behind them, in a presentation which traced specialised data required by different users such as the highlights of that famous organization from its fire brigades, ambulance services, and the police etc. foundation in 1791 to the present day. In fact they to be called up and displayed on screens, including looked a little beyond 2008, for while the OS’s Sat-Navs. Much of such highly detailed data is now ‘single seamless database’ is within sight it is not also captured by OS through the use of simple quite here yet. portable ‘targets’, carried atop poles, which are It was the threat of invasion by Napoleon which recognised by GPS systems. The plotting of maps triggered the formation of Ordnance Survey and from digitised data is now also automatic, so that the Green and Walker described the early methods of number of cartographers used by OS is but a small surveying, by triangulation, the use of chains for fraction of that formerly required. On the other accurate linear measuring, and the first mechanical hand, the number of people needed for field work, theodolites. One of those early instruments was in and to deal with and manage such data, has to a large fact displayed by the speakers, a masterpiece of 19th extent taken their places. century precision engineering, but totally dependent on graduated scales, verniers, and therefore on the Bridges Under Threat acute eyesight and interpretive skill of its operator to produce accurate readings. The speakers compared rom the CPRE Warwickshire Annual Review this instrument with its 21st century counterpart by F 2007-8 comes news of the threat of demolition demonstrating a computerized laser device which for two early railway bridges in North Warwickshire. provides the operator with digital readings of much The two structures concerned are on the now higher accuracy almost instantaneously with an freight only branch between Whitacre Junction and observation being taken. Kingsbury. They date from around 1838 and are Ordnance Survey originally had its headquarters built of local sandstone, to a classical design, and are in The Tower of London, but in 1841 a fire forced rare examples of structures built at the end of the its removal elsewhere and it settled in Southampton. Georgian era, and the opening of the railway age. The 20th century, with its periods of war and peace, This line was once part of the Birmingham and brought an unprecedented demand for maps from Derby Junction Railway opened in 1839. Network OS, not least for artillery purposes on the Western Rail has sought to demolish and rebuild the bridges front in WW1. In the interwar period, OS grew to allow high containers to reach the Birch Coppice substantially, employed hundreds of highly skilled Birmingham International Freight Terminal, and is cartographers as well as surveyors, and had its own apparently unaware that the structures are listed. extensive map-printing facilities. In the same Meanwhile, a local public meeting has passed a period, in 1938 to be precise, OS ‘went metric’. motion to oppose the demolition and North A year later, with WW2, the services of OS were Warwickshire’s planners have asked the railway once more in constant demand by Britain’s armed management to reconsider the demolition proposal. services, and remained so until 1945. It was during Roger Cragg hopes to take a look at the two that war that OS’s headquarters at Southampton bridges, and to investigate if any further similar were heavily bombed. The Service therefore structures still exist on the Stonebridge Railway, the removed to premises in Chessington, Surrey, were it now abandoned part of this route which took the B. remained until new buildings were ready for & D. J. R. from Whitacre, to the London and occupation, once again in Southampton. But it is Birmingham Railway at Hampton in Arden. modern technology in general, and digital Mark Abbott (With thanks to Toby Cave) 2 Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society Newsletter: Number 31 WIAS Railway Preservation April 2008: Mr. Roger Cragg Operating a Preserved Railway he first steam railway to be preserved in the guards, maintenance engineers, track layers, booking UK by voluntary initiative was the Talyllyn clerks, refreshment and gift shop staff, and so on. A Tline, which was saved from almost certain line offering a public service requires a timetable to closure in 1951 following the death of its owner Sir be issued (and adhered to) and that implies complex Haydn Jones. Today, the total number of preserved rostering work for someone! A General Manager is railways in the UK is no fewer than 153, of which 61 also essential (usually a paid member of staff), and are standard gauge, 36 narrow gauge, 51 associated there is also a Deputy GM (often paid as well), who with museum and steam centres, and five are has responsibility for day-to-day operations and the tramways.