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WARWICKSHIRE Industrial Archaeology Society NUMBER 51 May 2014 WIAS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN also taken me away from some of the permitted the chance to reflect on responsibilities of being Chairman the achievements and enjoyment Looking forward and given me the opportunity to of twenty five years of WIAS and return to what I like doing most this will be the focus of the June he June 2014 meeting marks of all. There is nothing better meeting. the completion of twenty that a bit of exploring, opening a five years of existence few doors, climbing over the odd IMPORTANT NOTICE: T fence, perhaps even an occasional Change of venue and start time for the Warwickshire Industrial Archaeology Society. This is a cause trespass, with camera and notebook for June meeting for celebration and reflection but at the ready! also one where we need to consider Increasing the material The next meeting on 12th June the directions that the society needs available on our website is a ‘Twenty five years of WIAS’ to travel – in, dare I say it – the next second, complementary goal to will be held in the Bridge twenty five years. the development of the database. House Theatre, Warwick This will, of course, not just be an The webmaster works hard School, at 7.15pm. There is issue for WIAS but for the subject to keep material as up-to-date as parking available near to the as a whole, and the availability of possible and he is very willing to theatre at the Western end of enthusiastic, committed people receive information, photographs the Warwick School site. to carry on the work, and to take and comments that he might be able the subject and the society in new to publish. The website may be the As part of that evening we directions may become quite a best destination for those unique would like to offer the opportunity challenge. What will be the focus of photographs that remain stored in to members to recall an event, a the post-steam train generation? Has a drawer somewhere at home, or particular site, a certain individual, a most of the important work already for that unpublished article that lies memorable meeting that epitomises been completed? Will more recent in everyone’s head. Far better that WIAS for them. These need to be industrial change be part of the these items are available for others very short items so that several get subject or will there be an accepted to see, read and further explore the chance to speak, and I need to chronological period to which our than to risk losing them. This can know in advance. Please contact studies should be applied? also be achieved via publication in me by e-mail on wiaschairman@ For the immediate future there is the Quarterly Newsletter, so ably aol.com or speak to me at the May much that the Society can do. As edited by Mike Hurn. meeting. previously announced, from the We shall continue with our monthly meetings as the main summer, the WIAS database will be PROGRAMME available online and we shall have thrust of the work of the Society, a real focus of trying to ensure that and we will seek to provide as May 8 2014 the information on that database is varied a programme as possible to Peter Perkins: as comprehensive, up-to-date and serve the diverse interests of our The rise and fall of the accurate as possible. The process membership. Over the past 25 years Northamptonshire boot and shoe has already thrown up some we have provided approximately industry. interesting questions surrounding 250 meetings and the responsibility June 12 2014 the definition and classification of for arranging these meetings has Members’ Evening: particular sites, a reflection in part of been shared by our first Chairman 25 Years of WIAS. 1989 - 2014. the difficulties of defining the limits Toby Cave and myself. Do I hear September 11 2014 of ‘industrial’ archaeology. We plan someone say that they would like to AGM, AIA Cheshire Conference to involve members of the Society take on the role? Report and Members’ Evening. in this process and a list of sites for Indeed, the committee is very October 9 2014 investigation and recording will aware of the need to engage in some Peter Grenfell: be available at the June meeting. ‘succession planning’ and there The Ford Foundry, Leamington Spa. For my own part, I have found may be younger members out there November 13 2014 it fascinating to return to sites in who would wish to gain a taste of Bob Booth (Chairman of the various parts of Warwickshire to the inner workings of WIAS via Bournville Society): check details for the database, and membership of the committee. Do ‘Cadburys and Bournville’. to witness the changes that have not be shy in stepping forward. December 11 2014 taken place both to sites and the These are important items for Martin Green (Chairman WIAS): surrounding environment. It has the future, but I hope we may be Chairman’s Lecture. WIAS Meeting Reports January 2014: David Fry Industrial Coventry in Old Postcards. record attendance of 80, including 8 visitors, was Street, Earlsdon shows that more than watch making took treated to views of Coventry that were new to most. place in that district. Also recorded are storm-damaged A David Fry, a sociology and psychology teacher houses, highlighting the poor standards of building. A view used the medium of old postcards to review the history of the Foleshill Road included a building with some fancy of the city and to trace the demise of its craft industries. brickwork above the top shop windows giving extra height Indeed, there is really no medium that allows us better to to the workspace, presumably for larger machinery. explore the changes that occurred at the end of the 19th and Pictures of the larger scale activities of the philanthropic, especially at the beginning of the 20th centuries. non-conformists J & J Cash showed how investment and How did such a range and variety of subjects become organisation could create employment opportunities out of preserved as postcards? It seems that the Victorian penchant specialisation. for recording the family stimulated the evolution of the However, as so often over the years, Coventry’s fortunes local photographer, usually with a studio for portraiture shifted and watch making came to the rescue as artisan but then with a growing desire to explore and record the textiles waned. This new activity was centred on Spon changing world beyond. End where suitable building land in the triangle bounded Whilst half-plate cameras were considerably bulkier and by the Old Birmingham Turnpike Road, Craven Street and more unwieldy than today’s equipment, they enabled contact Mount Street had been made available by an Act of Parliament prints to be made directly onto postcards for which there in 1847. was a ready market. The local photographer thus needed Again, the postcard records of Allesley Old Road and to find ever more niche subjects in his neighbourhood. Craven Street give a vivid picture of the area. There were Happily for social historians and industrial archaeologists pubs a plenty and social activities as exemplified by the a hundred years later there resulted a treasure trove of Lord Street FC, winners of the MDT Cup in 1900, 1902, visual material for exploration. 1906 and 1907. Every one of David’s illustrations was worthy of close The postcards also record more personal and domestic examination. An unexceptional view of a street with a few scenes such as a family group in a garden or the substantial figures might confirm a run of artisan’s houses with top- house built by a watch master in Moor Street. shops above, whilst the ‘end of the working day’ exodus As with the consolidation of ribbon weaving by Cash from a factory showed where Lowry may have found his so Rotheram and others developed a watch industry. inspiration to record similar scenes. Illustrations of the factory were now possible and those of Apart from recording the world outside, the early production lines (all female labour) at Williamsons, and an postcard was also used for advertising. For example, Geo. end of the shift exodus at Rotherams, were typical. Herbert Holt was the only tobacco pipe manufacturer in The pace of industrialisation quickened as Coventry Warwickshire with premises in Stoke, Coventry and a caught up with the factory system and David’s final postcard records his waxed moustache and bowler hat for us. examples showed the great increase in scale brought by Similarly, we have the record of the working model of the likes of Swift Cycle, Humber and Triumph Cycle. One a silk ribbon weaving loom made by one Harry Laxon picture of the new Rudge Whitworth factory showed an of Coventry. This image has added importance since no early steel framed building. illustrations of domestic weaving have yet been found and The Daimler works proved difficult to photograph but so details of the machinery used are otherwise unknown. advertising pictures of a typical week’s output of Daimler Moving to the recording of the Coventry cityscape, motor cars and assembly shops more than compensated. David traced the collapse of the silk weaving industry in The aftermath of a fire in 1906 at the Humber Motor the 1860,s following the removal of tariffs by the Cobden Works contrasted neatly with the work’s fire brigade. It Treaty which allowed in continental imports together seems that fire and Humber were no strangers.