West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: White
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The Archaeology of Shropshire in the 19th and 20th centuries:
an industrial backwater?
Roger White
The Ironbridge Institute, University of Birmingham
r.h.white@bham.ac.uk
Following on from a period of great technological innovation and industrial development in
the iron industry in particular during the 17th and 18th centuries, one might be forgiven for
concluding that Shropshire during the following two centuries had little to offer archaeology
either regionally or nationally. However, this neglects some significant developments and,
more importantly, survivals that are deserving of further attention. The groundwork has been
covered in Barrie Trinder’s The Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire (1996) and all I intend
to do here is to highlight some of the important elements of 19th and 20th century archaeology
that I believe are deserving of further research, record, and reporting.
Industrial agriculture
One of the most important developments in the 19th century was the industrialisation of
agriculture (Baugh & Hill 1989; Perren 1989). Without the mechanisation of food production,
there would not have been enough to feed the population of the newly created industrial
cities, yet it paradoxically created a process that forced the labouring population off the land
by introducing machinery that deprived the rural population of their livelihoods. This in turn
swelled the urban population, and provided labour for the urban factories. Shropshire was at
the forefront of this process because of its rural aspect. The industries and areas that need
research include:
The Estates and their role in agricultural improvement
The many estates of the county were often innovative technologically. A clear example is the
Duke of Sutherland’s estate, which led to the draining of the Weald Moors and the creation of
a model farm at Honnington Grange (1819). A further aspect of estate life that might be
included here, although it has been the focus of considerable research already, is the
importance of Historic Gardens during the 19th century in particular (Stamper 1996).
Research issues
Much historical research has been done on these estates but an MPP type assessment of what
survives is lacking, and is sorely needed given that model farms and farm buildings are
increasingly being converted to housing stock. Consideration of the preservation of distinctive
estate landscapes might also be considered essential and is being addressed through the
landscape characterisation programme.
Parallel with this research is the consideration of the social role that these estates had /have in
the lives of the villagers of the county. This is a prime target for oral history research. The
emphasis will need to be on an holistic approach.
The introduction of new agricultural industries / processes and the impacts that these had on
the landscape and on farming practice.
Examples include beet farming and the Allscott Beet Factory (1927 – current), the creameries
at Minsterley (1902 – current) and Crudington with, latterly, the Muller factory at Newport,
the market garden sector (notably the Roden Glasshouses, owned and operated by the CWS
for mass production of fruit and veg for their stores (1914-1980s)).
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Research issues
Again, an MPP assessment is called for and protection or at least a primary record of the
buildings should be considered. Record should be made of the process while it is still
operating. Oral history would also be a sensible approach here.
Another aspect that ought to be considered is the evolution and change of these industries in
relation to the transport system to which they are integrally linked. Some were set up in
conjunction with canals / railways that no longer exist and it will be important not to consider
these aspects in isolation (see below).
The impact of agriculture on the townscape.
The trend towards divergence of rural and urban lifestyles seen in the 20th – 21st century
means that agricultural industry is increasingly marginalized in towns. When Philip Barker
moved into Shrewsbury in the late 1940s, cattle were still being driven through the streets to
market in the town square and the town’s tanneries in Barker Street were still in operation.
Now the 1960s cattle market, created to move such trade outside of the town centre, is being
forced even further out into the greenbelt. This phenomenon can be seen in all Shropshire’s
market towns – e.g. Ludlow’s cattle market is now a Tescos; Bridgnorth cattle market is now
at its northern edge on a new-build site.
Research issues
How have towns changed their appearance over the 19th and 20th centuries in respect of
markets and their provision? How can this be mapped and recorded?
Quarrying and extractive industries
To all intents and purposes, this section covers three main industries: coal mining, lead
mining and quarrying, the first two of which are now extinct within the county but whose
remains are still visible in the landscape while the last continues to flourish.
Coal mining was limited to five centres in the county: the East Shropshire coalfield, now
largely subsumed within and under Telford, the much more fragmentary Clee Hills coalfields
with the Wyre Forest coalfield to its east, the Oswestry coalfield, and the Shrewsbury
coalfield, which largely extended west from the county town to Minsterley. Both the Clee
Hills and East Shropshire ventures were closely associated with the processing of iron in the
18th century but carried on longer than this to meet other needs. For example, Shropshire’s
last coal operating pit, Glanville colliery (closed 1968), was sunk specifically to fuel the coalfired Ironbridge Power Station. The Clee Hills mines continued to export their coal for the
iron industries of the neighbouring Black Country, especially after the arrival of the Ditton
Priors railway made it cost-effective to do so. For the Shrewsbury coalfield, the coal was
destined for the local railway network and domestic consumption, but also to power the lead
mining and smelting in the South Shropshire lead fields: the two industries here acting in
complete symbiosis since one could not survive without the other. As was common
throughout this period, these industries perpetually tottered on the brink of collapse so that
when the end finally came, it could be for the most apparently insignificant and trivial of
reasons. Dr Ivor Brown tells us on his excellent guided tours of the Pontesbury coalfield that
the last mine, in Hanwood, closed in 1942 because the youths who pulled the sleds hauling
coal from the face to the bottom of the shaft – itself a comment on the lack of investment and
primitive conditions in the field – managed to equip themselves with motorbikes and thus
could escape their arduous and unrewarding work for a better job through war work.
With the demise of the industry coming so soon after the second world war, it is perhaps not
surprising that virtually all the evidence for coal mining has been removed – shaft locations
can be traced occasionally as earthworks but, since this was never a heavily mechanised
industry in this region (East Shropshire excepted), the slag tips and large number of buildings
normally a component of nineteenth and twentieth-century pits were never a feature of the
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Shropshire landscape. All that survives are occasional buildings within the mining villages of
the county, and the more extensive evidence for tips on both Titterstone and Clee Hills.
Research issues: consideration needs to be given to the continuing study and record of these
sites, particularly the interlinking between the coal mining and lead smelting industry in the
county. The impact of coal mining on the wider landscape will also continue to be an
important element to consider.
Lead mining was initially a more productive and rewarding industry throughout much of the
period but the main period of growth and profit was at the end of the 19th century and into the
beginning of the 20th. Despite this, the methods and machinery are predominantly 18th
century in character: Cornish Mining engine houses are still a prominent feature of the
landscape here. The pollution, and especially the white tips give this part of Shropshire a very
distinctive landscape, and fauna. The last flickerings of the industry died in the 1950s, when
reprocessing of the white calcite and pink barytes no longer proved profitable.
Recent trends have seen a number of potentially conflicting themes: first is the recognition,
albeit belated, of the special character of the lead mining-communities which has been
recognised in both community heritage, reflected in the oral history volume Never on a
Sunday (2000). This same trend has also seen the fierce defence both of the physical remains
of the mining heritage, as at Snailbeach, and an attempt to keep the special character of the
region in the face of its gentrification (a conflict most recently highlighted by the debate over
whether to introduce street lighting in Snailbeach – fiercely resisted by the locals and
demanded by the recent incomers). This last phenomenon has, of course, become widespread
throughout the county, with similar effects, and will doubtless colour the development of the
region for some time to come.
Research issues: the lead industry is a relatively well-understood phenomenon within
Shropshire, and has a regional importance. Less well studied is the barytes industry and the
inter-relationship between the coalfield and the lead mining areas. Study of the industry is
hampered by health concerns – much of the evidence of lead smelting has been removed, for
example, but there is still scope for more work here in the records. Further removal of tips and
waste must be aware of the potential for buried archaeology. It is also important to take into
account the distinctive flora and fauna of the lead fields, which would call for an
interdisciplinary study with archaeobotanists and zooarchaeologists.
Quarrying became a major industry in Shropshire during these centuries and there is still
considerable production in the county. Major products include lime burning both for building,
but especially for agricultural improvement (see above), ashlar quarrying (Nesscliffe,
Grinshill, etc.), an industry now limited in extent, sand and gravel extraction, and roadstone
quarrying (Clee Hills, Sharpstone, etc.) The last of these is an industry that still operates and,
with the operation of the Aggregates Levy, offers some scope for research.
Research issues: quarrying has had a major, and most would say disfiguring, impact on
Shropshire’s landscape (Watson and Musson 1996, 16-24). Yet it is an important element in
the post-medieval industrial scene and is little recorded. The abandoned quarry at Titterstone
offers the most interesting range of possibilities for research, offering as it does early concrete
buildings, extensive remains of the mining process, social aspects (housing, etc), and
transport facilities (light railways, inclines and aerial ropeways). The complex industrial and
prehistoric landscape of the area has never been fully recorded and appreciated, although it
now forms the focus for a bid for Aggregates levy funds. Another crucial site for large-scale
landscape use, with the added complexity of joint ownership between two large estates and
across a national border, is the complex on Llanymynech Hill. This too has extensive
prehistoric, and Roman, remains. Both landscapes offer tremendous, and regionally important
foci for understanding the mineral exploitation of landscapes through time.
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Bricks and ceramics
While never reaching the importance of Internationally important centres like Stoke,
Shropshire has its elements of regionally important ceramic industries that offer insights into
international trade. The industry is notable for its diversity: brick making, tile and terracotta
production, faience, fine china and earthenwares, and pipe clay manufacture. Some elements
of this industry continue – notably brick making – but what marks out the industry is the
ingenuity with which it developed and continued. Brick making, for instance, was a common
side line for the coal industry: when prices were depressed, brick making formed a good
economic standby that might help eke out the meagre profits. In the Ironbridge Gorge,
ceramics and tile production is generally envisaged as an offshoot of the Staffordshire and/or
Worcestershire industry, and there is good reason for this conclusion stylistically, and from
the archives too. It also reflects the historically low base of ceramics production in Shropshire
stretching over millennia. It is only really in the 17th century that pottery production is finally
firmly established in the county. The origins of the industry mask its strong indigenous
development latterly, as for example at Jackfield, and in Broseley for the pipe industry.
Research issues: it could be argued that the industry is important regionally for its surviving
range of sites, notably the last real example of high Victorian linear flow production at
Jackfield which is verging on being a nationally important site. Similarly, the Broseley pipe
works offer an important survivor of a small scale but important late industry. These issues
are well understood and researched but the wider countywide context needs drawing together,
especially in the pipe industry.
Transport networks
The central, and growing, importance of the transport network to the development of the
county’s industry cannot be underestimated. The technical innovation of the late 18th century
in tram and railways continued into the 19th century so that Shrosphire, and especially
Shrewsbury, soon became an important node on the rail network with an important group of
buildings to match (stations, signal boxes, loco sheds. etc.). The cuts of the 1960s removed
many branch lines and these have been generally well studied, as have the smaller mineral
railways. Loco works in Oswestry and elsewhere offer scope for further preservation and
recording work .
Canals were still being developed into the 19th century and there is still innovation, as at
Wappenshall wharf, for example. Generally, the industry must be seen as regionally and
locally important.
Research issues: the main research issue here is to understand the inter-relationship between
the various industries discussed and the communication routes that were such an instrument in
their success or failure.
Conclusion
While Shropshire does not have the extent and complexity of industrial development seen in
the other areas of the West Midlands during the 19th and 20th centuries, I would argue that it
is still worth studying, primarily for two reasons. The first is that there are aspects of the
industry, some touched on above, that clearly are of local and regional importance. These
need to be studied in order to place them in the context of the wider region, and also
nationally. Second, and more important for the county, is the fact that without some study of
the archaeology of these centuries, our understanding of the longer term trends in
Shropshire’s development are lacking. It is also, as is so often the case, the period that saw the
greatest amount and pace of change in history – without study, we are in danger of losing our
understanding of this period in relation to its past and our future.
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Bibliography
Baugh, G.C. and Hill, R.C. 1989 1750-1875 in G.C. Baugh (ed.) A History of Shropshire.
Volume IV Agriculture (VCH, London), 168-231
Perren, R. 1989 1875-1985 in G.C. Baugh (ed.) A History of Shropshire. Volume IV
Agriculture (VCH, London), 232-269
Stamper, P. 1996 Historic Parks and Gardens of Shropshire
Trinder, B. 1996 The Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire
Watson, M. & Musson, C. 1996 Shropshire from the Air: An English County at Work