West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: Trinder
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Issues Relating to Transport
Dr Barrie Trinder
1. Transport History and Archaeology: some common factors:
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Extensive literature but of uneven quality
The major monuments identified and for the most part designated
Much remains to be learned; many assumptions are untested and prove wrong
on close examination.
Archaeological investigation almost always reveals issues that do not arise
from documentary study
2. Roads:
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Scope for study of pre-turnpike and non-turnpike roads demonstrated by Hey
(1980) – relevant for upland parts of region.
The extent of road improvement in the turnpike era (1750-1830) often
underestimated.
Potential for archaeological research where a relatively unaltered road system
is well-documented (e.g. first and second Ludlow turnpikes).
Value of archaeological study shown by Oxford Archaeology North work on
Holyhead Road in Wales (Quartermaine, Trinder & Turner 2003).
The Holyhead Road in the West Midlands (Dunchurch-CoventryBirmingham-Wolverhampton-Shifnal-Shrewsbury-Oswestry-Chirk
Bank):
influence on long-distance transport patterns and micro-economic
consequences (e.g. West Bromwich town centre).
Workings of towns of thoroughfare: inns of various grades, stables, washing
places for horses, lodging houses.
Twentieth century road changes: impact on town centres; isolated road
transport-based settlements (e.g. Prees Heath at junction of A49/A41); arterial
roads of 1920s and 30s.
Urban public transport systems: tramways, bus stations and garages;
significance of museums and private collections.
3. River Navigations
[In the West Midlands principally the Severn and its tributaries]
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Lack of bureaucratic control (and thus of documentation) for much of its
history.
Significance of work on Port Books and probate documents (Hussey et al
1995; Trinder & Cox 2000).
Fish weirs (Pannett 1973, 1987-88).
The principal river ports: Shrewsbury, Ironbridge & Broseley; Bridgnorth,
Bewdley, Worcester, Hereford.
Isolated settlements with pubs, owners’ houses, boat-building yards (e.g. The
Roving between Coalport and Bridgnorth).
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: Trinder
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Navigation of Severn tributaries: Wye, Avon, Teme, Dick Brook, Tern,
Vyrnwy
The impact of the towing paths built 1796-1810: civil engineering, surfacing,
bridges over tributaries.
Improvements on the Severn below Stourport from the 1840s.
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: Trinder
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4. Canals
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The major structures well-known and basic historical accounts provided by
Hadfield.
Much to be learned from detailed study, both of canal construction (Morris
1984-85) and of operation.
Potential for archaeology study of canal features: e.g. split bridges on Stratford
Canal and Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal.
Study of Banbury (BUFAU) shows need for chronological perspective: canal
facilities developed gradually over 50+ years.
Nature of canalside facilities: carrying company warehouses, coal wharves,
granaries, timber yards, lime kilns, brickyards.
Impact of canals (and later railways) on building materials used in particular
towns.
Social history of canal communities (exemplified by Prior 1982).
The canal ports (Porteous): Stourport in context: consequences for study of
other towns.
Problems relating to closed canals in urban areas.
5. Primitive Railways
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Lewis (1970) showed that the Coalbrookdale region was one of the two
birthplaces of the English railway: within last two decades some wooden rails
excavated; examples of first type of iron rails collected and conserved; a
wooden railway wheel safely in custody.
Multitude of potentially valuable sites in Coalbrookdale Coalfield: sites of
inclined planes thus far unidentified, lack of specimens of 18th century iron
wheels, &c.
Early railways elsewhere: Black Country, North Staffordshire Coalfield,
Llanymynech region.
Hybrid railways (with some but not all of the five essential features of a main
line railway): Pensnett, Stratford & Moreton.
6. Main Line Railways
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History summarised in regional context in Christiansen (1973) and nationally
by Simmons (1978, 1986), with vast volume of studies of particular lines,
many lacking context. Jones (1998) one of the best, effectively incorporating
oral evidence.
Extensive photographic record.
New issues that arise concerned principally with how railways were used, who
worked on them, &c.
Construction: navvy camps: evidence of locations – censuses, and court cases
where construction does not coincide with census years. Potential of aerial
photography.
The impact of main line railways on urban landscapes – key work remains
Kellett (1969).
Passenger stations: many adapted to new uses.
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: Trinder
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Freight depots: pre-Beeching components: warehouses, coal wharfs, cattle
docks, vehicle loading bays, with characteristic adjacent customers, corn mills,
gas works &c. Hunter & Thorne (1990) particularly significant although
dealing with London.
Locomotive sheds: early survivals (Griffiths & Smith 1999).
Railway mechanical engineering: company works in Stoke, Wolverhampton,
Worcester; privately owned works in Birmingham, Smethwick, Stoke,
Shrewsbury, Stafford.
Significance of preserved lines – particularly the Severn Valley Railway.
7. Air transport
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Overlap between industrial and military archaeology.
The flying fields of the 1920s: in general sparse archaeological evidence
except where they were former RAF bases (as at Monkmoor, Shrewsbury).
The municipal airports of the late 1930s (Stratton & Trinder 2000) monuments
to ill-founded assumptions: the significance of the terminal building at
Elmdon, now part of the freight depot at Birmingham International Airport.
8. Bibliography:
(Asterisks [*] indicate works of particular methodological significance)
Albert, W., The Turnpike Road System in England 1663-1840(1972). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Alfrey, J., & Clark, K., The Landscape of Industry: patterns of change in the
Ironbridge Gorge (1993). London: Routledge.
Baxter, B., Stone Blocks and Iron Rails [Tramroads] (1966). Newton Abbot: David &
Charles.
Biddle, G., Britain’s Historic Railway Buildings: an Oxford Gazetteer of Structures
and Sites (2003). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Binney, M., & Pearce, D., Railway Architecture (1979). London: Orbis.
Brook, F., The Industrial Archaeology of the British Isles: 1: The West Midlands
(1977). London: Batsford.
Christiansen, R., A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: 7: The West
Midlands (1973). Newton Abbot: David & Charles.
Christiansen, R., & Miller, R.W., The North Staffordshire Railway (1971). Newton
Abbot: David & Charles.
Cossons, N., & Trinder, B., The Iron Bridge: Symbol of the Industrial Revolution
(2002). Chichester: Phillimore.
Denton, J.T., & Lewis, M.J.T., ‘The River Tern Navigation’, Journal of the Railway
& Canal Historical Society, vol.23 (1977).
Dyos, H.J., & Aldcroft, D.H., British Transport: an economic survey from the
seventeenth century to the twentieth (ed.1971). Leicester: Leicester University Press.
Freer, W., Women & Children of the Cut (1995). Mold: Railway & Canal Historical
Society.
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 7: Trinder
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Griffiths R., & Smith, P., The Directory of British Engine Sheds and Principal
Locomotive Servicing Points: 1; Southern England, the Midlands, East Anglia and
Wales (1999). Shepperton: Oxford Publishing Co.
Hadfield, C., The Canals of the West Midlands (1966). Newton Abbot; David &
Charles.
Hadfield, C., Thomas Telford’s Temptation (1993). Cleobury Mortimer: Baldwin.
* Hey, D., Packmen, Carriers & Packhorse Roads: Trade & Communications in
North Derbyshire & South Yorkshire (1980). Leicester: Leicester University Press.
Hibbs, J., The History of British Bus Services (1968). Newton Abbot: David &
Charles.
* Hunter, M., & Thorne, R., Change at King’s Cross (1990). London: Historical
Publications.
* Hughes, S., The Archaeology of the Montgomeryshire Canal (4th ed., 1988).
Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical Monuments of Wales.
* Hughes, S., The Archaeology of an Early Railway System: The Brecon Forest
Tramroads (1990). Aberystwyth: Royal Commission on the Ancient & Historical
Monuments of Wales.
Hussey, D.P., Milne, G.J., Wakelin, A.P., & Wanklyn, M.D.G., The Gloucester
Coastal Port Books 1575-1765 (1995). Wolverhampton: University of
Wolverhampton.
Jones, K., The Wenlock Branch: Wellington to Craven Arms (1998). Usk: Oakwood.
Jones, N.W., ‘A Wooden Waggon Way at Bedlam Furnace, Ironbridge’, Postmedieval Archaeology, vol.21 (1987).
Kellett, J.R., The Impact of Railways on Victorian Cities (1969). London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul.
Lewis, M.J.T., Early Wooden Railways (1970). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
* Morris, J., The Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal (1984-85). Shrewsbury:
Management Update.
Pannett, D., ‘Fish Weirs on the River Severn in Shropshire’, Shropshire Newsletter,
no.44 (1973).
Pannett, D., ‘Fish Weirs of the River Severn’, Folk Life, vol.26 (1987-88).
Pawson, E., Transport and Economy: The Turnpike Roads of Eighteenth Century
Britain (1977). London: Academic Press.
Porteous, J.D., Canal Ports:The Urban Achievement of the Canal Age (1977).
London: Academic Press.
Prior, M., Fisher Row; Fishermen, Bargemen & Canal Boatmen in Oxford 1500-1900
(1982). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
* Quartermaine, J., Trinder, B., & Turner, R., Thomas Telford’s Holyhead Road: The
A5 in North Wales (2003). York: Council for British Archaeology.
Shill, R., The Industrial Canal, 1: The Coal Trade (1996). Birmingham: Heartland
Press.
Simmons, J., The Railway in England and Wales 1830-1914: I: The System and its
Working (1978). Leicester: Leicester University Press.
Simmons, J., The Railway in Town & Country 1830-1914 (1986). Newton Abbot:
David & Charles.
Simmons, J., The Express Train and other Railway Studies (1994). Nairn: David
St.John Thomas.
Stratton, M., & Trinder, B., Industrial England (1997). London: Batsford/English
Heritage.
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Stratton, M., & Trinder, B., Twentieth Century Industrial Archaeology (2000).
London: Spon.
Tew, D., Canal Inclines & Lifts (1984). Gloucester: Alan Sutton.
Trinder, B., ed., Victorian Shrewsbury: Studies in the History of a County Town
(1984). Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries.
Trinder, B., The Making of the Industrial Landscape (3rd ed., 1997). London: Orion.
Trinder, B., The Industrial Archaeology of Shropshire (1996). Chichester; Phillimore.
Trinder, B., The Industrial Revolution in Shropshire (3rd ed., 2000). Chichester:
Phillimore.
Trinder, B., & Cox, N., Miners & Mariners of the Severn Gorge: the probate
inventories of Benthall, Broseley, Little Wenlock and Madeley (2000). Chichester:
Phillimore.