Tag Archives: archive

Defining “Industrial Archaeology”

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Archive Assistant Robert Lee explores the origins of Industrial Archaeology in Essex and the impact of John Booker’s 1974 book Essex and the Industrial Revolution, ahead of our April Mini-Conference “Discovering the Industrial Revolution in Essex”.

In the scheme of things, Industrial Archaeology seems a relatively young discipline. The term first appeared in print in 1955, in an article by Michael Rix in ‘The Amateur Historian’ that explains the previously unexplored influence of the Industrial Revolution on British heritage. Whilst not a widely accepted discipline at the time, Rix does mention a small number of contemporaneous organizations that were pursuing something that resembled it (The Newcomen Society of London, for one, had been promoting the legacy of the Industrial Revolution since its foundation in 1920, particularly the early steam engine).

Train 'carrying farm' at Chelmsford D-DU 3094-2

D/DU 3094/2

Interestingly, Rix fails to mention a 1925 article by Miller Christy in the Essex Review, regarding the need for study and ongoing preservation of early railway stations in the county. Christy’s article seminally begins, “The study of railway stations from the archaeological point of view has not yet become popular… some might even ask whether such a study exists or could exist” (Christy, 1925:146).

Whether this study “exists or could exist”, was an ongoing contention within the school of Industrial Archaeology. The crux of this unease, intimated by Christy, is that “archaeology” is thought to apply to history which precedes the industrial revolution. Archaeology is the study of ancient things, he writes, a classification that apparently excludes industrial relics. But this criticism is based on an arbitrary median between the antique and the modern, separating “the archaeologically approved from the archaeologically disreputable” (Hudson 1976:16). A reluctance to classify industrial monuments as worthy of study, Rix argues, is what has (and still does) lead to the nescient destruction or neglect of significant examples in the country. Importantly, the semantic focus of archaeology (an active noun) signifies the empirical and practical methodology of the school. Industrial Archaeology is not mere industrial history: history suggests a bookish, diligent approach to study, where archaeology suitably describes the investigations of “a researcher collecting evidence in situ” (ibid). An Industrial Archaeologist is as much a fieldworker as an excavator of Roman ruins[1].

Indeed, by the time John Booker’s work was published, Industrial Archaeology was more recognised as a genuine field. Kenneth Hudson had published Industrial Archaeology: An Introduction in 1963 and is said to have introduced the discipline to the United States through his 1967 lecture at The Smithsonian. The North American Society for Industrial Archeology [sic] was subsequently founded in 1971, and the British Association for Industrial Archaeology followed two years later. What is so influential about Booker’s work, however, is the candid representation of industrial history within Essex; a county pigeonholed into its agrarian identity. De-mythologizing the pastoral veneer behind the county’s heritage, Booker systematically wades through individual strands of industrialism, their slow integration and socioeconomic influences. As such his chapters are titled:

  • The Foundries,
  • Technology and Agriculture,
  • Technology and the Traditional Industries
  • Technology and Communications, I: Roads and Bridges,
  • Technology and Communications, II: Water and Rail,
  • Technology and the Public Services
  • The Perspective of Change

Clearly the work is not the product of a single hand. Much of the work’s subject matter was taken from findings of the Essex Survey of Industrial Archaeology, completed in 1971.

Index card related to the Chelmer Navigation.

T/Z 193/11

The purpose of this survey was to itemize all known surviving industrial monuments, investigate possible monuments attested to by historical sources, and to study contemporary industrial sites. The fruits of this survey, many conclusions of which were not implemented in the final work, survive and are kept by Essex Record Office (in addition to the various historical sources footnoted in Booker’s work, which are available for inspection under their original reference numbers).

Index card related to Hartford End Brewery

T/Z 193/3

The Survey’s materials (catalogued as T/Z 193) comprise index cards naming sources, photograph albums, negatives & slides, site ‘survey cards’, and Booker’s own notebooks. It is somewhat uplifting to see the modicum of contributions made towards this survey: record cards written up by history groups, and long reminiscences told by aged locals.

Photograph Hartford End Brewery

T/Z 193/9 – Photograph Hartford End Brewery

Such was Booker’s pre-eminence in establishing Essex’s industrial heritage that a subsequent survey, the Comparative Survey of Industrial Sites and Monuments, was begun by Essex County Council in 1996. And in 2013, Essex Industrial Archaeology Group (EIAG) was created as a sub-group of Essex Society for Archaeology and History (ESAH)[2]. During this period we have seen the publication of several more works on Essex’s Industrial Past: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Essex (Crosby: 2012), Discovering Essex wind and water mills (EIAG: 2022), and Chelmsford Industrial Trail (Rev. ed., EIAG: 2018), to name a few.

2024 saw the 50th anniversary of Essex and The Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, ERO is hosting an event in April 2025 to celebrate this milestone, full details and booking available here: Discovering the Industrial Revolution in Essex

 

Register on Eventbrite

Booker, J. (1974) Essex and The Industrial Revolution. Chelmsford: Essex County Council.

Christy, M. (1925) ‘Some Early Essex Railway Stations’, Essex Review, 34, pp. 146–155.

Hudson, K. (1976) Industrial Archaeology: a new introduction. 3rd edn. London: J. Baker.

Rix, M. (1955) ‘Industrial Archaeology’, The Amateur Historian, 2(8), pp. 225–230.

[1] It is important to reinforce that Industrial Archaeology does not have to be exclusive to post-revolution history. More traditional industries such as brick making, malting, brewing, may also be suitable branches of study, i.e. pre-1750.

[2] EIAG’s newsletters are available digitally via ESAH’s website, and are also preserved physically by Essex Record Office

#WorldBeeDay – bee boles and the Essex Beekeepers’ Association

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To celebrate #WorldBeeDay on 20th May, we take a look at the the Essex Beekeepers’ Association archive held at the Essex Record Office.

Before the invention of the modern wooden beehive in the mid-nineteenth century, bees were often housed in bee boles – a row of recesses each large enough to hold a coiled-straw hive called a skep. These bee boles were typically built in to south-facing garden walls.

In 1967, the Epping Forest Division of the Essex Beekeepers’ Association repaired the bee bole at Tilty, near Dunmow in Essex. Their Annual Report for the year includes an account of the work carried out by their volunteer construction team made up of a retired schoolmaster, a draughtsman/artist, a joiner/carpenter, a police officer, and a postman. The bee bole is flint with brick arch supports and the top storey of the structure was almost entirely rebuilt by the team. They left a time capsule inside the bee bole containing some monthly circulars published by the Division and some mead with a note reading: “We believe that the structure was part of a Priory known to have existed here before the dissolution of the monasteries, and we hope that it will be as long again before this honey jar and contents are discovered”. The Priory mentioned is the Cistercian Abbey of St Mary at Tilty. The nearby Church of St Mary, originally the Abbey chapel, has flint and stone chequerwork below the east window. The front cover of the Annual Report (pictured below) is beautifully illustrated by Mr H. C. Moss and depicts the repaired bee bole.

EBKA and The Essex Beekeeper handwritten in capitals with black ink, above a black and white drawing of the Tilty bee bole with six recesses, in two rows of three, all in boxes surrounded by a black and white 3d cube design
Front cover of the Essex Beekeepers’ Association Annual Report for 1967 (ref: LIB/638.142).

The annual report is held at the ERO as part of the Essex Beekeepers’ Association archive. The collection includes their first minute book covering 1880-1910 containing the minutes of their inaugural meeting at 90 High Street, Chelmsford on 14 July 1880 and a label for a jar of honey. The label was selected on 12 April 1897 when it was agreed that 20,000 should be printed by Mr A D Woodley at a cost of £5.

A thin cardboard label designed to wrap around a glass honey jar. Heraldic design with The Essex Beekeepers' Association" and "Pure Honey" written in banners around the Essex county coat of arms
County honey label, 1897 (ref: D/Z 142/1).

You may also be interested in a previous blog on the changing pattern of land usage and the historic value of meadows to the Essex landscape which is available to read here.

The great Essex bake off(ice)

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The other day a bequest in a will (D/ABW 114/3/59, Joseph Deane of Harwich, 1800) caught our attention, it was to a ‘bake office’. Now, we all understand about offices in our own day, and what ‘office’ means and who works in an office – indeed most of us probably sit behind a desk and work in an office – a room where work is undertaken by white collar workers. We probably don’t even give it a second thought. But what, historically, was or defines a ‘bake office’?

The first point of call, as ever, was to search further on our Essex Archives Online catalogue (www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk) which returned over 100 results of documents catalogued with the phrase ‘bake office’. While there are earlier examples the majority are from the nineteenth century, with the latest from the 1930s.

This plan of 1906 shows the Bake Office for what must be a thriving bakery and tea room on Military Road in Colchester. The owner is applying to have a new bread oven built.
(D/B 6 Pb3/2363)

There is generally an affinity with an attached shop (e.g. SALE/A588) but this is not always the case. Several are attached to cottages (e.g. D/F 35/7/253), possibly as a shared communal resource although they could equally provide bread for sale from one of the properties. Our understanding of what a ‘shop’ is might not necessarily match that of our predecessors – the concept of a shop, or outlet for the sale of goods, might well have been much freer and easier than what we would expect today. Someone’s front room could possibly double as a point of sale for bread during the day while reverting to a living space by night.

Several of the documents list other dedicated rooms, or possibly separate but associated structures: ‘shop with bake office and 4 bushel oven, with living accommodation, flour room and wash house’ (D/DMa/B71/16); ‘Messuage with baking office, brewhouse, cornchambers’ (D/DC 27/10); that traditional pairing of bread and beer production – ‘bake office and brewhouse’ (SALE/B5065). Other documents list a ‘candle office’ (D/DU 751/108) and ‘malting office’ (D/DHw T52/9). So along with just ‘room’ we also have the use of ‘chamber’ and ‘house’ to include with ‘office’ to describe different uses and functions of spaces within a building or structure. However, ‘office’ appears to be overwhelmingly connected with baking.

This sale catalogue lists both a “bake office” and a “Brewhouse” attached to this windmill in Pebmarsh. Beer and bread have always been natural bedfellows. (SALE/B5065)

Seeking further guidance, our venerable 1933 edition of The Oxford English Dictionary was consulted and supplied the following definitions:

Office: ‘A position or place to which certain duties are attached’

‘Office-house’: apartments or outhouses for the work of domestics’

So these are both useful in thinking about ‘bake office’. In this instance they certainly tie in with our documents: it is so called because it is a place where baking happens which could be a separate building or structure. It is probable that our predecessors used these words interchangeably and that there was no specific connection with any of the functions that took place within them – it was the act of something taking place in a room or structure that attached ‘office’ to it, be it baking, malting or candle making, so possibly a combination of the OED definitions. Maybe this is all we can say as we don’t, after all, want to over-egg the pudding! Still it’s good to ponder on such things now and again and thinking on, with all this talk of baking perhaps we might just reach for the flour, fat and sugar …

Beyond the tip of the iceberg

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We spent a fun morning today with Nick Barratt, Laura Berry and director-cameraman Tamer Asfahani of the Family History Show, a monthly online video podcast, or ‘vodcast’, which showcases interesting topics from the world of genealogy.

Nick outside the ERO

The FHS team came to the ERO to film some of the resources which we have to offer, from our online catalogue, Seax, and the images available on Essex Ancestors, to the original documents which can help with your family history, and some of the ‘treasures’ of the ERO – our most beautiful, interesting and rare documents.

Laura finds out all about Seax and Essex Ancestors from Public Service Team Manager Neil Wiffen

 The Family History Show looks beyond the narrow confines of ‘family history’ strictly defined, to social history, local history, and house history, to build up a fuller picture of what life was like in the past. 

Archivist Chris Lambert shows Laura around a set of poor law records, which can tell fascinating and haunting stories about your ancestors

It’s easy for family history to become an exercise of collecting names and dates, but the truly rewarding element is finding out more about how your ancestors lived. Once you have used birth, marriage and death certificates, parish registers and census returns to find out the names of your ancestors, when they were alive and where they lived, there are so many more questions you can ask to bring history to life.

How did your ancestors make a living? What was life like for children? What happened to you if you lost your job? What did people eat? What sort of accommodation did people live in? How were your ancestors’ lives different from your own?

Answering these questions means delving into other record sets, such as the poor law records the FHS team filmed here today, which may seem daunting at first, but ERO staff are always on hand to help guide you.

Filming some of the ‘treasures’ of the ERO

We love sharing our ‘treasures’ documents, and although we cannot usually produce them to the Searchroom in the same way as most of our documents, you can come and see them for yourself at one of our Discover: Treasures of the Essex Record Office sessions. The next one is on Tuesday 23rd October – see our events page to find out more.

 

The finished vodcast will be released on the Family History Show site in November, so keep an eye out to find out what Nick and Laura made of the ERO!