Traditional industrial revolution model challenged by archaeological findings. Article in British Archaeology 107 (July-August 2009), examining new evidence for industrialisation revealed through long-term archaeological investgations in the west midlands.

1. This page: The
stretch of river
Severn known since
the opening of the
Iron Bridge in 1779
as the Ironbridge
Gorge, looking
upstream towards
Coalbrookdale
30|British Archaeology |July August 2009

2. The industrial revolution began 300 years ago in a Shropshire gorge, when iron
was first smelted with coke. That is the conventional story, but excavations are
revealing a powerful industrial history that long predates 1709. Paul Belford
explains the significance of the new findings
RETHINKING
INDUSTRIALORIGINS
The steeply-sloping wooded hillsides of Right: The Upper
the Ironbridge Gorge are often known Forge (known
originally as the
as the “birthplace of industry”. Here, Great Forge) at
one of England’s first world heritage Coalbrookdale in
sites was established in 1986 to the 18th century, in
commemorate momentous events a pencil sketch by
Joseph Farrington
which took place in 1709. Iron was
smelted with coke for the first time – Below right: The old
enabling mass production of this furnace at
essential material, and kick-starting an Coalbrookdale, lit
industrial revolution which spread for the launch of the
Cultural Olympiad,
through the English midlands and September 2008
around the world. The resulting
Coalbrookdale Company developed a
substantial foundry business,
manufacturing steam engines and other
cutting-edge technology – and of
course the famous Iron Bridge of 1779.
Yet recent archaeological work both
at Ironbridge and elsewhere in the
West Midlands has begun to challenge
some of the assumptions on which this
version of history rests. Not only is it
clear that large-scale industrialisation
was already well advanced as early as
the 16th century, but it is also now
apparent that the people making this
brave new world were not always who
we might have thought they were.
I will look here at the results of two
major projects undertaken by
IRONBRIDGE GORGE MUSEUM TRUST (3)
Ironbridge Archaeology since the early
2000s. The first of these was a ppg16
developer-funded project in the Black
Country town of Wednesbury, and the
second a research-led training project
in the Ironbridge Gorge world heritage
site itself. Both projects have taken
over eight years from initial
investigation to final report, and both
British Archaeology |July August 2009|31

3. WEDNESBURY
Left: Six
waterwheels were
serviced by massive
timber-framed
installations, whose
plank sides were
clearly visible
during excavation
Right: Fragment of
early 17th century
water wheel
have transformed how we actually do at the very lowest levels of the site – twisted grain, probably from
archaeology in the field, as well as our after three seasons of often gruelling Coleman’s neighbourhood of Cannock
understanding of industrialisation and and frequently perplexing excavation – Chase. Straight-grained timber would
post-medieval archaeology. we found the remains of three parallel have split and fallen apart very quickly
timber-framed waterwheel under the pressures of this large-scale
Wednesbury Forge installations (representing a total of six industrial operation. The pit bases
In around 1585 William Comberford wheels) whose ultimate layout was were lined with massive planks, and
leased a forge he had had built at dendrochronologically dated to the their back ends consisted of a curved
Wednesbury (some 30km east-south- period of Coleman’s lease. plank matching the circumference of
east of Coalbrookdale) to William These structures were wonderfully the wheel. Although truncated by later
Whorwood. Comberford was the Lord engineered. Massive timber beams alterations, this evidence – together
of the Manor of Wednesbury, a title were laid into the clay subsoil, braced with a fragment of waterwheel we
held since his family acquired the land by cross-beams and socketed for the found in the fill of one of the wheelpits
at the dissolution. His forge used water insertion of upright studs. The studs – meant that it was possible to
power from the river Tame, which was formed a framework which was reconstruct the size and form of the
already harnessed elsewhere in encased in a series of planks. Those water-power system. These were high-
Wednesbury to the manorial mill and nailed to the inside created smooth breast-shot wheels about 4.5m across,
another forge. Whorwood does not side-walls for the wheelpit and tailrace; powering a sophisticated finery forge –
seem to have been a good tenant: his those on the outside acted as shoring to the forge where iron smelted and cast
PAUL BELFORD, IRONBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGY
men attacked the nearby rival forge of maintain the integrity of the from the blast furnace (pig iron) was
Thomas Parkes in 1597, and by the time watercourse. reheated and worked to reduce its
the lease was up for renewal the forge Construction of the wheelpits had carbon content.
was said to be “decayed”. So in 1606 required considerable attention to It is the scale of the enterprise at
Comberford relet it to Walter detail. The vibrations of the Wednesbury which makes it more
Coleman of Cannock, on condition waterwheel, and the hammer and significant than other excavated forges
that it would be made good and kept in bellows which it would have powered, of the same period. By the first decade
proper repair. were considerable. The timber had of the 17th century the forge had five
The archaeology suggests that been carefully chosen: the base-plates waterwheels, probably powering three
Coleman did as he was told. For here, were very gnarled old wood with or four hammers plus bellows for the
32|British Archaeology |July August 2009

4. now known as the Ironbridge Gorge.
This was in Coalbrookdale, a tributary
valley of the river Severn. Here, the
postglacial Severn had cut a section
through the same Coal Measures
geology as was evident at Wednesbury
– coal, fireclay and ironstone.
Coalbrookdale formed a part of the
Manor of Madeley, which in the
middle ages was a possession of the
priory of Much Wenlock. Industrial
activity took place during this period: a
licence to mine coal was granted to
Walter de Caldbroke in 1332, and
ironstone began to be mined in the 15th
century.
All of this cheerful and prosperous
state of affairs came to an abrupt end
when Wenlock Priory was dissolved in
1540. Four years later, the whole of the
Manor of Madeley was acquired from
the Crown by Sir Robert Brooke. By
this time Coalbrookdale already
contained two iron forges.
Sir Robert Brooke was an interesting
furnaces. These were in three separate WEDNESBURY suggests that quite substantial iron- character. From middling Shropshire
installations, each oriented east-west Above: The curved making infrastructure was already in yeoman stock he seems to have
with the pond at the western end and end of the northern operation at this date in the midlands followed a similar career path to that of
the outflow to the east. The northern wheelpit during Coal Measures. With post-dissolution Thomas More a generation earlier. A
installation was a single wheelpit. This excavation manorial management encouraging skilful lawyer, he rose to become
was the first to have been built on the Below: The 16th and entrepreneurial capitalism, and speaker of the House of Commons and
site, after the dissolution. The pit was 17th century water surrounded by a wealth of outcropping a leading courtier of Henry VIII; well-
widened in the early 17th century to power system at minerals such as coal, fireclay and placed to receive the spoils of
accommodate a more powerful wheel. Wednesbury Forge, ironstone, it is perhaps not surprising dissolution. However Sir Robert died
whose final layout
The central and southern was dated by tree
that Wednesbury Forge was one of the in the 1550s and never lived at Madeley.
installations were more complex, rings to the time largest in the country at the time. It was his son, John, who began to
comprising a staggered pair of when Walter develop the Coalbrookdale landscape
wheelpits and parallel tailraces. The Coleman leased the A Catholic Dynasty into an industrial enterprise during the
forge from 1606
staggered wheelpits enabled two Meanwhile an even larger iron making second half of the 16th century.
wheels to be run independently, one complex was being created in what is What is interesting about the
powering the hammer and the other
the bellows. The parallel tailraces ran
out to an open watercourse which
eventually returned to the river; in the
case of the central tailrace the timber-
framed outflow survived for over 25m.
This 16th century arrangement was
fossilised by further improvements in
the second half of the 17th century
when the timber tailraces were largely
replaced by brick ones, and then later
again culverted. Even quite significant
alterations to the site in the 19th and
PAUL BELFORD, IRONBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGY
20th centuries were constrained by
these much older water-power
landscapes.
Previous archaeological work has
suggested that 16th century finery
forges were small scale (only one
hammer), and that the main focus of
the iron industry at this time was in the
south-eastern Weald, in East Sussex
and Kent. The case of Wednesbury
British Archaeology |July August 2009|33

5. IRONBRIDGE ARCHAEOLOGY
Brooke family – father Robert, son
John, and dynamic and entrepreneurial
grandson Basil – was its unabashed
Catholicism, not only flying in the face
of contemporary society, but also
against what generations of historians
and archaeologists of industrialisation
have characterised as the “protestant
work ethic”.
John’s initial investments were in the
lucrative coal and ironstone mining
concerns, and by 1579 he was directly
employing a number of miners. But
Brooke was not content with simply
selling his minerals to others. He also
sought to add value himself and so to
bring in further profits. Building on the
two forges already extant when his
father acquired the estate, Sir John
built a third forge further upstream. the Forest of Dean and elsewhere. IRONBRIDGE these earliest furnaces were actually
This “Great Forge”, later known as the Sir John had used the money from Above: Plan of the constructed at the Upper Forge in
Upper Forge, became the centre of the these operations to extend and two steel furnaces Coalbrookdale – the hub of the Brooke
and their associated
Brooke’s ironmaking enterprise at enhance the former monastic grange at family industrial operation.
buildings as
about the same time as William Madeley Court, turning an already revealed by The Upper Forge was also the
Comberford (whose family later comfortable house into a grand excavation (see primary focus of the self-funded
became connected to the Brooke Elizabethan mansion. The use of the photos opposite) Coalbrookdale historical archaeology
dynasty through marriage) was medieval monastic grange as the core research and training programme
Below: The early
developing his very similar undertaking of the new house made a very powerful 17th century
(Chart), which began in 2001
at Wednesbury. statement about the Brooke family’s gatehouse at specifically to investigate these earlier
authority to control the wider Madeley Court, a aspects of the Ironbridge landscape.
The Upper Forge landscape, as well as their being former monastic Originally conceived as a joint
grange enhanced by
By the time Sir Basil Brooke inherited appropriate inheritors of the Catholic programme with the University of
the Brooke family
the Manor in the 1590s, Coalbrookdale tradition. Money also provided with industrial Birmingham to provide field training
contained three or four forges within a education and opportunities for travel. money for undergraduates, the Chart project
kilometre of each other on a fast- Sir Basil quickly proved himself as an expanded from 2003 to include formal
flowing stream. Together these more ambitious and technically training for postgraduates at Bristol
or less equalled the capacity of the accomplished entrepreneur. His most and overseas students from Wilfred
great forge at Wednesbury. significant achievement was arguably Laurier University, Ontario, as well as
Coalbrookdale was at the centre of a the construction of the first informal placements for students and
substantial industrial empire which not cementation steel furnace in England. others from elsewhere. Fieldwork has
only included mines in Shropshire but This had long been assumed to have also involved local volunteers and
also ironworks and mining concerns in been at the Forest of Dean works, but community groups.
The bulk of fieldwork at the Upper
Forge took place from 2001 to 2005,
and in the last two seasons the remains
of two cementation steel furnaces were
discovered. Cementation was the
earliest method by which steel could be
made in bulk from large batches of
wrought iron bar. The first furnace at
Coalbrookdale (and indeed in England)
was operational by 1619, and, after
initial experimentation Sir Basil’s
furnace was a metallurgical and
commercial success – so much so that
he built a second one in the 1630s.
Sir Basil was thus able to refine pig
iron, work it into wrought iron bar,
convert it into steel, further work it to
his customers’ specifications, and
export it to various markets – all the
while adding considerable value to the
product and further income to the
34|British Archaeology |July August 2009

6. history of big names and their great that something shifted in peoples’
discoveries. Stories of mass perception of how the world worked.
production, power and The reformation (and its English
communication: Abraham Darby and material consequence of dissolution)
coke smelting of iron, Josiah was evidently a key factor. So too were
Wedgwood’s ceramics, Richard new developments in scientific and
Arkwright’s satanic mills, James Watt philosophical understanding,
estate. Most of the finished iron and and the steam engine, Thomas culminating in the empiricism of
steel was exported overland to the IRONBRIDGE Telford’s roads, George Stephenson’s Francis Bacon which in turn led to the
growing armaments factories in Above: The remains Rocket and Isambard Kingdom Enlightenment. At the same time,
Birmingham and the Black Country. of two cementation Brunel’s engineering excellence. The voyages of discovery and colonisation
The remainder was shipped down the steel furnaces were driving force of a “protestant ethic” were discovering new physical worlds.
discovered at the
river Severn to Bristol and thence to Upper Forge, for
unleashed by the reformation was However it is time to shed some of
markets in London and overseas. making bulk steel suggested by Max Weber in the early the more traditional ideas about
Arguably John and Basil Brooke did from wrought iron 20th century, and later generations of Enlightenment, industrialisation and
more than anyone before or since to lay bar. Photos show historians and archaeologists made modernity as a protestant ascendancy
the foundations for industrialisation in the base of the 1619 little effort to challenge some of his in the face of papist idolatry. The fact
furnace, the first of
the Ironbridge area – and, it could be its kind in England
assumptions. This mythology was that some of the people behind these
argued, for the development of the (scale 2m) emphasised in the early days of developments in the West Midlands
post-medieval West Midlands iron industrial archaeology by Arthur were Catholics is clearly important.
industry. Unfortunately, just as Sir Raistrick – himself a Quaker – in his Industrial enterprise was a way in
Basil’s ingenuity and enterprise were book Dynasty of Ironfounders which non-conformists of all shades
beginning to bear fruit, the sun began (Longmans, Green 1953). This study could make their way in life when many
to set on his dynamic era of Catholic resulted in the rediscovery of the old of the conventional routes of social
entrepreneurialism. Puritan furnace where Abraham Darby’s advancement were closed to them.
parliamentarianism was in the experiments took place, and, Even after 30 years of digging at
ascendancy, and Sir Basil was eventually (to cut a long story short) the Ironbridge we are still uncovering new
imprisoned in the Tower and his establishment of the Ironbridge Gorge secrets in this fascinating landscape,
estates confiscated. He died in 1646, Museum. and adding to the debate about the
and after the restoration the The significance of Darby’s creation of the modern world. There is
Coalbrookdale ironworking complex discovery should not be downplayed. still a great deal left to explore and to
was let out to a series of tenants. One of Yet it would be fair to say that none of celebrate.
these tenants was the Quaker the achievements of the classic
brassfounder Abraham Darby, who “industrial revolution” period would Paul Belford is head of archaeology and
rebuilt the old furnace and started coke have been possible without the two or monuments at the Ironbridge Gorge
smelting in 1709. three centuries of development which Museum and a part-time PhD student at
took place before it. Whilst the University of York. The self-funded
Non-conformist industry technological improvements – such as Chart programme undertook fieldwork
PAUL BELFORD (3)
Ask anyone about the “industrial the great water-power installation at from 2001–09. Fieldwork at Wednesbury
revolution” and chances are they will Wednesbury, or the cementation steel took place in 2004–05 (evaluation) and
talk about events of the 18th and 19th furnaces of Coalbrookdale – were 2006–07 (excavation), and was funded by
centuries. This is the schoolbook undoubtedly important, it is also clear Opus 9 and Arlington Securities
British Archaeology |July August 2009|35