INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE - Industry People Transport.  Vol 26 No 1 Spring
2000.  36 pp photos, colour cover. Price £2.90 or 1 years subscription
£11.50 from Hudson History, Proctor House, Kirkgate, Settle, N Yorks
BD24 9DZ

This revamped edition has plenty to interest the industrial
archaeologist cum mining historian: 

The `Iron’ Bricks - Notes on brick making in the Accrington Area by Phil
Hudson and Lewis Gregory.  Brick production closely followed the rise
and fall of the cotton industry.  The local Mudstone contains just the
right amount of iron oxide to give hard and durable red coloured brick. 
Originally hand made, bricks are still being made on the same site but
now using the most up-to-date mass-production methods.

The Dunaskin Experience by J C Presely and staff members of the Dunaskin
Open Air Museum.  In 1848 life in the rural Doon valley in Ayrshire was
changed for ever by the coming of the Dalmellington Ironworks.  Rich
local deposits of coal, ironstone and limestone provided all the
necessary ingredients for a successful iron making industry.  When the
iron ran out the company concentrated on coal mining.  When the mine
went bankrupt in the 1930’s a succesful brick making industry was born
and continued until 1976. The National Coal Board then used the site as
a regional office until 1988.  It was at this time that the
Dalmellington & District Conservation Trust emerged on the scene and
began restoring the site to its former glory.  

The `News’ pages have a couple of mining snippets:

A coastal mining project is planned for Durness for such specialist
minerals as pegmatite, quartzite and marble.  There is a new book on the
Halesowen Coal Mines and Nigel Chapman is working on a history of the
Van Lead Mines.  

The Falkkirk Wheel.  A £78 million project, funded by the National
Lottery etc will restore the Antonine Wheel.  The wheel is 115 feet high
and 100 feet long and will lift a total of 8 boats weighing up to 600
tons over a vertical distance of 100 feet on the Union Canal.

Canal and River Currents.  This has all the latest news: the re-opening
of the Hudderfield Narrow Canal; Ripon Canal now open to Town Centre
etc.

The Millennium Wall Project.  Organised by the Dry Stone Wall
Association at the National Stone Centre in Wirkworth, Derbyshire, this
is an imaginative plan to offer  for the first time ever a permanent
exhibit of vernacular dry stone walls - in various regional styles from
all over Britain. 

Robinson’s Flour Mills, Deptford Bridge [London]  This is a reprint from
“The Miller” of 1887 and describes a `state of the art’ incorporating
all the latest fire prevention techniques.

Matthew Murray - Pioneer Engineer by “Rota”.  Born in Newcastle in 1765
he moved to Leeds starting as a handyman and rose to become an engineer
in a flax mill.  He then went on to making improvements to steam
engines.  In 1811 working in conjunction with Trevithick he produced a
high pressure engine which was fitted to a boat.  In 1812 he
demonstrated his steam locomotive on a 4 ft 1½in gauge waggonway.

Concluded with 3 pages of book reviews which include British Mining No
63 and The Rise and Fall of the South Wales Coal Industry, the editor is
to be complimented on the stimulating variety of articles.

Tony Oldham, Bookseller, Rtd.


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