The Industrial Archaeology and Industrial History of South Western England;
A Bibliography, compiled by John Greenwood, published Merton Priory Press,
Cardiff, 1999. Priced UKP30
This fifth and final volume in a series of bibliographical surveys covering
the subject area in England - in this case Bristol and the counties of
Gloucester, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall - is certainly
relevant to students of mining history.
In identifying his subject area the compiler clearly orientates his work
towards the technological, economic and institutional aspects of industry,
excluding such social elements as industrial relations and accidents, yet
including housing. A further exclusion which mining and industrial
historians in general might find strange is that of 'government
publications.' Fortunately for mining that exclusion does not extend to the
work of the Geological Survey and such a standard as Dines, The
Metalliferous Mining Region of South West England, is included although not
all the mineral resource reports are listed - for some reason Dewey's report
on 'Copper ores' is omitted whilst including his report on 'Lead,
silver-lead and zinc ores.'
The range of industrial activity covered is certainly comprehensive,
although it is difficult to comment on the bibliographical accuracy for all
the industries covered without detailed personal knowledge in those fields.
What I can do is make an assessment based on my knowledge of mining in
certain parts of the South-West, particularly North Devon, West Somerset and
the Tamar Valley. There I found the coverage comprehensive but not exhaustive.
The compiler appears to fall down primarily on privately published work.
McDonald, Donald. Percival Norton Johnson, 1951 - covering the development
of lead/silver mining, smelting and industrial housing at Bere Ferrers in
the 19th century; Burton, Roger A. The Heritage of Exmoor, 1989; and Stanes,
Robin (ed.) Out of the World and into Combe Martin, 1989, all providing a
wealth of detail on the industrial archaeology and history in their area,
are only a sample of the works omitted. John Hatcher, for example, merits
only two entries when he has written widely on tin production. One cannot
also help noticing how few entries there are on mining in Gloucestershire,
particularly the Forest of Dean, and wondering if that reflects a real lack
of research into coal and iron mining with greater emphasis being placed on
smelting and iron production.
Where this bibliography will prove useful is in accessing information on
subjects related to mining or where the researcher is perhaps working in
unfamiliar territory. If the lack of exhaustive coverage is borne in mind it
should prove a useful tool for any mining historian with interests in the
South-West of England.
Peter
______________________________________________
Peter Claughton, Blaenpant Morfil, Rosebush, Clynderwen,
Pembrokeshire, Wales SA66 7RE.
Tel. 01437 532578; Fax. 01437 532921; Mobile 0831 427599
University of Exeter - Department of History
School of Historical, Political and Sociological Studies
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Co-owner - mining-history e-mail discussion list.
See http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/mining-history/ for details.
Mining History Pages - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/~pfclaugh/mhinf/
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