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9 February 2003
Digging Liberty
Today Merton Abbey Mills, on the banks of the River Wandle in south London, is a bustling craft market, which draws its name from the huge, dominating abbey that once stood on the site. Time Team, however, did not come to Merton to investigate monks and ecclesiastical buildings. Merton was also a base for Arthur Liberty, founder of the famous Liberty's shops and one of the most influential and eminent Victorians in the Arts and Crafts movement.
From the late 1800s, the Liberty works on this site produced thousands of yards of hand-printed silks that made Liberty a household name. The Arts and Crafts movement rejected the new mechanised techniques that were revolutionising the industry and pioneered a return to quality hand-made objects.
Under the craft market
The buildings that house the market today are the remains of a reluctant redevelopment of the original works, when Liberty was forced to move with the times. What could be under the modern concrete and pylons that now cover the site?
With just the usual three days in which to dig, the Team was hoping that the archaeology wouldn't be too deep or disturbed. Fortunately, the Victorian factory remains were just inches under the surface. One of the problems facing the Team, however, was the fact that the original buildings had been professionally cleared and demolished, rather than having just fallen into decay. Would there be anything to find?
Under the river
Sub aqua divers were called in to scour the River Wandle, which runs past the site. The first watery finds were beer glasses from a nearby pub and a huge mobile phone from the 1980s, but perseverance eventually paid off. Even Tony Robinson swam the river and among the finds made beneath the water were a number of fine gold pins used in the printing process.
Back on land, the highlight of the dig was the location of track marks worn into the floor of an uncovered print room. The excavation of Arthur Liberty's factory and the accompanying finds had opened a window onto a 19th-century movement that has left its mark on many of the prints and designs still in use today.
Sub-aqua archaeology
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The smell of the river
The river Wandle runs right through the site of the Time Team excavations at Merton Abbey Mills. Not wanting to miss anything that might lie underwater, Time Team called in top diver Gordon Bell and some of his colleagues from the Mole Valley (www.mvsac.org.uk) and Meadhurst (www.mesac.co.uk) Sub Aqua clubs.
Though it has its own distinctive smell, the Wandle has remarkably clean waters. However, the river bed is littered with the debris of London life covering hundreds of years. Even pre-Victorian dredging failed to eliminate evidence from earlier periods. Time Team hoped that by using experienced divers it could find important archaeological remains that would otherwise remain undiscovered.
A passion for diving
'I've been diving in this river for 26 years,' says Gordon Bell, 'We go to different spots every Sunday – it's just a passion. I've recorded every dive over all that time and know where every find has come from. Most rivers have been heavily dredged over the years to clear them out, but the Wandle appears to have been left alone for the last hundred years. We've found medieval lead tokens, Georgian coins, belt buckles and all sorts.'
The flow of the river keeps silt to a minimum and after heavy rain the clay bed can be seen. With the currents frequently changing speed and volume, the river provides a mixed environment for archaeological remains. Artefacts can be remarkably well preserved in fresh water, but the constant movement of the water means there is no such thing as an ordered stratigraphy, making it possible to date and place finds in context, as there is on dry land.
A big washing machine
'You need to think of the currents swirling around,' says Gordon. 'It's like one big washing machine. You can find a Victorian coin and then sealed in the clay bed below it can be a modern 50-pence piece. We record all the finds by superimposing a grid over the river bed and plotting them, or in difficult situations we measure where they're found in relation to the bank.'
Working with Time Team
So what's it been like working for Time Team? 'It's been pretty good,' says Gordon. 'We've been left to get on with it. We haven't had a great deal of rain in the last few weeks, so the flow of the river has been down. This means that much of the bottom is covered in a fine silt. Visibility is good however, so what you do is lie with your head into the current and waft your hand over the surface. The silt gets carried down stream and you can still see what you're doing.'
Time under water
How long can the divers stay under the surface? 'That's a common question that divers get asked,' says Gordon. 'A set quantity of air in a cylinder can last different amounts of time depending on how deep you go. The deeper you go the more pressure, or atmospheres, you have to breath in. The deeper you go the more oxygen you use. Because we're only just below the surface on this job, the oxygen tanks we use can last about three hours, so we can have plenty of time down there to have a good look around.'
Dodgy stomachs
As the divers work, they still get some water insider their suits. While standing around in the water they also let their demand valves (the mouth-piece they breathe through) hang at their sides and bob around in the river. Do the divers end up with dodgy stomachs from ingesting river water?
'It's actually not that bad.' says Gordon, 'There's a sewerage cleaning works upstream and all of the water here goes right through it. It's actually very clean for a London river – about twice as clean as the Thames. I don't think any of us have ever had bad after effects.'
Woodcarving the past
Wooden printing blocks
During the late 1800s, the Liberty works at Abbey Mills produced beautiful block-printed silks by hand. These made Arthur Liberty a key figure in the Arts and Crafts movement, which rejected the mass-produced workmanship of the industrial age. The reconstruction cameo for this Time Team programme was based around the artist woodcarver, Russell Parry, who was given the task of producing a finely carved wooden printing block in just three days.
'As a wood carver, I'll carve anything,' says Russell. 'The printing block technique is a little like glorified potato printing. Here I'm making a relief printing block for printing fabric. The design I'm doing is a copy of a matching set, which still survives in the Liberty archives. Up until the 1840s all printing blocks were carved by hand. After that they used metal dies to stamp out the complete design in wood. I'm actually hand-carving a copy of a metal stamped design, so it's a bit complicated.'
Fine tools
Using a selection of fine gauges and chisels, Russell works on the wooden plinth without using a hammer. Following the drawn-on design, he steadily pares away all of the wood that isn't part of the pattern and the floral relief gradually comes alive.
'I've probably got about 50 various tools that I use in carving,' he says. 'The wood I'm using is lime as it's quite soft. The more common wood used was from fruit trees, like pear or cherry, as that's much more hardy and longer lasting.'
Artists or artisans?
So were the carvers great artists or purely using their skill as part of the production technique?
'Though skill is required to make a piece like this the craftsman would have had no artistic flexibility at all,' says Russell. 'The printing process requires blocks of different colours to be stamped on top of each other and the original design would have been created by a separate professional artist. The poor chaps who actually carved the blocks would have only been able to follow the lines. If any of them had any artistic flare they must have been very frustrated.'
Further reading
Industrial Archaeology: Principles and Practices by Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson (Routledge, 1998) hardback/paperback £75/£26
This book considers how much we can learn about our manufacturing past by using archaeology. The authors discuss how to use documentary evidence and field techniques to discover how ordinary people lived and worked, and how modern landscapes have been shaped by industrial society.
Fieldwork in Industrial Archaeology by Kenneth Major (Batsford, 1975) £3.95
Written by an experienced amateur researcher, this little book suggests exactly how to go about studying the industrial past. Everything from photography techniques to field-survey recording standards is covered.
Industrial England by Michael Stratton and Barrie Trinder (English Heritage/Batsford, 1997) £16.99
Absorbing guide to the changes in the economy and in manufacturing in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries and their effects on the English landscape, including glassworks, ironworks, coal mines, brickworks, car-production plants, tin mines and cotton factories. A fresh and fascinating introduction to this important period. Lots of good pictures and discussions of key sites.
Industry in the Landscape 1700-1900 by Marilyn Palmer and Peter Neaverson (Routledge, 1994) £65
Two hundred years of industry have transformed the British landscape. This volume enables the reader to reconstruct the landscape of past industry. The authors are industrial archaeologists of national standing whose concern is to use surviving material evidence and contemporary sources in order to study the former working conditions of men and women. Comprehensive in coverage, the book examines fuels, metals, clothing, food, building and transport. It makes clear the tangible elements which form the basis for re-creation of past landscapes and demonstrates both their function and the context in which they should be considered.
Perspectives on Industrial Archaeology edited by Neil Cossons (Science Museum, 2000) £19.95
Today, we are surrounded by the physical legacy of over two centuries of industrialisation: factories, canals, industrial towns and cities. By the 1950s, some of these relics of early industry began to take on a new significance: they were seen as an archaeological and historical reflection that needed to be captured, by recording and occasionally preservation. Industrial archaeology arose out of a widespread recognition of this need. In this book, distinguished authors review developments in industrial archaeology in Britain from the mid-1950s, when the term first appeared in print, to the present and offer some prospects for the future. Publication coincided with the International Congress on the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage held in Britain in 2000.
Other websites
This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.
Association for Industrial Archaeology
www.industrial-archaeology.org.uk
c/o Isabel Wilson, Liaison Officer
AIA, School of Archaeological Studies
Leicester University
Leicester LE1 7RH
Tel: 0116 252 5337
E-mail: AIA@le.ac.uk
The AIA is the national organisation for people who share an interest in Britain's industrial past. It brings together people who are researching, recording, preserving and presenting the great variety of this country's industrial heritage. Industrial architecture, mineral extraction, heritage-based tourism, power technology, adaptive re-use of industrial buildings and transport history are just some of the themes being investigated by members. Every year the Association monitors over 200 hundred applications to alter or demolish industrial sites and buildings. It works with other amenity groups to protect Britain's heritage and represent Britain on the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage.
Society for Industrial Archeology
http://www.ss.mtu.edu/IA/sia.html
Department of Social Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Drive
Houghton
MI 49931-1295
USA
E-mail: sia@mtu.edu
US equivalent of the British Association for Industrial Archaeology.