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What is industrial archaeology? For a diminishing number of traditionalists, the very phrase is a contradiction in terms. Industry – or at any rate heavy, machine-driven industry – is a modern phenomenon, for the most part well-documented historically. Archaeology, strictly speaking, is the study of ancient sites (from the Greek root of archaeo-).
Few archaeologists draw such distinctions these days. Archaeology tends to be defined more broadly as the study of the material remains of past ages as evidence of human activity, culture and history – and the 'past ages' can be very recent indeed. The British-based Association for Industrial Archaeology sets no restrictions on its aim of bringing together anyone involved in 'researching, recording, preserving and presenting the great variety of this country's industrial heritage'.
The term 'industrial archaeology' seems to have first been devised by a Latin professor at Birmingham University, Donald Dudley. Its first appearance in print was in an article by Michael Rix, also of Birmingham University, in The Amateur Historian in 1955. It was used first in relation to archaeological digs by Rene Evrard. Its early adoption by the Council for British Archaeology meant that it is well established as a distinctive area of archaeological study in the UK, rather than being more closely allied with the study of architecture, technology or engineering, which has tended to be more common in the US.
But interest in industrial archaeology actually began long before it had a name. The first museum to show interest in the industrial or technological heritage, the Conservatorie des Arts et Metiers, was founded in Paris in 1794. And the first open-air museum dedicated in part to the subject, Skansen in Stockholm, was founded in 1891 by the Swedish sociologist, Arthur Hazelius. The Deutsche Museum in Munich was founded in 1906, shortly after the Rademacher forges in Eskilstuna, Sweden, were turned into a museum.
The destruction of a great deal of Europe's industrial heritage during the two world wars gave added impetus to the preservation of some of the most important examples, and many industrial museums were established both before and after the Second World War. In Britain, the boom in interest has coincided with the decline in manufacturing industry, to the extent that few former industrial centres are now without some sort of museum devoted to their industrial past.
Within archaeology, broadly speaking there are two different approaches to the subject. One treats industrial archaeology as being concerned with the specific period from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the present day.
The Industrial Revolution is usually regarded as beginning early in the 18th century, with the key events being Abraham Darby's development of coke-burning for iron manufacture in 1709 and the advent of the first practical steam engine, developed by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. (But see Mick Aston's views on how it might really have originated much earlier with monks.) This was used to power pumps in the tin mines of Cornwall and the coal mines of northern England. Other key events include Abraham Darby's production of wrought iron from about 1750 onwards; and James Watt's patenting of the first truly efficient steam engine in 1769. This made possible the development of Stephenson's Rocket, generally regarded as the first true locomotive engine, and subsequently the first railways, in the early 1800s.
Alternatively, some archaeologists see industrial archaeology as something applicable to any time period. In this approach, it is regarded simply as the archaeological study of past industries – and applies as much to, for example, the pottery industry under the Romans as to the great factories, pits and railways of the Victorian age. As with other forms of archaeology, industrial archaeology was pioneered in large part by amateur and part-time enthusiasts. Today there are professional bodies for industrial archaeologists, with large numbers working full-time for universities and museums around the country.
Time Team programmes covering the field of industrial archaeology include William Morris's 'Liberty' factory in Merton, south London; an early blast furnace at Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire; the excavation of the world's first railway viaduct at Blaenafon, in Wales; the site of Josiah Wedgwood's first pottery in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent; and – the first time the Team excavated an industrial archaeology site – the investigation of Matthew Boulton's Soho Manufactory in Birmingham in the 1997 series.