The first place we visited was the Blists Hill Victorian Town, a quaint little village designed to resemble a Victorian town just at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Most of the town was fabricated and not actually from that time period, however, there were some extant items such as the canal, blast furnaces, and the inclined plane, one of the greatest remnants of the Industrial Revolution.
Just at the entrance of the town, our tourguide, Jayne, showed us a little square contraption on wheels and asked us if we had any ideas as to what it was. All of us took guesses, but no one guessed the correctly. It turns out that this tiny building (no more than 6-8 feet in length and 4-6 feet in width) was actually a workman's hub in which three to four workers would live for weeks to months at a time while they were working on the construction of roads and/or railroads. After our Jayne told us this fascinating fact, I knew that I was in for a treat touring the rest of the town.
Throughout Blists Hill there were many artifacts either from the Industrial Revolution or models of machines and buildings from that era. One such building was the Foundry, which was an old industry building that would make cast iron models of figurines and parts for machinery. The factory still does function on Wednesdays and makes figurines as they would have in Victorian times; too bad we were there on a Thursday and did not get to witness this historic process. The process of making the figurines and machine parts involves smelting iron and then pouring the hot liquid metal into the molds. The process of smelting iron was first developed by Abraham Darby, a Quaker who lived in Coalbrookedale. This extraordinary invention allowed iron to be produced for a fraction of the price and therefore kick-started the Industrial Revolution.
A model of the first steam railroad engine was right up the street from the Foundry. This innovative device enabled supplies, particularly coal, to be shipped to specific locations at a much faster pace during the Industrial Revolution time period. It was also used to lower down trolleys and possibly men into the mine shafts in the 19th century. When we saw it the steam engine was on and smoking but was not running as it still does from time to time. Behind the steam railroad were enormous brick buildings built by a brick building company that was in operation around the late 18th-early 19th centuries. The buildings were obviously rundown due to their age and lack of use, but it was still fascinating to get to see such a vital part of history.
Running along the steam engine, brick company building and Foundry was the canal, one of the most important inventions of the time. Under the guidance of William Reynolds, this artificial canal was constructed to provide a mode of transportation to carry the tons of coal from the coal fields to the blast furnaces. It provided an easy way to transport several thousand tons of coal daily and was a major constituent in daily life during the Industrial Revolution. It was a great economic move for Reynolds to construct the canal as the town would then be able to increase its productivity and therefore its sales. The canal proved to do just that, which enabled Coalbrookedale to become a giant leader in coal and iron production. Because of their success, roads had to be built within the town to be able to handle the heavy traffic coming to and leaving the town. In the 1830s toll-houses were added, which were very nice houses built for toll workers who would live there and collect payment to finance the roads.
Perhaps the two most fascinating sites in Blists Hill were the blast furnaces and the inclined plane. The blast furnaces were just about midway between the steam engine depot and the inclined plane. They were absolutely huge and of a very peculiar shape and design. Thousands of tons of coal would be loaded up into these furnaces, which were also a major part of the success of the industrial town. They were first constructed for economic reasons and were fed directly from the canal. Production from them ceased in 1912 when the town was beginning to stop production and deteriorate into an abandoned city.
The inclined plane was an extraordinary site with a fascinating story. Whenever the Industrial Revolution was occurring and massive amounts of coal were being harvested, the men needed an efficient way to get the coal from the canal to the furnaces. They held a contest to see who could come up with the best idea and the winning idea was to construct an inclined plane; a seemingly simple idea but with a diligent design and award-winning results. The two men who thought of the idea were Henry Williams and James Lowden. The process consisted of having a depot where the tubs would go onto a cradle and carried down the hill via pulleys and rope. They would then be unhinged and deposited at the furnace plant. The steam engine would assist the tubs to go up and down the plane. The plane itself was 1,000 feet long with a sixty-six yard vertical rise. To demonstrate its capabilities, a pair of five ton tub boats would be able to traverse down the hill in just four minutes! This great monument of historic ingenuity had its last commercial operation in 1894 and was formally closed in 1907.
After the hay-day of the Industrial Revolution, Coalbrookedale became an industrial wasteland. The mines were abandoned in 1941 and the brickworks and tileworks were closed in the 1950s. It was not until 1967 when the Ironbridge Gorge trust fund was set up and the area was open to the public so they we could have the opportunity to learn vital information about our country's revolutionary past.
Blists Hill Victorian town relates to Hobsbawm's commentary in that it displayed the economic and social transformations as well as the innovative inventions businessmen were constructing during this time period. Machinery, canals and railways were constructed to handle and transport the mass amount of coal being produced, and the town was becoming more modern with its addition of roadways. People were changing the ways they worked as well as the ways they thought. Blists Hills did a fantastic job of recreating the rich history of the Industrial Revolution, and it taught me several important facts about the era that I had not been aware of before.
After Blists Hills and a brief lunch courtesy of our friendly hostel workers, we then traveled to the Coalport China Museum which was just as interesting and intellectually stimulating. Here Jayne took us around the factory and gave us a detailed history about its past. The first factory, now the site of a youth hostel, was originally built in 1796 by John Rose. In 1810, Rose bought out his brother's factory, merged his building with his brother's building, and made the China building one of the largest factories in its time. Here workers would produce Bone China, which was comprised of 25% China clay, 25% granite, and 50% calcinated and ground cattle bone. Actual bone was used because it made the porcelain beautifully white, had the most amazing strength, was incredibly strong but delicate, was transparent when held up to a light, and was favored by artists because it gave a beautiful white background on which to paint. The China produced at the factory was shipped abroad which further helped to drive Coalbrookedale's economy.
As soon as you were able to work, you were. Kids, as young as the age of eight, would work 12 hour days assisting potters. With the help of the kids as well as the vast amount of adult workers and the innovative machinery and inventions concocted during this time, nearly 800 China products were produced a day as compared to a mere 80 in a cottage industry. Using machines, all of the products were the same size, thickness, and quality, which was an advantage to China produced in cottage industries which would inevitably end up having all different properties due to the products being made by hand. This not only displays the industrialization of the factory, but also its efficiency and success.
Despite its vast success, the factory did have its downfalls. The average lifespan of a pottery worker was substantially shorter than that of a regular worker due to industrial illnesses. Potters could get clay dust on their lungs which could lead to bronchial diseases. Lead poisoning was also prevalent because of the lead-based paint used to paint the China. Women would stick the brushes into their mouths to make the end pointy and would thus get lead into their bloodstream. The poisoning led to a disease known as Potter's Rot in which the internal organs would begin to rot. It was not until later times that lead-free paint was developed, so workers during this time, unaware of the dangers they faced, would work diligently but also be slowly killing themselves at the same time.
Putting its disadvantages behind, before the Bone China could be put into one of the six kilns, it had to go into a contraption known as a sagga first. A sagga is a case that would protect the China from the flames of the kiln. Up to 3,000 saggas were loaded into a kiln a day, so it's no wonder that the kilns were enormous. There was also a huge chimney surrounding each kiln to prevent fire-related injuries and to channel the smoke upwards into the sky. Fireproof bricks with cast-iron supporters went around the kiln in order to prevent the kiln from cracking due to the constant heating up and cooling down it had to endure. Before the kiln was started (which required up to 15 tons of coal), a brick door was constructed to keep the fumes in, and was later destroyed whenever the China was ready to be taken out. This meant that a new brick door had to be constructed with every firing of the kiln, which was obviously time consuming and costly, but it was the only way the kiln would properly work. They were also "green" with the bricks in that they recycled those from the door and used them to form pavement. The man in charge of the kiln was the fireman, who had the incredible responsibility of maintaining the fire and making sure the China was fired for just the right amount of time at just the right temperature (usually around 1250 degrees Centigrade). This job obviously had huge liability, which is why the fireman was the second best paid man aside from the manager.
The Coalport China Museum also perfectly displayed the industrialization occurring during the era and also goes hand in hand with Hobsbawm's commentary in that it too had an acceleration of growth due to economic and social transformation (via John Rose and the Industrial Revolution) and also introduced revolutionary methods to allow for the mass production of China to be shipped worldwide. It was a great pleasure to experience the process of making China and to also be able to view the absolutely beautiful China constructed during the time period of its functioning.
Throughout the rest of our trip to Ironbridge Gorge, we visited the Darby homes and Quaker burial grounds, an original furnace dating back to the 1600s, the Museum of Iron, and the Engenuity building, which was a very fun interactive building that, although geared toward a younger crowd, had displays in which people could learn "hands-on" about the advancements and products produced during the Industrial Revolution. The Museum of Iron building was built in 1838 and was used to store cast iron goods. As with the Bone China, these goods were transported globally and helped to boost the town's economy.
Through visiting the Darby homes and walking thorough various places with our tourguides, I learned saw and learned so many things concerning the Industrial Revolution. For instance, while Hobsbawm will not admit it, religion had a huge part in the Industrial Revolution. Religious dissenters had more leaders and entrepreneurs in the Industrial Revolution, and more innovations came from Quakers rather than Anglicans because of the importance this religious group put on education. Quakers also had a source of money to kick-start their ideas and fund any necessary developments, such as the Ironbridge, constructed by Abraham Darby III. His family and friends paid the approximately 4,000 pound difference in the cost it took to construct the bridge, which ended up being one of the greatest economic productions resulting from the Industrial Revolution. I also learned a great deal about the first Abraham Darby who sparked the Industrial Revolution, developed a new way to smelt iron, and was the first person to use coke as a fuel and use sand as a cast for the iron.
I learned so many fascinating things and had a great time surrounding myself in such an integral part of our modern society's history. This fieldtrip and every place we visited directly coincided with Hobsbawm's commentary in that they all powered growth due to social and economic transformations as well as introduced revolutionary methods for the production and use of iron. With that being said, overall, my trip to Ironbridge Gorge was wonderful.
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