Lecture Reports 2022 - 23
CHESTER AT WORK - MAY 2023 by Stewart Shuttleworth
The scene was set, we were introduced to “The Oxford Street of the North”. Yes, we’re familiar with Chester being a shopping and café society city these days, but it wasn’t always that way - let’s go back in time. Our story began with, you’ve guessed it, the Romans. They built a pottery at Holt and we saw examples of the tiles and pots made there, regrettably the pots were in bits and glued back together. Our next industry was what we IA experts call “Extractivey”, yes you’ve guessed again, the Romans found lead at Halkyn. We then moved on to those much maligned “Saxons”, where we saw an image of a “Saxon mould for casting precious metals such as silver”, which could be smelted out of the lead ore occasionally. Of course, with the arrival of silver came the making of coins, and it is believed that Ethelfled had a mint there. And as we moved along in time we arrived at the Normans, and they brought to Chester water engineering. It is believed that they built the weir at Chester and this helped guide and pound water for the newly built water mill. We learned that millers were powerful people, they often had a monopoly for grinding grain. Fishing was then mentioned with the arrival of monastic premises after the Normans, they had religious rites that made them eat fish on certain days, in fact we learned that the monastic orders had control of the fishing rights for parts of the river Dee, often catching salmon, lamprey and eels.
The water mills adapted to different needs and in time there was a snuff mill. A tobacco warehouse was built when Chester was a thriving port. We are all familiar in MIH with the gradual demise of the Port of Chester and its attempt to maintain access by the canalisation of the Dee, what a massive civil engineering job this was for the time. We learnt of early attempts with the tourist trade. The Mystery Plays became a good draw. It wasn’t exactly Oberammergau, but nevertheless a cultural attraction in medieval times. Chester continued with expertise in silverware and had its own assay office until the early 1960’s.
We learned of other industries in Chester, I’m going to have to get a move on here, it’s turning into a dissertation. We learned of silversmiths, gloving, pipe manufacture (clay brought from Devon by sea), shipbuilding, and of the commerce trade of Chester that moved downriver (that towards the Irish sea, Burton, Neston, Parkgate, yes we know about that, get on with it…..),and the ancillary industries of ropemaking, sailmaking and one in particular that Chester had a world class reputation for was chain making (and its associated testing). We learned that chains were made at Saltney for the Titanic! Time prevented us learning of the effects of the arrival of the canal and railway and the resulting transhipment of products such Cheshire cheese, or bricks from Ruabon. We studied in detail three large firms in Chester, H Wood & Co, Brookhirsts and the Hydraulic Engineering Company. Space prevents me from expanding on these interesting subjects covered in our talk. So ended a very interesting evening. Thank you, Stewart. Copies of his book “Chester at Work” were available for £14.99, it’s in full colour, Gwen Collinson bought a copy and spotted that one of her antecedents was none other than Messrs Collinson, Gilbert & Co who made boots and shoes in City Road, Chester, from the 1860’s.
The scene was set, we were introduced to “The Oxford Street of the North”. Yes, we’re familiar with Chester being a shopping and café society city these days, but it wasn’t always that way - let’s go back in time. Our story began with, you’ve guessed it, the Romans. They built a pottery at Holt and we saw examples of the tiles and pots made there, regrettably the pots were in bits and glued back together. Our next industry was what we IA experts call “Extractivey”, yes you’ve guessed again, the Romans found lead at Halkyn. We then moved on to those much maligned “Saxons”, where we saw an image of a “Saxon mould for casting precious metals such as silver”, which could be smelted out of the lead ore occasionally. Of course, with the arrival of silver came the making of coins, and it is believed that Ethelfled had a mint there. And as we moved along in time we arrived at the Normans, and they brought to Chester water engineering. It is believed that they built the weir at Chester and this helped guide and pound water for the newly built water mill. We learned that millers were powerful people, they often had a monopoly for grinding grain. Fishing was then mentioned with the arrival of monastic premises after the Normans, they had religious rites that made them eat fish on certain days, in fact we learned that the monastic orders had control of the fishing rights for parts of the river Dee, often catching salmon, lamprey and eels.
The water mills adapted to different needs and in time there was a snuff mill. A tobacco warehouse was built when Chester was a thriving port. We are all familiar in MIH with the gradual demise of the Port of Chester and its attempt to maintain access by the canalisation of the Dee, what a massive civil engineering job this was for the time. We learnt of early attempts with the tourist trade. The Mystery Plays became a good draw. It wasn’t exactly Oberammergau, but nevertheless a cultural attraction in medieval times. Chester continued with expertise in silverware and had its own assay office until the early 1960’s.
We learned of other industries in Chester, I’m going to have to get a move on here, it’s turning into a dissertation. We learned of silversmiths, gloving, pipe manufacture (clay brought from Devon by sea), shipbuilding, and of the commerce trade of Chester that moved downriver (that towards the Irish sea, Burton, Neston, Parkgate, yes we know about that, get on with it…..),and the ancillary industries of ropemaking, sailmaking and one in particular that Chester had a world class reputation for was chain making (and its associated testing). We learned that chains were made at Saltney for the Titanic! Time prevented us learning of the effects of the arrival of the canal and railway and the resulting transhipment of products such Cheshire cheese, or bricks from Ruabon. We studied in detail three large firms in Chester, H Wood & Co, Brookhirsts and the Hydraulic Engineering Company. Space prevents me from expanding on these interesting subjects covered in our talk. So ended a very interesting evening. Thank you, Stewart. Copies of his book “Chester at Work” were available for £14.99, it’s in full colour, Gwen Collinson bought a copy and spotted that one of her antecedents was none other than Messrs Collinson, Gilbert & Co who made boots and shoes in City Road, Chester, from the 1860’s.
LIVERPOOL’S GOODS STATIONS - PART 1 - 11th April 2023 by Paul Wright
Nineteen of us attended this face-to-face meeting at QMH, a little below our usual number. Paul explained to us that, while we were all familiar with the big passenger stations in Liverpool, many now gone - we were going to look at local Goods Stations. These were the centres of goods and commerce, carrying goods that the passenger stations would not take. (Note from Paul, the term “Dock Road” is a geographical expression used in Liverpool, there is no such named place)! I’ve never thought of that really.
Our first port of call was the Wapping Goods Shed, which became Park Lane Goods by the time of the LMS. It was heavily bombed in 1940 and patched up. It was interesting to see images of the gap between and either side of the track planked over, this was for ease of moving carts, wagons and horses which were predominant in these places at this time. We then moved to Waterloo Dock, a shed originally promoted by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but not completed until the LNWR did it! In 1849 the L & Y were getting Page 2 of 6 frustrated at not being close enough to “the action”. But they had to cross rival lines, eventually an act of parliament sorted out who would pay for a bridge, in the end the costs were shared between the railway companies.
We were shown superb maps of the area, some in colour. Paul called them “Works of art”. Some of the goods stations had passenger stations attached! These ran well until the LOR (Liverpool Overhead Railway) was built along the line of docks. (Isn’t it amazing to think of passenger services running into these goods stations? But remember, there was an army of clerks, porters, counters, lorry men, goods guards, etc. to man the various places of work at the larger stations). Some of the passenger stations at these goods stations closed early but some survived until 1948. And so my notes ended, this was a really interesting talk. Paul would not accept a lecture fee, but he agreed to a donation being made on his behalf to the Ukrainian Crisis Appeal. Cheers from the floor.
Nineteen of us attended this face-to-face meeting at QMH, a little below our usual number. Paul explained to us that, while we were all familiar with the big passenger stations in Liverpool, many now gone - we were going to look at local Goods Stations. These were the centres of goods and commerce, carrying goods that the passenger stations would not take. (Note from Paul, the term “Dock Road” is a geographical expression used in Liverpool, there is no such named place)! I’ve never thought of that really.
Our first port of call was the Wapping Goods Shed, which became Park Lane Goods by the time of the LMS. It was heavily bombed in 1940 and patched up. It was interesting to see images of the gap between and either side of the track planked over, this was for ease of moving carts, wagons and horses which were predominant in these places at this time. We then moved to Waterloo Dock, a shed originally promoted by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway but not completed until the LNWR did it! In 1849 the L & Y were getting Page 2 of 6 frustrated at not being close enough to “the action”. But they had to cross rival lines, eventually an act of parliament sorted out who would pay for a bridge, in the end the costs were shared between the railway companies.
We were shown superb maps of the area, some in colour. Paul called them “Works of art”. Some of the goods stations had passenger stations attached! These ran well until the LOR (Liverpool Overhead Railway) was built along the line of docks. (Isn’t it amazing to think of passenger services running into these goods stations? But remember, there was an army of clerks, porters, counters, lorry men, goods guards, etc. to man the various places of work at the larger stations). Some of the passenger stations at these goods stations closed early but some survived until 1948. And so my notes ended, this was a really interesting talk. Paul would not accept a lecture fee, but he agreed to a donation being made on his behalf to the Ukrainian Crisis Appeal. Cheers from the floor.
MARITIME INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE PORTS OF LOOE & ST IVES 14th November 2022 - John Luxton
23 people attended this excellent lecture from John Luxton. In the space of just under two hours we saw just over 200 images, John must have spent days compiling this presentation for us.
Here are some notes on the two places….. The name Looe is derived from a Cornish word similar to the Gaelic word for river, which we all know as Loch. Looe’s trade was in minerals such as lead, tin, copper, arsenic and granite, fish (pilchards and crabs), and later, tourists. It was first mentioned in 1411 when a bridge was built connecting what we later learned was West Looe with East Looe. A canal was built upriver towards Liskeard (pronounced identically to the Wallasey one but spelled differently). The canal has a few remnants that the observant IA enthusiast will spot. This is because it was converted to a railway in 1860, some of the stone blocks supporting the railway are still in place! Not sleepers but square stone blocks.
One of John’s maps showed clearly the “Bone Mill”, ground bone being the “secret” key ingredient used in making bone china. The clay, of course, was also a product of the area. John showed us the few remaining “fisherman’s” houses on what we would call the promenade, but which at that time were just on the shore. The ground floors were for fisherman’s, tools, nets, whilst the living quarters were upstairs. In a strange role reversal, we learned that in June 1625, the port of Looe was raided by Barbary Pirates, who seized 80 mariners and fishermen. Those unfortunate individuals were led away in chains to North Africa to be enslaved, and the town itself was then torched!
It is East Looe that has the railway stations (services to the Western Region etc.)
St Ives First, the name of the place, why, who, what? Well, nothing to do with geography, it’s named after St Ia. The church still exists and is properly known as St Ia the Virgin, supposedly an Irish holy woman of the 5th or 6th century. The current building dates to the reign of King Henry V. It became a Church of England parish church in 1826. One of the earliest records for St Ives was the building of a pier in 1478. The town was an important fishing port, but less so these days. In days of yore Italy was the destination for the pilchards, no doubt for making into rather fishy flavoured pizzas. The pilchards were packed in “hogsheads”, a term we know so well in Liverpool! There’s a record of Spanish ships being captured and berthed at St Ives as early as 1577 (there was more than one “Spanish Armada”, Ed.) Tourists started coming in 1877 and they have not stopped since, they are still queuing for Cornish ice cream as I write this article.
23 people attended this excellent lecture from John Luxton. In the space of just under two hours we saw just over 200 images, John must have spent days compiling this presentation for us.
Here are some notes on the two places….. The name Looe is derived from a Cornish word similar to the Gaelic word for river, which we all know as Loch. Looe’s trade was in minerals such as lead, tin, copper, arsenic and granite, fish (pilchards and crabs), and later, tourists. It was first mentioned in 1411 when a bridge was built connecting what we later learned was West Looe with East Looe. A canal was built upriver towards Liskeard (pronounced identically to the Wallasey one but spelled differently). The canal has a few remnants that the observant IA enthusiast will spot. This is because it was converted to a railway in 1860, some of the stone blocks supporting the railway are still in place! Not sleepers but square stone blocks.
One of John’s maps showed clearly the “Bone Mill”, ground bone being the “secret” key ingredient used in making bone china. The clay, of course, was also a product of the area. John showed us the few remaining “fisherman’s” houses on what we would call the promenade, but which at that time were just on the shore. The ground floors were for fisherman’s, tools, nets, whilst the living quarters were upstairs. In a strange role reversal, we learned that in June 1625, the port of Looe was raided by Barbary Pirates, who seized 80 mariners and fishermen. Those unfortunate individuals were led away in chains to North Africa to be enslaved, and the town itself was then torched!
It is East Looe that has the railway stations (services to the Western Region etc.)
St Ives First, the name of the place, why, who, what? Well, nothing to do with geography, it’s named after St Ia. The church still exists and is properly known as St Ia the Virgin, supposedly an Irish holy woman of the 5th or 6th century. The current building dates to the reign of King Henry V. It became a Church of England parish church in 1826. One of the earliest records for St Ives was the building of a pier in 1478. The town was an important fishing port, but less so these days. In days of yore Italy was the destination for the pilchards, no doubt for making into rather fishy flavoured pizzas. The pilchards were packed in “hogsheads”, a term we know so well in Liverpool! There’s a record of Spanish ships being captured and berthed at St Ives as early as 1577 (there was more than one “Spanish Armada”, Ed.) Tourists started coming in 1877 and they have not stopped since, they are still queuing for Cornish ice cream as I write this article.