Newsletter Volume 7 No 1 Spring 2020 In this Issue….lihs.org.uk/images/LIHS_Spring_2020.pdf · THE LEICESTERSHIRE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SOCIETY Founded in 1969 In this Issue…. Paul

Newsletter Volume 7 No 1 Spring 2020

THE LEICESTERSHIRE INDUSTRIALHISTORY SOCIETYFounded in 1969

www.lihs.org.uk

In this Issue….

Paul Banbury1940-2019

The coronavirus outbreak will probably result in some changes or cancellations tothe 2020/21 programme as detailed on Page 27 of your Spring 2020 Newsletter.

Please see our website and/or the Facebook page for any late changes.

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Leicestershire Industrial History Society Spring 2020

The Leicestershire Industrial History SocietyFounded in 1969

Contents

3 A view from the Chair

4 “Go and see Paul, he will sort you out!” - Paul Banbury1940 – 2019

5 Paul Banbury and his other passion

8 A New Home for the Stephenson Lift Bridge

10 More on Cropston Reservoir

12 LIHS at 50 - A Personal Reflection

18 The First Phase of the LIHS Digital Archive

19 Barrow-in-Furnace Tramways Co. Ltd

20 The Califat Dig, a Short History

22 Memories of the Glenfield Tunnel

25 W N Gutteridge

26 New LIHS publication & EMIAC 98

27 Dates for your Diary


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A View from the Chair

Chris Hossack

The death of Paul Banbury in October last yearwas a sad blow. He contributed so much to themany LIHS activities in which he was involved,and bore his illness to the last withdetermination and courage. Tributes within thisedition indicate how much he was valued as acolleague, and as a friend. A tribute to Paul, byway of an exhibition of some of his work, willbe held on June 7�� at the Stoneygate TramDepot, 453 London Road, LE2 3JW, adjacent tothe Shell petrol station. (11.00am – 4.30pm)

50 years of LIHS continues to be celebrated byProfessor Marilyn Palmer’s article coveringsome of the early days of LIHS, brought to liferecently for us when she addressed our meetingshowing pictures of those who paved the wayfor our Society to grow.

Another of our recent speakers, Bill Pemberton,attracted a packed hall for his talk about‘Leicestershire Railways’ which he will berepeating on June 30�� at Stoneygate BaptistChurch, 315 London Road, LE2 3ND as part ofthe Leicestershire Archaeology Festival. Acollection will be held to help towards the fundfor the restoration of Taylor’s Bell Foundry inLoughborough.

The welcome announcement just beforeChristmas by LCC that the Stephenson LiftBridge would be rehomed at the Mountsorrel& Rothley Community Heritage Centre broughtto an end the period of uncertainty about theLift Bridge since its dismantling at Snibston in2016. LIHS were also pleased to note that thecorrect procedures had been followedregarding the handover by the City toMountsorrel, and that the ownership of the LiftBridge would revert back to City Museums inthe event of any unforeseen circumstancesregarding Mountsorrel occurring at some futuredate. This had been a primary concern of LIHS.

LIHS have since met with Steve Cramp and histeam to discuss the plans and relateddocumentation that we have in our possession.

The archaeological dig at Swannington isnearing completion on the Califat site, and thecreation of signs and other interpretivematerial is being undertaken to ensure thatvisitors will be able to understand what wethink we know, and puzzle with us on thoseparts which still remain a mystery. We hopethen to move back to the original excavationwritten up by Peter Neaverson, but which lacksclarity on the ground today as much has beenfilled in.

The autumn programme includes someexcellent speakers, so why not introduce afriend to become a member, or just bring themalong for a taster. They will be sure of a warmwelcome. Here’s to the next 50 years!

Once the bats have had their winter roost wewill be back to Glenfield Tunnel to give tours tothe many groups including 150 scouts to date,schools and history societies interested infinding out about this hole in the hillside. Wewill again be open to the general public duringthe Archaeology Festival as well as the HeritageDays in September. We can always do withmore help on these tours so do get in touch ifyou can help at [email protected] new banners as well as the gift of thetunnel markers for which we are most grateful,all go to enhance the visitor experience.

Keith Drury and David Pearce have betweenthem pioneered digitising our Newsletters andBulletins which can now be made available toa wider public through the Record Office in afully searchable format. The challenge now iswhere to go from here.

The team of engineers we met with were veryexcited to get sight of the plans and criticalmeasurements and felt confident in bringingthe Lift Bridge back to life. Overall, we werevery impressed with the work completed atMountsorrel to date and felt that the intendedposition of the Lift Bridge fitted in well with theother buildings on the site.

Mark Temple, representing the HeritageCentre will be updating LIHS Members at ourApril AGM.

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The first words to me from David Lyne, having ‘agreed’ to have a bash at editing the LIHS Newsletterback in 2014. Having used MS Office applications for many years, I felt confident that MS Word wouldbe adequate and set off to see Paul. Quickly dismissing Word, and Microsoft generally as the blackestof black arts, he introduced me to PagePlus - his preferred technical publication software. Over the nextfew weeks he convinced me to use PagePlus, showing me proudly the publications he had diligentlyproduced for both LIHS and his other long-time interest, the Leicester Transport Heritage Trust. Hismastery of the software convinced me to give it a try, and 6 years later it is still my technical publicationsoftware of choice, something that some of my LIHS colleagues still frown upon.

And I guess that this, in a word(!) summed up Paul, who died in October at the age of 79. He was someonewho was largely self-taught and could master whatever he chose to take an interest in, whether it bemotor mechanics, restoring old musical boxes, researching and writing various books on transport,creating beautifully crafted digital images of trams and buses and his love of organ music.

He served an apprenticeship with Leicester Corporation Transport and felt more at home in a shop floorengineering environment, rather than perhaps following a different path through life as a result ofattending Alderman Newton Grammar School. I remember seeing a small workshop in his house inGlenfield, complete with vice, files, saws, an assortment of spanners etc.– in his house! These he usedto produce labour saving ‘gadgets’ to help produce his books, including short runs needed to meet thelast- minute demands of visitors to the Glenfield Tunnel – another passion he had throughout the yearsthat I knew him. Whether it was the authoring and production of many L&SR publications, maps, lightingarrangements for the Tunnel and the creation of the ‘tunnel guardian’ (actually, a dolls head, found inthe Tunnel!) that he rigged up with spooky red eyes, he was always ready to put in a shift for whateverwas required. Indeed, during this, his last summer, he felt particularly at a loss in not being able to getinvolved running the bookstall as his illness began to take a firmer hold.

Paul was born on St Patrick's Day March 17th in 1940 and lived in Leicester all his life working in andaround motor vehicles, including a spell at Hamshaw's on Parker Drive, before eventually running hisown business in Sileby restoring and selling cars until he retired.

In about 2008 he joined LIHS and over the next several years contributed both articles and lectureson various topics to entertain and inform our Tuesday night gatherings. Latterly, he wrote ahistory of the building of the Leicester Tramway system for our Newsletter. Such was the attentionto detail that Paul put into researching and developing the article, it took up most of theNewsletter! He will, however, from the perspective of LIHS, be remembered for his prolific outputof books relating to the Glenfield Tunnel. In all, he wrote and produced at least one newpublication a year covering all aspects of the Tunnel and the L&SR, as well as annotating andprinting maps all geared to providing as complete a picture as possible for the Tunnel visitorduring the summer openings. He also provided advice and editorial assistance to others withinthe Society that wanted help with their technical publications.

Barely a month before Paul passed away, and typical of the man, was his response to a note fromLIHS Member Peter Firth following a party of visitors that arrived unexpectedly at Hough Mill,Swannington aboard a 1949 Bedford 29-seater coach. The full story is covered on pages 5&6, butsuffice to say, Paul’s fascination with motor transport and his reply to Peter only confirms whatDavid Lyne said: “Go and see Paul, he will sort you out!”


“Go and see Paul, he will sort you out!” - Paul Banbury 1940 – 2019David Pearce


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On Sunday September 8th 2019, LIHS memberPeter Firth was helping out at one of theHeritage Open Days at Hough Mill, Swannington,when an unexpected party of 24 visitors aboarda vintage 1949 Bedford 29-seater coach that hadcome all the way from Winchester turned up toview the Mill. The coach was originally from theIsle of Wight, but now resided in Winchester. Itwas primarily used for weddings and apparentlyit costs £650 a day to hire. With a maximumspeed of 40 mph it must have been a leisurelyjourney. But as you can see from thephotographs, it was in excellent condition. Thephotograph and Peters notes were sent to PaulBanbury since we knew he had a keen interestin such vehicles. By the next day Paul had sentme the following:

Thanks, Bill for the email and lovely pictures ofthe Bedford OB, a bus or coach chassisintroduced in 1939 and the most produced singledeck bus and coach chassis of all time.

The OB was produced by the commercial branchof Vauxhall Motors under the trading name"Bedford", at Luton. The Vauxhall producedBedford came as a result of General Motorsbuying out the Vauxhall Motors in November1925. General Motors had sold the littleimported Chevrolet coach chassis (usually 14-seaters) in the UK quite well and decided(perhaps to avoid import duties) to manufacturethe chassis in the UK - hence, their purchase ofVauxhall. They changed the model name toBedford and early ones were just a continuationof the little Chevrolet with a new style ofradiator. Sales were good and the little Bedfordgrew over several model changes (WHB, WHL,WTB) to result in the OB launched in August1939. WW II interrupted production, butBedford were fortunate that the WarDepartment chose them to produce the onlywar-time single deck chassis that could bepurchased. This was a very basic OWB chassiswith an austerity body designed for the purposeby Duple of Hendon - long time partners ofBedford chassis. This body had wooden slatted(park bench-like) seats!

The same body was made by other bodymakers, such as Mulliner, under license toDuple. Later OWBs had basic upholstered seats.

Post-war, Bedford had a distinct advantageover other chassis manufacturers by havingreadymade, a modern coach chassis (it alwayshad an overhead valve engine while othermanufacturers still used the inefficient sidevalve arrangement) which could be returned toproduction very quickly. Thus, the post-war OBbecame by far the most popular small coachchassis ever. Most carried the Duple "Vista"coachwork which was designed specifically forthe OB chassis, but some carried coachwork bymany of the alternative coachworkmanufacturers such as Willowbrook andBurlingham. Some were made with single-deckbus bodies (rather than coach bodies) for useon regular "stage" services. Quite a lot of thewartime utility OWBs were rebodied post-warwith Duple Vista coachwork since the chassiswere virtually identical. Post-war, the OB wasproduced from 1945 to 1950 when it wasreplaced by the also very successful SB series,a larger coach made to satisfy increasingdemand for coach travel.[The next day, Paul he sent the followingsupplementary information]

It came to my notice that there are severalreferences to the OB's distinctive "gearboxwhine". It's true to say that the gearbox was notquiet because it was a crash gearbox withstraight cut gears. Although double de-clutching was essential (no synchromesh!), itwas a delightful gearbox to drive, on which,with a little practice, nice clean gear changeswere possible. The gearboxes were very toughand reliable and would tolerate considerableabuse by incompetent drivers. When I was anapprentice, I got to drive many of our Bedford"O" series trucks with the same gearbox. I don'tthink the LCT [Leicester City Transport]("Corpo") had any actual OB coaches but thetruck chassis were virtually identical.The ease of gear changing with the Bedfordgearbox was in stark contrast with othervehicles with crash gearboxes.

Bill Pemberton

Paul Banbury and his other passion


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The Corpo had several Leyland PD1 doubledeckers which were an interim post-warproduction preceding the introduction of themuch better PD2 in 1948. The PD1 had theslowest gearchange in the world and becauseit was a crash gearbox, double-declutching wasessential. The joke used to be "start off insecond (first was strictly reserved for steep hillstarts), on the change to third, while waiting inneutral for engine revs to fall, have breakfast,then engage third!" The reason for this was thatthe engine in the PD1 was developed from theengine Leyland had made for the "Cromwell"WW II tank. Now tanks require a heavy engineflywheel to smooth the power output to thetank's transmission to cope with irregularground. I guess the need for new buses after thewar didn't give Leyland enough time to do manymodifications to existing products, so the heavyflywheel was continued in the bus engine thusmaking for the very slow gearchange.

[Paul didn’t have any specific information about the one in the photo taken at Hough Mill, but it is oneof many OBs that have been restored and are still "on the road". For more information, he advised goingto the Wikipedia web page on the Bedford OB for more detailed information generally, and to the websitethat provided information about this particular bus: http://www.vintage-tours.co.uk/page26.htm] Healso forwarded some pictures to Bill Pemberton of the Bedford small coach models from the first (WHB)up to the SB which replaced the OB - Ed]

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A selection of publications written and produced by PaulBanbury, under his Paul Media logo, on behalf of LIHS

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A New Home for the Stephenson Lift Bridge

David Pearce

About 7 miles from its spiritual home as thecrow flies, the Stephenson Lift Bridge that oncespanned the Soar Navigation at West Bridge isto be restored in Mountsorrel following adecision by the Leicester Arts, Museums,Festivals & Events department. A statementreceived by the Mountsorrel & RothleyCommunity Heritage Centre just beforeChristmas confirmed that the ‘preferred andapproved option for the disposal of the Leicesterand Swannington Railway [L&SR] Lift Bridge aspart of the Leicester City Council, LeicesterMuseums & Galleries Collections Review; is togift it to the Mountsorrel & Rothley CommunityHeritage Centre’

From a standing start in 2007, the HeritageCentre now boasts the restoration of 1¼ milesof the Mountsorrel Railway and with £100,000raised from the local community and help fromlocal business, the 120 volunteers havecontributed over 140,000 hours in restoring therail line, the building of Mountsorrel Station andrepairing of two stone bridges to create apremier visitor attraction in the heart of theCharnwood area of Leicestershire. The securingof the Lift Bridge, although many volunteerhours - and costs - will be needed to restore iteffectively, the result should only add to thegrowing heritage collection, and reputation, ofthe Heritage Centre.

Originally, the wooden Lift Bridge, based on adesign by Robert Stephenson, carried a shortstretch of line over the canal to enable the L&SRto deliver coal to the wharf on the other side ofthe canal. The Bridge was in use from 1832 untilthe mid-1960’s and was originally designed forhorse hauled wagons and therefore did not haveto be substantial enough to take the weight of alocomotive. It had gone through a re-buildsometime in the mid-19�� century and over theyear’s repairs and maintenance. With the closureof West Bridge Station in 1966, the Bridge wasredundant and around 1970 was dismantled forre-erection on the Riverside Walk at the rear ofthe proposed Museum of Technology for the EastMidlands at the Abbey Pumping Station. Duringthe eighteen years it was located on the RiversideWalk it became heavily vandalised and in 1992 itwas decided by Leicestershire Museums todismantle the bridge and re-erect it as a ‘gateguardian’ at the newly curated SnibstonDiscovery Park in Coalville. In July 2015, after 184years of use and display, the Bridge was finallydismantled as a consequence of the closure anddemolition of the Snibston Discovery Park. In theprocess of dismantling the Bridge, the timberswere discarded and only the iron componentswere preserved and kept in storage by LeicesterMuseums.

In its original position ca. 1970

Home no. 2 on the Riverside Walk adjacent tothe Museum of Technology (the Pumping

Station)

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Physically only the ironwork of the Bridge remains, but with the help of adetailed history file and the many photographs taken during its long

history, we should soon see it restored in its new home.

Home no. 3, Snibston Discovery Park

Home no. 4 is theMountsorrel & RothleyCommunity Heritage

Centre. The publication‘A Dream Come True’

details the developmentsat the site since 2007.

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More on Cropston Reservoir

Brian Kibble and David Ramsey

[The Spring 2019 edition of the Newsletterfeatured a lengthy article on Cropston Reservoirand has, I am pleased to say, elicited thefollowing from Brian Kibble and David Ramsey.-Ed ]Firstly, this from Brian. I have particular fondmemories of Cropston Reservoir and attach twopictures with captions from The AnsteyMillennium Collection. One picture (figure 1)isof the keepers lodge that was on the site of thereservoir. The second picture (figure 2) is onethat I took in 2006 when Gregory Sparham ofNewtown Linford took me to the site on thewestern side of the reservoir and to a bridge,probably used by King William III, on his visit toLord Stamford in 1695. I live in a converted barnin what was once part of the farm that SarahBirchnall lived in after her marriage. I havememories of the area on the other side of thedam which was used by the army during WW IIas storage for ammunition in the build up toD-Day. The ammunition was stored in Nissanhuts with canvas front and backs and was oftenraided by 9 and 10 year olds after dodging thesentries on duty – bullets made good swaps atschool!”

Secondly, David Ramsey followed up the originalarticle with two notes, this one as a preamble toa more detailed one that came later:

The slate gate posts for the lodges and siteopenings at Cropston were manufactured atGroby (1833) quarry. (Incised 1871 - GrobyQuarry) and have clear signs of sawing on posts.The embankment of rough chunky slates camevia Rudkin, also from Groby, to Cropston - notfrom Swithland as the Swithland Woods quarrieswere closed and thus no stock was available. TheEarl of Stamford intended to sell house buildingplots in Causeway Lane which looked over thereservoir from grounds south of the new waters- I have a map similar to the one you used in thearticle only the house plots are shown in pink! TheEarl wanted the sales and in addition nodisturbance to the deer - hence the wall.

figure 2 shows the bridge under CropstonReservoir - February 2006 After two successive drysummers the bridge makes its second appearancesince being submerged in the flooding of thereservoir in 1871. The previous time was in 1982when the reservoir was drained. The track over itled from Bradgate House to Leicester via Anstey’sKing William’s bridge on Sheepwash Lane. Thewidth of the bridge is 18ft. and the arc over theRiver Lyn is 21ft.

Courtesy of Gregory Sparham Anstey MillenniumCollection No.1073

figure 1 shows The Earl of Stamford’s Keeper’sLodge - Circa 1868 - Mr Joseph Reeves theGamekeeper is on the far left with his daughterSarah (later Sarah Burchnall of Cropston Road,Anstey. The Lodge was demolished in 1870 withthe site and foundations now under Cropstonreservoir.

Courtesy of Miss F. M. Pratt Anstey MillenniumCollection No.738

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The old rabbit warren (or conery) was in thecentre of Bradgate Park so those later warrenslater submerged still need positively locating, asdoes the question relating to Benton &Woodiwiss - which way did they move their drivetheir carts, through Bradgate Park or via Anstey?!

No doubt David R will soon let us know theanswer to this conundrum. His second responsewas as follows:I first saw The Earl of Stamfords’ map ca. 1870(Figure 2) that had been produced on a steampowered printing press thirty-five years ago atEnville Hall in Staffordshire, the ancestral homeof the Grey family. It was later overprinted forgenerating house sales close to CropstonReservoir including that for further properties inCropston, Newtown Linford and Groby.

I was working my way through three black coffinshaped boxes 5’ 6” long, quite narrow whoseoriginal use was unknown. These were stuffedmainly with letters and invoices, but with theoccasional rolled map protruding and catchingdust. The early elastic bands had snapped andthe mice had also paid a call, stirring the mix! Ihad permission to search for anything connectedwith the Bradgate Estate in Leicestershire. Therewas no ‘in house’ archivist at that time and I wasteaching full time, so my visits tended to be onhigh days and holidays when I would writecopious notes and gain a far better understandingof how the Bradgate Estate worked in the 19��century.

The Earl was interested in canals, railways, horseracing of all types and the seasonable cutting oftimber on his various estates. The Leicestershirewoodlands were an annual cash crop of between£2,000 and £3,500 and provided bark for thetanners during the mid-19�� century worthbetween £300 and £700 pa.

Plots of land to sell rarely featured in theaccounts, the Earl was normally a buyer, so thesteam printed maps were a curiosity and Ireplaced them back in their box. (There were sixin the roll for potential land buyers and theknown land sales which followed were minimal)I should mention I was working in a room whichcontained three baby grand pianos one of which

was inverted and stacked on the other, alongwith bundles of loose papers and maps. Onesmall map on an unknown animal skin I foundlying in a dusty corner would turn out to be theearliest map of Bradgate to survive - 1746. Thesame map shows the early rabbit warrens – orconery - referred to previously. The conerywarrens would be flooded completely whenCropston Reservoir later became operational.

The 7�� Earl of Stamford was no stranger toLeicestershire, or to Bradgate, as he frequentlysketched in the Park with John Martin, son ofthe Bradgate Estate Agent between the years1838 and 1860.

The Earl would frequently use the railwaysystem to Bardon and have flowers and eggssent forward to either Stewards Hay (A50 atMarkfield), or Pool House, Groby where JohnMartin lived for a while before getting marriedin 1850.

The building of the Cropston dam using localslate is intriguing as by 1871 output from thequarries at Swithland had all but ceased. Thesawn slate gateposts marking the lodge housesaround the reservoir are clearly sawn (figure 3)and engraved, ‘Groby Quarry 1871’ whichmeans Mr Rudkin, tenant at the Groby slatequarry was building the screen wall close to thereservoir at the south end and supplying all ofthe stone.

figure 3 - a markedsawn slategatepost at thelodge house atC r o p s t o nReservoir - a viewlooking towardsthe Cropstonentrance toBradgate Park.

Further details on Bradgate et al can befound in ‘The Surnames, Occupations andearly working practices within the BradgateArea of Leicestershire 1296 - 1890’ by DavidRamsey.

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LIHS at 50 - A Personal Reflection

Prof. Marilyn Palmer MBE, Vice President LIHS

Marilyn read History at St Anne’s College,Oxford, and then worked in teacher trainingbefore joining the History Department of theUniversity of Loughborough and becoming itsHead in 1983. She transferred to the Universityof Leicester becoming Head of the School ofArchaeology and Britain’s first Professor ofIndustrial Archaeology. She is President of theAssociation for Industrial Archaeology and wasa Commissioner with The Royal Commission onthe Historical Monuments of England before itsamalgamation with English Heritage. She serveson committees concerned with her discipline forThe National Trust and the Council for BritishArchaeology and is the Subject Adviser forArchaeology for the University of the Third Age,for whom she runs study days as well as a largeArchaeology Group. She was awarded an Awardof Merit by the Society for HistoricalArchaeology of the USA in 2005 for her successin integrating industrial archaeology intomainstream archaeology and then an MBE inthe Queen's Birthday Honours list in June 2015"for services to Industrial Archaeology andHeritage" – reprinted courtesy of Heritage ofIndustry LtdI played quite a large part in the middle yearsof our 50, but had to draw back a bit when Ibecame HOD of Archaeology and AncientHistory at the University of Leicester, Editor of‘Industrial Archaeology Review’ and Chairman,then President, of the Association for IndustrialArchaeology. So what I have to say is patchy,and I would like to pay tribute to the hard workof the present LIHS Committee, especially DavidLyne, Keith Drury and the late Paul Banbury forall their work on the digitisation of Bulletins,and David Pearce for all the work he did inproducing a brief history of LIHS in the Autumn2019 Newsletter. So much of what I amrecalling is in the series of LIHS Bulletins editedby several of us here, and those sadly departed,in the digital version of the Bulletins 1970-2007.If you have not got this DVD, do order it!!The progenitors of LIHS were very much DenisBaker and the late Dick Thomson, together with

David Arthur whom I knew when I was atLoughborough College training teachers. I still amin touch with David Alderton whose class inindustrial history was one of the inspirations forthe formation of LIHS and frequently see him atAIA activities. I regret that I was partlyresponsible for David’s leaving the area back inthe early 1970's when we both applied for thepost at Loughborough College and I was luckyenough to get it. Fortunately, David has neverheld this against me and went off to East Angliawhere he taught education in the University ofEast Anglia and has very much identified himselfwith the industrial history of eastern England.

Dick died in 2004 and in 2005, a memorial benchwas dedicated to him at Swannington by hiswidow Jean. Peter Neaverson, who had played avery important part in the fieldwork andpublications, also died late in 2004, and hiswidow Janet planted a memorial tree to him atthe same time - both shown below. Bulletin 19was dedicated to both. Alan Brittan, who passedaway in 2019, received an award from AIA forthat publication in 2008.

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Many early LIHS members took the three-yearCertificate in Industrial Archaeology that I usedto run at Vaughan College and have stucktogether ever since. This course includedpractical work, and we worked for several yearsat mining sites in central Wales. Many LIHSmembers also joined me when we were workingdown in Cornwall on a number of mining sites asa complement to the work in Wales, working ontin rather than lead. We became known as theLIHS flying rescue squad because the TrevithickSociety of Cornwall did not do this sort of work!On the second occasion, we were invited by themto show them how to do it, but none of themturned up so we just got on with it. Afterwards,the Cornwall Archaeological Unit developed aninterest beyond all things prehistoric and did doa lot of survey of industrial buildings in Cornwall,but we were there first.

The 1970's and 1980's were a period of discoveryin industrial archaeology; so much was new andexciting. One of the activities we set up was anannual weekend away for the May Day holidayonce this was created in 1978. Members of theCommittee organised the trip and participantsorganised their own accommodation, includingcamping. The first was to North Wales, where aswell as a visit to the North Wales Slate Museumin Llanberis (shown below), the group undertooka fairly arduous tramp up the Croesor Valley tosee the huge slate quarries there. Theseweekends continued for many years and tookLIHS to various parts of the country at a timewhen there was so much to discover, such as theNorth York Moors and The Yorkshire Dales. Iclearly remember that during the visit toGunnerside Gill in the latter in 1979 that hailpeople’s anoraks so hard that I could not makemyself heard!

LIHS also made many day visits where we couldand were hosted by sister IA societies such asthe Southampton University ArchaeologyGroup. We in turn hosted other groups,including that Southampton Group and onefrom Merseyside.

At the time, I was living in Measham, and wecarried out fieldwork at Moira Furnace forseveral years until North-west Leicestershiredistrict Council realised its importance andemployed a professional archaeologist, DavidCranstone, to complete the work so that wenow have a well preserved industrialmonument. I than undertook research into thedocuments about the history of the furnace inboth the Isle of Bute and the HuntingdonLibrary in California, where many of theHastings Papers now reside. An article on thiswas published in the very first issue of theIndustrial Archaeology Review in 1977. Others,George Bowler among them, worked on thehousing at Moira that was written up as Bulletin22 in 2017.

Two views of Moira Furnace:the upper in 1971 and thelower in 1998

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Industrial archaeology is the systematic study ofmaterial evidence associated withthe industrial past. This evidence, collectivelyreferred to as industrial heritage, includes buildings,machinery, artefacts, sites, infrastructure,documents and other items associated with theproduction, manufacture, extraction, transport orconstruction of a product or range of products.

The field of industrial archaeology incorporates arange of disciplines including archaeology,architecture, construction, engineering, historicpreservation, museology, technology, urbanplanning and other specialties, in order to piecetogether the history of past industrial activities. Theimage above, and the ones on Page 14 are takenfrom Prof Marilyn Palmer’s presentation, can youidentify the photographs? Answers on Page 25

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At the lime kilns at Ticknall, we worked on mostSundays in the early 1980's, followed by arequest from the National Trust who had takenover the Calke Abbey estate. They aretechnically just over the border in Derbyshire,but DAS were then working on the Morley Parkfurnaces further north. As experienced lime kilndiggers, we were then asked to go to excavatePickworth lime kiln over in Rutland and theSouth Luffenham Water Mill. Incidentally, atPickworth, where the rural poet John Clareworked, was an experience that may havecontributed to his later muddled state of mind!

John Clare’s limekiln, Pickworth,Rutland. LIHS excavated here 1989

We unfortunately lost the battle to keep theMuseum at Snibston, but Stuart Warburton isstill fighting the cause for Coalville and for aSnibston Heritage Centre as the collierybuildings must be retained due to their listedstatus.

Now in our 51�� year, there are still many positivesthat we can reference: LIHS is still going strongwhereas other societies have closed – theNottingham Society a long time ago and morerecently, the Vale of the White Horse inBerkshire; the Califat dig where we have, since2007, put in over 4,000 man-hours is stillrevealing much, including features that we do notas yet fully understand continues to this day; theformer Leicester & Swannington Railway,particularly the Glenfield Tunnel managed byLIHS, continues to attract visitors – over 4000since 2013 – and is now a key place to visit on themap of Leicestershire’s industrial heritage.

There is, however, still a lot of work to do locallyand our involvement with Leicester City Councilensures that we keep abreast of Council thinkingin Heritage matters. Chris Hossack, David Lyneand David Pearce represent LIHS on variousCouncil heritage related bodies.

The AIA, of which I am still President and by nomeans non-executive, still flourishes. I ran twoconferences recently (the second one notintentionally!) and a weekend on Mining inMatlock with John Barnatt of PDMHS. We haveabout 500 members and a journal that Taylor andFrancis, despite their administrative problems,have promoted it to the extent that we hadseveral thousand downloads of articles last year,many of them from overseas.

John Barnatt in the Peak District MiningMuseum in Matlock receiving the PeterNeaverson Award for OutstandingScholarship for his book ‘TheArchaeology of Underground Miningand Quarrying in England’ published in2019.


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I am also pleased to say that the East MidlandsIndustrial Archaeological Conference (EMIAC)still flourishes. It is the oldest and mostcontinuous of the British regional industrialarchaeology conferences and the only one thatmeets twice a year. For the 50th anniversary in1995 – 25 years on – Mike Bannister put togethera list of EMIACs until that point. The first washeld in Leicester Museum, New walk, on thetheme of Industrial Archaeology – a Policy forthe future ‘. Very far-seeing! We then didStockings and Bread in 1973 – the cost was£1.25! In 1975, we considered Bells, Boats andBallast at Loughborough University, where I wasthen teaching, and I remember putting togetherthe leaflet for this. Perhaps our best title was in1994 with Coalville - The Pits! LIHS has organisedand hosted no less than 16 other EMIACs in andaround the City and County to the present day.The next EMIAC – the 98th – is being held at theexciting Mining Museum in Matlock Bath whichis run by PDMHS. I have already been asked tospeak at the 100th EMIAC in 2021 – here’shoping!!! I have also just been asked to revisethe book, Industrial Archaeology: Principles andPractice that I wrote with Peter Neaverson in1998.

Little did we know thenthat there WOULD be anaccident at ‘t’IndustrialHeritage Museum’ – itstotal demolition!

Incidentally the February 2020 LIHS talk is onthe Bell Foundry where I am now acting as thearchaeological consultant in the NHLF bid formoney for further repairs and a new Museum.

Finally, I am afraid I have to take a bit of an issuewith Janet Spavold’s rather gloomy outlook onthe future of industrial archaeology in an articlewritten by Janet for Issue 17 of the Newsletterpublished in 1998. In a well thought out piece,she thought that both LIHS and the AIA had‘become refuges for the senior citizen who isnot ready to start a graceful decline into thegranny kennel, but still had an active brain cellor two’. 21 years later I am happy to say thatthe future of industrial archaeology is still goingstrong, is in good and younger hands, and byway of example, would like to finish with animage of a couple of the AIA prize-winners in2017 to demonstrate the point!

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The First Phase of the LIHS Digital Archive

David Pearce

It was towards the end of 2018 that Keith Druryand I got together to discuss how we couldbegin to deliver on the last of the five aims ofLIHS, aims that have underpinned the work ofthe Society since it came into being back in 1969.Originally, aim number five read as follows: toensure the preservation of informationrecorded, possibly by the publication of our ownmaterial. This was later amended to read: builda library, increasingly digital, of relevantpublications, documentary material and images– a statement more in tune with the emergenceof digital technologies that would enable therapid access to the industrial archaeologicalinformation created by LIHS, its Members andother contributors.There had been a few false dawns in previousyears, but with work led by Keith on the L&SRCompendium in 2011, and the digitisation ofBulletins 1-18 the following year, experiencehad been gained in aspects of digital archivingand retrieval, as well as the growth in thesophistication of software that indicated that itwas time to take a fresh look at how LIHS couldfirstly archive its material, and secondly, howto retrieve it in a readily accessible, readable,form.

Over the years, LIHS Members and non-members had amassed a massive amount ofpaper-based reports, studies, photographs,artefacts and slides on all manner of subjectsthat had excited LIHS at some time or another.Add to this, the many locations, boxes and filingsystems where this information resided wouldhave to be located and rigorously examined ifwe were to get our hands and heads aroundthe size of the task. A simple categorisation ofSociety information could be readily brokendown as follows:● Text & image materials, not linked to a

specific LIHS publication● Drawings, paintings, etc.● Collections of regular LIHS publications

(Bulletins and Newsletters)● The source materials for LIHS publications● Still images, video and audio, Artefacts

A former colleague once used the phrase: ‘tryingto boil the ocean’ in reference to solving big dataissues. This came to mind when Keith and Ilooked at where all this might all lead: at whatcost, and what resources would be needed. Moreimportantly, the question of why? why shouldwe go overboard in delving into such minutedetail in the first place? The question of ‘why’ isparticularly relevant in that we could not defineour audience, apart from those Members thateither had a vested interest in a particularsubject, or had a general interest in the area of‘industrial archaeology’ per se. Without a finitemarket, or a customer ‘pull’, the idea ofembarking on a massive speculative exerciseseemed over the top to say the least. But we feltthat we had to do something!

In the end, it was decided to focus on what wasprobably achievable in the short(ish) term andgo for a proof of concept - the logic, itsapplication and output of which could lead tosome sort of future promised land. We looked atseveral possibilities, in the end settling on theNewsletters and Bulletins, the base material ofwhich that was probably available in some formor another from across the Society. Importantly,the material contained in these journals was alsoa matter of record of what LIHS, its Members,and other contributors had felt worth recordingat that moment in time and would find a readyaudience within the industrial archaeologycommunity. We thus had two focal points:content and an audience. The 50�� anniversaryof LIHS in the Autumn of 2019 was pencilled inas the completion date.

Throughout 2019, a lot of work by Keith wentinto assembling the paper-based libraries of theNewsletters and Bulletins and searching outsuitable companies that could scan and producedigital representations. Sounds a relativelysimple task, but qualitative scanning was a highpriority due the state of some of the earlyNewsletters, the content of which had beengenerated on traditional typewriters completewith the original version of cut and paste fordrawings and photographs! The overall processwas a combination of scanning and real-timeoptical character recognition to facilitate thesearching for specific information.

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After exhaustive trials, the digitised versions ofthe Newsletters and Bulletins were created andnow form one, fully searchable, pdf filecontaining the equivalent of more than 2000pages of information. To view any of this, theonly software needed is Adobe Reader, a freeprogram developed and distributed by AdobeSystems. Looking for information is simplicityitself: simply key in, for example, a name, alocation or a topic, and the occurrences will behighlighted in the file.

Having satisfactorily completed this stage of theprocess, the next question we had to addresswas where this file would reside. Afterconsidering possible options, it was decided todeposit both the physical paper files and thedigital version with the Wigston based RecordOffice for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland(RoLLR). RoLLR exists to preserve and provideaccess to a wide range of resources which canbe used to research the history and culture ofLeicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. It is aservice provided by Leicestershire CountyCouncil in partnership with Leicester City Counciland Rutland County Council.

In early February 2020, the physical Newslettersand Bulletins produced by LIHS up until the endof 2019, together with the first release ofdigitised version, were deposited at RollR.Future archivists, researchers and those with ageneral interest in the industrial history ofLeicestershire (and sometimes beyond ourCounty borders) can now access the activities ofLIHS and once again acquaint themselves withinvestigative work put in by amongst manyothers, the Neaverson’s, the Thomson’s, thePalmers and the Lyne’s et al of this world - whomust have put in enormous hours with greatskill, background knowledge, literacy anddevotion into the detailed surveys and recordswhich comprise much of theBulletin/Newsletters material. (The Autumn2019 Newsletter, and Prof. Palmer’s personalreflections in this issue, also acknowledges themany others not mentioned in this article whohave contributed to the output of LIHS over theyears - Ed)

The photo below shows one of the first deliv-ery of Brush cars to Barrow-in-Furness Tram-ways Co Ltd, a subsidiary of British ElectricTraction Co. Ltd. The system was operated bythe BET company until the end of 1919, it wastaken over by Barrow-in-Furness Corporationon 1st January 1920 and operated until 5thApril 1932.

Services began on 6th February 1904, afterconversion of the system from steam traction.The first twelve cars were supplied by Brush ofLoughborough and in view of the Februaryopening date it's possible that they were builtduring late 1903. Cars 1 to 7 were of fourwheeled double deck type, cars 8 to 12 were ofeight-wheeled single deck type.

Considering the pristine condition of the carbody, and the snow on the roof of the buildingin the right background, I suggest the photo wastaken in February 1904 not long after theopening of the system. The location is AbbeyTerminus and the background looks exactly thesame today. The postcard print is exceptionallyfine-grained and the scan reveals someinteresting details such as the well-dressedpeople sitting inside, the curtains on the sidewindows, and the ornate glass lampshadevisible through the bulkhead door. The driveris holding the detachable controller handle.

Fred Hartley

A W.Cookson photograph from theP.Holmes collection


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The Califat Dig, A Short History

David Lyne

The Coleorton Colliery Company originally sankthree coal mines in North West Leicestershire.The one that we are principally interested inwas at Swannington, and known as ColeortonNo 2, or the Califat Coal Mine. It wasoperational between 1854 and the early 1870’s.The Califat Coal Mine had two shafts: one forwinding and the other, the Alabama, laterconfigured as a pumping site. Both weresupported by an engine and boiler housecomplex.In 1969 Denis Baker, one of the foundermembers of LIHS ,discovered by accident a”Haystack” shaped boiler from a Newcomenengine buried in a field on the Alabama shaftwhich was retrieved, and with the agreementof the then site landlord , Wyggeston HospitalTrust , it was handed to the Leicester CityMuseums service for safekeeping. It istemporarily standing over the Alabama Shaftbut in view of its age and antiquity, moresuitable conditioned storage is underconsideration.

This discovery was taken further sometimelater when an LIHS team led by Peter Neaversoncarried out a dig of the area around the shaftin 1993 .When finally reported on, it was statedby Peter that the evidence showed the remainsof a very substantial beam pumping engine withtwo tubular boilers alongside a unique beamengine with the beam at ground level; one endacting directly over the shaft as a pump rod andthe other end with a conventional balanceweight but the cylinder was above the beam,allowing for a much smaller engine house thatwould have been less costly to build .

This haystack boiler, dating back to 1750, wasbeing used as a boiler feed tank for the mainengine and was probably originally in use locallywith an associated Newcomen engine.

The Neaverson report is recommended formore details -see Califat Colliery-Site History &Investigation published by the LAHS inProceedings 74, pages 79-98 in 2000 and laterissued by LIHS as part of Bulletin 16.

LIHS returned to Califat in 2006 and starteduncovering the remains of a well laid slightlydomed brick floor, working with an average of8 diggers, every second Tuesday per month,from 10.00 until 1.00pm throughout the year,with a coffee break and then off to the pub fora well-earned pint!

The first objects we found, having brushed thesurface clean, were 2 pot eggs so the area hadobviously been used at some time as a henhouse! Removing the domed layer of bricksrevealed a large engine bed within 4 brick wallsis shown at figure 2, above.

By July 2014 we had uncovered the enginehouse; the pit for a ventilation fan, or windingdrum, three boilers, exhaust exits to thechimney stack, and a series of ventilationtunnels. (figure 3 on page 21)

figure 1 above shows the site in 1999 with twoof the Cylinder support stones set up bySwannington Heritage Trust as a memorial tothose that died in the mine flooding disaster of1863.

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figure 3 shows work wellunderway, and the beginning

of further investigations

2016 saw more work on the fan house which,with the very thick walls, was beginning to looklike a winding drum structure. This was confirmedfollowing discovery of an inquest report on thedeath of a miner killed when an unauthorisedengine driver operated the engine, but could notstop it and the cage was pulled into theheadstock, throwing out the man whosubsequently fell to his death down the shaft.

2016 (figure 4) marked the further investigationof a “forgotten” circular structure, the actualdescription of which is still vague, but could beanother shaft or part of the water supply systemwith its complicated drainage details (figure 5)

The Dig Team are now approaching completionof the excavation and starting on finalconservation and safety details. LIHS mayeventually return to Alabama so that the sitecan be more readily interpreted with a modelof what the low beam engine MAY have lookedlike. To date, we have spent over 12 years and4,000 man-hours on this site alone and haveover 2,000 pictures and found features that wedo not as yet understand (figure 6, below)

figure 4 shows starting work on anoverlooked site next to boiler 3 in

December 2016

figure 5 shows a complex of iron pipes,brick drains and troughs underinvestigation in November 2017

figure 6 showing a feature yet tobe fully interpreted

LIHS are indebted to our own ‘diggers’ and colleagues in the Swannington Heritage Trust,together with the help from other excavation specialists. We would hope to produce acomprehensive end of project report on the site in due course.

22


Memories of the Glenfield Tunnel

Michael Torrington

This is one of two articles written by Mike. Thesecond, The Transportation of Coal from theLeicestershire Coalfield during the late 18�� &19�� Centuries, is a paper he wrote whilst atHuddersfield Polytechnic (now HuddersfieldUniversity). This second article will appear inthe Autumn 2020 Newsletter.Michael was born in the New Parks area ofLeicester and after Alderman Newton Boys'Grammar School, he studied at the formerHuddersfield Polytechnic (now HuddersfieldUniversity) and latterly at the UniversidadNacional Autónoma de México. His interest intunnels began in 1966 when he saw a boatleaving the southern portal of Saddington CanalTunnel. From 1969 to 1980 he spent his freetime and money visiting tunnels in the UK.Following a visit in 1978 to tunnels in Scotland,he went to México in 1981 initially on holiday,but stayed on, and after a break of 24 years, hebegan visiting railway tunnels in México and isnow probably the leading authority on thesubject. He has had several photographicexhibitions of his work in different cities inMéxico. Now retired after teaching for 37 years,he spends his time between Cancún and MéxicoCity. We met Mike last November after he hadcontacted David Lyne regarding an intendedvisit to the UK with a wish to both attend aTuesday evening talk and to reacquaint himselfwith Glenfield Tunnel. Following his visit, hedonated various Glenfield Tunnel and othertunnel related images from around the Countyand beyond to LIHS. He also included in thisdonation four Glenfield Tunnel mileage markersthat were once fixed to the wall inside theTunnel - Ed.

Living in New Parks, the first time I becameaware of the Glenfield Tunnel was in 1955 whenI was aged about 3 or 4. In the company of aplay mate who was a few years older, we visitedthe big ventilation shaft on New ParksBoulevard. I did not know that it was part of theTunnel, but on the side there was - and maybestill is - a thick metal ring.

She told me that if I used it as a doorknockeragainst the blue-brick structure, the giantmonster inside would come out and attack me.I hasten to add that I did not beckon thisfrightening creature and left the ring well alone!

Two brothers, who lived just around the corner,were setting off fireworks in the spinney, and I,as most young kids of a similar age wereattracted by them. As they moved off, I followedthem in the hope of seeing more of themexplode. I followed them across fields, whichwere later to become the large housing estatebetween New Parks and Station Road, Glenfield,and we eventually crossed the line just to thewest of the Glenfield end of the tunnel. I mustconfess that I barely perceived the tunnel, asfireworks at that time were of greater interest.

In the years prior to the closing of the line fromLeicester West Bridge to Desford Junction, in the1960's, we would race the train on our bikes fromnear the Tubes Works, to Glenfield. We alwaysbeat the train as it had to stop to open and closethe numerous level crossing gates. It wasprobably at this time that I became fully awareof the tunnel’s existence. Many of us would waitnear the bottom of the steps on the publicfootpath to watch the train leave the tunnel atthe Glenfield end.

Even though the line was now in disuse, wewould still congregate at the Glenfield end, andon one occasion I was dared to walk through thetunnel. This I did, holding the hand of a friend aswe were both quite scared, walking there andback without any illumination. I do rememberthat this walk in total darkness took probablyabout an hour, not helped by the small amountof rubbish at a number of ventilation shafts,where a thin ray of light would illuminate it.One Sunday towards the end of 1967, whilstgoing through the tunnel towards Glenfield,there appeared to be a plate-layers vehicle in thedistance. Was this to be a dream come true? Itdefinitely was! Pushing it at speed was not easybecause of the sleepers, hence running along therail would allow a fair number of knots to beachieved! Running along the rail - we must havebeen mad!


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I do not remember when the tunnel nameplateswere removed. I was informed that they were inthe possession of someone called Whistler and Ihave to admit I would have dearly loved to havebeen that person. Not to be outdone, I decidedto see if I could acquire by some means the mileplates from within the tunnel itself. So, onSunday 25�� May 1969 I rode my bike down theGroby Road and along the public footpath to thewestern portal. All four plates were eventually(figure 1) secured and with the help of friends,they found a new home in the coal shed. [WhenMike went to live in Mexico, all four markerswere left with another friend for over 30 years!Mike is coming over the UK again in May and hasoffered to help restore the markers to theiroriginal position within the Tunnel. [More on thisin the Autumn 2020 Newsletter - Ed]

figure 1 shows the tunnel markers, finallyseeing the sunlight after more than 30years!

In August 1969, whilst just inside the westernportal, there was a cloud burst and a torrent ofwater entered the tunnel carrying sleepers in itswake. I had to balance precariously on one thatwas close to the sidewall so as not to get my feetwet. Also at this time, I bought my first camera,a Halina Paulette from Jessops on Oxford Streetand naturally my first photographs were of theGlenfield Tunnel. 1970 saw the first blocking ofthe tunnel entrances with corrugated sheets.Sunday evenings from 6pm to 7pm was the Top20 on Radio One and during the summer, I wouldsit on the cutting at the Leicester end listeningto the latest hits. One I particularly rememberwas All Right Now by Free.

Two views of the Leicester end of the GlenfieldTunnel: the upper one from Mike’s collectionshows the entrance being bricked up with justa door way. The lower one is view looking frominside the Tunnel towards Leicester showing‘the door’ that is, in fact, a shaft that leads upto the front garden of one of the houses, shownbelow, that were built when the cutting wasfilled in.


24

Every day from July 1969 to October 1970, Iwould have a quick look at one of the portals.This was not so difficult as it was on my way toschool. On Wednesday 6�� October 1971, Istarted my first job as a trainee surveyor. Myco-worker was soon aware of my interest andI finally got to ask him if it would be possible forme to borrow the company’s 100 metre tapemeasure to measure the tunnel. Not only wasthe answer a yes, but he also wanted to beinvolved! The two of us, along with anotherfriend, began measuring one Friday eveningaround 7pm. For the first time I saw theadvantage of a using a tilley [kerosene - Ed.]lamp instead of a torch: 360° illumination, andvery soon I had used 3 week’s pay to buy onefrom Mattocks the Chemists on the corner ofFosse Road North and Beatrice Road. [Mike alsodonated two spreadsheets with all of the Tunneldata they logged during this period - Ed]

During January 1972 I was in Worcester on afour-week surveying course and during the freeweekends I would travel to tunnels in thevicinity. On Sunday 16�� January I visited TheMythe/Tewkesbury Tunnel and as I had aconsiderable time to wait before the return‘bus I decided to see how quickly I could runthrough the tunnel. I logged a total of 12journeys, but I could not let Glenfield Tunnel bein second place with respect to the number oftimes traversed in a single day, so the firstSunday in February saw me cover just over 13miles, or 13 journeys! February 1972 saw thepermanent blocking of the tunnel and I wantedphotographs of this. As I was working at thetime, I asked my friend Mick Richardson if hewould use my camera and take thephotographs. He did not hesitate.

Finally, in 1980, I decided to take photographsof the ventilation shaft, which brings us fullcircle. The monster of ventilation shaft No. 11on New Parks Boulevard did not raise his headas I took the picture!

The two images above are from Mikescollection, taken in 1980, of ventilation shaft11. The image below shows the sameventilation shaft as it meets the Tunnel,taken in 2017 as part of the LIHS review ofthe Tunnel shafts on behalf of LCC


25

The former W N Gutteridge factory at 11-13Wellington Street has recently been added tothe register of buildings of architectural andhistoric interest. Built as a shoe factory 150years ago, it is described by Historic England asan architecturally distinguished example of theItalian palazzo style factory, characterised by adifferent architectural treatment on each floorin which a variety of materials and motifs areused to create a finely detailed polychromaticfaçade. Additionally, it has a well-preserved,legible plan form consisting of the impressivefrontage with parallel ranges around an opencourtyard at the rear, windowed on allelevations to allow in as much natural light aspossible, consistent with the nature of the workcarried out.

Originally built for John W Rowles, a shoemanufacturer who bought the land in 1866, itwas later occupied by two separate boot andshoe manufacturers, GP Simons and JohnRawson. Latterly, after a short period of use asa warehouse by the Leicester Mercury, thebuilding was occupied by W N Gutteridge, ahaberdashery company specialising inproducing buttons, who bought it in 1964. W NGutteridge have since transferred theirproduction to a site outside the city andvacated the Wellington Street building.

In giving the building Grade II listed status,Historic England stressed the ornate nature ofthe three-storey symmetrical façade of ten baysin the Ruskinian Italian Gothic style, whichbecame popular around this time forwarehouses and light industrial buildings. Thearched openings on the ground floor aredivided by attached columns on square stoneplinths, with highly ornate foliate capitals,although the delicate detail of these has beenobscured by layers of paint. The upper floorsare characterised by the imaginativecombination of brick and terracotta to create arich impression from fairly simple elements.

This article first appeared in the VictorianSociety Newsletter and is reprinted courtesy ofNeil Crutchley, Joint Chairman of the LeicesterBranch of the Society, and Member of LIHS. In2015, Jim Davis and Jo Hayward from BBC RadioLeicester visited W N Guttteridge and viewsome of the countless thousands of buttonsstored in the Company cellar prior to its closure.A recording of the visit can be found athttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p039s4rw- Ed

W N Gutteridge Ltd.

The Victorian Society & Neil Crutchley

Answers to picture quiz on pages 14 & 15:

1. Peter Neaverson training students onPlane-Tabling2. Restored Ashby Canal at Moira Furnace3. Excavating a tin mine in Cornwall4. An excavation at the Glyn Pits Colliery inPontypool5. Glenfield Tunnel6. No need for an explanation!7. A visit to the Esgair Hir lead mine, Wales8. The Haystack Boiler9. Ticknall Plateway

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A new addition to our family of booksabout the Leicester & SwanningtonRailway is this reprint from theRailway Bylines magazine from 2005.An Early East Midlands Adventure,Leicester West Bridge to DesfordJunction by Bryan L Wilson is a lavishlyillustrated 10 page history of the earlydays of the L&SR&SR. Priced at £3.00+ £1.50 p&p, it is now available fromLIHS. The order form with all of theother LIHS publications can be foundat www.lihs.org.uk

27


LIHS TALKS: Autumn & Winter 2020/2021: From September to April, LIHS meetat St. Mary's Community Hall, St. Mary's Avenue, Braunstone Lane, LE3 3FT generally onthe 3�� Tuesday of the month. Refreshments from 7.00pm with lectures beginning at7.30pm. Please check LIHS Programme page at www.lihs.org.uk for any late changes.

Date Speaker Title of TalkSeptember 15�� 2020 Malcolm Ridddle The Great Central Railway

October 20�� 2020 Les Zellen, Cooke Optics, the history ofthe Company

November 17�� 2020 Speaker TBD The Space Centre

December 15�� 2020 Members Evening Members Contributions

January 19�� 2021 Kieran Lee The Bennerley Viaduct

February 16�� 2021 Stuart Warburton The first 80 years of cyclingtechnology & fashion 1817-90’s

March 16�� 2021 RoLLR TDB The Thomas Cook Archives

April 20�� 2021 TBD AGM

And finally, don’t forget the Swannington Dig begins at 9.30 am on the 2ⁿ� Tuesdayof every month - come rain or shine!

Saturday May 2ⁿ� 2020. EMIAC at the Peak District Lead Mining Museum, Matlock Bath,Derbyshire DE4 3NR (see Page 26 for booking details)

Glenfield Tunnel, Open Days 2020Archaeology Festival Heritage WeekendSaturday July 11��Sunday July 12��Saturday July 18��Sunday July 19��Saturday July 25Saturday July 26��

Saturday September 12��Sunday September 13��Saturday September 19��Sunday September 20��

Tours of the Glenfield Tunnel take place at 10am, 11.30am, 2.00pm, 3.30pm and start from theMorrison’s (formerly the Coop) car park in Glenfield. All places on tours must be booked in advance.For Advance Bookings please email [email protected] or ring Chris Hossack on 0116 2415153

Sunday June 7�� 2020 An exhibition of some of the work by Paul Banbury will be held at theStoneygate Tram Depot, 453 London Road, LE2 3JW (adjacent to the Shell petrol station) 11.00amto 4.30pm.

June 30��2020. Bill Pemberton will be giving a talk on Leicestershire Railways at Stoneygate BaptistChurch, 315 London Road, LE2 3ND (7.30pm) as part of the Leicestershire Archaeology Festival witha collection towards the fund for the restoration of Taylor’s Bell Foundry in Loughborough.

Published byLeicestershire Industrial

History Society© 2020

Secretary

David Lyne

[email protected]

Officers & Committee

President Denis BakerVice President Prof. M. Palmer MBEChair Chris HossackSecretary David LyneTreasurer Bill Pemberton David Ramsey

David PearceKen ClaytonStuart WarburtonJane Smith

Website Editor

Sally Hossack

www.lihs.org.uk

Newsletter Editor

David Pearce

[email protected]

There’s more to read on ourFacebook page.

Go to www.lihs.org.uk andfollow the link!

HELP! I am always on the lookout for ideas andarticles that can be included in our Newsletter.Please send me your ideas, suggestions and anymaterial that you think, could form the basis ofan article that would appeal to fellow Members

- Ed

Photographs on front cover, left to right,clockwise:

John Ellis, William Stenson, Robert Stephensonand George Stephenson. All played a major partin the development of the Leicester &Swannington Railway and appear on two newBanners for the 2020 Tunnel openings. Seepage 27 for booking details, or go to our NEWSpage at www.lihs.org.uk

Documents

Newsletter Volume 7 No 1 Spring 2020 In this Issue….lihs.org.uk/images/LIHS_Spring_2020.pdf · THE LEICESTERSHIRE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SOCIETY Founded in 1969 In this Issue…. Paul