| Abstract: |
An account of the impact of industry on the East Midlands counties of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Derbyshire. An introduction to the value of industrial archaeology and the regional landscape in question is followed by the first section which deals with manufacturing industries. In the East Midlands these were mainly textile related including hosiery and knitwear as well as worsted and silk thread production. There are also the remains of food processing industries in the guise of mills and brewery/brewery related structures, and engineering works. The next section gives an account of extractive industries in the region. These include lead mining, mostly in Derbyshire, coal mining, clay quarrying, iron production, and stone quarrying and processing. The remaining sections assume a broadly consistent format, detailing both manufacturing and extractive regions, and providing a gazetteer of sites for each. Areas designated manufacturing regions include Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire, the Upper Trent Valley and rural East Nottinghamshire, the Wye and Derwent valleys, the Grand Union Canal and the Soar valley, and the Nene valley of Northamptonshire. Extractive regions included the east Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire coalfield, the south Derbyshire and north west Leicestershire coalfield, and rural east Northamptonshire and Leicestershire. The final section deals with townscapes beginning with Nottingham and its satellites. Newark on Trent, Derby, Leicester, the Leicestershire market towns and the Northamptonshire shoe towns are similarly detailed with site gazetteers. There is a bibliography giving general and county information. |
