Ind Archaeol Rev 27 (2)

The paper examines how industry and the industrial landscape have been depicted in the works of novelists, poets, diarists and essayists, particularly during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Examples are given of descriptions or evocations of engineers and engineering; of materials, mines and quarries; of transport; and of environmental issues and industrial pollution.

The paper describes the results of a recent archaeological survey of the Chilworth gunpowder works. Although there has been intensive documentary research into the earlier history of the works, the later development of the factory was comparatively little known. Its transformation in the late-nineteenth century from a family-owned concern to a limited company, with strong international links, reflects important themes not only in the development of explosives manufacture but also for other late-Victorian industries that were dependent on capital investment and technological innovation. A postscript to the history of the factory was the re-use of many of its buildings by a small community known as 'Tin Town' and its later use as part of a Second World War anti-invasion stop line.