Publications

(Page created 30/10/06. Last updated 07/01/24)

Solway Viaduct Saltom Pit Hayeswater Dam

Cumbria’s Industrial Past featuring photos from the Mike Davies-Shiel collection with text by members of the Cumbria Industrial History Society is now out of print.

The Mike Davies-Shiel Collection. A CD containing PDF copies of Mike’s fascinating handouts, special Xmas cards, and his Lakeland Industrial Archaeology Newsletters (1969-71) is available from the editor as below for £5.00 including p&p.

Master Of Them All : Iron Making in Cumbria (2007). Proceedings of a joint conference of the Society and the Historical Metallurgy Society. 135 pages. Contents : Iron ore in Cumbria ; Archaeological investigation at Cunsey Forge ; The bloomsmithies of South Westmorland and North Lancashire ; Wilson House, Lindale – John Wilkinson’s peat fuelled blast furnace ; Hodbarrow mine ; Millom – the end game ; Backbarrow Furnace and its history. Copies available from the editor as below for £9 including postage.

The Cumbrian Industrialist : A series of occasional papers
Copies should be available for reference at Kendal, Carlisle and Penrith libraries, and at the county record offices. They can be purchased from the editor at solwaypast@yahoo.com priced at £4 each for vols 2-4, £5 each for vols 5-7, and £6.50 each for vols 9-13. Volume 1 and 8 are out of print, but the editor can offer a photocopying service.

Summary of Contents
Volume 13 (2023) : Wythop silica brickworks; The concrete ships of Barrow-in-Furness; Bricks for Brampton workhouse
Volume 12 (2020) : Shipbuilding and aspects of ship investment in the Cartmel Peninsula during the 18th century; Gaslight – illuminating Fell Foot; The transport of coal in Cumbria 1650-1750
Volume Eleven (2019) : The woollen mills of Millbeck; Some Cumbrian brewing families; A short history of William Coulthard & Co Ltd, Carlisle; A silent killer (asbestos) came to Cumbria
Volume Ten (2018) : The diaries of John Hall Thompson of Little Salkeld Paper Mill
Volume Nine (2017) : Gasworks of Cumbria Part 3 – the independents; Ulverston built merchant schooners; The 1870 steam ferry at Windermere; The Barrow (in Furness) pottery
Volume Eight (2013) : Keswick’s water-powered mills and manufactories; The wool-fulling and flax-fulling mills of Cumbria
Volume Seven (2010) : Reel Fitz Pit Engine ; The right to compensation for industrial diseases ; Gazetteer of Carlisle and District cotton and woollen textile mill sites ; Gasworks in Cumbria – the later years
Volume Six (2006) : Charles Parker : An Eighteenth-Century Cumbrian Industrialist ; Warehouses in Ulverston : A brief survey ; The Carlisle Cotton Industry : An outlier of Lancashire Textiles? ; Gasworks in Cumbria : The early years.
Volume Five (2005) : Whose responsibility? Industrial accidents in 18th century Cumberland ; Blacklead mine in Borrowdale ; A survey of industrial archaeological remains in upper Geltsdale ; The early iron industry in Furness : a revolution in the 18th century.
Volume Four (2002) : How to burn lime? ; Heavy transport in Cumbria before 1800 : Methods, problems and costs ; Field drainage techniques and their development in Cumbria.
Volume Three (2000) : Bucks of Carlisle – A garment factory and weaving establishment. A study in survival 1918-1939 : W.W.Hodgson and the Outgate Pop Factory ; Harbour-scouring schemes in West Cumbria 1680-1760 ; Cumbrian brick and tile works : North Cumbria.
Volume Two (1999) : Attempts to smelt metal with coal near Whitehaven before 1700 : Early union activity, industrial injuries and the Poor Law. The case of Joseph Raven ; Lime burning on Kendal Fell ; Two engineering firms in a small county town : A case study of what engineers did and how they fared.
Volume One (1998) : Matthew Murray’s Pumping Engine for Isabella Pit, Workington, 1803-1813 ; Reake Wood Tile Kiln ; First Definitive List of Cumbrian Sites of Iron Mines and Smelt Sites, January 1997 ; William Brownrigg, M.D., F.R.S., Physician and Natural Philosopher

The Bulletin : distributed in April, August and December
Contents include news items, book reviews, reports on meetings and short articles, some of which also appear on this website. Copies should be available for reference at Kendal, Carlisle and Penrith libraries, and at the county record offices.
A CD containing PDF copies of over 35 articles from early editions of the CIHS Bulletin is available for £5.00 including p&p. Please contact the editor at solwaypast@yahoo.com.

Main articles from 2000 to date
(with links to the complete bulletins except for the most recent)

December 2023 : Mystery at Wanlass Howe (country house); Richardson winnower
August 2023 : Reports on visits to Mealbank, Stony Hazel Wood (for bark peeling), Carnforth slag bank, and Forth Engineering
April 2023 : An industrial dynasty from Matterdale (the Martin family); The corn mill in Harrington
December 2022 : Bowston weir; Waterbird replica; The visit of H M The Queen to Marchon works, Whitehaven (April 1980); Irton manor watermill
August 2022 : References to Gilkes turbines; A Cumbrian blast furnace in Scotland (at Furnace)
April 2022 : The Montreal Mines, Cumberland (from 1908); The Cumbria local listing project; The 2022 Spring Conference (on iron making)
December 2021 : Chemical charcoal (works planned at Backbarrow); A steel 150-ton pillar crane (Made at Cowans Sheldon for Finnieston Quay, Glasgow); Lazonby Gasworks – a journey into the unknown with terriers
August 2021 : Milton Mill (near Brampton)
April 2021 : A career in industry? (in the 1960s); Listed gasworks in Cumbria; Backbarrow Ironworks – the water lift
December 2020 : Flimby Colliery and the Keswick Convention; A visit to St.Helen’s Colliery (in 1964)
August 2020 : Listed Cumbrian potteries; Whitehaven long case clock – industrial history connections; Memorandum about the West Cumberland Industrial Area, August 1947; Backbarrow Furnace – was it the first?
April 2020 : Listed Cumbrian brewery structures
December 2019: The Penrith and District Road Carrying Company
August 2019: Marchon and the environmentalists
April 2019: The Cark & District Electricity Company; Country house hospitality
December 2018 : Demolition of the VM dressing mill, Nenthead ; Phosphoric acid purification at Marchon Works, Whitehaven ; From Liverpool to Lancaster – Rajah the (mechanical) elephant comes home ; Below Lakeland Fells (Final instalment)
August 2018: Industrial change in Kendal, 1986-2018 ; Sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) manufacture at Marchon Works, Whitehaven
April 2018: The society’s history to date ; Radio towers and masts – an important aspect of industrial archaeology
December 2017: Gilkes turbines in Sri Lanka ; Some Cowan Sheldon cranes ; Beneath Lakeland Fells (Part 5)
August 2017: The jolly miller (health and safety at work)
April 2017: Chopwood kilns; Phosphoric acid manufacture at Marchon
December 2016: Gazetteer of Cumbrian cotton mills (outside Carlisle and district)
August 2016: The manufacture of sulphuric acid at Marchon Works, Whitehaven ; West Cumberland By-Products – chemical manufacturers, Flimby
April 2016: Phosphate rock from Morocco to Whitehaven (for the Marchon Works) ; The Keswick Windmill (a response); The last days of Harrison Ainslie
December 2015: Below (sic) Lakeland Fells Part 4 ; Ulverston – Milltown (notes from a guided walk)
August 2015: Wrynose puzzle (old rifle range) ; Cumbrian concrete afloat (barge built at Barrow) ; Keswick’s windmill (in paintings – but did it exist?) ; Beneath Lakeland Fells Part 3
April 2015: Industrial illustrator (Richard Chattock’s view of the Duddon Estuary) ; The water supply to Witherslack Hall ; Beneath Lakeland Fells Part 2
December 2014: Beneath a Lakeland fell, Part 1 (notes from an ex-miner) ; The 194-18 War – the submarine bombardment of Lowca + interesting statistics on submarines
August 2014: Blacking mills (newspaper cuttings)
April 2014: From clay to shale – bricks and their manufacture in Barrow in Furness and Askam in Furness
December 2013: Further extracts from the Wadham diaries
August 2013: Swill making in 2012 ; Further extracts from the Wadham diaries
April 2013: Edwards Wadham’s diaries ; The local flour milling trade (from the Carlisle Journal in 1886)
December 2012: 50 years of publishing and distributing local history/archaeology ; Bricks, salt and gold .. in Peru ; Finding fulling mills
August 2012: Sprint Mills – the textile mill ; Another Gradwell brick? ; Cleator Iron Works – the Sheffield connection
April 2012: Mine shop conditions in the 1840s (a report from 1842) ; Ulverston Canal railway bridge (is now listed)
December 2011: A description of industry in Barrow (at 1901) ; Pre 19thC flax production ; A small collection of local bricks
August 2011: The Barrow Shipbuilding Company’s works (in 1880) ; Mystery at Caldbeck (church gasworks?)
April 2011: Pre 19thC flax production ; Descriptions of manufacturing … in the Carlisle Journal, Addenda 1814-25 ; The starting of Hodbarrow Mine
December 2010: Country house technology ; Descriptions … in the Carlisle Journal, Addenda 1808-14 ; Post War industrialisation of West Cumberland (memos from the 1940s) ; Shipping from Lancaster and Ulverston as reported in the Kendal Mercury during 1838
August 2010: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, Further Addenda 1801-4 and Addenda 1805-7 ; Mystery at Spark Bridge (gasworks?) ; Harrington Harbour visit ; Coal pit fire at Whitehaven (in 1747) ; Witherslack Hall Farm visit
April 2010: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, Addenda 1801-4 ; Woodland industries of Mallorca ; Made in Cumbria : Gilkes Turbines
December 2009: History of the port of Barrow ; Which way Beck Side? – a note on refurbishing the four-road-ends signpost in Kirkby in Furness
August 2009: Independent gasworks in Cumbria ; Haygill Mine (near Caldbeck)
April 2009
December 2008: Terrific explosion at Sedgwick (1903) ; Fingerposts in Westmorland ; Gotta know one to see one (tilt-hammer head); Clarence Harris ; The Roachburn Pit disaster (of 1908)
August 2008: Carlisle marble works ; Further thoughts on the Carlisle cotton industry ; The great storm of 1839 ; John Marshall (obit.)
April 2008: Visit to Sheffield ; The Rowrah and Kelton Fell (Mineral) railway
December 2007: A plot of land known as the mine floor (at Baycliff) ; Archaeology in the Lake District Conference 2007
August 2007: Settlements in the Furness orefield ; Hartside meeting report
April 2007
December 2006
August 2006: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1824 & 1825
April 2006: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1823 ; The Croft Pit Brake rail system ; Cumbrian minor vein mineral sites
December 2005: Report on visit to South Tyne valley head ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1822 ; A very brief history of the periodic table and nuclear energy ; A history of Whitehaven works (Marchon)
August 2005: Westmorland marble ; The devil’s porridge – the manufacture of cordite at HMFactory Gretna during World War 1 ; Cumbrian copper sites ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1821; Gasworks in Cumbria – draft list ; Spring Conference (Explosives) report ; Visit to Force Crag Mine.
April 2005: Field outing to Scaur Head Quarries, Wensleydale ; Gayle Mill, near Hawes ; Freight between Ulverston & Liverpool 14th August 1823 ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1819-20.
December 2004: Biggar Gas Works Museum ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1816-18 ; The charcoal/coke blast furnaces of Cumbria
August 2004: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1814-15
April 2004: Cumberland shipping ; Wetheral corn mill ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1812-13
December 2003; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1810-11 ; A visit to lead smelting mills in Swaledale
August 2003: Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1807-09
April 2003; Quarrying industry sites in Cumbria ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1803-6
December 2002: The Hartsop visit (mines and mills) ; Descriptions of manufacturing businesses, premises, processes and products in the Carlisle Journal, 1801-2
August 2002: Warwick Bridge corn mill ; Historic notes on mining in Gunnerside Gill ; Early transport in Cumbria
April 2002: The Thexton family of papermakers ; Who built the Catherine Street Mill (Whitehaven)?
December 2001 : Mines of the Lake District (to add to the previous list)
August 2001 : Mines in Lakeland (a list)
April 2001 : Roughtengill mines ; Hoggett Gill smelter
December 2000 : Water and sewage industries – Cumbria sites (MMP Step 3 report) ; The Backbarrow Ultramarine Works Company
August 2000 : Iron and steel industries – Cumbria sites (MMP Step 3 report) ; Lead, zinc and copper mines of Braithwaite and Coledale ; Visit to Backbarrow ; Visit to Wrengill.
April 2000 : Water power (conference)

A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Cumbria, compiled by the CIHS was published by the Association for Industrial Archaeology in 1993, but is now out of print.