HIAS Past Meetings, 2010- 2012

Below are brief summaries of previous HIAS meetings from January 2010 until the current meeting.

2011

January 9^th, Industrial Archaeology in Sweden

We began the New Year with a talk from one of our members on “Industrial Archaeology in Sweden”. Pam Moore started her talk by saying how much she enjoyed visiting Sweden especially the island of Gotland, which is a large island on the Baltic. Its main industries today are fishing, cement making and tourism, but it has a rich industrial past that Pam illustrated through her many and varied slides. Beginning with numerous slides of mills in all different shapes and sizes, but mainly built of wood, we went onto look at ironworks, milestones and headstones made of ornate ironwork, railway stations, canals, a glass making factory, a stone museum and a distillery. Most of the I.A sites are cared for by the local community and all looked very well tended and accessible.

2011

December 5^th, King Alfred's Buses

Our December's talk was "Evoking the memory of King Alfred Buses" by Geoff Norris who is a Friend of King Alfred Buses [FoKAB] an organization started in 1985 by a group of enthusiasts with the aim of preserving the old buses. Geoff's talk was in two halves starting with the history of the Chisnell Family who founded and ran King Alfred Buses from 1920-1973 and then, in the second half, about how FoKAB were formed and their aims and achievements. It was an enjoyable and informative talk and because it was our last meeting of the year mince pies were served during the tea/coffee break.

November 7^th, Annual General Meeting and Photographic competition.

We had our annual AGM during November's meeting, and after that had finished and after the the coffee break, our President, Bill White, entertained us with a short film on the Horse Hair Factory at Castle Cary, and then another short film taken at Yafford Mill on the Isle of Wight. This was part of a day trip that some HIAS members went on in late September, and which they all thoroughly enjoyed. Bill then showed us some slides of his collection of early decorated chinaware and at the end of the evening, the winners of the photographic competition were announced with first prize going to Ruth Andrews for her picture of an éolienne – a self-regulating windpump – in Brochon near Dijon erected in 1898 to supply drinking water to the village. The eye-catching design is that of Auguste Bollée of Le Mans who supplied many of these throughout France.

October 3^rd, Dr. Peter Stanier, Somerset Textile Industry

For October's meeting we were pleased to welcome back Dr Peter Stanier who talked to us about the Textile Industry in Somerset from the late 18^th century onwards. Peter's illustrations accompanying his talk covered a wide number of aspects including maps to explain the importance of the rivers and canals and pictures of textile mills and factories, rows of worker housing built by enlightened employers, and one of two large “clothier” houses showing how wealthy some of the mill/factory owners became. Sadly, there were many pictures of now dilapidated buildings, which no one can really think of what to do with, but, encouragingly some good news of alternative use for some of these buildings such as housing, arts venues and Local Authority Civic use. Peter will be back again next year to talk to us about “Somerset's Industrial Heritage”.

September 5^th. Ann Slade, Bursledon Brickworks

September's talk was Bursledon Brickworks given by Ann Slade who, until recently, had been a volunteer at the Brickworks for over twelve years. Founded in 1897 by a Mr Ashby, the Brickworks produced about 20 million bricks a years in their heyday and employed about 180 people. In 1974 Redland, who owned the works by then, sold off some of the land for the new Air Traffic Control Centre at Swanwick and another part of the land went to the Swanwick Nature Reserve. Redland sold the remainder of the site for £1.00 to the Hampshire Buildings Preservation Trust together with a generous dowry. The site was then used for conservation work until 2007 when it was decided to turn the site into an industrial Museum with the help of the HLF renaming it Bursledon Brickworks Industrial Museum. Their website is http://www.bursledonbrickworks.org.uk/

August 1^st. Members Evening & Book Sales

July 4^th, 2011. Frank Green, I.A in the New Forest

July's talk was “I.A in the New Forest” given by the Forest's own Archaeologist, Frank Green. Frank's talk covered a multitude of subjects starting with burnt flint mounds, of which there are over 300 so far, Iron Age Hill Forts, the Romans, including their pottery, kilns and roads. The cloth industry at Lymington and the salt industry that flourished there together with the salt making that was carried out at Exbury. Timber yards, ship and boat building at Bucklers Hard, water course and tide mills illustrated by pictures of Eling Tide Mill and Beaulieu Mill. Frank also talked about the importance of leaving behind written and oral accounts of industries where there are no physical traces, and finished his most interesting talk with pictures of some shipwrecks along the Hampshire coast, which are now popular with local divers. The New Forest was given National Park status in 2005 and not only is it an area of outstanding natural beauty, but it also has a long and diverse history of industrial archeology.

June 6^th, 2011. Bob Smith, All Around the Gallopers

June's talk was “All Around the Gallopers” by Bob Smith. Bob has long been interested in fairgrounds and vintage machinery and is currently a member of FoKAB. A Galloper, Bob said, was not a Carousel. A Galloper goes clockwise whereas a Carousel goes anti-clockwise and it is quite difficult to tell how old or modern a Galloper is without inspecting its workings. The first Gallopers were built about 1885 by Frederick Savage and Company. Most of Bob's talk was centered around a 1898 “Jimmy Godden” Galloper purchased at auction by a local enthusiast, which could easily have gone to America. Through a sequence of slides taken by Bob we saw little by little the trials and tribulations of the renovation works until it was finally finished. Then slides of the Gallopers first outing to a local vintage steam fair in a specially made container drawn by a traction engine, where it was a colourful addition to the other attractions.

May 9^th, 2011. Professor Ray Riley, Brunel's Block Making Machines

May's meeting was attended by about 70 members, one of whom was our speaker Professor Ray Riley. In his own inimitable style, Ray told us all about Marc Isambard Brunel [1769 – 1849] and his “Block Making Machines”. Originally destined for the Church, Brunel was sent to a seminary in Rouen where he learnt carpentry and became good at sketching. He then joined the Navy as a cadet, but, when the French Revolution broke out, he decided to go to America where he became Chief Engineer for New York City. He then came to England and married Sophia Kingdom in 1799, whom he had met in Rouen where she was a governess and where she nearly lost her head during the Revolution. Marc Brunel was a gifted engineer and designer and patented a system of producing blocks using semi automated machinery, which resulted in a contract with the Royal Navy. With war with France looming, the Royal Navy had embarked on a programme of dockyard modernisation under the leadership of Sir Samuel Bentham. Blocks for the rigging were an essential part of sailing ships and the Navy required around 100000 a year, which were then produced individually by skilled craftsmen and thus expensive and of variable quality. Brunel’s work meant that 10 unskilled workers could do what had previously required over 100 skilled ones as well as providing greater consistency in the quality. An experienced tool maker called Henry Maudslay was engaged to build these machines, as he had already made Brunel’s working models. Amongst Marc Brunel’s other well known achievements was the Thames Tunnel built between 1825-1843. He was knighted and had two girls and a boy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

May 7^th, 2011. Walk round Toothill Brickworks

On Saturday 7^th May, fourteen of us met Jon Sims [one of our past chairmen] at Upper Toothill Road, Rownhams, for a walk round the derelict site of H. Read & Company's brickworks situated within the Broadlands Estate. The company, which closed in 1939, produced the bricks for the wall that surrounds the Broadlands Estate to this day. There are few remains of the works, except for several large pits where clay had been extracted, a brick structure with ramp, whose use was not obvious and a few rails of a light railway that now has trees and foliage growing over it. Unfortunately, Jon said that since his last visit at Christmas, many of the rails had been lifted and we could still see the marks in the earth. There was much speculation of who would have taken them, as the site is not very accessible from the road. Jon was hoping that we might be able to tell him more about the site in general, as he is currently investigating the site, so if anyone has information then pleased contact Jon or me and I will pass it on. As it happened, one of our members, Ivan Downer, was on the walk and was able to tell him that his great grandfather had the contract to transport the bricks from the works to the wall. It was an enjoyable afternoon and luckily, despite heavy rain in the morning after weeks of dry conditions, the afternoon was fine and warm. It is hoped we will do something again next Spring with Jon and a walk along part of the course of the Redbridge to Andover canal was suggested.

April 4^th, 2011. John King, Gatwick & Croydon Airfields

There were about 70 members at April's meeting to hear John King talk on "Gatwick & Croydon Airfields". John's talk covered the history of the rise in commercial flying from the first flight in 1903 to the Second World War concentrating on these two famous places situated in southern England, one starting off as a racecourse and the other a combination of two smaller airfields. In the beginning, Croydon was the more famous, but didn't really have the space for expansion, so it was left to Gatwick to eventually become Britain's second busiest airport. Many people famous in the aviation world, such as Charles Lindbergh and Alan Cobham, flew into Croydon and between the wars it was, for those who could afford it, an exciting and glamorous place. However, most of us would only have flown from Gatwick, which has changed out of all recognition over the last 20-30 years seeing passenger numbers hitting ten million a year in the 1990's. Still expanding, the Airport owners are hoping to get permission in the near future to build a second runway to cope with even more air traffic. John's talk was accompanied by a variety of slides and he informed us that he will be doing this talk again at the SERIAC Conference on the 16^th April in Brighton, so those who missed it last night will have a chance to hear it.

March 7^th, 2011. Richard Ellis, Admiralty Telegraph & Semaphore Systems

Our speaker at our March meeting was Richard Ellis who was in the Navy and now works for the Ministry of Defence. Richard's talk was on the history of early telegraph and Semaphore systems. From messengers on foot, fire beacons, Roman roads and stagecoaches it has always been vital in times of war to have a reliable system of communications between London and the Naval Ports. So it was that as early as 1684 an English scientist, Robert Hooke, outlined his idea for telegraph to the Royal Society, but it was a Frenchman, Claude Chappe who in 1792 succeeded in producing a huge network of telegraph stations in France. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the Admiralty decided to build a chain of semaphore stations from London to Portsmouth. So successful was this form of communication from about 1822 to 1847 that it took Samuel Morse quite a long time to interest the powers that be in his "Morse Code".

February 7^th, 2011. Tony Yoward, The Changing Face of the Chemist Shop

A full house listened to the history of the chemist shop and how it has changed. From the abbeys and monasteries where illnesses were treated using plants and herbs, we were taken right through to the modern chemist shop. We heard that, contrary to popular belief, pills are spherical and, until recent innovations, everything else was a tablet. Then we were shown the different types of bottles and lids - including the childproof ones that only a child can open! Next came a range of medicines that made some very dubious claims as to the long list of ailments they could cure.

Among pictures of the insides of various pharmacies and dispensaries was a Victorian one with chairs for the customers who would sit whilst they were being served. Then we were told about medicines for every orifice! Samples of suppositories that were handed round turned out to be made of chocolate and were eaten by some, though others were more dubious.

Tony finished his talk with the pharmacist’s toast: “Moderate health” and we were then able to view the many and varied examples that Tony had brought with him and have our questions answered.

January 10^th, 2011. Graham Mackenzie, The Life & Times of SS Shieldhall

January 2011 found us, piloted by Graham Mackenzie, on the "SS Shieldhall", a preserved "sludge boat" originally built for Glasgow Corporation to transport treated sewage down the River Clyde to be dumped at sea. This she did for 21 years after which she was laid up and sold to Southern Water. When Southern Water no longer had any use for her, a Charity was formed, “The Solent Steam Packet Limited” to save her from being scrapped. After support from many quarters, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, she is now fully restored and open to visitors all year round with the distinction of being "the largest working steam ship in Northern Europe". For further information please go to www.ss-shieldhall.co.uk

2010

December 6^th, 2010. Dr Martin Gregory, A Century of Cleansing Winchester

Surprisingly, about 35 members turned up on a bitterly cold December night to hear Dr Martin Gregory talk on “A Century of Cleansing Winchester”. Introduced by our new Chairman, Rob Fish, Martin explained how the Waterworks & Sewage Pumping Station in Garnier Road came into existence. Dating from 1844 when a Mr Newman, a Sanitary Inspector for Winchester City Council called for a proper sewage system for the City and the need for a clean water supply to the present day, where the buildings have been restored and let to a PR Company. As it was the last meeting before Christmas, and of the year, we had mince pies with our coffee, which was very welcome before heading out into the cold once more.

November 1^st, 2010. AGM and Photographic Competition

About 50 members turned up for the annual AGM and the photographic competition. Jeff Pain's Chairmanship came to an end and Rob Fish was elected as our new Chairman for the next three years. Alison Stott was re-elected as Treasurer and Andy Fish re-elected as an ordinary committee member with responsibility for the HIAS library. The winner of the photographic competition was Rob Fish with the second prize going to Carol Burdekin.

October 4^th, 2010. Dr Peter Stanier, " Turnpike Roads in Dorset"

Our October talk was "Turnpike Roads in Dorset" by Dr Peter Stanier who is well known to us. Peter started his talk with a brief history of the Turnpike Trusts which were formed by an Act of Parliament between 1750-1840. These new Trusts raised capital for the construction of new roads and the repair of old roads using tolls which were levied on the user. To ensure tolls were not pocketed by the toll keeper, the right to collect tolls was leased to the highest bidder. The first Turnpike Trust to be formed in Dorset was the Shaftsbury & Sherborne Trust 1752-1753 which later separated in 1778-1779. The term "Turnpike" relates to a hinged gate positioned across a road and only opened to let the user through once a toll, a set amount of money, had been paid. Amongst Peter's slides were many of the toll houses built to house the toll keeper, and although many still survive today, their positions are now on busy road junctions. Peter also showed us slides of the many milestones still surviving, with the oldest one dating from 1756. which were set up at the same time as the toll roads to give the traveller an idea of distances. At the end of his talk Peter showed us a slide of Charmouth Tunnel built in 1832 and reported to be the first of it's kind in this country which saved traffic going over Thistle Hill, a steep incline, and a red pillar box dating from 1853 still in use today and still in it's original position

September 6^th, 2010. " Centenary - The BP Oil Story"

We did not have a speaker for September's talk, but instead we had a film produced by BP to celebrate their centenary and titled “The BP Oil Story”. Written and directed by Nigel Williams with a short introduction by the Chairman of BP in 2009, Peter Sutherland. The story starts by telling us that in 1901 when Great Britain still had an Empire, a mining magnate called William Knox D'Arcy obtained an exploration contract from Persia, now Iran, to drill for oil in the south west of that country. When finally striking oil after seven years the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was formed. The film then went on to chronicle the company's history including exploration successes in places like Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea. It's acquisitions of other oil companies and BP's unfortunate environmental disasters especially in Texas where 15 people were killed and many more injured. The film ended with a look at BP's latest explorations including alternative sources of energy from solar and wind to ways of capturing and storing carbon dioxide from traditional fossil fuels.

August 2^nd, 2010. Bill White " The Annual I.A. holiday"

Before Bill White gave his talk at August's meeting we were given a short presentation on The Transport Heritage & Red Wheel Scheme by Ian Homer, a trustee of the Transport Trust. So far in Hampshire a Red Wheel Plaque has been awarded to The Hovercraft Museum at Daedalus and at the Hythe Pier & Calshot. Ian said more sites were needed and asked HIAS members for suggestions.

Then it was our President's turn to talk to us about “The Annual I.A Holiday” which Bill freely admitted was a bit of nostalgia for him. Started by Edwin Course as one of Southampton University's residential courses back in the 1960’s, trips included all sorts of different I.A sites around the country and abroad. These included factories, mills, breweries, mines, canals, railways, worker housing, quarries and museums etc.. The many different destinations included the Lake District, Blackpool, Wales, Scotland and Ghent. All these trips were vividly illustrated by Bill's slides and, after the coffee break, some of Bill's videos including one taken from a canal boat around Gloucester Docks.

July 5^th, 2010. Alan Hurd, "It seemed a good idea at the time"

The HIAS talk for July was given by one of our own members, Alan Hurd, and he spoke to us about early inventions which, for the most part, never got further than the drawing board. The title was "It seemed a good idea at the time" and focused mainly on inventions dating from the 19^th Century with a lot of them originating from the Colonies where it was important for companies operating in distant countries to become more efficient. Amongst Alan's examples were "The Mangle Box" and Mangling Made Easy" which were the forerunners of what we would now recognize as an early mangle, but more complicated in design. Some inventions were quite bizarre like a sewing machine operated by a dog and two horses operating a spindle to pull a carriage. Amongst the inventions which did make it past the drawing board, but were not very successful was Brunel's Atmospheric Railway which ran for about a year between Exeter and Newton Abbot from 1847-1848 at a cost to the shareholders of about half a million pounds.

June 7^th, 2010. George Watts, "The Strawberry Industry"

We were pleased to invite George Watts back again to talk to us, this time about the “The Strawberry Industry”. George started his talk by telling us that in the late 19^th Century and well into the 20^th Century strawberry growing was a very important local industry in South Hampshire. This industry developed as a direct result of the Enclosure Act to compensate people for the loss of open common land. The coming of the railways in the late 1860's played an important part in the industry enabling about 20,000 strawberries per day to be picked, packed and transported within 24 hours to London and places further afield. Unfortunately, the strawberry industry started to decline after it's peak in the 1920's because of competition from abroad and land development – land being worth more for building on than for growing strawberries. Strawberries are still grown in Hampshire but not in the huge quantities that they were, and Hampshire strawberries are still eaten at Wimbledon during the tennis tournament as they always have been. George's talk was very interesting with lots of slides, facts and figures and also quite a surprise to a lot of us who had not realized before just how extensive the South Hampshire strawberry industry had been.

May 10^th, 2010

About 60 members turned up for May's talk by John Berridge on “KLM & Imperial Airways”. Both companies were formed in the early 1920s when commercial aviation was beginning to take off in most European countries. Like the Dutch the U.K was keen to promote the new transport technology to help promote and supply our overseas colonies. KLM's first service began in 1920 flying from Schiphol Airport, which they still use today, to London using a De Havilland DH.16 aircraft chartered from a British company, Air Transport & Travel. Unlike the Dutch, Imperial Airways were not allowed to use foreign aircraft and had no Government funding. KLM would have gone bankrupt in the 20s if it had not been for the Dutch Government's intervention. A healthy rivalry sprung up between KLM & Imperial Airways to establish which company would dominate the far reaches of the Dutch and British Colonial Empires.

April 12^th, 2010

We were pleased to welcome back Colin Van Geffen who presented a comprehensive and detailed talk about "The Spitfire" which included the design, production and fighting capabilities of this amazing fighter aircraft which played such an important part in the Battle of Britain where 370 of them were lost. Apparently, the name "Spitfire" allegedly came about because when a "Spitfire" engine starts up, it spits out fire. This remarkable aircraft was designed by R J Mitchell at Supermarine in Southampton where he had become Chief Engineer at the age of twenty-five. The first design was produced in 1931 and when R J Mitchell died in 1937, Joseph Smith took the "Spitfire" to the production stage. This high performance interceptor fighter aircraft was very popular with its pilots as it was easy to fly and quick to climb. Undoubtedly, the finest fighter of its time and produced in greater numbers then any other British aircraft. After the Battle of Britain, the Spitfire was still in service becoming the backbone of RAF Fighter Command and saw action all over the world.

March 1^st, 2010

Our speaker was Tony Beck whose subject was "The Cinema Projectionist in the 1960s". Tony became a part time projectionist in Littlehampton in the 1960s which had three cinemas at the time, after losing a well paid job. Although he managed to find another one fairly quickly, it did not pay as well as his previous one. With a family and a recently acquired mortgage to support, Tony needed a second job and as he had always been fascinated by the cinema, having been taken to see Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs in the 1930s, a part time projectionist's job appealed to him. Tony's talk consisted of a brief history of the three cinemas that were in Littlehampton during his time, and with the aid of slides and short films, a thorough explanation of the workings of a cinema projector. A device that projects frames from a reel of film thus creating a moving picture that is then projected onto a screen. Tony finished his talk with some interesting and amusing anecdotes of his time as a part time cinema projectionist in Littlehampton in the 1960s.

February 1^st, 2010

Our speaker for February was Quintin Gee who came along to tell us all about "Computers & Tea - Lyons Electronic Office". Starting with a potted history of the company from 1887 from it's spin-off from a tobacco company to it's chain of teashops and the now famous Lyons Corner Houses in London, Quintin explained that Lyons were one of first companies in the U.K to use a computer in the 1950s. Lyons had already been using mechanical adding machines for the organisation and distribution of their product which by it's very nature, had a short shelf life. By creating LEO 1 [Lyons Electronic Office] they were able to calculate more accurately the daily requirements which were then carried out overnight ready for delivery the next day. This was so successful that Lyons formed a company called LEO Computers Limited which marketed the LEO 1 and subsequently the LEO 11 and LEO 111 were built. Once other companies, including the Ford Motor Company, saw how successful and efficient this form of calculation was they employed the LEO Computer Company for such things as payrolls etc., which was an early form of outsourcing. In time the LEO Computer Company became English Electric, Marconi and finally ICT [International Computers and Tabulators] in 1968. From its first programme which was run in 1948 LEO Computers were still in use up until 1981.

January 4^th, 2010

Our first talk of the New Year was John Avery on the "Building of the Plymouth Breakwater 1812-1841". A great engineering feat in its time even by today's standards, it was decided in 1806 to provide the Channel Fleet with a safe anchorage in Plymouth Bay. After purchasing a 25 acre site from the Duke of Bedford at a cost of £10,000 John Rennie and Joseph Whidbey were commissioned to come up with a scheme. Four million tons of stone were excavated from nearly quarries which were then transported to the site on ten specially converted sailing barges. The scheme was finally completed in 1841 by John Rennie's son, Sir John Rennie and turned out to be well over budget equating to about 72 million pounds by today's standards. Because of the cost, only one lighthouse was built on the Breakwater and is situated at the western end. Started in 1841 it was finished in 1843 and built of white Cornish granite. At the eastern end a beacon was constructed with a stepped base and topped with a pole and cage which could accommodate several shipwrecked sailors. Trinity House acquired the lighthouse bell from Montreal Cathedral as it was shipped back to the foundry where it was made, as considered " too flat" in tone for it's original purpose. John ended his talk on rather a sad note with stories and some slides of various shipwrecks that had occurred over the years. In particular in 1905 a submarine sunk just off the Breakwater with hardly any survivors and all the lighthouse keeper could do was to look on in horror as the tragedy unfolded.