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About fifteen HIAS members attended this year's SERIAC
Conference on Saturday 24th April in Chertsey, Surrey. This year's hosts were SIHG [Surrey
Industrial History Group]. Andy Fish
kindly drove twelve of us up there in the mini-bus and we arrived in plenty of
time for Eleanor to set up the HIAS display boards and have a cup of coffee and
catch up with old acquaintances before the Conference begun promptly at 10
am. Bill White managed to pick up another
second hand Rosemary Clooney record in the lunch break while the rest of us
enjoyed a hot lunch and sponge pudding and custard for desert. There was no after Conference visit this
year and the Conference ended about 5 pm after the closing remarks. Bob Bryson, the organiser, tells me there
were about 200 delegates attending, and Eleanor said we made £26.60 on
publication sales. It was an enjoyable
Conference with good talks and our thanks to Surrey for organising it. Next year's hosts will be Sussex and as soon
as I have the details, I will let you all know. The following is a short synopsis of the
talks, and biographical details of the speakers which is taken from the
Conference handout.
The first talk was Brooklands and the World Land Speed
Record by Gordon Knowles of SIHG.
The Brooklands racetrack at Weybridge in Surrey had a
significant involvement with both the setting of records and building the cars
that did so between 1909 and 1939. Three records were set at the track until,
in 1922, speeds had risen so much that a straight run, rather than round a
track, was essential. The last record on a public road was made by a Brooklands
driver in 1924. Records were then broken on Pendine Sands in Wales, and later
in the USA, first at Bonneville salt flats and then at Daytona beach. Brooklands drivers and cars included Hemery
and Homstead in their Benz cars; Guinness and his Sunbeam; Eldridge and his
Fiat-engined special; Thomas and 'Babs' with a Liberty engine; Campbell and his
succession of Napier- and Rolls-Royce-engined 'Bluebirds'; Eyston and
Thunderbolt; and Cobb with the Napier Railton and the Mobil Railton Special.
Several of the cars survive to this day, at least two still in running order.
Both are based at the Brooklands museum.
Gordon is a former Chairman of the Surrey Industrial
History Group and former member of both the AIA and Newcomen Society Councils;
he was also a Director of the Roads & Road Transport History Association.
In retirement he has regularly lectured to adult education classes and to local
and specialised societies on industrial and transport history. He writes on these subjects and his book
'Surrey and the Motor' was published by SIHG in 2005. He is currently working
on 'Surrey and the Aeroplane'.
After the coffee break the second talk of the day was Life
on the Thames: A Look at How People Earned a Living from the River over the
Last 100 Years by Steve Capel-Davies, BIAG.
The river today is mostly used and visited by people
relaxing and enjoying themselves. However, in the past a great many people derived a living
either partly or wholly from the river. The talk will look at those who harvested the
natural resources such as reeds, rushes, eels and other fish through to those working on and
in the river. Construction workers who built locks, weirs and bridges,
lock-keepers, ferrymen, millers and dredger operators all derived a living from
and on the river. The rapid increase in
leisure use in the middle of the 19th century spawned many boat builders in the
upper Thames area (and a good number thrive today) to add to major ship
building on the tidal Thames. Contrasts will be drawn between the non-tidal and
tidal river - there is a completely different scale of operations and
occupations with a great variety that peaked in the first part of the 20th century.
Steve is a civil engineer and was until recently the
chairman of Peter Brett Associates, consulting engineers. His career has
included designing and constructing works on the River Thames since the 1970s
and it was through this, combined with a fascination with the history of the
development of the Thames, that he became involved in Industrial Archaeology.
After the lunch break the first talk of the afternoon was Railways
of the Devil's Dyke by TrevorPovey, SIAS
At 711 feet above sea level, the Devil's Dyke in east Sussex
has for generations been a popular, if not remote, spot for visitors. Six
counties can be seen from this viewpoint, on a clear day. Owing to the popularity of the Dyke, it was
decided to build a railway which would terminate 200 feet from the summit. A
spur was taken from the main Brighton to Portsmouth line and in 1883 the first
train began service. Many engineering problems had to be overcome due to the
steep gradient of the line and the openness of the spectacular surrounding countryside. This talk will examine the somewhat tortuous
route from Brighton to the Dyke and the operation of the line up to its closure
in 1938. The Dyke also boasted an aerial
railway and a funicular railway, and we shall examine their location and operation.
Born next to a halt on the Brighton to Portsmouth line,
Trevor has had a sustained interest in local and industrial history for as long
as he can remember. With a gasworks, two power stations and a canal on his
doorstep, it was inevitable that he would choose engineering as a profession.
His secondary profession was teaching, with the history of technology and local
and industrial history as his specialist subjects. He is now retired and
practises energy conservation and leisure management.
The second talk of the afternoon was St Pancras
International: From Cathedral of Steam to High Speed Rail by Roderick
Shelton, Architect & Historic Buildings Consultant.
You will be taken on a high speed photographic journey at
nearly 200 years per hour through the fascinating history of the development
ofSt Pancras station from a twinkle in the eye of the Midland Railway directors
through to its recent reincarnation as the terminus of Britain's first high
speed railway line. Starting with early
photographs of the construction of the original station we shallproceed
chronologically through its gradual decline in the 20th century to its near
demolition in 1966. Then, after a thirty year period of stagnation, came its
remarkable transformation into St Pancras International.
Rod is an architect specialising in the conservation of
historic buildings; he also has qualifications in engineering, estate
management, business management and project safety. He spent his early career working for British
Rail before being appointed as Chief Architect to the University of Cambridge.
In the 1990s he headed the team conserving and refurbishing the Foreign Office
in Whitehall for the government. He then
set up his own practice and was commissioned by London & Continental
Railways as their Heritage Consultant for the redevelopment of St Pancras as
the terminus of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
The second talk of the afternoon was A Triplane for the
21st Century by Peter Teagle, Roe Heritage Group Chair.
The career of the aviation pioneer Alliott Verdon-Roe is
followed as he developed a viable 'Flying Machine'. Between 1908 and 1913, that
classic aeroplane, the Avro 504, evolved from early motorcycle engine powered
craft. The 504 was produced for nearly 20 years, a few being used for Radar
calibration in WW2; one or two even fly today.
Five years ago, a Manchester group of aircraft retirees decided to build
a replica of Roe's first Triplane to commemorate his successful flights on
Hackney Marshes in 1909. With the support of the Roe family and the aid of the
Manchester Museum of Science & Industry, the new Triplane was built - with
a 1912 V-Twin J.A.P. Engine almost identical to the original. This talk
outlines the trials & tribulations involved.
Peter was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, in 1931 to a family
steeped in the railway business of the GWR. He became fascinated by aircraft
after collecting Wills cigarette cards! He was educated at Manchester
University, then joined A.V.Roe & Co Ltd as a Technician. In the Stress
Office he worked on Shackleton, Vulcan, 748 and Nimrod aircraft until detached
to St Louis, Missouri, to work for two years on the Project Definition phase of
the Space Shuttle. After that he returned to UK as Chief Stressman. The next
appointment was as Chief Project Engineer of the team evolving the ATP, a
modernised and enlarged 748 airliner. He then became Chief Aircraft Design
Engineer until retirement in 1994. He
now still spends most of his spare time designing and building aircraft, but
without pay!
After the tea break the last talk of the day was The
Croydon Canal (1809-1836): A View From Croydon by Paul Sowan, Subterranea
Britannica.
The Croydon Canal, running from the Grand Surrey Canal at
Deptford over the foothills of the South London heights, opened to a terminal
basin at Croydon in 1809, and later (via its own tramway) to a final terminus
at Pitlake (Croydon). The 1811 extension made this canal a potentially useful
element in an integrated system comprising also the Surrey Iron Railway (1803 -
1846) and the Croydon, Merstham & Godstone Iron Railway (1805 - 1836)
transporting heavy freight between east Surrey and the river Thames. The meagre
water supplies at the top of a flight of 26 locks were problematic, as were the
water rights claims of mill-owners on the river Wandle . This lecture examines
what is known, and what is not yet fully understood, about the southern end of
the Canal.
Paul is a retired chemistry teacher who has lived and
worked in Croydon all his life. He is a Vice-President and Librarian of the
Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society and is a former Chairman of
Subterranea Britannica. He has been investigating the industrial archaeology of
mines and quarries in east Surrey for some 40 years. New interests include the
civil engineering history and geology of Surrey's canals, railways and
roads. Current researches take in
liaison with Historic Royal Palaces in the Reigate Stone Research Project. His
contributions to English Heritage's Monuments Protection Programme include the
Scheduling of Brockham limeworks and mine and also the lime-kilns at
Betchworth, both in 2004.
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