Information received from the IHS (YAHS)
Meetings will be held at Swarthmore Education Centre, 2-7 Woodhouse Square, Leeds LS3 1AD, on Saturdays at 11:00 am unless otherwise indicated and visitors are always welcome.
Autumn 2024
Saturday 19th October 2024 11:00 am – Dr Phil Judkins – Wakefield’s Railways and their Associated Industries
The Wakefield area has one of the densest concentrations of railways in the UK, from early colliery railroads to 21st-century mainline stations. Of special interest are the industries which grew up around the various local stations, from mining to malt to rhubarb growing, and their changing relationships over time with the development of the railway system. Phil Judkins
talk will illustrate the variety of these industries and their rise, fall, and rebirth over the last 250 years.
Saturday 30th November 2024 11:00 am – Eric Branse-Instone – Designating Industrial Heritage Sites for Historic England Listing
The speaker has spent the last 30 years assessing sites of all types and dates for national designation, principally Scheduled Monuments and Listed Buildings. Having previously worked as an industrial archaeologist, industrial heritage has been a particular speciality. His talk, illustrated by his casework, mainly from Yorkshire, will provide an insight into assessing industrial sites for statutory protection: how we decide what is of national importance or special interest, what sorts of things we look for and how we make our recommendations to government. He will also highlight the problems of older designations and explain how interested members of the public can help add to our collective knowledge of listed and scheduled sites, helping to protect them for future generations.
The speaker is Historic England’s listing adviser for the North-East and Yorkshire Region.
Saturday 14th December 2024 11:00 am – Eric Jackson – The History of the English Canals
This talk starts with the Industrial Revolution and the transportation system as it existed at that time, comparing the load-carrying capacities of different modes of transportation. It tells of the first commercial canal, the Bridgewater, the subsequent; Canal Mania; and the rapid growth of the canal system, focussing on the engineers and canal promoters, how the canals and their infrastructure were built, their operation, and how tolls were calculated and collected. Then with the coming of the railways, gradual decline, the closure of some canals with their take-over by the railway companies, nationalisation of the system after the Second World War and the beginnings of firstly the preservation, then later the restoration movements. A change in the attitude towards canals saw the growth of the leisure boat industry, with some notable restoration projects.
Winter / Spring 2025
Saturday 25th January 2025 11:00 am – John S Lee – Medieval Cloth Making in Yorkshire
This talk will examine the medieval cloth-making industry in Yorkshire. It will explore the different processes involved in making cloth. Several of these terms are still mentioned in everyday speech when we talk of being ‘dyed in the wool’ or ‘on tenterhooks’. It will also examine those working within the industry, including the weavers who are detailed in an inquisition of 1399 covering the county, and the clothiers who co-ordinated production and marketed the cloth, negotiating with merchants from London and occasionally overseas.
Saturday 22nd February 2025 11:00 am – Colin A Carbert – Bramham Moor Aerodrome and the Role of the Royal Flying Corps at the Base in World War I
An account of a little-known local facet of the 1st World War, an airfield which was established near Tadcaster as a home defence base and training installation. Our speaker has researched the subject thoroughly from the personal accounts and diaries of those who served there, to the inquests of those who were sadly lost.
Saturday 22nd March 20245 11:00 am – Dan Waterfall (CFA Archaeology) – Mining, Milling and Machinery: Archaeological Excavations at Logic Leeds, Sovereign Square, and Water Lane
This talk will cover three archaeological excavations which CFA Archaeology have carried out in the Leeds area in recent years: the remains of 19th/20th-century coal mine infrastructure at Nursery Pit on the city’s eastern fringe, a site located at Sovereign Street, behind Leeds railway station which identified part of the tail race of a water mill, and an excavation which uncovered part of the Midland Junction Foundry on Water Lane.
Saturday 26th April 2025 11:00 am – Section AGM and Members Presentations
After a very short AGM, members are invited to share any knowledge of industrial history subjects. If you wish to give a talk please let me know well in advance so that we can arrange the programme accordingly.