John F. Wilson is the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Law) at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He has published widely in the fields of business, management, and industrial history, including ten monographs, six edited collections, and over seventy articles and chapters.Steven Toms is a Professor of Accounting at the University of Leeds. He is a former editor of Business History. His research interests are focused on accounting and financial history and the history of the textile industry.Ian G. Jones is a Senior Research Assistant at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, winner of the 2022 Coleman Prize for best PhD thesis in business history, and won the John F. Mee Best Paper Award at the Academy of Management in 2018 for his contribution to the Management History Division.

• 1. Introduction 2. The role of the consulting engineer in the electrification of the South Wales coal industry up to about 1926 3. The British gas industry, 1949 to 1970: A regional comparison 4. Industrialisation, pollution and estuarine rescue