In 20 Digs – serie

The Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire is one of the cradles of industrialisation. At its heart is the Iron Bridge spanning the River Severn, one of the world’s first iron bridges and an iconic image of the Industrial Revolution. The area’s role in helping to transform Britain into the world’s first industrial society earned it UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 1986. Industrialisation in and around the gorge was shaped and constrained by the landscape and this is reflected in the range of extractive, manufacturing, and transport sites in the area. These include Abraham Darby’s coke-fired iron furnace of 1709, the first steel furnace in England at the Upper Forge, brick and tile works, canals, tramways, and workers’ housing.The Archaeology of Ironbridge Gorge in 20 Digs explores a range of sites and material evidence excavated from the 1970s to the 2010s. It combines archaeological excavation with the analysis of the industrial and domestic buildings that helped to create the Ironbridge industrial community, and which continue to form an integral part of this internationally important twenty-first-century landscape.

Cheshire contains some of the earliest inland saltworks, industrial canals, and purpose-built mechanised textile mills in Britain. The region’s industrial story covers 2,000 years from the Romans to the Victorians and beyond. Drawing upon archaeological excavations over the last fifty years, this book looks at the physical remains of Cheshire’s chief industries, salt, textiles, metal working, and transport, from its Roman beginnings to the area’s role as the centre of Britain’s silk industry in the nineteenth century. Michael Nevell describes the excavation of Cheshire’s internationally important industrial archaeology sites showing how this archaeological work has helped the study of not only the salt industries of Nantwich, Middlewich, and Northwich, but Chester’s role as a port, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Bridgewater Canal, the first long-distance industrial canal, and its port at Runcorn. The area’s largest industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, silk and cotton spinning, developed in eastern Cheshire and this area became Britain’s silk-manufacturing centre. The excavation of these textile mills, salt works, and transport networks reveals the impact of industrialisation on the landscape and people of the area, and Cheshire’s important role in the Industrial Revolution.

Leicester is one of the most intensely excavated historic cities in the country, resulting in many fantastic archaeological discoveries comprising a rich array of ancient buildings, objects, and the remains of the people who once lived in Leicester’s Roman and medieval past. The city’s heritage hit the global headlines with the discovery of King Richard III below a car park in 2012 but look beyond this and there is much more to learn.This book takes the reader on a journey from Leicester’s Iron Age origins along the riverbank to its establishment as a Roman town and Civitas Capital with large public buildings and spaces, along with lavish townhouses featuring fine mosaics. After Roman rule, the ruinous former city was still lived in with evidence for rarely found Anglo-Saxon buildings. Later, the medieval town has evidence for houses, a brewery, monastic buildings, cemeteries, and the burial of King Richard III.The Archaeology of Leicester in 20 Digs selects twenty of the most important archaeological sites and celebrates the discoveries from over 100 years of investigations, which have transformed our understanding of the city’s rich 2,000-year history. This book includes the most recent discoveries, and newest interpretations, with Leicester’s heritage presented in a fresh and accessible way, with photographs, illustrations, and links to provide a gateway to further reading.