The Landscape of Industry by Judith Alfrey Catherine Clark

Author:Judith Alfrey, Catherine Clark [Judith Alfrey, Catherine Clark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Archaeology
ISBN: 9781134967643
Google: jtSHAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2005-06-20T03:38:23+00:00

6.6 The close relationship of housing and manufacture is suggested in this plan of Coalbrookdale 1753 (IGMT)

6.7 The beginnings of an urban landscape: Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale, c.1800. Map based on surviving and documented buildings (N.Smith)

The importance of industrial specialisation in shaping the pattern of settlement can be paralleled in other areas. The North-West Leicestershire Coalfield had a similar history of development, from scattered settlements associated with bell-pit mining, to the creation of more concentrated settlements linked with more complex mining systems.62 Similarly, in the West Midlands iron trade, the early development of the industry was characterised by a marked degree of specialisation and production for markets in pursuit of profit—and it was considered by contemporaries in the late seventeenth century to be a rich area. The Sheffield area shows a similar history.63 Both were also characterised by the continued diversification of their industrial base. Specialisation and diversification are the common factors in the stability and prosperity of these early industrial communities.

The industrial landscape of the Gorge was marked by an early industrial specialisation associated with the settlement of new areas. Although these new settlements were organised for industry, they formed part of a wider pattern of estates and land uses. In the context of the estates as a whole, agriculture continued to be important, even benefiting from the expanding population on its margins. Nevertheless, there was a marked separation of the industrial communities from the primary settlements, and the new settlements formed a number of ‘industrial villages’ which continued to grow and diversify throughout the eighteenth century.

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