Industry, Mining, Quarrying

Trevor Turpin    [Publisher:  Author  2014]    Softback    40 pages

Published in association with Horstman Defence Systems, this is a very attractively produced and well illustrated history and account of the cars produced by this famous Bath firm, tofether with a small section on the business after car production ceased and the current business. The pictures are very good and also feature several interesting local locations

A.J. Booth    [Publisher:  Industrial Railway Society  2000]    Softback    112 pages

A fascinating and detailed photographic survey of 28 drift mines in Northern England, working coal, fireclay lead and other minerals. The author started recording these operations and their railways in 1980, so the views are all relatively recent although many of these mines had been opened years earlier. The contrast with capital intensive deep mining could not be any sharper, these are small and ephemeral installations operated by private firms and small groups and but for the author many would never have been recorded.

Tom Greeves    [Publisher:  Twelveheads  2017]    Hardback    160 pages

A really lovely book, as well produced as you'd expect from Twelveheads, which recalls and describes the Dartmoor tin mining industry. The author began his interest in the 1960s when he studied the Sheepstor parish as a student, which led him to both further documentary research, field visits and conversations with the generation who had worked in the tin industry. He collected and took some very good photographs, many of which illustrate this book, and which feature more than a glimpse of the actual installations and the minor narrow gauge systems utilised.

David Pollard    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2021]    Hardback    512 pages

A magnificent and comprehensive record of the quarrying and transport of Bath Stone in and around Bath and West Wiltshire, researched and written over many years by the late David Pollard. David's interest was fired by the old stone wharf and tracks at Corsham, glimpsed whilst travelling from Bristol to Swindon where he was an apprentice boilermaker. I knew David a little, and the breadth of his knowledge on the subject was truly staggering. But more than this David was also very "hands on", he set up his own mining museum and latterly become landlord of a working Bath Stone quarry - he was an amazing man. Neil Parkhouse and David were working on publishing this book for a long time and Neil had to complete it after David sadly died in late 2017. Neil has done a magnificent job, this large book is very nicely produced and designed and is an absolute mine of information on all aspects of its subject(!) Knowing the area fairly well, it is just astonishing to see in this book the plans, accounts and photographs of so very many enterprises. I have no doubt that this magnificent book will be the "go to" reference book on its subject for many years to come, and it forms a very worthy memorial to a remarkable and generous man and his passion for a fascinating subject, rest in peace David.

Duncan Harper    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2015]    Softback    106 pages

An imaginary pictorial journey through the industrial landscape of North Somerset when collierys and railways were at their zenith. Inspired by research into his Maternal family the Moons and drawing upon a wealth of photographic and printed material from his own collection, this both a visual treasury and a vastly informative and beautifully written guide to commerce and life on Mendip in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. A wonderful companion to the late Robin Atthill's "Old Mendip" and a must for anyone with more than a passing interest in this fascinating part of our country.

Neil Macmillen with Mike Chapman    [Publisher:  Lightmoor  2009]    Softback    152 pages

This well produced and illustrated book contains the intriguing and hitherto completely unrecorded history of a once significant industrial activity around Bath. Fuller's earth and its myriad uses are comprehensively explained, a fascinating subject in itself, whilst the many other details of the industry and its development are comprehensively recorded. Ordnance survey map extracts are included to show the exact location of the several sites, all of which are also depicted in a good selection of photographs. Despite the arcane and obscure nature of the subject the author has used his local knowledge, contacts and some surviving records to produce a really interesting and readable account, to which the publishers have done full credit. On a "railway note", this book told me that the Fullers Earth being loaded into box vans in Midford goods yard as frequently recorded by Ivo Peters photographs was destined for the oil refinery at Llandarcy. A "mine" of information and compelling reading for Bathonians on several "levels" - ouch! Subject of a welcome reprint in 2019.

Alun John Richards    [Publisher:  Gwasg Carreg Gwalch  2007]    Softback    148 pages

A revised and slightly expanded 2007 edition of a 1994 book that gives the previously unpublished history of slate quarrying at Corris, illustrated and with sections of detailed O.S. maps of the period. A readable journey through history featuring such notable features as the Ratgoed quarry and tramway.