THEME Industrial and Agricultural Revolution
The Framework Knitters Declaration 1812
The issuing of this declaration by the framework knitters was in response to the machines that as the workers saw it was bringing down wages and producing inferior quality goods. The framework knitters (also called stockingers), launched the Luddite protests in Nottingham in 1811, justifying their actions by referring to the 1663 Charter of the…
Read MoreThe Framework Knitters 1821
Almost ten years on from the 1812 ‘Declaration of the Framework knitters’, conditions for the framework knitters of the counties of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester has not seen any sign of improving. The pay for these workers, of whom there were estimated to be about 15,000 in these three counties, was insufficient to keep them…
Read MoreJoseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley radical dissenter and champion for the open and inquiring mind. Joseph Priestly was quite possibly one of the most important thinkers of the Enlightenment. His direct and open inquiry into both religious beliefs and ideas was also directed at science, politics and society. Who was Joseph Priestley? He was born on the 13th…
Read MoreThe Derby Philosophical Society
The Derby Philosophical Society was founded by Erasmus Darwin when he had to leave his beloved Lunar Society behind in Birmingham.
Read MoreIron Bridge Coalbrook Dale
The iron bridge near Coalbrook Dale is a humbling testament to the skill of ironworkers over two hundred years ago. The spectacular Severn gorge that carves its way through layers of limestone, coal and iron ore is a striking natural feature that gave rise to the most important industrialised landscape of the C18th. The River…
Read MoreMatthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton could be described as the father of the Industrial Revolution but his name is less well known than that of his partner James Watt. Matthew Boulton was born in Birmingham in 1728, the same year as Captain James Cook and into an age of enlightenment, reason and industrial revolution. His early years were…
Read MoreHenrietta Vansittart Engineer
Henrietta Vanstittart b.1833, was a woman who seemed to flout convention. She was a self taught engineer, a married woman with a high profile lover, Edward Lytton.
Read MoreBritain After Waterloo the British Disillusion Post 1815
What happened to Britain after Waterloo? What did the victory mean to the population and why was there a British disillusion for the following 20 years? Britain seemed to implode as an economic bomb went off under her feet.
Read MoreJohn Wilkinson Ironmaster
John Wilkinson was the ‘Ironmaster’ of the industrial revolution Iron ran through the veins of John Wilkinson, who was fortunate enough to be born into the heart of the industrial revolution, both literally and figuratively. He was born in 1728, the son of Isaac Wilkinson. He worked in the iron industry at a blast furnace…
Read MoreJames Watt Industrial Revolution
James Watt the inventor of the steam engine and the industrial revolution was driven by steam but he was a man with a ferociously keen scientific mind that dabbled in many areas. This is an introduction to one of Britain’s finest engineers, we salute James Watt and his steam engines.
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