Exercise 3.5 Local History

This is a somewhat different exercise: to research into an historical aspect of an area of which I am familiar and use resources to set out a brief account of what I have found.

As a testimony to the varied history of land use in Britain, there is near our house in Warmley, Bristol - an area that is now suburbia personified - the site of what was, according to Wikipedia, the largest metal processing plant in the world in 18th century and is now the Kingswood Heritage Museum. A section of Googlemaps highlights how the site is between a soft play centre and a series of roads and close of housing, unimaginatively named after golf courses.

An aerial view of the environs of Kingswood Heritage Museum in the top left of the image demonstrating how what was most likely the largest industrial site in world 250 yars ago is now rather incongruously situated in suburban development (source: Googlemaps)

The history of the works is set out in detail well in a section of 'Bitton families' by Reg Harris, an online account of historical families who have influenced the local landscape. 

Briefly, William Champion's father had a trading relationship with the rather better known industrial figure of Abraham Darby, the inventor of the method of using coke rather than charcoal to smelt pig iron. Darby, along with other Quakers, established the Bristol Brass Company in 1702; he left and Nehemiah Champion took over the plant. Nehemiah established a works in central Bristol that caused an early case of nimbyism as local residents complained of the nuisance caused, and also enraged monopolistic local traders who had been selling imported spelter at high prices and now faced local competition.

Having lost an estimated £4,000 in an ensuing price war with Bristol merchants when employed in the family Bristol Brass and Copper Co, William exacerbated the political situation by himself developing a method of making spelter from calamine and, in 1746, establishing a new company in Warmley to exploit the patent. This distanced him from the founding firm, and caused further disruption in the market; Champion was undeterred with a typical early industrial zeal to prove everyone else wrong. Harris sets out as follows:

"a new steam engine was installed to return water, used by the waterwheels, to the mill pond, and a bigger dam was constructed to hold more water. .... The new engine cost £2000 and used £300 worth of coal a year. William by now had the most complete works in the kingdom....In 1761 ... there was a windmill for crushing ore and two horse mills in addition to the waterwheels and steam engine. There were 40 furnaces erected and also 25 houses, for the imported workers, and shops on the premises. In this year another steam engine was installed, the parts being bought from Coalbrookdale for £600."  

Apart from his unpopularity among peers, Champion was also a poor financial businessman. He sought, only partially successfully, further investment is his partnership and extensions to his patents, but unsuccessfully and he was declared bankrupt, dying 20 years later.

Within the grounds, there are relics of the ice house, windmill tower and clock tower from the industrial plant. But the estate also comprises Champion's former home - Warmley House and surrounding gardens. The garden is a rare example of an 18th century industrialist's garden and includes many unusual features, such as grottos, echo pond, former 13 acre lake, and a  statue of Neptune, some of which are constructed using recycled waste from the works. (source: http://www.radisol.co.uk/districtweb/main-site/history-zinc.htm). This is a richer source of photographic material and will form the subject of Assignment 3. As well as highlighting the unusual features, an attempt will be made to contextualise the estate within its surrounds. I have an interest as demonstrated in previous Assignments, of the contiguity of disparate land uses; this is a non-coastal example.