The Birth of Modern Britain: A Journey Into Britain's Archaeological Past: 1550 to the Present

625 Pages·2011·30.95 MB·English

by  Francis Pryor

THE BIRTH OF MODERN BRITAIN
A Journey into Britain’s Archaeological Past: 1550 to the
Present
FRANCIS PRYOR
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
List of Plates
List of Text Illustrations and Maps
Acknowledgements
Table: Dates and Periods
Introduction: Archaeology and Modern Times

Chapter 1 – Market Forces: Fields, Farming and the Rural Economy
Chapter 2 – ‘Polite Landscapes’: Prestige, Control and Authority in Rural
Britain
Chapter 3 – The Rise of the Civil Engineer: Roads, Canals and Railways
Chapter 4 – Rapid Expansion: The Growth of Towns and Cities
Chapter 5 – Dynamic, but Diverse: The Development of Industrial Britain
Chapter 6 – Capitalism Triumphant: Markets, Trade and Consumers 186
Chapter 7 – The Big Society: Faith, Justice and Charity
Chapter 8 – The First Superpower: Defence and Security

Picture Section
Index
About the Author
By the same author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Dedication
For my step-mother, Barbara Jean Pryor, for her quiet support and
encouragement.
Plates
Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are © Francis Pryor Model farm,
Holkham Park, Norfolk
A view across the lake towards the Pantheon (1754) at Stourhead, Wiltshire
The restored grotto at Painshill, Surrey
A view along the first turnpike road (1663) in the village of Caxton,
Cambridgeshire The cast-iron Waterloo Bridge which carries the great
Holyhead Road across the Afon Conwy at Betws-y-Coed A paired toll
house and weighbridge house on either side of the A5 at Ty Isaf Milestone
No. 73
Sunburst gates at the southern end of the Menai Strait suspension bridge The
brickwork façade of the southern entrance to the Blisworth Tunnel,
Northamptonshire A view along the bed of the tramway that led from the
valley up to the navvy camp on Risehill, North Yorkshire Grooves left by
drill-holes to pack an explosive charge Bridge over the A43, where it is
crossed by the M1 at Junction 15, near Northampton The River Porter in
Whitely Woods, Sheffield
York Gate
The Paragon
A view of the Forth Rail Bridge
A view of housing in Swindon, Wiltshire
A tipping-cistern toilet block at Hungate, York
The basement floor of so-called ‘cellar houses’
The Stanley Mills, near Perth, from the River Tay
Terrace housing at Caithness Row, New Lanark
New Buildings tenement block
A view of a lead mine by William Ridley of Allenheads
A view along the Washing Rakes at the North of England Lead Mining
Museum, at Killhope, Co. Durham The potbank at the Gladstone Pottery’s
Roslyn Works, Longton Albert Dock, Liverpool (author’s photograph by
permission of the Gladstone Pottery Museum) The recently restored Swiss
Bridge in Birkenhead Park, Merseyside Hamilton Square, Birkenhead,
Merseyside
The 768th (2006) Corby Glen Annual Sheep Fair, in the southern Lincolnshire
Wolds, near Bourne The chancel of St Mary’s Church, Bottesford,
Leicestershire The church of St John the Evangelist at Little Gidding, near
Peterborough The gravestone of Elizabeth Cuthbert (d. 1685) in the south
nave aisle of St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, Orkney The Sight of Eternal
Life Church, Shrubland Road, Hackney, east London The Union
Workhouse, Gressenhall, near East Dereham, Norfolk Bridge designed by
Robert Adam, built by General George Wade in 1733 across the upper
reaches of the Tay, at Aberfeldy (Perth and Kinross) The Second World War
defensive landscape of the southern Wash at Lawyers’ Creek, near
Holbeach St Matthew, Lincolnshire Ruck machine-gun post
The Carmarthen stop line
A view of the Carmarthen stop line from a gun emplacement overlooking the
mouth of the River Tywi at St Ishmael, near Kidwelly Excavation of a
series of Second World War defensive works at Shooters Hill, south-east
London
Text Illustrations and Maps
Three maps of Shapwick, Somerset. From Gerrard and Aston, The Shapwick
Project. Somerset. A Rural Landscape Explored (2007). With kind
permission of Professor Chris Gerrard.
Map showing the farming regions of early modern England (1500–1750).
From Thirsk, England’s Agricultural Regions and Agrarian History, 1500–
1750(1987) Survey of the Buckinghamshire village of Akeley, based on an
enclosure map of 1794. From Jones and Page, Medieval Villages in an
English Landscape (2006) Farm buildings from a design by J. B. Denton of
1879. From the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments 1997, p. 153
Map showing the distribution of landscape parks in East Anglia in the late
eighteenth century. From Tom Williamson, ‘Designed Landscapes: The
Regional Dimension’, Landscapes, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 18 (2004). With kind
permission of Professor Tom Williamson.
Two idealised plans showing the layout of typical model or estate farms in
England around 1750–1800 and 1800–1840. From Wade Martins, The
English Model Farm (2002), fig. 1
Two idealised plans showing the layout of typical model or estate farms in
England around 1840–1860 and 1860–1900. From Wade Martins, The
English Model Farm (2002), fig. 1
General plan of Aston Hall, Birmingham. From Post-Medieval Archaeology,
Vol. 42, Pt 1, p. 103 (2008)
Map showing the location of eighty-one planned villages erected between c.
1730 and 1855 in south-west Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway). From
Philip, Landscapes, Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 89 (2005) Map of the drove roads of
Scotland. From Haldane, The Drove Roads of Scotland (2008)
The principal long-distance routes in England and Wales in the seventeenth
century, prior to the turnpikes. From Wright, Turnpike Roads (1992) Map of
the Grand Union (earlier the Grand Junction) Canal in Northamptonshire
Excavated traces of wooden railway (or ‘waggonway’) lines. Illustration
reproduced courtesy of Wrexham County Borough Council.
Map showing the thirty-five major historic towns and cities of England. From