Portland Works – Sheffield

Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, 2019

Work undertaken on the former site of the Sheffield Assay Office uncovered structural remains relating to the Portobello Cutlery Works which traded from the mid-nineteenth century as Francis Newton and Sons. A neighbouring block of court housing, cleared, along with the factory, in the second quarter of the twentieth century, was also investigated. As a result of this work a wide-ranging body of cartographic, documentary and excavated evidence has helped build a cohesive picture of the cutlery works and the workers housing during their lifespan.

Industrial Archaeology Review, 2011

This reviews Men of Iron, M.W. Flinn's 1962 analysis of Swalwell Ironworks and the Crowley organisation of which it formed part, in the light of new information and a different approach. Ambrose Crowley III (1658-1713) developed a major mercantile iron business, supplied by his factories on Tyneside. The fi rst major works, at Winlaton Mill, was started in the 1690s. Swalwell was set up by a separate company, but acquired by Crowley in 1707; he added a forge, Grand Warehouse, and workshops to the pre-existing slitting mill, and his son John (1689-1728) added steel furnaces and a foundry. Further workshop ranges were added until the mid-18th century. The works declined from the later 18th century under the Millington family; an increased emphasis on steel-making from the 1810s heralded conversion into a steelworks and specialist engineering works after buy-out by the fi nal manager for the Millingtons. This works in turn was rebuilt in the 1880s, using gas furnaces and producing alloy steels. The processes of growth and decline were longer and more complex than believed by Flinn, and less completely centred on the achievements of Sir Ambrose Crowley.

Artefact, 2018

This paper will explore the documentary evidence and surviving examples to understand the work practices, rates of pay and the supply of material for subsidiary trades associated with the Sheffield knife-making industry. Metal working has been well researched but little has been done to appreciate the details of the trades which used bone, ivory, horn, etc. to make the knife handles, where the use of these materials was governed by availability, price and fashion.

Industrial Archaeology Review, 2011

Historical Metallurgy, 2017

In 2010 an archaeological evaluation was undertaken by Channel 4’s Time Team at Derwentcote, County Durham. The site is one of the best examples of how the ferrous metal industry evolved in Britain during the Industrial Revolution and now a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The results of the evaluation, along with analysis of the crucibles and metallic residues, are of signi cance in providing information on the 19th-century crucible steel operation at Derwentcote, the rst such installation to have been excavated outside She eld.

Runge, M., M.R. Beck, M.M. Bjerregaard & T.B. Sarauw (eds.) 2021: From Central Space to Urban Place. Urbanisation processes in Viking Age and Medieval Odense and Aalborg, Denmark. University Press of Southern Denmark, p. 157-166, 2021, 2021

A significant aspect of the background for the emergence and development of the early urban centres lies in the growth of specialised occupations and crafts. In order to ascertain whether increased occupational specialisation can be traced in conjunction with the early urbanisation in Aalborg and Odense, the chronological and geographical occurrence of selected categories of finds related to metal crafts in the towns and their hinterlands is examined.

Metool conference / Belfast June 2016 : programme and the abstracts. online registration is open : http://metools2016.sciencesconf.org/

West 86th A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 2022

Mesto a Dejiny – The City and History, 2017

Prior to the advent of frame structures, British architecture consisted of essays in local geology. The exception is London. From the 1620s onwards the utilisation of Portland stone as a construction material in the City and in Westminster increased significantly until the early twentieth century. Its choice depended on a number of parameters. These included availability and suitability for the intended use, the cost of transport from the quarry to the building site, and fashion. Although limestone and ornament were banned by the Modernists, Portland stone was still used in post Second World War British Modern architecture. Its use was governed by propriety imposed by the planning regulator(s). To illustrate this point reference is made to two iconic high-rise Modernist buildings in London, the Shell Centre (1953–1963) and the Economist Development (1962–1964).