The Archaeology of Industrial Cheshire in 20 Digs

Cheshire contains some of the earliest inland saltworks, industrial canals, and purpose-built mechanised textile mills in Britain. The regions industrial story covers 2,000 years from the Romans to the Victorians and beyond. Drawing upon archaeological excavations over the last fifty years, this book looks at the physical remains of Cheshires chief industries, salt, textiles, metal working, and transport, from its Roman beginnings to the areas role as the centre of Britains silk industry in the nineteenth century. Michael Nevell describes the excavation of Cheshires internationally important industrial archaeology sites showing how this archaeological work has helped the study of not only the salt industries of Nantwich, Middlewich, and Northwich, but Chesters role as a port, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the Bridgewater Canal, the first long-distance industrial canal, and its port at Runcorn. The areas largest industry in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, silk and cotton spinning, developed in eastern Cheshire and this area became Britains silk-manufacturing centre. The excavation of these textile mills, salt works, and transport networks reveals the impact of industrialisation on the landscape and people of the area, and Cheshires important role in the Industrial Revolution.