review – British Manufacturing History

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Coventry at the cusp of the twentieth century

November 28, 2024 — 3 Comments

The State we were in?

I read Will Hutton’s The State We’re In when it was first published thirty years ago. I had left my job in the accounting profession for a new career in the not for profit sector. In many ways I was filled with hope. In his Observer piece this Sunday Hutton writes: ‘Yet in 2026 we […]

From gypsum to granite

My journey began near to where Gypsum is mined in Leicestershire by British Gypsum now owned by the French St Gobain. My destination was Penmaenmawr overlooking Anglesey where some of the finest granite was quarried. En route I passed some icons of British Manufacturing. First came Rolls-Royce in Derby with the history of the WW2 […]

A sixteenth century mechanised mint in Segovia

Coins were traditionally minted by a stamp and hammer, and indeed had been in Segovia since Roman times. The invading Spanish discovered vast quantities of silver at Potosi in Peru in the late sixteenth century and mined it using first local slave labour and then, when mining killed them, slaves from Africa. The bullion was […]

Where has all the money gone?

Gaby Hinsliff writing in the Guardian observed with sadness that those little treats enjoyed by middle earners are becoming less affordable. I pondered why this might be. My mind turned to the larger stage of public expenditure and I see much the same picture as I have observed before. Schools are squeezed so PTAs have […]

The genius of Roman hydraulic engineering

In the First Century CE, the Romans brought fresh water to the city of Segovia over a distance of fifteen km from the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain range. The first thirteen km are underground in a stone and concrete duct, but then it enters the city in this channel in what is first a low […]