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Winterstoke

Page 27

by L. T. C. Rolt


  There are so many different strands in the complex pattern of the Winterstoke of 1953, some promising good, others evil, that we cannot tell what the outcome will be. The offices in Winterstoke Park are still the seat of power though they are not quite so thickly populated with officials as they were. The land has not been forsaken as it was after the previous world war. The fields of the Wendle Valley are still under the plough, for there will be little more ‘cheap’ food from overseas. Despite the cries of ‘more exports’ that pipe-dream of the workshop of the world has dissolved for ever. The world has other workshops now, each with the same problem of a swollen population clamouring for a higher standard of living. One threat that Winterstoke will certainly face before many years have passed will be that of starvation, but out of that suffering may come good: the restoration of those broken links between the town and the country; the return of man to the land. But as yet this danger is not fully recognized and good land is still being squandered.

  Another more immediate and terrible threat comes from that final apotheosis of scientific progress under Summersend Hill; that sinister wired enclosure where the work of the Summersend Atomic Research Establishment goes forward. Here the old human pride which once flared in Bedlam Furnace rides on towards its ultimate and most deadly fall. Yet even this has been countered by the return of an even older humility. For in one respect the wheel has already come full circle. As we turn our backs upon the town, ascend Emberley Hill for the last time and pass the tall elms which screen the Old Hall, so we may hear, very faintly, the ancient music of Gregorian chant, elemental and timeless as the surge of the sea, as monks sing their office. For William Winter has bequeathed his hall to the church. After four hundred years the Cistercians have come back to Winterstoke and confront another wilderness.

  Chronology

  Date

  1072? Emberley Castle built by Hugh Fitzwinter

  1085? Chapel built by Hugh Fitzwinter on site of first church of St. Cenodoc

  1132 William Fitzwinter grants lands to Benedictines of Citeaux; Winterstoke Abbey founded

  1133– River Wendle embanked

  1210? St. John’s Bridge constructed

  1348–9 The Black Death

  1385? Robert Fitzwinter builds Emberley Hall on site of Norman Castle

  1433–67 Luttrell tower and new Lodging built by Abbot Thomas Luttrell

  1510? First ‘water bloomery’ built on the Wendle

  1539 Dissolution of Winterstoke Abbey

  1542– Abbey lands granted to Richard Hanmer, first Earl of Winterstoke. Abbey church destroyed. Abbots’ Lodging rebuilt as Winterstoke Place

  1548 (circa) Certain Common lands enclosed

  1550–1600 Ironworks concentrated in Lob Valley

  1585 First coal pit sunk at High Hanger

  1594 First charcoal blast furnace built at Darley Bank

  1636 First water powered slitting mill at Darley Bank

  1642–9 Civil War: St. John’s Bridge damaged, ironworks raided and Emberley Hall sacked

  1682–4 Winterstoke Place rebuilt by Henry Hanmer, fourth Earl

  1708 Darley Bank Company founded by Josiah Leeds I

  1710 Lower Wendle Navigation Company incorporated

  1711 First pound locks built on River Wendle

  1712 ‘Bedlam’ Furnace blown in on coke fuel

  (First Newcomen engine built near Dudley)

  1715 Darley Bank Company takes over High Hanger pits

  1720 Second forge and slitting mill built at Darley Bank

  1722 First Newcomen cylinder cast at Darley Bank

  1730 Wooden wagonways built from High Hanger to Darley Bank

  1733 (Savery’s steam engine Patent lapses)

  1734 First Newcomen engine in Winterstoke installed at High Hanger Pit

  1742 Newcomen engine installed at Darley Bank and a second engine at High Hanger

  1755 ‘Bedlam’ furnace rebuilt and Newcomen engine built to pump water to the bellows wheel

  1766 Cast-iron plateway constructed from High Hanger to Darley Bank and river wharf

  1766 Lobstock Canal projected, James Brindley, Engineer

  1767 Reverbatory Furnace at Darley Bank produces coke smelted forge pig iron

  1768 Lobstock Canal Act passed

  1772 Westerport – Winterstoke – Coltisham Road becomes a Turnpike Trust

  Winterstoke Enclosure Act passed

  1773–6 Winterstoke Place rebuilt by James Wyatt

  Winterstoke Park laid out by Lancelot Brown

  Old village and church destroyed and new village constructed including church by James Wyatt

  1775 Lobstock Canal completed and opened

  1779 New iron bridge constructed over the Wendle

  Wilkinson cylinder boring lathe installed at Darley Bank

  1780 New Bank Furnace with Watt direct blast engine blown in

  1782 Watt rotative beam engine installed in new Darley Bank Forge

  1788 New rolling and slitting mill built at Darley Bank powered by Watt rotative engine

  1791 Heslop winding engine built at High Hanger Pit

  1810 Poor House built at Winterstoke

  1812 New military barracks built at Church Ambling

  New County Gaol built at Church Ambling

  1825 Combination Laws repealed; Winterstoke Mechanics Union recognized and Mechanics Institute opened

  1826 Wendle Navigation improved, horse towing-path built and locks reconstructed

  1827–8 Lobstock Canal improved by Thomas Telford

  1832 Reform Bill passed; Winterstoke becomes a new borough

  1834 London & Earlspool Railway promoted

  1835 Municipal Corporations Act passed; Winterstoke ratepayers enfranchised

  1836 London & Earlspool Railway Act passed

  1837 First steam locomotive built by the Darley Bank Co.

  1840 London & Earlspool Railway opened

  1842 Corn Laws repealed; effect on local agriculture

  1846 Lobstock Canal becomes part of the Midshire Union Canal Company by amalgamation

  Midshire Union Canal Carrying Company formed

  Great North-Western Railway promoted

  1847 London & Earlspool Railway becomes the Grand Central Railway by amalgamation

  1849 Great North-Western Railway Act passed

  Great North-Western Railway Company obtains a controlling interest in the Midshire Union Canal and Carrying Companies

  1850 Winterstoke Brewery built by Richard Blenkinsop

  1852 Winterstoke Steam Mills opened by Richard Blenkinsop

  1853 Great North-Western Railway opened

  Camp Colliery opened by the Darley Bank Company

  1853–5 War between rival railway companies for Winterstoke traffic ends in two disasters

  1854 Winterstoke Gasworks opened

  1856 Bedlam and New Bank furnaces rebuilt (Bessemer Converter introduced)

  1861 New Market Hall built

  1863 New Town Hall opened

  1865 Summersend Branch Line completed

  1866 (Siemens Martin open hearth process of steel-making introduced)

  1866 Great Ketton Steel Company formed

  1866–8 Great Ketton Steelworks and Ketton Deep Pit opened

  1872 Winterstoke Theatre Royal opened

  1875–6 Death of Thomas Leeds; Darley Bank Company wound up; Darley Bank Forge and High Hanger & Camp Colliery Companies formed

  1876 Darley Bank Ironworks dismantled

  1888 Local Government Act; Winterstoke becomes a County Borough

  1889 Free Library, Museum and Art Gallery opened

  1895 First motor car seen in Winterstoke

  1896 National Telephone Company Exchange opened

  1901 Winterstoke Electric Generating Station opened

  Electric Tramway system opened

  1906 First regular motor bus service inaugurated

  1909 Winterstoke Electric Theatre opened

  1912 First aeroplane seen over Wint
erstoke

  1914–18 First World War; Darley Bank Forge builds tanks; Zeppelin raid

  Winterstoke Park becomes a War Emergency Hospital

  1920 Winterstoke Park destroyed by fire

  Foster Car Company established by Robert Foster

  1921 Grand Central and Great North-Western Railway Companies amalgamate as London & North Midland Railway

  Midshire Motor Services established by Peter Foster

  1921 Midshire Union Canal Carrying Co. wound up

  1923 Winterstoke Park presented to the town by Bernard Blenkinsop

  1925 Collapse of Ketton canal tunnel

  1926 Abbey Building Estate completed and Abbey Cinema opened

  Trams cease running and are superseded by buses

  General strike in Winterstoke

  1929 Lobstock Canal abandoned by Act of Parliament

  1929 New road bridge built at St. John’s

  New Grid Power Station built

  1930 Darley Bank Forge closes down; Company goes into liquidation

  Great Ketton Steel Company becomes a subsidiary of the Universal Steel Corporation

  Emberley Heath Pit opened

  1931 Darley Bank Forge buildings taken over by Foster Car Company and re-equipped for mass production

  1932 Darley Bank canal basin filled in to make new Wharf Square and new Government offices built

  1933–4 Winterstoke By-pass constructed

  Wendleside Estate and Seville Cinema built Allied Iron Founders Ltd. factory opened

  1935 United Pressed Steel Company’s factory opened

  1937 Special Stress Alloys Ltd., factory opened

  1938 R.A.F. station, High Emberley, built

  Air-raid shelters dug in Winterstoke Park

  Foster Car Company build shadow factory at Darley Bank

  Pre-fabricated & Hydraulic Aircraft Components Ltd. factory built

  1939 Electronics Development Corporation factory built

  1939–45 Second World War; Winterstoke ‘Blitz’ and damage caused; death of Robert Foster

  1944 First Foster ‘Wendle’ jet engine produced at Darley Bank

  1946 New government offices established in Winterstoke Park

  1946–48 Railways, collieries, Gas and Electricity undertakings nationalized

  1949 ‘Highways’, Emberley, reconstructed as offices for the National Coal Board

  1950 Summersend Branch Line closed

  1951 Atomic Research Establishment completed

  1952 William Winter grants Emberley Hall to the Benedictines of Citeaux

  Copyright

  This ebook edition first published in 2015

  by Faber & Faber Ltd

  Bloomsbury House

  74–77 Great Russell Street

  London WC1B 3DA

  All rights reserved

  © The Estate of L. T. C. Rolt, 1954

  Introductory remarks © individual contributors, 2015

  The right of L. T. C. Rolt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly

  ISBN 978–0–571–32603–7

 

 

 


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