The Wealden Economy
- 2 June 2010 17:4154592The Weald spreads from Kent to Sussex and Surrey and on into Hampshire. It used to be an area covered in woods and with iron-ore mines in plenty. The timber and iron production made the Weald into England's industrial centre during the Middle Ages and right through to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Many of England's ships were built with Wealden timber.
By the time the vapour machine had introduced industry in large factories, the Weald's iron-ore had been used up, making the mines unproductive, and adding to this fortune, the vast coal reserves in Kent had still not been discovered, and when they were found, it proved too difficult and uneconomic to extract the coal from under the ground. These two factors prevented the transformation of Kent into a centre of mass mining and industrial production during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as hundreds of thousands of people would otherwise have moved into Kent and large cities would have developed out of small towns and villages. The Weald, and all of Kent, was in this way preserved for agriculture, owing to the fact that Kentish generations had already exploited the iron-ore, and because Nature made Kent's coal inaccessible and unproductive to mine.
During the nineteenth century, when vapour machines started puffing clouds of steam, and chimneys clouds of black smoke, Britain's large industrial cities developed from the small towns they once were because they happened to be in areas where coal and iron-ore were found and extracted.
It may be our fortune that now the economy has gone bankrupt, to preserve Kent from the construction of tens of thousands of houses for settlers from all over the world! Our fair County has the White Horse Invicta, a rampant horse, the one that challenges back!Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
Rule Britannia!
Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 2 June 2010 18:1454596interesting post alexander, what point were you trying to make though?
- 2 June 2010 20:1154618Erm, the White Horse Invicta is a carved out bit of chalkland behind the Eurotunnel railtracks. The only challenge it presents is one of visibility I'm afraid.
The lesson of the Industrial Revolution is that change can happen anywhere, anytime, and we must be ready to adapt in order to grab the opportunity presented. - 2 June 2010 20:1454619Sorry, wrong thread.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
2 June 2010 21:5254646your right there alex they chopped all the trees down and made big wooden war ships to destroy the eu amarda.
- 3 June 2010 09:3854678Invicta means "unconquered", Alexander. And I, too, do not see what point you are making. Am I mistaken or were there not mines at Coldred, Betteshanger, Eastry area? I know that I went to school with children of miners who had come down from the north to settle round there.
Never mind tho' with the downturn of the economy, soon nature will take the county back and we will have to turn back to making tools from flints. Luckily Kent is well provided with these. - 3 June 2010 10:2854682Yes you are right Diana,it comes from the Norman times,when we ambushed William, and made a pact that we would work along side of him so he never conquered us,in Kent William the Conquerer should be known as William the Norman.
In the Kent sign you will notice at the top there is some bushes,these indicate the bushes we hid behind when we ambushed William,actually I think it is a hand holding some greenery.If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble! - 3 June 2010 10:2954683Tools or flints Diana?
- 3 June 2010 10:5454688Interesting take on history, there, John. I know you're a committed Socialist, are you planning to apply for a spin doctor's job once the new leader is chosen? You make Alistair Campbell look like an amateur!True friends stab you in the front.
- 3 June 2010 13:3954706Well, Howard, I wanted to let the thread pass without further intervention, but as you posed the question. I'll have to explain. During the 19 th century in Britain, wherever coal and iron were found, mines were dug, and the factories in which the newly invented vapour machines were functioning were built almost alays in the towns near the mines, so that the transport of iron and coal to these factories would be cheaper, as the railway was still not up and running, and actually develloped over long distances during the whole course of the 19th century. Hence, to transport coal and iron to a factory 100 miles away by dirt-track made little sense, so the factories were built in the towns near these mines. This is why big industrial cities spprung up out of small towns and villages and were concentrated in Southe Wales, the Birmingham area, the Newcastle Hull area and in the Glasgow Edinburough area, because either coal or iron were mined there. And people moved in mass to these areas to find work, as the factories were al built there near the mines. (and also to work as miners, of-course).
As the iron mines in the Wealden parts of Kent and Sussex had been already exploites during the previous centuries, and Kent's coal had still not been discovered, Kent escaped the mass migration into our County of hundreds of thousands of people from other counties, and remained an agricultural County, so we do not have any city with half a million or a million inhabitants.
Diana, when coal was dicovered in Kent, it was somewhat after the Industrial Revolution, around the beginning of the 20 th century, when the railway tracks were already established nationwide, so the coal could easily be transported to already existing factories without these having to be built from scratch in our Copunty. Furthermore, Kent's coalmines proved unproductive, as the coal is fortunately very deep down, and the mining companies packed up and went.
Also Diana, if you take a visit to our Museum in Dover, you will find that Kent's local people did not want the masses of miners here working. Please inform yourselves personally on this one, our fantastic Dover Museum teaches this, not me!
Finally, Howard and all, my last point is that, if we had not gone bankrupt in Britain, by now there woulf be tens of thousands of houses springing up all over our County and hundreds of thousands of immigrants marching in and settling down from all over the world, while we taxpayers pay for it.
Thank God the White Horse Invicta challenged the whole lot back! 
Chanters, Drums and Drones Potty Time http://youtu.be/99fMqpjnXYA
Rule Britannia!
Kent First http://youtu.be/04F3mAP3fV4 Keep banging on http://youtu.be/qYCU_SKmkGQ - 3 June 2010 19:2954759So Alexander, did the women living near to the mines have a real problem with "the vapours"?