Neil's spotlight on changing times for industry

Historian and author Neil Clarke, who has just published his fourth book in a "Through Time" series by Amberley Publishing, is quick to come up with some candidates.

"Even though the Coalbrookdale foundry is closed, they are still making Aga cookers at Ketley, so at least the tradition is still there. And there's also Sankey's, just about, albeit much reduced with less than 300 employees now.

"In terms of continuous production, the oldest is probably Blockley's Bricks, which was founded in 1898 and is still there, and has much expanded."

Neil's latest book is called Industries of East Shropshire and charts local industrial activity from the earliest times to the present day, with the advent of Telford and the industrial estates and changes on the industrial scene which resulted.

"With this being the 50th anniversary year of Telford it struck me that the book might fit in with their programme of events, and I launched the book at Telford centre library at Southwater. I managed to sell quite a few books."

And while there have been ups and downs over the years, the tone is upbeat.

"The present scene is built on previous centuries and it's possible that today there is a greater variety of industry in the area now.

"Some of the old industry has survived and all the new ones on the industrial estates have quite a range of light engineering, food and service industries. It's the character that's changed. They're not many mining heavy industries based on coal, iron and clay, but it is still vibrant and does build on what's gone before," he said.

Neil has done previous books in the Through Time series focussing on railways, waterways, and roads.

"This book, the fourth in the series, complements those first three which looked at transport. I've been interested in the industrial and transport history of East Shropshire from way back and have gathered a lot of material over the years."

And at the end of the book he does highlight two examples of local enterprise today.

"One is John Freeman at Halesfield, which has a flourishing plant hire business, and then there's the Apley Farm Shop, just south of Norton, which is a flourishing business based on local produce."

Industries of East Shropshire is softback, 96 pages, and is published by Amberley. It costs £14.99