Those familiar with Northamptonshire would agree that its urban and rural landscapes are undergoing dramatic change, notably through the building of thousands of new homes and associated infrastructure as part of South Midlands development plans. This is not a new phenomenon: sprawls of by-law houses, often occupied by boot and shoe workers, and adjacent workshops and factories, have been transforming a hitherto largely agriculturally based county economy since the 1850s. Today, the most striking difference is that Northamptonshire is heavily reliant upon non-manufacturing service industries. Modern Industry engagingly captures this dramatic and fluctuating transition and in this sense breaks new ground for VCH. Its more traditional focus upon topography – divided into hundreds and thence parishes – is convincingly superseded here by a countywide thematic and chronological survey of urban and rural development, infrastructure, industries and modern services from 1800 to the present. This had its genesis in 1995 with the establishment of the Northamptonshire Victoria County History Trust, and has also benefited from VCH Director John Beckett's vision for a more modern format.
Modern Industry's pithy introduction sets the scene for understanding post-medieval Northamptonshire, thereafter considering its industrial growth, decline and modern commercial expansion. Interestingly, the 1903 VCH volume only briefly commented on the county's industrial and commercial base, boot and shoe at that time having reached its apotheosis. To achieve its ambitious aims the current volume is divided into three parts of unequal length, beginning with ‘Economy and society, 1800–2000’ that considers population, work, employment and latterly, local authorities (but no mention of Northampton's neo-Gothic Guildhall) and planning, within discrete chronological periods. The largest part is devoted to ‘Industries and trade, 1800–1970’, including road, water and rail transport, boots and shoes (its lengthy factory discussion informed by an English Heritage survey), leather trades, extractive industries, iron and steel, engineering, construction, brewing and food processing and commerce. Here – and easily obscured by the dominance of footwear manufacture – are the perhaps less familiar iron ore extraction, and iron and steel manufacturing enterprises that provided substantial employment from the mid-nineteenth century. ‘After 1970’ charts the decline of these traditional industries, and in some instances their regeneration. Included too is the importance of food and drink production – notably Weetabix at Burton Latimer, Whitworths at Irthlingborough and Carlsberg in Northampton – and motorsport industries, with three-quarters of the latter's national provision based at Silverstone, itself a former World War II Bomber Command airfield. Northampton's Express Lift tower now marooned in housing is one expression of former engineering prowess. The account notes industries new to the county including knowledge-based services, and the ‘credit revolution’ such as Barclaycard's headquarters in Northampton. The latter company by the end of the 1990s employed some 4,000 county people, the town also hosting some 186 financial services firms by 1998. Into the new century retail, distribution, tourism and leisure have been consolidated as significant sectors, the University of Northampton also a large employer. A coda of sorts is provided through a brief assessment of county service industries in 2005 – and a signpost to future developments.
There are, however, several dissonances. Modern Industry actually covers a period of some 205 years, and while nineteenth-century industrialized staples such as boot and shoe and iron making warrant inclusion as early modern manufacturing, it is less clear that they are strictly ‘modern’ in the sense of broadly contemporaneous enterprise. Similarly, while many themes interrelate with industry, the volume's focus is considerably – and commendably – broader than that of ‘industry’ alone: demographics, the impact of war, airfields, local government, planning, architecture and housing, to cite a few examples. A minor point is that, given that the volume ranges as it does so broadly across a diverse thematic ‘landscape’, there would have been potential merit in tweaking the title to capture this sheer (and captivating) breadth. The select bibliography includes some publications of doubtful relevance, while excluding others of merit – for example, Marilyn Palmer on boot and shoe outworking and its industrial landscapes. A.V. Euson should be Eason.
For those seeking an authoritative yet accessible account of Northamptonshire's development during the last two centuries it is difficult to recommend a more comprehensive, balanced and worthy account than this. The articles were written principally by Charles Insley, with contributions by Peter Mounfield, Alan Thacker, Elizabeth Williamson, Cynthia Brown, John Beckett and other experts, and can hardly be bettered as a solid foundation for subsequent research. In its breadth of detail, sources, images (one inaccurately captioned), clear maps and logical structure, the volume amply achieves its purpose, confirming beyond doubt that a proper understanding of Northamptonshire's industrial and commercial evolution has resonance far beyond strictly county borders.
