The Industrious East - European Route of Industrial Heritage

Other Regional Industries: Exploring in detail

Exploring in detail reveals the distinctiveness of the region´s industrial history. Hidden manufacturing sites such as the Royal Gunpowder Works at Waltham Abbey have been laid bare to the public gaze for the first time. Amazing communications devices have been constructed in our largely rural countryside, better known for its vast cornfields.

Radios began life in Chelmsford with the first public transmission in 1926 and within 30 years scientists at the Cambridge Ryle Radio telescope, effectively 4.8 kilometers across, were listening to radio waves from distant galaxies.

The Agricultural Revolution saw major changes in the landscape with the evolution of larger farms, throwing many out of work. The rising corn prices in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries brought agricultual prosperity to the region, with windmill, watermill and malting construction. Many structures from the heyday of agriculture, before 1880, await your discovery.

Chemicals & Explosives: Environmental Change

The Industrial Revolution also changed the world in ways which we cannot see. The scientific revolution that occurred from the eighteenth and nineteenth century not only led to changes in steel making and engineering but also gave rise to industrial chemistry. Chemical engineering has brought huge benefits but also changed the landscape. The processes are greedy for space and use water for cooling and waste disposal.

Radio & Wireless: Communicating Achievements

The late nineteenth century was a boom period for so-called genius industries with new enterprises being created by inventors and entrepreneurs, often outside their countries of origin. One of these was Guilielmo Marconi who failed to find backers for his radio telegraph apparatus in Italy and brought it to England. He is now seen as the father of the radio industry. more

Agriculture, Food & Drink

Eastern England was the birthplace of the agricultural revolution. In the early eighteenth century landowners such as Edward Coke, of Holkham became aware of productive and intensive agricultural practices in Holland. This was related to the growth in scientific knowledge. Coke, Townsend and others began to apply new methods to tenant farms on their estates.

Commercial Fishing

Commercial fishing became heavily industrialised in the course of the nineteenth century and none more so than in the east of England. The two chief commercial fishing ports were Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft though many other ports such as Lee-on-Sea, Cromer and Brightlingsea benefited from the coming of the railways. more

The Life behind farming

The Industrious East