Hidden Industry Dayschool September 10, 2011

When the Wye Valley became popular with tourists two hundred and fifty years ago it was already well established as an area of industrial importance and the river was a busy highway shipping goods and materials in and out. Just as well that the tourists relished the sounds of hammers, the fire and smoke of furnaces, the sails of boats on the river! The Wye’s tributaries supplied the water power and the woods the charcoal that fuelled the works. But the Wye
Valley is more special – the sites of the first water-powered wire works in Britain and the first brass to be made, at Tintern; the first smelting of copper using coal at Redbrook, place it at the forefront
of early industrial developments.

A day of talks by historians and archaeologists who have worked on aspects of the Valley’s astonishing industrial past.

Location: Chepstow Drill Hall
Booking: Essential
Contact: Chepstow Museum, Tel: 01291 625981