Welsh Journals

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INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY IN WALES UNDER the guidance of the Council for British Archaeo- logy a national survey has been started to record industrial history as it is preserved in documents, plant, buildings and other remains. The evidence of Man's early activities in South Wales has long been studied and recorded but it has only lately been recognised that the more recent remains of early industry also have great importance for the study of economic, social and technological history. These remains include coal and ore mines and quarries sites of furnaces and machinery buildings for factories and workers and canals and railways. Their history goes back into the sixteenth century and reaches a climax in the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when industrial developments formed a major factor in the history of the Welsh people. Unfortunately, these interesting and important remains have been largely neglected in the past and they now form a wasting asset since many of them are being swept away to make room for modern plant, buildings and other developments. This is inevitable and it is recognised that little can be done to preserve individual sites. It is, therefore, all the more important that the evidence of early industry should be recorded as fully, as speedily and as systematically as possible. In Wales and Monmouthshire, the survey is being co- ordinated by the Regional Group of the CBA and the Industry Committee of the National Museum of Wales and a Working Party for the southern Welsh counties has been set up under the chairmanship of Professor William Rees. Its first objective is to create a body of interested persons and institutions who will undertake to record early material in their area. Initially, information will be recorded on standard record cards, which will be supplied by the Working Party. Later it is hoped to