Speaker: Cliff Lea

It was in the 1840s that the Oakes family struck oil whilst sinking one of their coal pits at Riddings near Alfreton. Hear how the technical characteristics of this fluid –  a fluid that was regarded as simply a nuisance at the time –  were researched on site by a truly pioneering Scottish chemist, James Young. How Young found out what could be produced from the oil, how he developed a method of refining and fractionation for production of what were to become extremely useful end products. This was to lead to the invention of paraffin wax candles, and the isolation and use of what we now call “paraffin oil”, allowing the very start of use of paraffin lamps; both inventions were so useful for revolutionising domestic lighting from the 1850s on. Before this the very poor sputtering light of tallow wicks was the usual form of lighting in most households. Following his early work in Derbyshire it was James Young who was globally the very first to take out a patent to define the oil refining process.  When mineral oil was shortly afterwards to be discovered in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the early oil pioneers in USA were to pay vast royalties to Young in those very early manic days of the rise of the world’s most lucrative industry.

Cliff Lea is a chemist who had spent his career in the oil industry. He discovered only when moving to Derbyshire in 1980, that this county is perhaps the most important of all in Britain’s mineral oil industry history. He has given talks on the subject at both international and national conferences on history of the oil industry. Cliff is a founder member and currently chair of the North East Derbyshire Industrial Archaeology Society.

Organised by the Industrial Archaeology Section

The Industrial Archaeology Section will be holding it’s annual maintenance working party at Morley Park blast furnaces. We will be undertaking fence repairs, vegetation management and litter picking. Everyone is welcome to come along and help, or simply to learn about the site. We will meet on the lane leading to Morley Park farm at 1000.

Library open upstairs on the 1st floor.

Speaker: Dr Mark Knight – ZOOM ONLY

The speaker is the Cultural Heritage Officer, Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, and he is setting up a project to investigate medieval graffiti in historic buildings along the River Trent through Staffordshire and Derbyshire as far as the confluence with the River Derwent, including the River Dove as far upstream as Rocester. This project would involve volunteers actively visiting, investigating and recording graffiti in churches and other medieval buildings.

Building on successes in East Anglia (Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey) and in the North East (University of Durham Belief in the North East), this proposed project will investigate historic graffiti in our medieval churches and other buildings and structures within a defined area.  The aim is to engage with and connect local communities with some of their oldest historic buildings, providing a deeper understanding and relationship.  Selecting a number of medieval churches or other ancient buildings within the project area, volunteers will be trained to survey and record medieval (and later) graffiti in their local area, and the wider project area if they so wish.

This online talk is a first opportunity to hear about this project and how DAS members can get involved.