Introduction to BIAS
There was widespread anxiety in Britain in the
late nineteen-fifties and early nineteen-sixties about the tendency of
comprehensive urban development to obliterate significant features of
obsolete industries and transport systems. This concern was strongly
represented in the Bristol Region, where it helped to promote an adult
class in Industrial Archaeology, organised by the University of Bristol
Extramural Board and held at the Bristol Folk House in Park Street. The
tutors were Angus Buchanan and Neil Cossons, and the class was such a
success that after having run for three years from 1964 to 1967, it
transformed itself into a permanent association as the Bristol Industrial
Archaeological Society.
BIAS received strong institutional support from Bristol City Museum and the Centre for the History of Technology at the new University of Bath. It continued the pattern of the original class by providing a regular series of lectures and discussions, together with visits and field parties, and developed this pattern by undertaking surveys of mills, roads, docks and other industrial monuments, and encouraging the conservation of such artefacts when practicable. The Society was formally inaugurated in the autumn of 1967, and the first issue of BIAS Journal appeared at the end of the following year. The Society now has some 350 individual and corporate members and continues to organise a full programme of events and maintains an involvement in local matters of concern. It is affiliated to the Association for Industrial Archaeology and is represented on the Avon Industrial Buildings Trust and on local Conservation Advisory Panels.
In addition to the annual Journal, it publishes the Bulletin three times a year. This contains the forthcoming programme of talks, visits and other events of interest and brings news of items of local IA activities.
A view from the Chair
Stuart BurroughsFor all those with an interest in the history of Bristol as a working city the plans for the future of Bristol Industrial Museum will be being watched with interest. The museum has a collection of industrial material of regional and national importance built up from the 1960s. You will be aware that the plan is, as part of the redevelopment of Bristol's Harbourside, for the Industrial Museum to become the Museum of Bristol, whilst the Bristol City Museum becomes the Museum for Bristol. BIAS has been keeping a close eye on these developments as we would hope that, in the grand scheme to present the story of the development of Bristol, the fine collections of industrial material are given due regard. No one would argue that a regional centre such as Bristol deserves a good museum of its own history, and the plans for the Museum of Bristol are impressive. What we must hope is that the development of Bristol as a working city, from trading to manufacturing, to street cleaning or paper bag making, is given appropriate attention in this new development and the grittier and mundane aspects of Bristol's history are displayed. BIAS has a long history of not only providing services for its members but applying pressure and asking awkward questions ofdevelopers and local authorities. We should, if possible hope to apply pressure at Bristol to ensure the collections of industrial material relevant to Bristol are retained and displayed as well as all the other material.