Thoughts...

One of the things that I keep running up against in my Yorkshire travels and conversations is the shifting industrial landscape.  It began with my awareness of what was happening on Teeside with the closing of the steel works. Then in visiting Whitby and reading about Whitby history, I became aware of the multiple layers - fishing, boat building, alum production, jet jewellery manufacturing and so on - many or most of which have disappeared or dramatically declined. The visit to Saltaire gave me new insight into the scope of the 19th century textile industry and its demise. I expect the same story exists for mining and many of the other activities of the industrial revolution. All this I knew, intellectually, but this visit has made that knowledge more concrete. In a conversation last night in The Lord Collingwood Inn at Poppleton, Peter made the observation that generations of families had once worked in the same industry, but that such patterns had now largely been destroyed. I remarked that Britain feels primarily like a service country, the manufacturing having moved offshore. I suppose the same is true of New Zealand. While I don't want to sound nostalgic for an age that brought misery to millions, I can't help but feel some regret, especially knowing that the misery is simply being exported!