Industrial history

My attention was drawn yesterday to this new-to-me pump standing in Cornhill, in the City. Which led me to the interesting compendium of industrial history at reference 1. Which knows all about the pump and, for example, the Kirkaldy Testing Museum in Southwark Street, a place I came across some time ago but have yet to manage a visit. And I am still confusing Kirkaldy the engineer, with Kirkcaldy the place. Probably both Scottish though.

However, it did not do so well on the antique, water flavoured ironmongery lying around in the fields around the Priest House Hotel, up north, on the Trent, where we once stayed. Ironmongery which gave the impression that there had once been some serious industry there. A hotel notable for a waiter who broke a window to get into his car to get his corkscrew, rather than use someone else's corkscrew. And for being near a large airport which appeared to function as a subsidiary of DHL Express.

'Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 131,864 pages of information and 209,241 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them... The project commenced in 2007 when Andrew Tweedie, the founder, retired from an executive role in the commercial business he had founded and had the time to concentrate on the subject of industrial history in which he had been interested for many years. One of his chief motivators was to ensure that sources of information relating to the industrial heritage of England were preserved for future generations. At a later stage, he was joined by others who share the same passion. There are also occasional contributions from readers who can add to the information that is published, either from personal experience or from sources in their possession'.

Reference 1: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Main_Page.

Reference 2: https://alondoninheritance.com/london-monuments/the-cornhill-water-pump/. Where there is a photo of the pump in its unrestored condition, from 1948, complete with 150 years of London soot and grime. From the days when we still had some industry and so did not need to get so excited about our industrial heritage.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/search?q=Kirkaldy.

Reference 4: http://www.thepriesthouse.co.uk/. For a glimpse of some of the ironmongery. Rather better glimpses turned up by Google.