Coal from Camerton by Neil Macmillen and Mike Chapman

Lightmoor Press 2014  £15

This is the story of one village in the Somerset coalfield, which reflected life in this part of Somerset for over two hundred years. It was an area isolated from the other coalfields in the Midlands and South Wales until the coming of the railways and it would prove to be one of the most contorted and faulted in the UK, the seams of coal being thin and rarely level. Mining here would call for different methods from other coalfields. As a result of the difficulties caused by the coalfield being heavily faulted the introduction of underground machinery and other improvements was often delayed. As a result, extraction became increasingly uneconomic during the 20th century, although some four thousand million tons of coal still remain untapped in the Somerset coalfield.

The History of Thomas Green & Son Ltd by John Pease

Lightmoor Press 2014  £18

Thomas Green & Son, of Leeds & London, produced a prolific range of products but today are known principally for their road rollers, lawnmowers, tram engines and tank locomotives. All of these products are profusely illustrated in this book, written by a Leeds industrial historian. It covers the complete history of the company and its products, including the key people who influenced the business.

The Longmoor Military Railway - Volume 3; Inevitable Closure; Rolling Stock

David Ronald & Mike Christensen

Lightmoor Press  £30

North Staffordshire Collieries on the Hill North of Chell

LIGHTMOOR PRESS

£7.50

Peerless Powell Duffryn of the South Wales Coalfield by Leslie M. Shore

Lightmoor Press  2012  £24.99

Sir George Elliot founded Powell Duffryn Steam Coal Company in 1864. He ran the company in a style that concerned the company’s shareholders but in 1883 put Edmund Mills Hann, a County Durham mining engineer, in charge of the company’s collieries. Hann introduced engineering improvements to ensure that the PD collieries in the Cynon and Rhymney Valleys became models of efficiency. In spite of industrial conflict and natural disasters, by 1914, PD was a byword for Welsh steam coal around the globe. In 1935, Edmund Lawrence Hann led the merger of PD with Welsh Associated Collieries to create the most powerful company in British coal mining.

The Scottish Shale Oil Industry & Mineral Railway Lines by Harry Knox

Lightmoor Press  2013  £25

The Scottish Shale Oil Industry was to prove a world first, where mineral oils were produced for the first time, from the oilbearing shale lying below the county of West Lothian, and in an operation on an industrial scale. This enterprise, from the early beginnings in 1851, expanded into an extensive oil producing and refining industry which competed successfully against the increasing tide of imported petroleum and continued in operation until 1962. It remains today a source of great pride with an ongoing legacy.

The Foxton Inclined Plane by David Carden

Lightmoor Press  2012  £22.50

The Foxton Inclined Plane, completed in 1900, represented something between a grand gesture and a hopeful gamble by the Grand Junction Canal Company, facing competition from the railways. The GJCC’s Engineer, Gordon Thomas, was feted for the ingenuity of its design and construction but history has deemed the Foxton Inclined Plane to be a failure. The complexity and cost of its operation caused it to be abandoned just ten years after it opened and Gordon Thomas’ career also ended in ignominy. Author and civil engineer David Carden examines the case for the construction of the lift and the reasons for its swift decline. He also looks at the proposal for a second inclined plane at Watford. The work of the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust in conserving what remains and in establishing a museum on site in a reconstructed engine house is also addressed.

The Anderton Boat Lift by David Carden

Lightmoor Press 3rd edition  £22.50

Written by one of the consultant engineers closely associated with the restoration of this historic lift. The first boat lift at Anderton was designed by Edwin Clark and opened to traffic in 1875. Operated hydraulically, it lifted or lowered vessels the 50 feet between the Weaver Navigation and the Trent & Mersey Canal above. Between 1906 and 1908 it was converted to electrical operation, so the boat lift today is a mixture of Victorian and Edwardian engineering. This book, now in an updated third edition, looks at all aspects of the Anderton Boat Lift’s eventful life; its conception and construction; the conversion from hydraulic to electrical operation; and its operation, demise and eventual restoration. Along the way, the author considers the industry and transport systems of the Northwich area and the Staffordshire Potteries, and finishes with a brief look at the new boat lift opened in 2002 linking the Forth & Clyde and Union Canals in Scotland.

Beachley and the First World War by Carol and Richard Clammer

Lightmoor Press  2017 £25  Members £24

In the early months of 1917 German U-Boats were sinking Allied merchant ships at a much faster rate than they could be replaced. To boost shipbuilding capacity three new shipyards on the banks of the Severn Estuary were planned, the largest of which was to be located on the rural Beachley Peninsula in Gloucestershire. At the end of the war the yard was still unfinished and the plan was abandoned, amidst accusations regarding its cost and alleged mismanagement. This book details the construction process and its impact on the local community. One chapter is devoted to the railway that was laid to serve the yard and an appendix lists all the locos employed. It is illustrated by a wide selection of photographs and documents.

The Tredegar Company, One of the South Wales Coalfield’s Big Three by Leslie M. Shore

Littlemoor Press   2017   £25

In the nineteenth century the Tredegar iron works operated at the head of the Sirhowy Valley on land owned by the Morgan family, near the city of Newport. During the Railway Age, the works supplied iron rail to the world and after 1840 the company's sale of steam coal boomed. In 1873, the Tredegar Iron & Coal Company acquired the assets of the Tredegar Iron Company. From 1898, coal was mined at McLaren Colliery and the company went on to open Oakdale Navigation Collieries, Markham Colliery and Wyllie Colliery. It also built model villages to house the families of miners. In a climate of industrial conflict and political change the company became one of the 'Big Three' of the South Wales Coalfield. This is a history of the Tredegar Company with an account of the fate of the company's collieries under National Coal Board control.