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1751 AD to 1914 AD (end of the 18th century AD to the beginning of the 20th century AD)
This period comes after the Post Medieval period and before the modern period and starts with beginning of the Industrial Revolution in 1750. It includes the second part of the Hannoverian period (1714 – 1836) and the Victorian period (1837 – 1901). The Imperial period ends with the start of the First World War in 1914.[more]
From 1750 onwards there were rapid developments in technology. New inventions, such as the steam engine, made manufacturing possible on a large scale. Mills and factories were built and towns began to grow.
More people started to live and work in towns rather than the countryside. Hat factories opened in Atherstone, Nuneaton and Bedworth. Alcester and the Arrow Valley is known for its needle mills.
Coal was needed to produce steam, which ran the machinery in the factories. Collieries were opened up all over the northern part of Warwickshire. A network of canals, and their associated wharves, locks and lock keepers’ cottages, was also built so that the coal could be transported from the coal mines to the factories. The Coventry canal, for example, linking Coventry, Nuneaton and Tamworth was built during the 1770s. The Grand Union canal was completed in 1800.
Warwickshire’s railways were built during this period. The first was opened in 1826. It ran from Stratford through the south Warwickshire countryside to Moreton in Marsh, with a branch running to Shipston on Stour.
At the beginning of the 1800s Leamington Spa grew as a royal Spa town. A number of springs were discovered which were believed to be beneficial for medical purposes. Those people who could afford to, visited the town to drink and bathe in the water at the The Royal Pump Rooms, which were built in 1814.
Many of the buildings in the centre of the town date to the time, which is called the Regency period. It has been given this name because it was when George III’s son acted as the Regent or king because his father was ill.
The opening of Spas in other parts of Warwickshire was not as successful. In the 1830s a group of businessmen came up with the idea of developing an inland visitor resort. They built the Victoria Spa at Bishopton, which opened in 1837. It was not as popular with visitors as they had expected and so it closed some time later and the businessmen lost all their money.
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