An item from the Maw & Co. Collection in the Museum Library & Archives assisted conservators and researchers at Westminster Abbey in piecing together the history of one of their most celebrated treasures.
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Census records are often associated with family or house history research but they can be used to investigate the social history of Britain and reveal the diversity of households and family units that existed in the past. The release of the 1921 census opened many new avenues of research and has provided revelations about the lives of many historic individuals and their families, including the family of Cecilia Maw (1876-1942), a locally born artist, and Florence Amy Thursfield (1867-1948).
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In response to the relatively poor British designs on display at the Great Exhibition of 1851, the 'Science and Art Department' was established by the Board of Education in 1856, in South Kensington.
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Many students at the Coalbrookdale School of Art already worked in the industries of the Gorge, including the Coalbrookdale Company, Craven Dunnill & Co. and Maw & Co. These companies often paid for their employees to attend art classes, to learn their craft and develop their designing skills.
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Whilst the abundance of raw materials and the innovations of industrialists and entrepreneurs sparked industry in the Gorge, it was the ordinary workers who drove it forward and made it possible for this area to become ‘the most extraordinary district in the world’.
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Very few of the men, women and children who worked in industry across the Ironbridge Gorge have left a written record of themselves or their lives and so we can struggle to find their voices. However, every object manufactured in the Gorge is evidence of the labour and lives of these workers and the objects displayed across the Ironbridge Gorge Museums demonstrate their skill and efforts.
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The ironworkers of Coalbrookdale helped to develop innovations that revolutionised industry, power, and transport across the globe.
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Changing tastes, two world wars, and competition from other industrial areas caused the industries of the Ironbridge Gorge to decline in the 20th century.
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