Somerset Industrial Archaeological Society

Dartmouth, Devon, was a significant coal bunkering port for steamships from the late 19th century, employing large numbers of tough, competitive workers called coal lumpers who manually loaded coal from barges/hulks into ships' bunkers, a dangerous but well-paid job until mechanization and changing ship types led to its decline around the First World War. For details about how to…

Speaker Colin White has identified the locations and condition of around twenty-five World War II covert listening stations (known as "Y-Stations") in the West Country, many along the strategically important coastlines of the English and Bristol Channels. They collected vast quantities of encrypted enemy radio messages, which were the raw material for the codebreakers at Bletchley Park…