The first edition (1973) was acclaimed and it firmly established the
Shropshire Coalfield as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. After
several reprints a new edition appeared in 1981, but since then there
has been much further research, and re-examination of interpretations,
prompting a completely re-written book with an entirely new structure,
and with many more illustrations, all integrated with the relevant text.
This is the book that made Ironbridge a place of international
pilgrimage, and, in its new edition, provides a 21st-century explanation
why!