"A history of Britain's industrial past as evidenced by its buildings, richly illustrated with line drawings. Industrial Britain takes a catholic view of its subject, going back far beyond the mills and machine houses of the Industrial Revolution to cover the water mills and oast houses of agricultural production, and including too the buildings and engineering projects associated with the distribution of manufactured goods - docks, canals, railways and warehouses. Dividing its huge subject by purpose, Industrial Britain tells a story of development and ultimate decline, as manufacturing has been increasingly supplanted by services, and new uses have to be found for at least some of Britain's great industrial buildings - not least as containers for art."--BOOK JACKET.