Good afternoon everybody and welcome toRiverside Industrial Village.
To start your visit I'm just going to give you a briefaccount of the history of the museum before lettingyou roam about on your own.
I won't keep you long. OK?
Now, from where we're standing you've got a goodview of the river over there.
And it was because of this fast-flowing water thatthis site was a natural place for manufacturingworks.
The water and the availability of raw materials inthe area, like minerals and iron ore,
and also the abundance of local fuels, like coal and firewood,
all made this site suitable for industry from a very early time.
Water was the main source of power for the early industries
and some of the water wheels were first established in the twelfth century, would youbelieve?
At that time, local craftsmen first built an iron forge
just behind the village here, on the bend in the river.
By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the region's rivers supported more than ahundred and sixty water mills
and many of these continued to operate well into the nineteenth century.
But then the steam engine was invented and then the railways came
and the centres of industry were able to move away from the rivers and the countryside andinto the towns.
So, industrial villages like this one became very rare.
So that's the history for you.
If you'd like any more information, you can ask me some questions,
or you can read further in our excellent guide book.