Description

In 1950 few people thought that gas holders or bottle ovens were beautiful, or that the ruins of a blast furnace, a steam-worked railway line or a cotton mill might be appropriate destinations for family outings. This book shows how attitudes to the industrial past changed in Europe in the years that followed the Second World War.

It is an historical document, consisting of travel diaries revealing how, textile factories and ironworks were conserved, neglected railways and waterways were brought back to life, and open-air museums following Scandinavian precedents were established in Germany, Belgium, Poland and the United Kingdom, while the concept of the écomusée was developed in France.

The book also reflects a lost world of travel, of boat trains and channel packets, Trans Europe Expresses and overnight sleeper trains, and the Hovercraft and Jetfoils that linked England with France and Belgium before the Channel Tunnel opened.

The book describes fascinating places that will be unfamiliar to many in the United Kingdom, including Maribo, Motala, Mulhouse and Monschau. It will be an enlightening source for students of museums and conservation movements as well as to railway and waterways enthusiasts and to all who have a fascination for social history.