'People, process, place and power': An archaeology of control in East Midlands outworking 1820-1900.

British industrial archaeology lacks a methodological model for interpreting 'people and process' within mundane industrial buildings and production centres, studies of which have tended to focus on their facades rather than internal organisation, function and spatial compromise. This study tests a model investigating the imposition of industrial power and control in the three staple East Midlands outworking industries of framework-knitting, lace and footwear between 1820 and 1900, through their buildings and production landscapes. The theoretical maturity of historical archaeology has partly guided the approach taken here, but the two main elements of house, workshop and master's house discussion are functional spatial analysis and a typological assessment, both originating from mainstream applications and the study of work. The development of centres of production is an added element, with an emphasis upon building styles and location. This study's principal contribution is in suggesting a model for the detailed analysis of mundane buildings and industrial landscapes, based principally upon physical evidence. An emphasis upon the control imposed upon outworkers through building design and production centre evolution is seen as central to the study, itself a reflection of the tension between speculative capital investment and the provision of appropriate living and working conditions. Demonstrating outworking continuity is viewed as secondary, being mostly revealed through buildings and the analysis of production centres - this study does not seek to revise current historical perceptions about regional outworking. Finally, because industrial archaeology lacks a clear structure within which to locate studies of this type, it is important to place this study within a theoretical, methodological and contextual matrix. In this sense the study owes more to historical archaeology than to the former, an aspect addressed briefly in the concluding chapter.