"The social and economic transformation of nineteenth-century England and Wales is the classic example of western industrialization
and urbanization. Viewed from the perspective of social and environmental history, this transformation provides an interesting
way to examine the impact of new technology on past human and physical environments. One far-reaching example is the steam-powered
railroad system which grew to reach nearly all corners of England and Wales from its beginning in the 1830s to its apogee
on the eve of World War I. The landscape of the Victorian City was a monument to the railway age, with its huge train stations
and rail yards, together with the great earthworks and tunnels that the rail network required. To its stations, moreover,
came more and more individuals and families who were moving to town in search of better opportunities, leaving the countryside
behind and villages in decline.
Did the railways facilitate migration from countryside to town? What was the timing, extent, and geography of rural depopulation?
Did rural men and women migrate in similar patterns? Thanks to GIS methods, all of these questions can be taken up more effectively
now than was previously possible."
