Quite a bit of fuss has been made about the great British industrial retardation debate. To this day, we are not precisely sure what the most important issues of this debate are. Some commentators claim that Britain simply entered a stage of slower natural growth after 1870. This paper will look at the so-called period of industrial retardation in Britain that began circa 1870. The primary objective is to evaluate what exactly happened and whether or not it is worthy of its title. Was industrial retardation characteristic of the whole period, or was it sporadic and limited to certain years? This is but one of many questions that will guide the paper towards its conclusion.