Welcome to the Industrial Heritage Networks and Support website. This site is maintained and updated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust who run the project and the networks. We aim to support industrial heritage in England through networking, information exchange, guidance, and training. Please explore the website and please contribute! For more information you can … Read more Welcome to the IHNs website!
There’s still time to register your industrial heritage site for 2024’s Heritage Open Days. Last year more than 200 industrial heritage sites took part, offering free events across England, and raising awareness about their activities and history.
Overall, there were more than 923,000 festival visits across 5,282 heritage events in England – the highest number of visitors for England’s largest festival of history and culture ever recorded. More details for the 2023 event here: https://heritageopendays.org.uk/resource/festival-review-2023.html
Heritage Open Days offers free access to organisers to a wide range of support materials and guidance including bunting and risk assessment templates. Its also a chance to connect with people across the country, with over 2,000+ organisers meeting to share ideas.
The 2024 Festival fo Archaeology, run by the Council for British Archaeology, will run from the 13th July to the 28th July across the UK. The Festival incorporates hundreds of in-person and virtual events delivered by community groups, heritage organisations, universities, commercial units across the UK.
This year’s festival theme is archaeology and community, and since the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) will be celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2024 its the perfect opportunity to celebrate the grassroots groups, societies, and individuals that share a passion for archaeology across the UK. https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html
Several industrial archaeology and heritage sites are taking part this year. These include the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust who are running a free open day at Coalbrookdale, sponsored by the Association for Industrial Archaoelogy, and the National Trust who have an open day at Force Crag Mine in Cumbria. Other free industrial events include an animation workshop at Nenthead mines in Cumbria and a variety of talks and walks.
As part of the national Festival of Archaeology 2024, organised by the Council for British Archaoelopgy, the 27th July will see free entry to Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, as the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT) hosts a special day-long event.
A series of talks, walks, and tours will take place throughout the day, and local historical and archaeological societies and groups will be on-site talking to visitors about their work.
The London Museum of Water and Steam (LMWS) has launched a funding appeal for its ‘Great Engine House Project’. The Great Engine House is home to the Grand Junction 100 Inch and the 90 Inch beam engines which pumped clean water into the homes of millions of Londoners between 1838 and 1944.
The Museum is based in a Georgian water pumping station in Brentford, West London, and is home to a large collection of steam engines. Described by DCMS as “the most important historic site of the water supply industry in Britain” the LMWS shares the history, science, and the stories behind London’s public water supply.
Now it needs public help to preserve this internationally important collection. The Museum has a funding and maintenance backlog due to the COVID lockdowns and lack of funds for expensive scaffolding. The Grade I listed Engine House and the two huge beam engines it contains have all suffered significant degredation over the last few years.
The ‘Great Engine House Project’ aims to return the engine house to a watertight state, remove damaging past repairs, conserve the engines and improve their environmental conditions, improve accessibility, remove any materials containing asbestos, and reduce carbon emissions from running the engines.
The latest round of online meetings for the Industrial Heritage Networks in England are now taking place. Members will be recieving a ‘save the date’ email this week and then links to the meetings in the following weeks. These meetings are run by the Ironbridge Gorge Musuem Trust as part of the IHSO project. The networks provide a chance for those involved in running and maintaining industrial heritage sites, archaeological monuments, or local societies to get together and discuss current issues and experiences.
One of the current themes being explored by this year’s network meetings is how industrial museums, groups, and those supporting industrial archaeology monuments work with their local authority and how that has changed over the years. Membership of the regional networks is voluntary and free. If you would like to take part please email the IHSO at: mike.nevell@ironbridge.org.uk
Dates for the 2024 Online Industrial Heritage Network meetings:
Fifty years ago, a group of heritage enthusiasts founded the Waterworks Museum at the Hereford Victorian Pumping Station, built to supply clean water for Herefordshire. Now a thriving Museum, it has one of the country’s widest collections of pumping engines, including early beam and hot-air machines.
The vision of founding member Stephen Southall with colleagues William Herbert Austin, Herbert Penhale and John Townsend was all about telling the story of water supply and preserving and restoring machinery and engines for public enjoyment. The Victorian building has been restored and includes the original Worth Mackenzie steam engine which used to take water from the Wye and pump it to the adjacent treatments works
Beam engine image coutresy of The Warertwork Museum.
The Museum first opened its doors in April 1975. Ever since, we’ve been caring for the collection and welcoming visitors to this very special place. Our collection has grown to include additional water treatment exhibits and buildings and this tradition continues into 2024 with the inauguration and formal opening of two newly restored exhibits, the Sisson Engine Set and the Brockhampton Set.
Throughout this 50-year period, the museum has been supported financially by two benefactors, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water and the Southall Trust. We remain extremely grateful for the encouragement and endorsement of our benefactors and their continuing long association with the museum. The Museum is run entirely by volunteers and receives no public funding.
“What is astounding is the fact that this wonderful industrial heritage museum remains open and comes to life through its dedicated volunteers” says Jill Phillips, Chair of Trustees & Governance Director. “This was recognised in 2023 with the highest accolade for any volunteer community – the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. I am enormously proud and grateful to the efforts, skills and passion of volunteers both past and present. “
The Mayor odf Hereford opening the new engine display. Image courtesy of The Waterworks Museum
On Sunday 26th May The Right Worshipful, The Mayor of Hereford, Councillor Kevin Tillett led the celebratory opening of the magnificent Victorian building and working engines. In the afternoon, Richard Curtis, former Museum Chairman, officially opened the Sisson Engine display. It was built in 1953 for Reading Technical College (now part of Reading University) to train students and apprentice engineers in the efficient use of steam power.
On 11th August the Trust will be celebrating with visitors the opening of the Brockhampton Set display. Volunteers will be getting engines working and up to steam for opening from 11 am through to 4pm.
This year’s AIA Conference will be taking place in Cardiff from the 4th to 6th October 2024. On the Saturday there will be sessions by four nationally recognised specialists, with the first three exploring elements of Welsh industrial heritage and the fourth sharing results of a wider survey of 600 publicly accessible industrial sites. There will alos be tours of South Wales’ impressive industrial archaeology and heritage remains on the Friday and Sunday.
The speakers for the Saturday of the conference are: Steph Mastoris, former Head of Museums, National Museum Wales; Dr Peter Wakelin, former Secretary of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and now a heritage consultant; Dr David Gwyn, former editor of Industrial Archaeology Review and lead of the Govannon Consultancy; and Dr Paul Belford, CEO of Heritage Innovation.
Their one-hour sessions and the short AGM of the AIA will be streamed live, separated by a 30-minute lunch break, and the afternoon will end with presentations by this year’s Award winners ahead of the Conference Dinner and prize giving.
Conference Tours
On the Friday afternoon and Sunday there are optional tours.
Friday afternoon 4th October
Optional tours – choose either TOUR A: National Waterfront Museum, Swansea or TOUR B: Industrial tour of the Lower Swansea Valley
Sunday 6th October
Optional tours – choose either TOUR C: Big Pit, the National Coal Museum of Wales Or, TOUR D: Blaenavon Ironworks
The latest round of online Industrial Heritage Network (IHN) meetings will be taking place online over the summer. These free biannual network meetings, covering ten areas in England, began 2018. Since 2020 one meeting per year has been online. The theme for the current round of meetings will be maintenance and skills.
Funded through a grant by Historic England, and run by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT), these forums offer a chance for industrial heritage groups and museums to meet regionally and share common experinces with other sites and people in managing our rich industrial heritage. The dates for the summer round of online meetings is as follows:
Wednesday 19th June – London
Wednesday 26th June – North West
Wednesday 3rd July – South West
Monday 8th July – East Midlands
Wednesday 10th July – West Midlands
Monday 15th July – East of England
Tuesday 16th July – Yorkshire
Monday 22nd July – Cornwall & Devon
Wednesday 26th June – North East
Thursday 25th July – South East
Each meeting will start at middaly and last up to one and half hours. IHN members willbe emailed details on how to join by the networks welcome anyone intertetd in learnignmore about the industrial archaeology and heritage of a region. Contact the IHSO, Dr Michael Nevell, at IGMT for more details be email: mike.nevell@ironbridge.org.uk
The Essex Industrial Archaeology Group biennial Industrial Heritage Fair will take place on 14th September at the Grange Barn, in Coggeshall, 10am to 4pm. This event is running in partnership with the National Trust and is part of Heritage Open Days 2024.
There will be exhibits by Essex societies and industrial sites covering such industries as: agricultural engineering; public water supply; brick-making; metal windows; company villages. There will also be an exhibition of woodcarving tools used by local master carver Bryan Saunders until his death in 1975. The Saunders Collection is a fascinating goldmine of chisels, hammers, knives, measuring devices and other carving tools.
In addition, there are four short talks on local industries including the cloth trade and metal working, and attendees can take a self-guided tour of industrial sites in Coggeshall, including former maltings & breweries, textile factories, and the isinglass factory. Coggeshall Museum, Abbey Watermill, and the Village Smithy will also be open.
The Etruria Industrial Musuem is once more running its popular, family friendly, festival on 1st and 2nd June. This year’s theme is ’50th Anniversary of the Reopening of the Caldon Canal to Navigation’. The two day festival will feature a gathering of historic and interesting narrow boats moored along the Caldon Canal, Shirley’s 1857 Potters’ Mill in steam, music, dance, arts events and more.
Open daily from 11.00am to 5.00pm daily the event includes:
Historic Canal Boats
Entertainment and Music
Street food, Tea room and Beer tent
Puppetry and Performance
Craft Demonstrations and Stalls
Children’s Games and Activities
Shirley’s Victorian Potters’ Mill in Steam (12.30 to 4.30pm)
Blacksmith Demonstrations in the Forge
Entrance to the festival is free but there is acharge for access to Shirley’s Bone and Flint Mill.
Industrial Heritage Networks 