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!
The lastest industrial heritage podcast from the IHSO project is now available to listen and download. This episode is an interview with Nick Smith, one of a small group of volunteers at Cheddleton Flint Mill in Staffordshire and a trustee of the trust that looks after the site.
The aim of this podcast was to hear from Nick about the mill’s history, to discuss how the site was saved, and how it has been conserved for future generations. You can learn more about the mill and current events on site here: https://cheddletonflintmill.com/
This podcast is part of the wider Archaeotea podcast series recorded by the IHSO, Dr Michael Nevell. You can follow this link to listen to the new episode.
The Council for Britsh Archaeology (CBA) has launched a new volunteering page, listing opportunities across the UK. You can search by your region to find volunteering callouts near you. However, the page doesn’t just listed opportunities for volunteers, but also has a section where groups, sites, and museums can list their own volunteering opportunities in archaeology and heritage.
Current industrial archaeology and heritage volunteer openings include opportunities to help Kingswood Heritage Museum (a brassworks) in South Glouscestershire, digitising opportunities with the Food Museum, and helping out with the North Tynside Steam Railway.
To learn more about new volunteer opportunities sign up for the CBA volunteering newesletter by following this link:
September is Heritage Open Days season in England, and hundreds of industrial heritage sites and activities are available for the 2025 event. Heritage Open Days is co-ordinated by the National Trust and for 2025 runs from 12 to 21 September.
As in previous years, several hundered industrial heritage sites will be opening their doors for free to the public, whilst dozens more events, from talks to walks will look at the stories of industrial archaeology, history, and the people involved across England. With the ‘Railway 200’ anniversay celebrations for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825 culminating at the end of September, it seems appropriate that there are over a hundred railway-related sites and events available this year.
Other industrial heritage site types accessible, some only open for Heritage Open Days, include over 40 watermills and dozens of windmills, as well as ironworks, potteries, textile mills, canals, and transport museums. To explore England’s rich industrial legacy this September follow this link:
The Heritage Open Days initiative is part of the wider European Heritage Open Days events running througout September 2025. Elsewhere in the UK these include the Welsh ‘Open Doors Days’, the Scottish ‘Doors Open Days’, and Northern Ireland’s ‘European Heritage Open Days’ events (13-14 September). Further details on these UK events can be found here: https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/resource/european-heritage-days-2025-explore-more.html
The Association for Heritage Interpretation (AHI) is running a seminar on 17 September on interpretation p[anels. The seminar will look at how to make interpretation panels work for your site. This will be led by Bill Bevan, author of the AHI best-practice guideline about panels. Bill will introduce some key considerations when commissioning, locating, writing, and designing a panel, and take questions and discussions.
The AHI promote excellence in the practice and provision of interpretation and to gain wider recognition of interpretation as a professional activity. They believe that interpretation enriches our lives through engaging emotions, enhancing experiences, and deepening understanding of places, people, events, and objects from the past and present.
There are still places available for the next in-person Yorkshire Industrial Heritage Network meeting. This will be held at the Calderdale Industrial Museum, Halifax, on the 27th August, from 11am to 1pm. This will be followed, after lunch (please bring your own), by a tour of the site (2pm to 3pm). The themes for the 2025-26 IHN meetings are conservation and maintenance.
The Calderdale Industrial Museum opened in 1985 in a converted textile warehouse. The museum holds a large number of objects and tracks the development of industry in Halifax and Calderdale from domestic textile manufacture in the seventeenth century through to 20th century. It is located in the centre of Halifax, five minutes from the train station.
To book a place on the network meeting follow this link:
Arst Council England (ACE) is encouraging museums, especially museums within Priority Places, (where there are many industrial heritage sites) to apply for their National Lottery Project Grants (Project Grants) scheme. This is an open access programme for arts, libraries, and museums project funding. Grants range from £1,000 to over £100,000; they are divided into applications for under £30,000, applications for £30,001 to £100,000 and applications for £100,001 and over.
Unlocking Collections: This is a time limited priority, the deadline for applications has been extended until November 2025, ACE is prioritising and encouraging museums to apply for activity to develop their collections-based work and increase public engagement with, and use of, their collections. Funding could support: reinterpretation of collections; collections review; digital skills development
Place Partnership Fund: ACE’s Place Partnership Fund is to support partnerships that aim to make a step change in the cultural and creative opportunities in the applicants area. It’s open to everyone but may be of particular interest to organisations in ACE’s Priority Places or DCMS’s Levelling Up for Culture Places.
Industrial Heritage sites in England are amongst 37 heritage sites set to receive £15 million in funding as a part of the Government’s ‘Heritage At Risk’ fund. The funding will go towards repair works and the conservation of heritage buildings at risk, and is a part of the Government’s £270 million ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’. The fund has prioritised projects that will restore heritage sites serving disadvantaged communities and which demonstrate strong local benefits, from job creation to cultural events.
The National Trust has announced major funding to double the length of its Manchester’s Castlefield Viaduct “sky park” from 150m to 350m. The £2.75m needed will come from National Highways (£2.4m), Manchester City Council (£100k), Greater Manchester Combined Authority (£100k), and Railway Heritage Trust (£150k).
Opened in 2022 the extended ‘sky park’ will add improved accessibility via a new western entrance with lift access, making it a through-route for the first time. The expanded park will also feature WaterAid’s gold medal-winning garden from the 2024 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. It s expected to open in summer 2026. The viaduct is open Wednesday – Sunday 10am – 5pm, with no booking needed.
AIA have realeased details of its annual conference which this year will be based in the historic Midland Hotel, Bradford, part of the rich railway heritage in the centre of this year’s host of the UK City of Culture. The conference returns to a more traditional format, of weekend talks and the AGM, followed by 3 days of tours, although the AIA are offering the oppportunity to book individual weekend days and online weekend access.
As usual, the weekend programme will include a number of lectures on the region’s industrial heritage and presentations by AIA’s award winners. On the Sunday morning, following a short AGM, the annual prestige lecture will be given by Dr Michael Bailey, marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, on the subject of the Archaeology of Early Locomotives.
From Sunday afternoon to the morning of Wednesday 10 September there will be a varied programme of visits to important industrial sites in the area, including the Saltaire World Heritage Site. Delegates can opt to attend for just the weekend sessions or the whole five days, and online participation in the weekend programme is also possible.
There are free places available through the Patrick Nott bursary, which allows the AIA to offer some free places at Conference, including accommodation and tours.
The 2025 Festival of Archaeology runs from the 19th July to the 3rd August and this year’s theme is archaeology and wellbeing. Amongst the hundreds of events on offer are several industrial archaeology and heritage activities, including free tours of one of the most important sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site: the Bedlam Furnaces.
The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is offering the opportunity to go behind the fence to explore one of the oldest blast iron furnaces in the World Heritage Site: the 18th century Bedlam Furnaces. Three, one-hour, guided tours are available at 11am, 12.30pm & 2pm. Numbers are limited due to the nature of the site.
You’ll find listings on Council for British Archaeology’s website for all the Festival events happening across the UK and online. There are also a range of resources that you can access all year round including lectures, trails and guides to crafting ideas for all ages. You can also find out about different aspects of archaeology in our catalogue of ‘A Day in Archaeology’ blogs and videos.
Industrial Heritage Networks 