industrial archaeology – Page 8 – Industrial Heritage Networks

Citizen Canal Heritage Survey Project Calls for Volunteers

September 19, 2025September 17, 2025mikenevell

The Canal & River Trust (CRT) is appealing for people interested in the history of canals to volunteer to map and record the heritage of Yorkshire’s 250-year-old canals, as part of a national survey. The heritage survey will chart how the canal system has changed over the past 30 years, by updating and augmenting a survey of canals completed in the early 1990s by British Waterways and Historic England (then English Heritage).

Over the course of several weeks earlier this year, CRT ran a pilot of the heritage survey on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. Teams of volunteers used an app developed specifically to survey a range of heritage assets situated along the canal between Leeds and Liverpool. This work included looking at locks and lock cottages, bridges, aqueducts, tunnels, wharfs, warehouses, and stables. The project is now being rolled out across the 2,000-mile network of canals that span England and Wales, with the Yorkshire survey the latest area to be studied.

Carrying out the volunteer-led survey of the CRT’s network of canals, and the historic setting around them, is expected to take four years. The project is supported by funds raised by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.

More details here: https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/news-and-views/news/discover-the-fascinating-heritage-of-yorkshire-and-north-easts-waterways

*Canal warehouses on the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Manchester Road Wharf, Burnley. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell*

South East Industrial Heritage Network Meeting Now Booking for 3rd October

September 12, 2025mikenevell

The next in-person South East Industrial Heritage Network meeting will be held at the Amberley Museum, West Sussex, on the 3rd October, from 11am to 1pm. This will be followed, after lunch (there is a splendid cafe on site or 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 Amberley Museum is an open-air industrial heritage museum at Amberley, near Arundel in West Sussex. The museum was founded in 1978 and is owned and operated by Amberley Museum and Heritage Centre, a not-for-profit company and charity, with the support of an active Friends organsiation. The museum occupies a former chalk pit, and includes exhibits relating to quarrying, transport, metal working, and communications. For further details follow this link: https://www.amberleymuseum.co.uk/

To book a free place at the network meeting please follow this link:

All IHN members are very welcome to attend.

*Amberley Museum entrance. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

New IHSO Podcast: Preserving Cheddleton Flint Mill

September 10, 2025September 9, 2025mikenevell

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.

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/archaeotea-podcast/episodes/Preserving-Cheddleton-Flint-Mill-e378aga/a-ac4aeos

*The two waterwheels at Cheddleton Flint Mill, Staffordshire. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

CBA Launches New Volunteer Opportunities Page

September 4, 2025mikenevell

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:

https://www.archaeologyuk.org/get-involved/volunteering.html

Hundreds of Industrial Sites to Visit for Heritage Open Days 2025

August 30, 2025mikenevell

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:

https://www.heritageopendays.org.uk/whats-on/search-2025-events.html?view=list&searchQuery=train&locationQuery=&distance=&startDate=&endDate=

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

Association for Heritage Interpretation: September Interpretation Panels Webinar

August 23, 2025mikenevell

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.

To book a place follow this link: https://ahi.org.uk/events/

Yorkshire Industrial Heritage Network Meeting, 27 August: Places Still Available

August 22, 2025mikenevell

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 27^th 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:

Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants

August 18, 2025mikenevell

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.

Further details here:

https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/ProjectGrants

Industrial Heritage Sites Benefit from New Conservation Grants

August 11, 2025mikenevell

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 industrial sites receiving funding are:

Woodhorn Colliery Shaft Heads, Ashington, Northumberland – £997,265
National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port – £250,000
Treadgolds, Portsea, Portsmouth – £485,200
The Folk Pin Factory (Grade II), Gloucester Civic Trust – £142,871

Follow this link for further details: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/37-local-heritage-sites-to-benefit-from-15-million-boost-to-breathe-new-life-into-communities-across-england

*National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, is owned and run by the Canal & River Trust. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

National Trust Secures £2.75m for Castlefield Viaduct Expansion

August 4, 2025mikenevell

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.

The Castlefield viaduct was built in the late 1870s by the Cheshire Lines Committee railway to service the former Central Station and was opened in 1880. Further details on the project here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/cheshire-greater-manchester/castlefield-viaduct

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