Etruria Canals Festival, 1st & 2nd June 2024

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.

For further details viusit the website: https://etruriamuseum.org.uk/events/etruria-canals-festival-and-mill-in-steam/

Historic England Latest Research on Wellbeing and Heritage

New research from Historic England shows that the average individual benefit of cultural heritage near individual residences to be £515, with a collective WELLBY (Wellbeing Adjusted Life Year) value of £29 billion across England. This research demonstrates that the very presence of nearby historic places benefits residents’ quality of life, whether or not they participate in heritage activities.

The research investigated the impacts of different types of heritage, including listed buildings (Grade I, Grade II* and Grade II buildings), scheduled monuments, protected wrecks, registered parks and gardens, battlefields and world heritage sites. The findings reveal a statistically significant, positive, relationship between the density of local heritage assets and self-reported life satisfaction, after adjusting for various socio-economic, neighbourhood and regional effects. The analysis also demonstrates that Grade II listed buildings, which represent 92% of England’s historic places on the National Heritage List for England, are the main drivers of life satisfaction increases.

The report concludes that these findings highlight the intrinsic value of cultural heritage in contributing to societal wellbeing, and provide a compelling argument for its preservation and integration into society development and wellbeing strategies.

To read more about this research follow this link: Heritage Capital and Wellbeing: Examining the Relationship Between Heritage Density and Life Satisfaction

IHN London visit to Crossness Pumping Station.

Walking the Wandle Textile Trail Sunday 12th May 2024

Join textile artist and London National Park City Ranger Elly for a walk along South London’s River Wandle. The Wandle was a heavily industrialised river in the 18th and 19th centuries and was declared “dead” in the 1960s. It has been restored to life over the last 50 years and is now a beautiful chalk stream habitat and home to a wide variety of wildlife. 

Travel back in time as you travel along the Wandle Trail and find out about the Wandle’s rich history as a site of textile production, and how this history is a microcosm of the global textile industry today. Learn about the challenges that the Wandle faces from single use plastic pollution and wastewater discharges, and how local activists have been working to improve this environment for years. The walk will take you from restored chalk stream to culverted urban river, from new housing developments to National Trust gardens, from modern industry to the repurposed buildings of the Liberty Print Works.

Start at 11am at Hackbridge Community Gardens, Nightingale Road, Carshalton SM5 2EN. Nearest station: Hackbridge (Southern, Thameslink)

Finish 1pm at Merton Abbey Mills, Watermill Way, London SM19 2RD. Nearest Station: Colliers Wood (Northern Line)

Access: this walk is over flat terrain, and most of the footpaths have hard surfaces. There are some sections that haven’t been surfaced and these can become muddy in wet weather so please wear appropriate footwear. There are toilets at the LIDL opposite Hackbridge station, at Morden Hall Park and Merton Abbey Mills.

Historic England & Civic Voice Launch Survey on Blue Plaques

Historic England and Civic Voice are collaborating in the launch of a survey to understand the impact of different local plaque schemes across England and the organisations behind them. As Historic England receives nominations from the public as a part of a new blue plaque scheme, they are seeking views from civic organisations on how to set up and develop them. You can fill out the Blue Plaques survey here

This survey comes as Historic England (HE) runs a new national blue plaque scheme on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). This summer, from mid-May to mid-July, you can submit your own nominations for a blue plaque. There will be advice on what HE are looking for in the nomination process, an online application form, and details on how it will be decided who gets a plaque. The unveiling of Historic England’s latest blue plaque, in April, to Clarice Cliff celebrated her enduring influence on the world of pottery. Born 125 years ago, Cliff’s journey from a young apprentice to a globally renowned ceramic artist is a testament to her talent and innovation. Her vibrant and unconventional “Bizarre-ware” designs captured the imagination of buyers worldwide, earning her a place among the most influential ceramic artists of the 20th century.

Further details on how to nominate here: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/blue-plaque-scheme/

Greenwich Industrial History Society Online Talk on Steam Pumping Stations in the Victorian Sanitary Crisis, May 2024

The May talk from the Greenwich Industrial History Society covers how Victorian engineers helped to solve the sanitary crisis in the nineteenth century, with a special focus on south-east London – the picture shows Charlton pumping station. The speaker is James Douet, an industrial archaeologist who was once with English Heritage listing division. Since 1996 he has been an exhibition curator based in Barcelona. He will he talking to GIHS via Zoom from Barcelona on Tuesday 14 May, starting at 19:15 for 19:30 UK time.

For details of how to register for your free place to see and hear James follow the instructions below. The free talk is open to members of Greenwich Industrial History Society and anyone else who is interested in the industrial history of our area. For this talk James will draw on his recent Historic England publication, The Architecture of Steam, published by Liverpool University Press, to reveal how sanitary engineers and steam engine builders worked out the technical and architectural solutions to the Victorian sanitary crisis. He shows how steam pumping stations were critical to pulling British cities back from the devastating living conditions caused by industrialisation, with pioneering developments in water supply and sewage disposal made in south London.

How to reserve your FREE place

·   This free talk will be by Zoom only in the evening of Tuesday 14 May, starting at 19:15 for 19:30 UK time.

·   You must book your free slot by sending an email to greenwichindustrial@gmail.com with the subject line “GIHS talk on 14 May” before 19:00 UK time on Tuesday 14 May.

·   GIHS will send you Zoom log-in details before the talk starts. (Don’t chase us; we have to wait until we have all the registrations.)

GIHS will record the meeting and plan to put the recording on their YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@GreenwichIndustrialHistorySoc) – though this might take a few weeks. You can already see some of their other talks here, dating back to 2020.

Charlton Pumping Station

Industrial Heritage Sites in England Survey Form Now Live

The Old Furnace, IGMT, Coalbrookdale

The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and Heritage Innovation are undertaking a survey of the c.600 publicly accessible and protected industrial heritage sites in England. The ‘Designated Industrial Heritage Sites Open to the Public in England Project’ 2024 Survey is now live. It is open to all publically accessible Industrial Heritage Sites in England and the deadline is 10th May. 

Funded by Historic England, the 2024 survey will gather data on these sites which can be compared with the earlier reports. The main focus will be visitor numbers, conservation and maintenance, funding models, and community engagement. The survey will also consider how sites are responding to the challenges of Covid-19, the cost-of-living crisis and climate change. Any parties who receive an invitation to complete the survey are urged to do so where possible, as this will help to build a truer picture of the experience of sites and people and can inform the subsequent management recommendations.

The survey deadline is 10th May.  We want to hear from you – so if you haven’t received a link to the survey and wish to participate, please check your junk folder or email IHSO@ironbridge.org.uk for a direct link.

Wandle Industrial Heritage Walk, 19th April 2024

The Wandle Industrial Museum is organising an Industrial Heritage walk on 19th April 2024. The event is free and starts at 11am, meeting at Collliers Wood Station, and finishing around noon.

The walk will take in Miller’s Mead, Wandle Park, Merton Mill which was converted to flats having previously housed a flour mill, and then Connolly’s leather works, a housing estate where a calico printing works. The walk will then head to where Paxton’s patent leather factory once stood, Wandle Bank, William Morris’s works, and end at Merton Abbey Mills, where refreshments will be available in the former Liberty textile printing buildings. 

Although the walk is free any donations to the Wandle Industrial Museum are most welcome. To book email: john.sheridan08@gmail.com

Historic England Funding More Projects to Uncover and Celebrate Working Class Heritage

Historic England’s Everyday Heritage Grant programme aims to shine a light on the diversity of heritage and is part of Historic England’s commitment to ensuring that a wider range of people are able to connect with, enjoy and benefit from the historic environment. Building on the success of Historic England’s  first round of Everyday Heritage Grants in 2022, they are funding an additional 56 projects that celebrate working class histories and the historic places that make up everyday life.

The grants are for creative projects that focus on heritage connecting people to historic places, specifically those people and places that are overlooked or underrepresented. The community-led projects will explore the diverse stories of people and places, such as homelessness in Waterloo, a pen factory in Newhaven, and roller-skating in Birmingham. The total amount of funding awarded by Historic England is £875,000, ranging from £6,800 to £25,000 per individual project.

For details of all these projects and those funded in 2023 follow this link: https://historicengland.org.uk/campaigns/help-write-history/everyday-heritage-grants/

L T C Rolt: Life, Work, Legacy. Ironbridge Conference Booking Now Open

Booking is now open for a major conference at Ironbridge looking at the life, work, and legacy of L T C Rolt on the 10th May 2024. L T C Rolt, also known as Tom, was a renowned practical engineer and prolific author who wrote books and articles on industrial history, canals, railways, and cars as well as fiction. Rolt was an early supporter of the work of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and is regarded as one of the founders of the 20th century waterways and railway preservation movements. He was also involved in helping to establish the Association for Industrial Archaeology.

To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust has partnered with academics from Keele University to host a conference on Friday 10th May which will celebrate his life and the continuing legacy of his work. There will also be conference-related events on the 9th and 11th May.

The programme can be seen by following this link:

🗓️ See the programme here: https://bit.ly/42XRI0y

To book tickets follow this link:

🎟️ Get your tickets here: https://bit.ly/49xHcjm

The team responsible for the recent re-archiving of the Rolt collection at IGMT

Industrial World Heritage Workshop April 2024

World Heritage UK, in conjunction with Bangor University, is delighted to be hosting the 2024 World Heritage workshop on the 10th and 11th April 2024. The workshop will explore aspects of Industrial World Heritage as well as broader topics that will be of interest to all World Heritage and heritage professionals.

The two-day workshop will cover topics such as regeneration, events, tourism, STEM, intangible heritage, slavery and more. Included are afternoon guided site visits to Dinorwig Quarry, the National Slate Museum, Penrhyn Castle and Quarry and the Slate Landscape of NW Wales WHS, refreshments and buffet lunches. There is a social event on Wednesday evening with local food and live local music. Tickets for this social night are sold separately.

In-person workshop tickets are £100 for National Trust members, £115 for non-National Trust members and £75 for digital tickets. The social night is £30 pp. Sadly there is no wheelchair access to the social night.

For more details and to book, please go to https://worldheritageuk.org/events/world-heritage-uk-2024-spring-workshop/

There you’ll also find details on how to get to Bangor, and suggestions on where to stay, including discounted accommodation at the university’s management centre.