April marks the re-organisation of the Museum Development (MD) support scheme in England. Arts Council England will support the new MD regional partnerships from 1 April 2024 until 31 March 2027. These new partnerships build on the English regional teams’ experience of collaborative working since 2018, with the programme for the next three years continuing to support museums, and the people who work for, and volunteer in them.
AIM’s latest Spark! programme is aimed at supporting trustees of volunteer-run museums to strengthen shared problem solving and build networks of support. If your trustees and Board want to improve their governance and operational activities, then this is the programme for you. Specifically, it aims to strengthen shared problem solving, building networks of support, and working together, through a series of online workshops, action learning sets and individual coaching sessions.
Participants will work through a series of online workshops, action learning sets and individual coaching sessions. This programme is designed for Trustees of volunteer-run museums, though those from museums with a small number of paid staff will also be considered. It is being developed for trustees who have spent some time in role, as opposed to new Trustees who should consider the AIM Trustee Induction workshop.
For more information on this new programme or to make an application, contact Margaret Harrison, AIM Head of Programmes on margaret@aim-museums.co.uk with the following information:
Your name, role, and organisation
The number of Trustees on your Board
What you hope to get out of the programme with regard to your own and the Board’s governance effectiveness
Describe your Board’s working relationship with your Director
Outline your organisation’s key governance challenge over the last twelve months
Digital Works is running a project collecting oral histories relating to London’s holiday camps. The ‘Hello Campers!’ project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, is looking for project volunteers and for people to be interviewed regarding their reminiscences on this subject.
Oral history specialists Digital Works are working at The British Film Institute to explore the history of Londoner’s experiences at places such as Butlins and Pontins from the 1950s until now. No previous experience is required for volunteering, as full support and training will be on offer. Digital Works have previously work on a very successful project collecting oral history of Wimbledon Football Club and the origins of AFC Wimbledon, culminating in the release of an associated film. All training is free and will be at the BFI Southbank. You will need to be available on the week beginning May 22nd 2023.
The National Trust are currently recruiting volunteers at the Mill at Dunham Massey, Trafford, Greater Manchester. The 17th century water-powered saw mill is one of the oldest buildings on the estate, as well as being one of the few working watermills in the region.
The Mill volunteers play a vital role in bringing Dunham Massey to life and will help to: make visitors feel welcome and ensuring they have a memorable visit; deliver a daily programme of tours; familiarise themselves with the character and history of the mill; help to undertake simple practical work in maintaining the Mill (training provided); and assist with visitor queries.
Informal interview dates: 8 and 11 Feb 2023. Further details on how to apply can be found here:
The Port Sunlight Village Trust are seeking a new voluntary trustee board member with expertise in global heritage conservation. This is following the announcing of their World Heritage ambitions for Port Sunlight.
Port Sunlight is the world’s finest planned working-class community, and was founded by ‘Soap King’ William Hesketh Lever in 1888. The village was built to house Lever’s ‘Sunlight Soap’ factory workers.
The Bath Stone Quarry Museum Trust is a charity set up by the David Pollard 30 years ago. Until his untimely death in September 2017 he had collected a large number of items, documents and photos relating to the quarrying and transport of Bath Stone with the eventual intention of opening a museum. The collection is safely housed in an industrial unit at Corsham – which was the centre of the quarrying business in later years.
Last year the AIA part funded the restoration of the Trust’s Stothert and Pitt crane which is destined for display on the Riverside at Bath close to the site of the Stothert & Pitt works. The trustees recently commissioned Dr Peter Stanier to assess the importance of the collection. He found that the collection was the most complete of its kind and not only of local, regional but also national importance. The collection is unique in including tools that would have been recognised by Roman quarry men right through to massive machines in operation into the 21st Century. One of the trustees has been carefully cataloguing the collection and David’s widow, Nina Roberts, is now looking for help with that work as well for additional trustees who could take forward the vision of a museum.
The National Trust staff at Dunham Massey are looking for volunteers for their water-powered mill. Built in the early 17th century as an estate corn mill, it was converted to a sawmill in 1860. The waterwheel still drives machinery including a frame saw, band saw, circular saw, boring machine, and a lathe.The mill volunteers play a vital role in bringing Dunham Massey to life. Working as a close team, you will inspire visitors by sharing your passion and knowledge for the Mill, the oldest building on the estate.
Dunham Massey is a National Trust estate close to Altrincham, in Trafford Greater Manchester. It comprises a Georgian mansion house, deer park, and seasonal gardens. Their staff team is supported by over 400 volunteers across the property. At Dunham Massey the NT is making the volunteering opportunities more vibrant, accessible, and diverse, and they’d like volunteers to help to achieve this.
What’s in it for you?
Being part of a friendly, supportive, and dedicated team
Expanding your knowledge about a fascinating part of the Dunham Massey estate
Meeting people from all walks of life and making new friends
Building your confidence and improving your communication skills
Anyone interested should apply through the National Trust website – follow the link here:
The latest free downloadable guidelines from Heritage Digital have been released to celebrate the end of Volunteers Week. Heritage Digital are also running an online webinar on 175th June on recruiting, retaining, and managing digital volunteers.
Heritage Digital is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Digital Skills for Heritage funding stream, and aims to increase the amount of free digital skills training and support available to heritage organisations. Booking for the free webinar on the 15th June can be made here: Charity Digital – Heritage Digital Events
Want to know how to get your industrial archaeology and heritage work published and make an impact with your research? The Association for Industrial Archaeology Young Members Board are hosting a one hour seminar with speakers from Publishers Taylor & Francis alongside the Editors of the Industrial Archaeology Review on 23rd April 2021. This will be followed by a 30 minute Q & A where you get to ask the experts!
This free event is aimed at students and early-career professionals in the fields of history, heritage, archaeology, and engineering, but it will also be a great event for anyone, especially industrial archaeology and heritage volunteers, who wants to brush up on academic publishing best practice.
The second online Industrial Heritage Network meeting was held on 20th November 2020 by the North West IHN group. 15 people joined that meeting. Shane Gould of Historic England talked about current developments relating to Industrial Heritage. The current IHSO, Mike Nevell, then brought everyone up-to-date with the project and some of the impacts of COVID-19.
Mike noted that in October, 10 industrial heritage organisations in North West England received £1.21 million from the Cultural Recovery Fund. This was split into £0.41m from Arts Council England and £0.8m from Historic England. The grants were to support a variety of industrial heritage sites including the British Commercial Vehicle Museum, Catalyst, Leigh Building Preservation Trust, and the Ribble Steam Railway.
Members then discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted their work from volunteering to maintenance and visitor numbers. Only 50% of protected industrial heritage sites in England open to the public were able to re-open their doors after the first pandemic. More than 50 sites decided in July and August not to open at all during 2020. Most of these were smaller, largely volunteer-run, industrial heritage sites.
In general IHN NW members recorded no drop-off in volunteer numbers and enthusiasm, despite the first lockdown and continuing restrictions across much of the North West. Tim Kirker of the Calderdale Industrial Museum noted that although the museum was closed in the first lockdown, volunteers were keen to return once it re-opened. Anthony Pilling of the Heritage Trust for the North West also noted a strong desire by volunteers to continue to help, even during lockdown and even though some of their sites remained closed after July. Tony Nixon of Bancroft Mills also observed that whilst they were unable to open to the public after the first lockdown the entirely volunteer-run museum has continued to function with strong volunteer support. Andrew Fielding of ECOSAL commented that virtual meetings were a very useful way of staying in contact with volunteers and that such meetings were not only financially beneficial, but also reached a wider audience.
Finally, Mike Nevell noted that during the first lockdown the UK Government had issued guidelines for safe COVID-19 working by volunteers and that Historic England had issued specific guidance on adapting heritage sites for safe COVID-19 working. There is a link to the latter on the IHSO website site.
Industrial Heritage Networks 