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!
This year, SPAB’s National Mills Weekend will take place on 10 and 11 May. It will focus on the way that mills past and present have been recorded in pictorial form with the theme ‘Mills in Time’.
The weekend is an annual celebration promoted by the Mills Section of SPAB. Across the country hundreds of mills – including some not normally open to the public – will be taking part.
This year, SPAB are encouraging everyone (owner, volunteer, neighbour, or visitor) to share and display images of participating mills. These can be recent photographs or artworks (including embroideries, collages, films, or videos), or paintings, or drawings, and even old maps, postcards, or posters. To share your images go to the #NationalMillsWeekend Facebook page. Please remember to credit the copyright owner and photographer where known.
SPAB-owned Fladbury Mill and Kibworth Harcourt Post Mill, which aren’t normally open to the public, will also be open for the weekend. To book go to the SPAB website.
The waterwheel at Stretton Watermill, Cheshire. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.
The Festival of Archaeology, run by the Council for British Archaeology (CBA), is back for summer 2025. This year’s theme, ‘Archaeology and Wellbeing’, celebrates the ways archaeology can inspire, connect, and enrich our lives. Whether it’s exploring historic landscapes, taking part in hands-on activities, or engaging in mindful moments with the past, there’s something for everyone.
Running from the 19 July to the 3 August, the CBA has announced some key festival events, including the opening in Northern Ireland at Divis and the Black Mountain, and the festival finale in Bradford, the UK City of Culture for 2025. During this year’s Festival, the CBA will be incorporating the five ways to wellbeing into the events and activities, creating opportunities for people to give, be active, learn, take notice, and connect.
In 2024 there were dozens of industrial archaeology events across the country, so if you are an Industrial Heritage site or group lookign to get /involved as an organiser now’s the time to submit your event. Or, if you’re looking for some great events this July, you can start exploring what’s coming up now. In both cases follow this link to the Festival website for how to get involved: https://www.archaeologyuk.org/festival.html
Land of Iron, North Yorkshire. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell
Museums, arts venues, libraries, and heritage attractions in urgent need of financial are to recieve significant Government funding. The ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’ totals £270m, and is to be shared between organisations the UK Government deems in most urgent need of financial support. It consists of both new and renewed funds for the sector.
As part of this package of support, five Industrial Heritage museums and sites will share grants from the 5th round of MEND support worth £7,253,849. These sites are:
Bletchley Park – £2,451,350
Land of Iron – £655,907
London Museum of Water & Steam – £2,626,277
Queen Street Mill – £813,115
Wheal Martyn Clay Works – £707,200
The £270m package of support will be targeted at organisations in urgent need of financial support to keep them up and running, carry out vital infrastructure work, and improve long term financial resilience. The support includes:
A fifth round of the Museum Estate and Development (MEND) Fund worth £25 million
A new £20 million Museum Renewal Fund offering much-needed support to 29 civic museums
An additional £120 million to continue the Public Bodies Infrastructure Fund
An additional £15 million for Heritage at Risk through Historic England
A new £4.85 million Heritage Revival Fund
A 5% increase to national museums and galleries budgets
Confirmation that DCMS will be providing £3.2 million in funding through the Museums and Schools Programme, the Heritage Schools Programme, the Art & Design National Saturday Club and the BFI Film Academy.
The Association for Independent Museums (AIM) Director Lisa Ollerhead said, “We very much welcome this significant investment. It is fantastic news for the sector, not least given the pressure the public purse is under. It also underlines the important role museums and heritage organisations play in strengthening our communities, boosting our economy and providing strong foundations for our creative industries.”
The next round of online Industrial Heritage Network (IHN) meetings is taking place this Spring. The IHN networks are a chance to meet those working, volunteering, or researching in the industrial heritage sector.
Four lunchtime IHN meetings will be held in late March, and will run from 12noon to 1pm, and there will be an IHSO update followed by news and updates from members. The first round of 2025 IHN meetings will take place on the following dates and will include the following groups:
21 March – East of England
25 March – South East
26 March -North East
31 March – London
Zoom links for the meetings will be sent to each region nearer the dates. If you would like to join any of these Industrial Heritage Networks as a member please email the IHSO here: mike.nevell@mikenevell
The heritage sector faces many challenges but if it is to have a future it must commit to more and better engineering training. To that end BESTT (Bolier & Engineering Skills Trainign Trust) is holding a “New directions in Training” event for 25th April at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in Coalbrookdale. The event is free and all concerned with training in the heritage sector at any level are welcome.
There will be a range of speakers across the sector and topics will include proposals to extend the current range of BESTT short courses to cover diesel locos, sustainability (eg energy and fuel) challenges, training for under 18s and other identified needs and solutions across the wider industrial heritage sector. There will be a brief outline of BESTT courses, a panel discussion and a Q and A session. The aim of the event which will run from 10am to 1pm is to look also at areas where there is a training gap and where BESTT could realistically do more.
It is hoped to include a tour of the operational heritage engineering at Blists Hill in the afternoon.
The South Wales and West of England Regional Industrial Archaeological Conference 2025 (SWWERIAC) will take place on 26th April at Walton Village Hall. SWWERIAC took place annually until the Covid Epidemic struck. Oxford House Industrial History Society’s initiative revived the event in 2024. The Somerset Industrial Archaeology Societty (SIAS: www.sias.me.uk)has volunteered to organize the 2025 conference.
SIASextends a cordial invitation to those interested in Industrial Archaeology to attend the conference in Walton Village Hall (http://www.waltonvillagehall.org). There will also be displays by the associated societies and publications will be on sale. The cost, including refreshments and lunch, is £25. Walton is situated on the A39 just west of Street and approximately 20 miles east of Junction 23 of the M5. The Village Hall is situated just north of the A39 at the end of Meadow Close.
PROGRAMME
09.15 – Registration opens. Tea, coffee, fruit juices and biscuits 10.00 – Welcome – Peter Daniel (President of SIAS) 10.10 – Peter Daniel – The Industrial Archæology of the Porlock Area 10.50 – Terry Stevens – The Unique Heritage of Coker Canvas 11.10 – Break. Tea, coffee, fruit juices and biscuits 11.30 – Stephen Miles – The Kilve Oil Shale Scandal 12.30 – Lunch: cold buffet. Please indicate any dietary requirements 13.50 – Samantha Cullen (Alfred Gillet Trust) – The New Shoemaker Museum 14.30 – Mary Miles – Clarke’s Influence on the Buildings of Street 15.10 – Break. Tea, coffee, fruit juices and biscuits 15.30 – Vanessa Ruhlig – Saving Fox’s Cloth and Dye Works at Tone Dale 16.10 – Close of Conference 16.15 – Visits(maps giving directions to the sites will be available on the day)
Choice of Post-conference Visits:
Street Buildings: A level walk around the centre of Street. We will see the development of industrial housing including grade II listed terraces which feature in books on the Arts & Craft Movement, public buildings, schools, a library, fire station, and swimming pool.
Glastonbury Fossick – Visiting the surviving buildings of Morland’s and Baily’s tanneries and sheepskin works. The walk will start by the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway offices and will be just over a kilometre in length, all on the level. Morland’s and Baily’s were the major industrial employers in Glastonbury and there was a time just after WWII when they employed about 5000 people between them. The grade II listed buildings of Baily’s, including a landmark chimney, are about to be converted. There are also workers’ houses. Surviving buildings of Morland’s include the Red Brick Building and the Zig-zag Building.
Westonzoyland Pumping Station and Museum of Steam Power and Land Drainage: The Museum is housed in the first steam pumping station to be built on the Somerset Levels. Dated 1830, it is grade II* listed as is one of the earliest in the country. The existing engine, an Easton and Amos machine built in 1861, replaced an earlier beam engine and scoop-wheel pump. The site is also home to a collection of historic engines and items used in the area, including a narrow gauge tramway.
Bridgwater Brick and Tile Museum: This exclusive visit will include a guided tour with particular reference to Industrial Archæology, and a tile-making demonstration.
North Essex Heritage (NEH), which has a 150 year lease on the Balkerne Water Tower, Colchester’s last intact listed water tower, has recieved an £8m grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Affectionately known ‘Jumbo’, the money will help conservere the water tower and open it up to the public as a heritage attraction. The work to secure the future of the water tower will start in spring 2025 and be completed in mid 2027, when Jumbo will be open to the public for the first time in its 143 year history.
The grant will be used to make the 40m (131ft) tower fully accessible to the public for the first time as a heritage and events space. Simon Hall, chair of North Essex Heritage, the site’s leaseholders, said “This breathtaking support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund is a game-changer for our project and our city.”
The 131ft tall Grade II* Listed tower was originally constructed using 1.2m locally produced bricks in 1883. It could hold up to 1,000 tonnes of water when it was in use. It was used for its original purpose until 1984 and has been empty ever since.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has granted £164,000 for the Dean Heritage Centre’s “Investing in the Past, Future, and Present” project, and a grant of £99,932 to the Cambridge Museum of Technology for their ‘Full Steam Ahead’ project.
Horizontal stam engine, Cambridge Museum of Technology. Copyright: Dr Michael Nevell
Cambridge Museum of Tehcnology’s grant will fund the ‘Full Steam Ahead’ project. This will see two new heritage roles recruited to expand the Museum’s capacity for both general opening, and for increased education and community outreach work. The funding will also re-invigorate existing space in the Engineer’s House to be used as a space for community hires. Building on existing partnerships within the local Abbey community, the Museum will offer more opportunities for engaging with industrial heritage and their collections, through events and workshops. The Museum will be able to expand its schools programme, reaching more young people and engaging with teachers to form lasting links.
Dean Heritage Centre. Copyright: Dr Michael Nevell
The Dean Heritage Centre, which reflects the history of the Forest of Dean, is based in a listed cornmill and will use its grant for the “Investing in the Past, Future, and Present” project, which aims to “transform the museum”. Volunteers, local groups and schools will be able to take part in the project through “citizen science” activities, including sampling water that runs through the site. “We want to have new galleries, develop the site, and actually make it a viable place for the future,” Mark George, centre manager, said.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England have given grant funding worth £1.6 million (£1.3 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and £300,000 from Historic England) for the restoration of Thaxted Windmill in Essex.
The Stone Floor at Thaxted Windmill. Credit: Trustees of Thaxted Windmill.
The project will repair and restore the building and its millwrighting machinery, improve visitor access, and enable volunteer involvement and community engagement. Repairs to the brick tower will halt the decaying process and protect the building from water leaks. Windows, doors and wood panelling will be repaired. The Windmill mechanism, including the sails, winding gear and internal milling machinery, will be restored, enabling the historic windmill to grind grain once more.
In addition, there will be public open days, sensory experiences will be created, and the Windmill landscape will be managed for biodiversity.
On the 24th February 2025, the Carbon Lieteracy Project will be holding an online Shareable Courses Launch Event. At the event they will be launching six ready-to-use Carbon Literacy courses that can be used to deliver internal Carbon Literacy training within archives, heritage organisations, libraries, theatres, public leisure/culture trusts, and across the cultural sector.
The online launch event is free, and will involve the course creators and people who have been delivering the courses. There will be presentations about the creators’ ambitions for the courses, how to access them, and how they can be used. One of the six new courses is for Heritage Organisations. This course is an affordable, flexible, and sector-specific training programme for heritage organisations based in the UK.
The Shareable Course for Heritage Organisations is built on the success of the Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit. Developed by Historic England and Historic Buildings and Places, the course aims to support the wider heritage sector, from organisations that manage heritage sites to those who provide heritage services. Book your place here.
Industrial Heritage Networks 