Geoffrey Timmins’ recent Historic England / Liverpool University Press publication ‘The Built Environment Transformed: Textile Lancashire during the Industrial Revolution’ has been announced as the 2022 joint winner of the Association for Industrial Archaeology’s prestigious Peter Neaverson Award for outstanding scholarship in industrial archaeology.
Focussing on Lancashire’s textile district during c.1780 – c.1850, the book adopts a case-study based approach with chapters on the mill remains in the Cheesden Valley near Rochdale; Barrow Bridge factory village near Bolton; the former handloom weavers’ colony at Club Houses, Horwich; Preston’s Winckley Square; Eanam Wharf at Blackburn; and the road between Bromley Cross and Edgworth to the north of Bolton. It will be of interest to all those with an interest in England’s industrial heritage and how the resulting changes impacted on the historic environment. Further details can be found here – https://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/book/10.3828/9781800856530
The Thornton Education Trust has commended the ‘Look Draw Build@Reading Station’ schools project, a Reading Civic Society project to engage children in architecture, engineering, and railways, in their Inspire Future Generations Awards 2022. In May 2022, the project, which was aimed at children in Reading Primary Schools, reached approximately 450 children.
The Society worked with Gemma Solanellas, an architect and member of the Civic Society, to help with the project’s delivery, which was funded by the Great Western Railway Community Fund. Haslams Estate Agents were Gold Sponsors, and they, along with Stantec Engineers/Architects, Weston & Co Architects, and Reading Civic Society member Matt Andrews, all assisted the Civic Society in delivering project workshops to 15 classes of year 4-6 children from 9 schools, for a total of 450 children.
When the project was finished, the Civic Society decided to submit it to the Thornton Educational Trust for their “Inspire Future Generations Awards.” Thornton Education Trust (TET) is a charity dedicated to incorporating architecture and urban design into children’s education and providing young people with a voice in their community through youth-led design and community participation.
Shortlisting the award, Thornton Education Trust said: “The project helped the local Reading community allowing some 450 children to connect with architecture, engineering, and railway history. The broad approach of the project helped the children to think critically and creatively about their own communities and enhanced their learning journey outside the classroom. Additionally, the touring exhibition brought to a wider audience awareness of how children can learn through architecture and the public space which surrounds them and what they can achieve with simple materials”. The project was commended for its: ‘Excellent engagement with KS2 students, engaging with them through the means of a video to understand the history of the area and then model making. Students looked totally at ease and seem to enjoy the activity. The models were of a very high creative standard’.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) is expanding its awards for 2022 from two to five. These five awards will further recognise the communities that care for historic buildings and the experts who repair them.
The existing SPAB awards – the John Betjeman Award for conservation to faith buildings and the Philip Webb Award, a design competition for student architects – will joined by three new ones: the Buildings Craftsperson of the Year, the Sustainable Heritage Award, and the Best Loved Award. Storm Bespoke Secondary Glazing will be the main, headline, sponsor for the expanded SPAB Heritage Awards, whilst Terra Measurement is the Philip Webb Award sponsor.
Industrial Heritage Networks 