conservation – Industrial Heritage Networks

London Museum of Water & Steam Talk: Steam Engines, Kew, and the Victorian Sanitary Crisis by James Douet

May 26, 2026June 1, 2026mikenevell

The London Museum of Water & Steam will be hosting a talk by researcher and author James Douet on Thursday August 27 about the Victorian Sanitary Crisis. James will be drawing on the research for his 2024 book, ‘The Architecture of Steam’. This research showed how the dramatic design of Victorian waterworks reflected the high importance that British society of the day put on clean and wholesome water.

James’ book was awarded the Association for Industrial Archaeology’s prize for outstanding scholarship in 2024, and shows how steam powered waterworks were the key technology which, in the 19th century, pulled industrial cities back from the disease and filth that threatened urban life. There is no better place to see this architecture and technology than at the London Museum of Water and Steam. The volume places the London pumping stations, and especially the Kew Bridge waterworks, at the forefront of this global technological advance. The illustrated talk connects steam engineering, Victorian architecture and the day-to-day operation of a pumping station in a vivid narrative, and explains why Kew Bridge and Kempton Park should together be considered for UNESCO’s World Heritage list as the world’s outstanding sites of the water industry.

James Douet worked for English Heritage preparing listing recommendations before moving to live in Barcelona in 1996. He is involved with both TICCIH and ICOMOS, and assessed the successful World Heritage bid of Augsburg Water Management System. His other publications include ‘Going Up in Smoke’ for SAVE Britain’s Heritage (a study of industrial chimneys), and in 2025 ‘The Meaningful City, Reading Barcelona’s Urban Landscape’.

Talk tickets are £3 for members, and £5 for non-members. Add a copy of the James Douet’s 2024 book ‘The Architecture of Steam’ to your order and tye London Museum of Water & Steam will have it ready for you to collect on the day of the talk.

To book, follow this link: Event Page- Author Talk – London Museum of Water and Steam

National Trust Begins Ironbridge Gorge Museums Re-opening

May 22, 2026mikenevell

Following the National Trust’s landmark acquisition of the Ironbridge Gorge museums in March 2026, one of the largest in the Trust’s 130-year history, they are now able to start re-opening them.

Thanks to incredible hard work behind the scenes by the NT staff at Ironbridge, the Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron and the Furnace Kitchen re-opened on the 20th May. The Blists Hill open-air Victorian town re-opened the following day, just in time for the May half-term holiday. A phased re-opening for the remaining museums and sites in The Gorge will continue throughout the year.

Getting these complex World Heritage Sites ready for the May half-term has been a massive undertaking, requiring everything from deep cleans to intense operational planning. Claire Tafft, Project Manager for Visitor Engagement at Ironbridge, praised the staff’s dedication: “The Victorian shops and cottages have all had a spring clean and the costumes are all pressed ready… We appreciate everyone’s support as we begin this new chapter.”

Mark Agnew, Project Director for Ironbridge, said: “Our goal is to grow the number of people that visit these wonderful sites and tackle the barriers that often prevent people from engaging with heritage. After a huge amount of work behind the scenes…this is just the start of a long-term vision.”

Visits to Blists Hill must be pre-booked online during this initial phase due to IT connectivity works on site. Follow this link to book a visit through the National Trust website.

*The canal and mine at Blists Hill ahead of re-opening by the National Trust in May 2026. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell*

Images of Industrial Heritage: ICOMOS UK Photography Competition 2026

May 12, 2026mikenevell

ICOMOS UK are inviting mebers of the public to enter their second photography competition, which this year is on the theme, ‘Images of Industrial Heritage’. The photography competition, which was launched at ICOMOS UK’s Industrial Heritage event at the canal museum in London last month, will celebrate built and living heritage around the world.

To mark the launch of the ICOMOS UK Industrial Heritage Committee, this competition will explore changing approaches to and perceptions of industrial heritage, and reflect on how they are preserved, celebrated, and debated. There are four categories that images can be submitted for, which aim to record, celebrate, or pose questions about the variety of industrial heritage and its impact on people:

Machinery – working or redundant engines, equipment, production lines and processes
Buildings & Structures – from the monumental to the fragmentary
Landscapes and their transformation by the presence or disappearance of industrial activity and processes
People and community – making, conserving, taking part, moving away

Detail on how to enter the competion, the deadline for which is the 1st September, can be found here: Photographic Competition.

*Preserved* gasholder. Image courtesy of ICOMOS UK.

Two Industrial Sites on Victorian Society’s Ten Most Endangered Sites List for 2026

May 1, 2026mikenevell

The Victorian Society has published its annual list of the ten most endangered buildings in Britain, and this year’s list includes two protected industrial heritage sites. The list is drawn up each year by the Victorian Society, and is selected from nominations made by the public, in order to raise the profile of the buildings it believes are most in need of rescue.

*The former Strand Raiwlay Station, Barrow-in-Furness. Image courtesy of Thomas Ollivier & Victorian Society.*

The former Strand Railway Station in Barrow-in-Furness, a Grade II listed building designed by the architect EG Paley and built in 1863, is a significant survivor from the earliest phase of the town’s rapid industrial growth. Once at the heart of a transforming settlement, it now stands vacant and deteriorating, its future uncertain.

James Hughes, Director of the Victorian Society, said: “This building is closely tied to Barrow’s remarkable rise as an industrial powerhouse. Its history of adaptation shows exactly the kind of sustainable reuse we should be championing today. What is needed now is a clear commitment to securing its future before further deterioration takes hold.”

The 1911 Grade II* Tees Transporter Bridge, engineer G.C. Imbault, and construction by Sir William Arrol & Co Ltd is an iconic symbol of Teesside’s industrial heritage. It has been closed since 2019 due to serious structural concerns. Spanning the River Tees between Middlesbrough and Port Clarence, it is one of the most recognisable engineering landmarks in the UK.

Griff Rhys Jones, Victorian Society President, said: “You don’t need me to tell you that people love this bridge. It is a symbol. It is a monument. And more than that it is a link and a potential working part of Stockton and Middlesbrough. Got to be saved. Got to be operational again. If we can find money for new bridges, we can find money for this great survivor and all that it means.”

The full building list for 2026 can be found here: Endangered buildings – The Victorian Society

*The Tees Transporter Bridge. Image courtesy of CAV Aerial*.

Grants Announced to Support Three Industrial Heritage Sites

April 27, 2026April 27, 2026mikenevell

Three more industrial heritage sites are to recieve addtional funding to help secure their futures, with the funds coming from the DCMS, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, and Historic England.

The Litchfield Waterworks Trust will receive more than £47,000 for a comprehensive architectural survey of Sandfields Pumping Station. The building is on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register. Dr David Dimeloe, Trustee and lead on the funding bid, said: “This is the culmination of a great deal of hard work and determination. We’re very grateful to Historic England for this grant and look forward to working with BHB Architects and their colleagues to develop a solid roadmap for the future preservation of Sandfields Pumping Station.” More details here: Grant helping to secure future of historic pumping station in Lichfield

The Canal & River Trust has received a £113,000 grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, a government programme aimed at improving pride in place and increasing life chances across the UK, for urgent repairs at the Ellesmere Yard on the Llangollen Canal in Shropshire. The still functioning boat yard was opened in 1806, and is one of the best‑preserved canal maintenance yards in the country. More details here: Vital conservation works underway at historic Ellesmere Yard

North Somerset Council has received an additional £62,120 for further restoration of Birnbeck Pier in Weston-super-Mare. This has been awarded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, delivered by Historic England. The additional funding will pay for the initial conservation of the Grade II Listed entrance gates and turnstiles. It will also enable further work on the Grade II Listed Toll House and its extension, known locally as the ‘shell shop’, at the southern side of the entrance. More details here: Extra £62k makes more Birnbeck Pier landside restoration possible

*Sandfields Pumping Station. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

Walsall Leather Museum Given Listed Status

March 14, 2026May 9, 2026mikenevell

The Walsall Leather Museum in the Midlands, which is housed in the 19th century brick-built, multi-storey, buildings of the former Withers and Son and Samuel Llewellen leather works buildings, was given Grade II listed status earlier this month. The museum is facing closure on the 11 April, although Walsall Council has purchased new premises in the centre of the town for the proposed site of the re-located museum. A time-frame for the re-opening is yet to be announced.

In announcing the listing, Historic England noted that “We recommended listing the buildings at Grade II due to their historic and architectural interest. Leather working is strongly associated with Walsall, and the town is still a major centre for the industry. The workshops on Wisemore are among a very small group of such buildings of this date surviving in Walsall, and so are of particular significance for the town as they embody the industry that played a major part in the lives of many local people.”

In response to the listing, Walsall Council’s leader Mike Bird was quoted in the local press as saying: ‘It might be heritage to them but at the end of the day it’s an old factory, simple as that.’

More details about the listing, proposed closure, and move of the museum can be found here: Walsall Leather Museum’s listed status ‘won’t affect move’

The listing details can be found here: Two former leather goods works, Wisemore, Non Civil Parish – 1495986 | Historic England

*The Walsall Leather Museum. Image courtesy of the museum.*

Mills Now & Then – SPAB Call for Your Mill Histories

March 13, 2026mikenevell

To celebrate Mills in 2026 the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) is producing a compilation of individual mills’ histories. The SPAB Mills Section wants to create a new and comprehensive picture of mills of all types throughout the UK, Ireland, and Europe and are calling for submissions from owners, volunteers, millwrights, or anyone interested in the history of a mill or a linked group of mills, to write about how they evolved.

SPAB would like to understand a mill’s origins and how the structure and uses have changed over its lifetime. This can be a post mill, smock or tower mill, a watermill or tide mill, or an industrial mill. The mill can be located in the UK, Ireland or Europe. The entry can be about mills stil existing, derelict, or lost.

The chosen entrants will receive a copy of the published booklet, which will be available at SPAB Mills Section events. A digital version of selected submissions will also be available.

The deadline for submissions is Friday 1 May 2026. All entries to be submitted via email to: nmwsubmissions@spab.org.uk

Further details can be found by following this link: Mills Now & Then – Call for your histories | The SPAB

*Windmill in Lincoln. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

Friends of Bennerley Viaduct Launch Crowdfunder to Build New Footbridge

March 4, 2026March 3, 2026mikenevell

The Friends of Bennerley Viaduct were formed in 2019 as a community charity to help save and make accessible the Bennerley Viaduct and its surrounding environment. The Bennerley Viaduct is a Grade II* listed former Railway Viaduct connecting Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire through the towns of Kimberley and Ilkeston. The Friends‘ goal is to preserve the viaduct and its immediate surrounding area for future generations. As part of this aim they are looking to secure funding to create a new crossing over the River Erewash and to pay for materials that will help to secure the river bank that the bridge will cross.

Not only will the new footbridge over the River Erewash increase access to the viaduct and its surrounding environment, but it will also help to secure the riverbank to prevent its erosion, and so help to secure the future of the viaduct. The Friends target is £10,000, which will act as match-funding for a National Lottery Heritage Fund bid.

To contribute follow this link: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/new-footbridge-next-to-bennerley-viaduct-second-pledge

*Image of the proposed new footbridge beneath the ‘iron giant’. Image courtesy of the Friends of Bennerley Viaduct.*

SAVE Britain’s ‘Heritage Buildings at Risk Register’ – Call for Entries

February 26, 2026February 25, 2026mikenevell

SAVE Britain’s Heritage has issued a call for nominations for historic buildings at risk which will be considered for their 2026 Buildings at Risk register. SAVE want to bring attention to historic buildings at risk across the UK.

They are interested in vacant or partially vacant historical buildings that are at risk from stalled projects, neglect or lack of action. Unlike some other risk registers, the building does not need to be listed to be eligible,l which means that many threatened industrial structures could be included. Their central aim is to raise awareness of these forgotten spaces and provide a platform to advocate for their retention and reuse.

To nominate a building:

Click on this link to the ‘Buildings at Risk’ register on their website
Check if your building is already on SAVE Britain’s Heritage Buuildings at Risk Register
If it’s not already on the Register, fill in a quick form with what you know including a (copyright-free) photograph and as much address information as you can.
You can also email your nomination to: amy.popham@savebritainsheritage.org

Eskdale Mill & Heritage Trust Fund Raiser

February 20, 2026mikenevell

An online fundraiser has been set up to help the Eskdale Mill and Heritage Trust to raise funds to run community events and support their volunteers in sharing the mill with the public and local community in 2026.

Dating back to at least 1578, and located alongside Whillan Beck in Boot, Cumbria, the stone-built Grade II* listed Eskdale Mill demonstrates 500 years of water power and the traditional craft of corn milling. Last commercially worked during the 1930s to supply animal feed to local farmers, the mill still produces its own flour and has a modern hydro-electric waterwheel making it possible to continue to harness energy through water power. It is the last remaining working water-powered corn mill in the Lake District National Park.

Further details on how to donate here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/community-events-and-volunteering-in-2026?attribution_id=sl:db5ff4c1-225d-4850-a2ba-60db8108f385&lang=en_GB&ts=1770758294&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=twitter

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