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!
The Heritage Open Days 2026 event directory is now live, with over 1,600 free events across England from 11 to 20 September already listed. Each year, millions of people take part in the nationwide celebration of local heritage, community, and history. The festival is managed by the National Trust and supported by Postcode Lottery players, and delivered locally by thousands of organisations and volunteers.
This year’s festival theme, ‘Everyday Histories’, and there is still plenty of time to register an event, with the application deadline being 13 August. The 2026 festival will feature a wide range of places that normally charge for events outside of the festival, along with free sites offering something extra special and many venues that are not usually open to the public. Organisers are invited to explore the varied and often overlooked stories of ordinary working people and their daily lives. From factory floors, workhouses and high streets to kitchens, schools, and community centres, this theme shines a light on working-class voices, local superheroes and the part-of-the-furniture places that have quietly shaped England’s heritage.
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.”
Calderdale Industrial Museum, after a fundraising campaign and months of hard work and training, will be running its steam engines for the first time since the museum closed 26 years ago, on the 18 April.
Since taking over the running of the museum in 2013, the Calderdale Museum Association (CIMA) has worked towards running the steam engines in the Power Gallery again as they had been before the closure of the museum in 2000. These are the 1926 built Newton, Bean & Mitchell horizontal ‘Corliss’ engine, the 1860s beam engine, the Fairbank Brearley vertical engine and the 1926 Bellis & Morcom inverted vertical compound engine. All are on display in the power gallery.
Once the volunteers worked out what was required, fundraising started in earnest, with money coming from members and visitors to contribute to the replacement of the old inefficient steam boiler. In August 2022, the old boiler was dismantled and removed from the basement and the area prepared for the new boiler. By 2025 enough money had been raised to cover the purchase and installation costs, and the boiler was then supplied and fitted out by H.A. McEwens – Boiler Repairs Ltd. A SolidTek STL 1000 was fitted by SolidTek MD Steve in November 2025 and they have offered to supply the necessary chemicals free of charge. The museum is very grateful for this kind gesture and look forward to working with Steve and SolidTek in the coming years. All the electrical work has been carried out by Richard Lennard, our in house electrician.
CIMA’s steam team operating the Newton Bean & Mitchell Corliss engine. Image copyright CIMA.
In the meantime, the team of museum volunteers have been working on refurbishing and recommissioning the four engines in readiness for public viewing. Training and testing have been going on over the winter, with modifications and repairs carried out as needed. A team of six volunteers were given professional training, over two sessions, by steam consultant Ian Roberts. They are now qualified with a City & Guilds ‘Industrial Boiler Duty Manager Course’. This ensures they operate the gas boiler safely. Further training to run the four engines has been given by Steve Buckley.
The museum plans to run steam fortnightly from 18th April until 28th June 2026, with further dates to follow over the summer period. Running the steam engines will add hugely to the quality of the visitor experience and is a very exciting day for the volunteers who have worked so hard to get to this point. It’s an added dimension to the tourist offering in Halifax and adds to the story told at the museum, of Calderdale’s significant contribution to the industrial revolution of the late 18th and 19th centuries. Enthusiasts from around the country will be drawn to the area to see these beautiful engines at work.
Trevor Hardaker, Operations Director for CIMA, said “Now we can confidently promote steam days where we run the engines, for the public once more. This is a crucial part of telling the story of the development of power in industrial Calderdale and will add to the exciting visitor experience at the museum.”
The museum relies on its open day takings to fund all the work done to maintain and develop the collection. You can now be a named sponsor of steam for a day, by donating £100, or make whatever contribution you can by putting money in Baby Enid or going to the museum website to the donation page. The museum is open on Saturday 10am – 4pm with last entry at 3pm. They also open, with the same hours, on Thursdays during the Calderdale School holidays. The licensed café opens when the museum is open.
The 2026 Heritage Open Days will take place from 11 to 20 September. Heritage Open Days is England’s largest community-led festival of history and culture, involving thousands of local volunteers and organisations. Every year in September it brings people together to celebrate their heritage, community, and history. Stories are told, traditions explored, and histories brought to life. All the events are free.
269 industrial heritage sites in England took part in Heritage Open Days (HoD) 2025, offering guided walks, talks, and exhibitions as well as hands on experiences. If you would like to take part then the HoD website has full details on how to list a site, event, and/or acitvity.
For further details on how to take part as an event and/or site organiser follow this link: Get involved
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
The SS Great Britain Trust is looking to raise the final £180,000 over the next six weeks to help complete the major reinvention project of the museum, which lies next to the historic ship in the Floating Harbour. On 23 February, the old Dockyard Museum closed to make way for a refreshed museum scheduled to open in July 2026. This will bring to life the remarkable stories of the passengers and crew who travelled and worked aboard the SS Great Britain. Alongside the revamped museum there will be a new community hub, a safe and accessible space for local groups to gather, research, and host workshops.
With £1.3m in investment already secured, the Trust are calling on visitors, local businesses, supporters worldwide, and the people of Bristol to get involved and help make the new museum a reality. The Dockyard Museum is being redesigned as an immersive experience focused on the “untold stories” of passengers who travelled aboard the SS Great Britain to destinations including New York, India and the Falkland Islands. The Trust has said that the “much-needed makeover” will “reveal stories from more of the passengers on board the SS Great Britain, but it will also allow today’s audiences to resonate with her history in an entirely new way”.
The Midlands Mills Group is hosting a free online talk on 9 December 2025 by Millwright Paul Sellwood. He will be discussing his work as a millwright. Paul and his firm have been involved in many wind and water mill projects over the years, most recently in the Midlands, putting up the sails on Chesterton Windmill.
The Midland Mills Group invites anyone interested to join the event. The link and other relevant details are:
The Trustees of the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust have launched an urgent crowdfunding appeal to raise £20,000 by February so that the museum and site can open in 2026. A combination of rising costs, the long-term impact of COVID-19, and recent operational challenges—including lock closures that reduced visitor numbers this year—has left the Foxton Canal Museum, the beating heart of Foxton Locks and a vital guardian of Britain’s canal heritage, under threat. As a consequence, income has not kept pace with escalating expenses, making sustainability increasingly difficult.
The Museum tells the story of the Foxton Inclined Plane – a Victorian engineering marvel and a scheduled monument – and the people who shaped our waterways. Since its founding by the Foxton Inclined Plane Trust in 1982, the Museum has grown from a volunteer-led dream into a nationally recognized institution. It has hosted award-winning exhibitions, educational programs, and community events, becoming a hub for history, creativity, and learning.
From its humble beginnings – volunteers clearing overgrown inclines and rebuilding the boiler house – to achieving official museum status and welcoming thousands of visitors annually, Foxton Canal Museum has always been powered by passion and perseverance. Recent projects include Foxton Creates, a co-curated exhibition with local schools, and Ingenuity & Vision, exploring the 1950 Market Harborough Festival & Rally of Boats. The Museum also runs STEM workshops, artist residencies, and oral history projects, ensuring canal heritage remains relevant for future generations.
However, the Museum faces mounting financial pressure and without urgent support the Museum cannot guarantee opening in 2026.
Conservation and restoration work at three windmills has been finished ahead of the winter. Heage Windmill in Derbyshire, Meopham Windmill in Kent, and the White Mill, also in Kent, have been undergoing programnmes of conservation and restoration work for several years.
Heage Windmill was restored in 2002, but the Grade II* listed building required further work due to weather-related erosion to the exterior stonework and increased damp inside the building. Following consultation with Historic England, the Heage Windmill Society secured £30,000 in funding from the Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA) and the Headley Trust for the works to go ahead. Work on the sails and caps was carried out in 2023, and now repair work on the stone tower has been completed.
Grade II* listed Meopham Windmill, which was built around 1820, had fallen into disrepair. Kent County Council purchased the mill, known for its rare six-sided design, in 1959. A £300,000 restoration programme has seen it reconstructed with new mechanisms, revitalised grounds, and its sweeps restored. The funding for the restoration came from a collaboration between KCC, Meopham Windmill Trust, Suffolk Millwrights, and the local community.
Finally, the Grade II listed White Mill in Sandwich, Kent, had its four sails restored and reinstated in September. The windmill was built in 1760 and served the community as a working mill until the 20th Century, before it became disused in 1957. The White Mill Rural Heritage Centre said the landmark was partly restored in the 1960s, but over the past five years it had undergone more extensive works, and that repairing the historic industrial machinery was a “major testament to the power of volunteering and the important role it plays in the community”.
Further details on these restoration projects can be found on these links:
The 8th International (Hybrid) Early Railways Conference will run from Tuesday 23rd September 2025 to Friday 26th September. 2025 is the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, and the conference is designed to lead up to the ‘Railway 200’ celebration finale on the 27th September. The conference will be held in Darlington at the Central Hall, Dolphin Centre, Horse Market. Bookings can still be made online for delegates to participate in the conference, participating either in person or via the internet.
The conference will be similar in format to the previous successful InternationalEarly Railways Conferences, with topics ranging from the earliest waggonway systems through to the earliest main line and industrial systems around the world up to the 1870s.
The event is sponsored by the National Railway Museum, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Newcomen Society, the Railway & Canal Historical Society, and the Stephenson Locomotive Society. There will also be six poster presentations provided by the members of the Historical Metallurgy Society.
Industrial Heritage Networks 