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 Midlands Wind and Watermill Group (MMG) will be 50 years old in November this year. To celebrate, the MMG is holding a special dinner at the Saxon Mill Warwick on Saturday 14 November. The plan is to have a relaxing celebration lunch event with a speaker. The Saxon Mill is a pleasant rural pub on the outskirts of Warwick, with a working waterwheel.
The Midland Wind and Water Mills Group is a voluntary, non-profit making, independent society for mill enthusiasts. The Society was founded in 1976 and is concerned with the study of the history and technology of mills of all types and especially their preservation and restoration. They are also interested in the generation of renewable energy using natural resources.
Two iconic industrial heritage structures have been given listed building status by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport, on the advice of Historic England: the Hillesley Bus Shelter and the Dunlop Bridge KX100 telephone kiosk.
The Hillesley Bus Shelter
The Hillesley Bus Shelter. Image courtesy of Historic England.
The Hillesley bus shelter in Gloucestershire has been listed at Grade II. Designed by the world-renowned Modernist architect Berthold Lubetkin (1901-1990), the Hillesley Bus Shelter, was built in 1952 as part of the Festival of Britain celebrations. Parishes across Britain were encouraged to mark the Festival with lasting improvements in their local area. In 1950, the Festival Office ran a competition to design new rural bus shelters, stipulating that proposals should be based ‘on the use of local materials, so that the structures will fit harmoniously into the surrounding landscape’.
Catherine Croft, Director of Twentieth Century Society, said ‘Modest but definitely not Modernist, this traditional Cotswold vernacular bus shelter demonstrates the remarkable versatility of its famous architect, Berthold Lubetkin.’
Only four Festival of Britain bus shelters are thought to exist in England in the 2020s – Hillesley; Stone Street, Kent; Bramfield, Suffolk; and Farmington, Gloucestershire, which was listed at Grade II in 2008.
The listed KX100 telephone kiosk at Dunlop Bridge, Lancashire. Image courtesy of Historic England.
The Dunlop Bridge KX100 telephone kiosk in Ribble Valley, Lancashire, has been given Grade II Listed status. The KX100 kiosk was the 100,000th telephone kiosk to be installed in the country, and was officially opened in June 1992 by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, who was joined by children from nearby Thornleyholme RC Primary School as he made the first call from the kiosk. Historic England’s Jayne Rimmer said as part of “the last generation of the public telephone box”, it was a “nationally significant kiosk”. The Twentieth Century Society (TCS), which champions outstanding examples of modern design, had applied for it to be listed.
TCS campaigns director Oli Marshall said he was “absolutely delighted” by their success. “There’s no small irony that it was the arrival of the KX100 that first spurred the Society into action back in 1985 – once the slayer of traditional red telephone boxes, that we fought vigorously to repel, now itself being given heritage protection,” he said. “While widely unloved and underappreciated in comparison to the classic red telephone boxes, the ugly duckling KX100 model has developed a cult following in recent years.”
First introduced in 1985, the KX100 has large glass panels and was designed to be easier to clean and more accessible than the previous red model. To view the listign follow this link: KX100 Kiosk, Bowland Forest High – 1492920 | Historic England
An Association of Independent Museums (AIM) grant has helped the Long Shop Museum in Leiston redesign a gallery space to display objects in a major new permanent social history exhibition. This comes after a major repair and refurbishment project of the upper storey of The Long Shop. This building is listed as II*, internationally important both architecturally, and historically as the first building in the world constructed with the purpose of housing a manufacturing production line.
The Long Shop Museum was founded in 1984 and is an independent accredited museum and registered charity housed in a cluster of historic buildings in the Suffolk market town of Leiston. The buildings are survivors of the original 19th century works site of Richard Garrett and Sons. Garrett was world-famous manufacturers of steam engines and other agricultural machinery, and the museum houses collections relating to farming machinery, steam traction, tools, and commercial and domestic products that were made by the works during its 200 year history.
The museum used the grant to transform a large, under-utilised, gallery space into a new feature of the museum with a focus on people rather than machinery, highlighting the importance of social history in studying technological progress and the development of Richard Garrett and Sons. Utilising the services of an accredited conservator, and training courses offered by, for example, the Collections Trust, 15 people benefitted from the training as the gallery was developed. As the project progressed the museum’s volunteer recruitment programme also saw increased numbers.
The next East-West workshop on Industrial Archaeology, run jointly by the UK Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA) and the Institute for Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology (USTB), China University, will be on the 21st November 2026, 10:00 to 12:00 (London Time).
The East-West Workshops on Industrial Archaeology were established in 2021 and aim to exchange ideas and knowledge among Western and Eastern colleagues to build a more international and diverse industrial archaeology. The latest free seminar will be looking at the theme of industrial landscapes. The four speakers for the day are:
Speakers & Talks
Stephen Walker: “Spinning Yarns – A Tale of Landscape Archaeology in the Leen Valley of Nottinghamshire, UK.”
Hyun-Jin Chun: “Line Forest Park Design in Seoul, South Korea.”
Fang Wei: “Re-imaging Machine and Garden: Public Preception of Post-industrial Landscapes from a Human Factors Perspective (China).”
David L T Pereira: “Archaeometric Characterisation of Bricks from the Paulista Co Workshops (Sao Paulo State, Brazil): Raw Materials, Technology and the Production of Sao Paulo’s Railway Landscape.”
Recordings of earlier workshops (covering topics including brewing and wine production; railways; metal production; textile archaeology and heritage; and industrial ruins), are available on the AIA YouTube channel and full written reports of the workshops are available in IA News, published by the AIA.
Woodhorn Museum, a mining museum in North East England, is marking 20 years this October since it re-opened, after a £16m redevelopment which created exhibition spaces, community, and learning facilities and a cafe. The renovation also restored the colliery’s two heapsteads or pit heads, which are again undergoing restoration work. Since 2025 the former colliery has been run by North East Museums, which runs 12 museums across the region.
The 2006 scheme included the opening of the Cutter Building, which became a permanent home for the Ashington Group (also known as the Pitmen Painters) collection of artworks, alongside the collections of Northumberland Archives. The Woodhorn Museum, which is located in what was once the largest pit village in the world, chronicles the life of the Ashington coalmining community. Jo Raw, Northumberland venues manager for North East Museums, said: “Completing the restoration of the heapsteads makes this anniversary particularly special, allowing us to protect an important part of our industrial heritage while reopening more of the historic site for visitors to enjoy.”
The site is also looking to develop a low carbon future. It is part of the Borderlands Energy Investment Programme (BEIP) which aims to provide a strategic opportunity to accelerate the region’s transition to net zero. Across a range of sites it will seek to reduce carbon emissions, strengthen energy resilience, and create new green jobs and skills in South Scotland and the North of England.
The ‘Powering the Past and the Future’ project at Woodhorn Museum is led by Northumberland County Council, and will install ground source heat pumps (GSHP), solar panels, LED lighting upgrades, solar carports and battery storage at the former colliery. Using the region’s industrial heritage, it will showcase the economic and environmental benefits of low-carbon technologies, reduce the museum’s carbon footprint and energy costs, enhance the visitor experience, and support local STEM education.
The in-person Industrial Heritage Network meetings, run by the IHSO project, return this autumn, and the first round of dates are now available. These meetings are a great way of meeting fellow industrial heritage people working at industrial heritage and archaeology sites and exchanging experiences.
The themes for this year’s meetings are liaising with schools and adapting to hotter summers. Our first meeting of the season was last month (August), when the North West IHN met at Helmshore Textile Museum, where there was a great turn out and lively discussion. The confirmed dates for the in-person autumn 2026 meetings so far are:
Yorkshire IHN, 30 Sept: National Musuem of Mining, Wakefield
North East IHN, 14 Oct: Locomotion, Shildon
East Midlands IHN, 16 Nov: Taylors Bell Foundry, Loughborough
West Midlands IHN, 17 Nov: Hereford Waterworks Museum
South East IHN, 19 Nov: The Brickworks Museum
London IHN, 20 Nov: Postal Museum
If you would like your site to take part in these friendly and free meetings please email the IHSO, Dr Michael Nevell, for more details: michael.nevell@nationaltrust.org.uk
Delegates attending the North West IHN at Helmshore Textile Museum in August 2026. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.
A record number of industrial heritage sites are opening for free as part of the 2026 Heritage Open Days running between the 11 and 20 September. Amongst the more than 250 industrial archaeology and heritage sites opening to the public are three newly renovated museums run by the National Trust in the Ironbridge Gorge (Broseley Clay Pipe Works, Jackfield China Works, The Old Furnace). The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings is also opening for free its Kibworth Harcourt Windmill, whilst English Heritage is making available Sibsey Trader Mill, and the Iron Bridge at Ironbridge.
This year’s Heritage Open Days theme highlights the extraordinary in our ordinary working lives, with more industrial sites open than ever, along with hundreds of exhibitions, walks, and talks on industrial subjects. Those sites open include more than 70 water and wind mills, more than 50 metal working and textile mill sites, and over 30 ceramic, chemical and mines sites.
There are also nearly 100 transport heritage sites open for free to visit (from canals, and railways to tramways), and nearly forty pumping stations and maritime sites.
To find an event, and an industrial site, near you, follow this link: HeritageOpenDays2026
The newly refurbished Old Furnace and its museum building at Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, which has been re-opened by the Natioanl Trust for Heritage Open Days. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.
The National Trust will be re-opening two more Ironbridge Gorge museums in September, as part of the Heritage Open Days events.The Broseley Pipe Works and the Coalport China Museum will be free to explore everyday working lives in partnership with Findmypast as part of the Industrious Women theme. The female work force played an integral part in the ceramic industries, and this event will allow you to not only explore the lives of ordinary working women but also access the Findmypast website to begin to explore your own family history.
Broseley Pipe Works will be open on 11-13 September and 18-20 September for pre-booked guided tours. Guided tours will run on the hour from 11 – 3pm. NT Ironbridge Gorge will also have a copy of a wages ledger from the early 20th century on display along with other archive material. Pre-booking is essential as car parking spaces are limited.
The Coalport China Museum will open 11-13 September and 18-20 of September for pre-booked visits from 10am to 4pm and there will be curator talks and demonstrations, as well as the opportunity to see archive material. Pre-booking is essential as car parking spaces are limited.
A new report on Industrial Heritage Sites in England in 2026, commissioned by Historic England and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, has been published. This report, by Heritage Innovation, examines the resilience and sustainability of designated industrial heritage sites across England.
Focussing on designated industrial heritage sites that are accessible and interpreted to the public in England, it is a major update on two previous English Heritage (now Historic England) commissioned reports, carried out in 1998 (by PLB Consulting Ltd) and 2008 (by the late Sir Neil Cossons). Drawing on desk-based research, questionnaires and interviews, its emphasis is on industrial sites open as heritage attractions, including both museums and monuments. There are sections on:
ownership
governance
function
finance
management
access
conservation
interpretation
and marketing
Having considered the findings, it concludes with a series of ten recommendations. These include strengthening advocacy, increased support for the IHSO project, revitalising volunteering, developing technical skills, continued sector monitoring, exploring new approaches to governance and funding, and researching heritage fuels. It also calls for a strategic review to set priorities for the industrial heritage sector over the next 25 years.
Dr Mike Nevell, IHSO, thanked Heritage Innovations for their hard work in pulling together data from a very varied sector, noting that ‘this is the first study of the industrial hertiage sector in a generation. Its findings and recommendations will be of considerable interest to all those involved in the care and public presentation of England’s industrial heritage, especially local authorities and other public bodies, charitable trusts, and volunteer groups’.
The Longwarehouse and Museum of Iron, part of the National Trust Ironbridge Gorge sites taken over in March 2026 from the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell
The Inland Waterways Association (IWA) has worked with Canal & River Trust (CRT) to help improve its revised Restoration Delivery Plan (RDP), published 28th July. This document will provide the framework for future restoration of canals not currently open to boats and managed by the CRT.
The Restoration Delivery Plan is intended to set out how the CRT will work with restoration promoters and other partners to deliver the restoration of waterways across England and Wales. As a critical friend to CRT, IWA has engaged constructively with the Trust’s senior management to ensure that restoration receives the support and strategic priority it deserves. By reinforcing the importance of a friendly approach to waterway restoration and encouraging CRT to consider restoration as a core charitable objective rather than a secondary priority, the IWA has helped move the document towards a more positive, practical, and delivery-focused one.
The IWA noted that the discussions between the IWA and CRT have also led to improvements in CRT’s internal restoration processes and a better mutual understanding of how restoration activity should be managed across the Trust’s network. This, however, needs to be matched by restoration groups becoming increasingly professional when undertaking construction work, both onsite and with design and Health & Safety paperwork.
