Tag: Industrial heritage

Adapting to Net Zero on Industrial Heritage Sites Online Seminar, May 2025

Adapting to Net Zero on Industrial Heritage Sites Online Seminar, May 2025

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The Industrial Heritage Support project is running a free online seminar on 22 May 2025 focussing on climate change and Net Zero. The seminar is designed to give an overview of Net Zero adaptation strategies on industrial heritage sites in England. This is a follow-up seminar from an event on climate change and industrial heritage sites run in 2023.

The seminar will include a short presentation from Historic England covering their latest research and advice on reaching Net Zero in the Heritage sector. This will be followed by three industrial heritage site case studies from Cromford Mills, the National Mining Museum in Wakefield, and the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust discussing practical and future steps as these sites to achieve Net Zero. The seminar will finish with a discussion and questions.

The seminar is free and will run from 10:30am to 12 noon. To book via Eventbrite click here

National Mills Weekend 2025: 10 & 11 May

National Mills Weekend 2025: 10 & 11 May

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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. 

To check whether your local wind or water mill is opening during the weekend click on the individual site website or follow this link for further details: https://www.spab.org.uk/whats-on/events/national-mills-weekend-2025

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.
Historic England Webinar Recording on the Industrial Heritage Work of the Canal & River Trust Now Available

Historic England Webinar Recording on the Industrial Heritage Work of the Canal & River Trust Now Available

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For several years Historic England has been running a very successful lunchtime learning webinar training series. The latest industrial heritage webinar case study on the work of the Canal & River Trust, held earlier this autumn, can now can be viewed online.

Follow this link to watch the webinar: https://vimeo.com/1023201169/d6a3476fc4

One example of the re-use and conservation of canal-related industrial heritage mentioned in the webinar was The Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham. This former horse-shoe shaped stables and stores was built as a mineral and coal wharf, around 1840. Listed Grade II* the site was removed from the Heritage at Risk Register in 2021, renovated with the help of NHLF and CRT, and is now being run as a heritage enterprise by the charity Roundhouse Birimgham providing office space, a visitor centre, and canal-related leisure and outreach activities.

The Roundhouse, Sheepcote Street, Birmingham. Image courtesy of Historic England.

New Ironbridge Volunteers Begin Work on Next Phase of Sentinel Engines Restoration

New Ironbridge Volunteers Begin Work on Next Phase of Sentinel Engines Restoration

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In September the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT) launched a recruitment drive to find new volunteers to help them complete the second phase of the project to conserve two Sentinel locomotives at Coalbrookdale. IGMT found them through a range of outlets, including the Shropshire Star, the Telford Journal, and BBC Radio Shropshire, and they started work omn 18 October.

The two Sentinel Shunting Locomotives (left), which date from the 1860s, are historically important parts of the Trust’s collection. They were used by the Coalbrookdale Company on their internal railway system. In the 1920s, to reduce running and material costs, the Sentinel Waggon Works Ltd. modernised and converted locomotives from a boiler and cylinder system to a boiler with chain drive to both axles, and the locomotives within this project are the oldest locomotive conversions by Sentinel that are known to have been preserved. They are now on permanent display beneath the arches of the viaduct that passes through Coalbrookdale for museum visitors and passersby to see.

In 2023 the Trust secured funding from the Association for Industrial Archaeology to carry out work to conserve the engines, whose condition had deteriorated over time due to weather conditions. While the engines will not run again, the aim of the project is to stabilise their condition and conserve them so they can continue to be enjoyed by future visitors to the Ironbridge Gorge and its museums.

Under the guidance of Trevor Barraclough, the team began work on this second phase in October 2024. The work will involve wet and dry cleaning; priming bare iron; painting; and if appropriate carrying out some minor repairs. Volunteers also regularly receive questions from members of the public interested in their work and will be asked to take photographs to help record the progress of the project. The hope is to complete the project by Christmas, but this is dependent on the weather.

Picture shows volunteers Peter Taylor, Matthew Fletcher, Alan Watson, Steven Downton, Phil Garbett and Mike Sprason with Trevor Barraclough (centre). Image courtesy of IGMT.
7th East-West Workshop on Industrial Archaeology: Weaving the Industrial Period

7th East-West Workshop on Industrial Archaeology: Weaving the Industrial Period

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The production of fabric and its transformation into clothes was worldwide one of the first sectors to embrace modern industrialisation, even though continuities (of domestic working spaces, traditional production processes, manual technologies, etc.) often coexisted with changes (the factory, the factory system, the power loom). The 7th East-West Workshop on Industrial Archaeology revisits the capital importance of the textile sector in the development of the industrial period.

The East-West series of workshops aims to exchange ideas and knowledge among Western and Eastern colleagues to build a more international and diverse industrial archaeology. This edition focuses on the heritage and archaeology of the textile industry from the East, the West, and the world to explore its commonalities (transfer of technology, building materials, typologies, etc) and singularities (chronological disparities, heritage practices, etc.)

The event is organised jointly by the Institute for Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology (USTB, China), and the UK Association for Industrial Archaeology with its Young Members. IOt will trake place on Staurday 23rd Novemebr, between 10am and 12pm (GMT). The speakers are:

  • Yiping Dong (Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, China): “Complexity of the Conservation of Textile Heritage in China”
  • Ian Miller (The University of Salford, Britain): “Salford Twist Mill: Uncovering an Iconic Textile Factory”
  • Mark Watson (Historic Environment Scotland, Britain): “Global Textile Industries and their Built Heritage”

To register for FREE workshop and to get the Zoom link for the event, follow this link:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/7th-east-west-workshop-on-industrial-archaeology-tickets-1072988229679
 

Museum Decarbonisation Case Studies

Museum Decarbonisation Case Studies

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The National Musuem Directors’ Council (NMDC) has published the findings of a series of case studies looking at the actions and costs required to decarbonise museum buildings. It worked with a consulting engineer and a construction consultancy on a study of potential improvements to the energy performance of six different museum sites across the country, identifying where changes could be made to make buildings more efficient and reduce carbon emissions.

The National Museum Directors’ Council represents the leaders of the UK’s national collections and major regional museums. Aware that many museums haven’t yet carried out baseline surveys or carbon audits due to capacity and affordability, and that some who have done so can’t share results widely due to  commercial sensitivities, six museums agreed to share their findings publicly to increase sector literacy about potential improvements and outline costs. Each case study considers three categories: quick wins, maintenance, and capital projects, and within these demonstrates a range of potential carbon savings for individual measures – ranging from reviewing boiler controls or time schedules, to more ambitious interventions such as upgrading roof insulation, window repairs, or replacing gas boilers with Air Source Heat Pumps.The detailed case studies can be read by clicking the link here.

The importance of baseline carbon surveys to identify such measures cannot be overstated, as implementing these may mitigate potentially larger costs of more advanced maintenance or capital work, for which considerably more external funding is necessary.

*all carbon savings and costs are estimates. See case study document for full details.

Icon Industrial Heritage Conservation Accreditation Workshop

Icon Industrial Heritage Conservation Accreditation Workshop

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Icon is hosting an industrial heritage conservation accreditation workshop at Imperial War Museum Duxford on 28 October. If you work in industrial conservation and are interested in finding out more about Icon accreditation, then this is the workshop for you.

This free workshop event will cover:

  • Learn about the basics of Icon accreditation, what it involves and how it can benefit your you and your organisation.
  • Listen to real examples of Industrial conservation projects and understand how these meet the Icon assessment criteria.
  • Discuss the unique challenges of industrial conservation and explore how these can be presented in an Icon assessment.
  • Lots of opportunity for Q&A!

To find out more and to book follow this link

Ironbridge Launches ‘Get Us Winding Again’ Appeal

Ironbridge Launches ‘Get Us Winding Again’ Appeal

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The Blists Hill winding engine

The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust has launched a new £100,000 fundraising appeal, Get Us Winding Again, to raise funds to repair the winding engine at Blists Hill Victorian Town. The steam-powered winding engine is one of the earliest and most significant exhibits in Blists Hill Victorian Town. 

Winding engines were used to carry people, equipment and horses up and down a mine shaft. The museum’s winding engine dates to the mid-19th century and was originally used at Milburgh Tileries, a mine in nearby Jackfield. The cage on the end of the cable would have carried one tub of coal or clay at a time or six men at winding speeds of up to 30mph (44 feet per second) without men and about half that with men on.

Today the winding engine at Blists Hill Victorian Town is capable of winding empty tubs a short distance up and down the original mine shaft. However, due to normal wear and ageing (the winding engine ran most days from its installation in 1973 to 2018) and due to an overwind incident that occurred in 2018, it has not been in operation for the last six years.

The new Get Us Winding Again campaign aims to raise £100,000 to repair and restore the winding engine so that visitors can once again see it in action. Find out more about the campaign, as well as seeing a video of the winding engine in action, on the IGMT website.  

The Blists Hill mining headstocks and centrte, the winding engine house. Image Coutesy fo IGMT.
Historic England ‘History in the Making’ 2024 Funding Announced

Historic England ‘History in the Making’ 2024 Funding Announced

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Historic England is inviting applications from youth groups who want to explore fascinating local stories and have innovative ideas for place markers to commemorate them so these histories can be shared with the whole community and beyond. The History in the Making fund will enable underrepresented young people aged 13 to 25 from across England to research, discover and mark a part of their local heritage that has been overlooked or forgotten.

Funding is available for up to 15 projects across England. The successful applications will be chosen with the help of Historic England’s panel of Young Advisers, aged 18 to 25. History in the Making was originally launched last year (2023) in northern England, with Historic England funding 11 projects. Young people living in deprived areas will be helped to explore and celebrate untold local histories thanks to the launch of a national grant scheme by Historic England.

Industrial Heritage Network Online Meeting Dates 2024

Industrial Heritage Network Online Meeting Dates 2024

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The latest round of online meetings for the Industrial Heritage Networks in England are now taking place. Members will be recieving a ‘save the date’ email this week and then links to the meetings in the following weeks. These meetings are run by the Ironbridge Gorge Musuem Trust as part of the IHSO project. The networks provide a chance for those involved in running and maintaining industrial heritage sites, archaeological monuments, or local societies to get together and discuss current issues and experiences.

One of the current themes being explored by this year’s network meetings is how industrial museums, groups, and those supporting industrial archaeology monuments work with their local authority and how that has changed over the years. Membership of the regional networks is voluntary and free. If you would like to take part please email the IHSO at: mike.nevell@ironbridge.org.uk

Dates for the 2024 Online Industrial Heritage Network meetings:

Wedensday 19 June – London – completed

Wednesday 26 June – North West

Tuesday 2 July – South East

Wednesday 3 July – South West

Monday 8 July – East Midlands

Wednesday 10 July – West Midlands

Monday 15 July – East of England

Tuesday 16 July – Yorkshire

Monday 22 July – Cornwall & Devon

Wednesday 24 July – North East