museums – Industrial Heritage Networks

More Industrial Heritage Sites Receive Government Grant Support

April 15, 2026April 17, 2026mikenevell

130 cultural venues, museums, and libraries will receive a share of £127.8 million to protect them for present and future generations. This latest Government support forms part of the ‘Arts Everywhere Fund’. This is in addition to the heritage grants announced earlier in the month which were funded by the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund.

These new monies form part of three funding streams administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media, and Sport. These are:

The Museum Estate and Development Fund (MEND) which has allocated £25.5 million to support 28 museums to undertake vital infrastructure works, and improve the visitor experience.
The Creative Foundations Fund (CFF) which has allocated £96 million to 74 arts and cultural venues to help theatres, performing arts venues, galleries and grassroots music venues address urgent infrastructure needs.
The Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) which has allocated a share of £6.3 million to 28 library services to help upgrade buildings and technology to better meet the needs of the community.

The industrial heritage museums and sites receiving support are:

Baltic Flour Mills Visual Arts Trust, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne – £3,649,800
Black Country Living Museum, Dudley – £454,159
Greater Manchester Transport Society – £244,000
London Transport Museum – £999,999
People’s History Museum, Manchester – £2,491,670
Port Sunlight Village Trust – £499,999
The Brickworks Museum, Southampton – £280,000
The Mill Arts Centre, Banbury – £135,000
Watermill Theatre, Newbury – £300,000
Whitchurch Silk Mill – £210,045

For further details follow this link: Arts Everywhere Funding – GOV.UK

*People’s History Museum, Manchester. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.*

Industrial Heritage Sites to Recieve Grants From the DCMS/Wolfson Museums & Galleries Improvement Fund

April 14, 2026April 17, 2026mikenevell

24 local museums in England have been granted a share of £4 million through the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund. The Fund brings together £2 million in match funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and independent, grant making charity, the Wolfson Foundation. It supports local museums by improving displays, enhancing collection care, and making exhibitions more accessible to visitors.

The five industrial heritage museums that have recieved £1,034,200 from this year’s grant round are:

British Motor Museum, West Midlands – £147,700
Black Country Living Museum, West Midlands – £272,000
SS Great Britain, South West – £46,300
National Tramway Museum, East Midlands – £210,600
Food Museum, East of England – £357,600

Full details of the all the museums receiving grants here: Local museums receive £4 million to improve accessibility to arts and culture – GOV.UK

The DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund provides capital funding for museums and galleries across England to improve displays, protect collections and make exhibitions more accessible to visitors. For 2025-27, DCMS and the Wolfson Foundation have each contributed £2 million to the Fund, which has benefitted more than 440 projects in its more than 24-year history.

*One of the trolley bused that will be renovated at the Black Country Living Museum. Image courtesy of the Black Country Living Museum.*

Museum Development Grants – Next Round Opening

April 13, 2026April 15, 2026mikenevell

The next round of Museum Development grants for the English regions will be opening in the next few weeks. These include Open Grants, Small Grants, and bursaries from the five regional museum development networks in England, with grants ranging from £500 to £7000 depending on the region and type of activity. These are usually designed for accredited museums, or those sites working towards accredition.

Museum Development London are running a free online seminar detailing their grants for 2026-27 on the 23 April. To book follow this link: MDL grants programme 2026-27 coffee morning

Museum Development South East have two Open Grant streams. Round one is currently open and closes on 2 June. Round 2 opens on 21 September and closes on 4 November. For details on both follow this link: Open Grants – Museum Development South East

Applications for Museum Development Midlands Open Grants start on 30 April, with a deadline of 29 June. More details here: Open Grants · MDM

The Museum Development South West Open Grants scheme deadline is 15 April, but applications for their Capacity Grants opens on the 29 April. More details here: Capacity Builder – Museum Development South West

Museum Development North’s Continuing Professional Development Bursaries is a rolling programme, so applications can be submitted at any time from April to 3 December 2026. The scheme may close earlier if all funds have been allocated. Further details here: Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Bursaries – Museum Development North

New Industrial Heritage Exhibitions for Spring 2026

April 7, 2026mikenevell

Each year there are a range of new and temporary exhibitions on industrial heritage and archaeology put on by dozens of industrial heritage sites across England. Spring 2026 sees three new industrial heritage exhibitions open to the public covering coal, salt, and textiles.

“Jason and the Coal Mining Adventure”, is on from the spring to the autumn, 27 March to 4 October, at the National Coal Mining Museum, Wakefield. It is a colourful and immersive reimagining of Britain’s mining history and the communities at its heart.

The “Untangled”, exhibition runs from 23 May to 6 June, at Leeds Industrial Museum. The new exhibition, from the International Felt Makers Association Region Ten, celebrates the connections between nature and industry through textiles.

Lastly, “The Salt of the Erthe”, exhibition runs from 26 February to 28 June 2026, at the Lion Salt Works, Northwich, and celebates Cheshire’s salt heritage.

SS Great Britain Launches Fundraiser to Complete Museum Renovation Project

March 5, 2026mikenevell

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”.

Further details on how to donate can be found here: All Hands On Deck – SS Great Britain

Museum Association Bids Farewell to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust

March 3, 2026mikenevell

The 2nd March 2026 marked the start of a new era within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, as the National Trust took over the 10 museums, 35 scheduled monuments and listed buildings, and 400,000 archives of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust (IGMT). The museums closed for the last time under IGMT control on the 22 February, which was marked by a special parade and ceremony of staff, volunteers, and friends at Blists Hill open air museum, the final site to close on that day.

To celebrate 60 years of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust, the Museums Association interviewed the Collections team for their thoughts on IGMT and its legacy. You can read the full article, and reminescences by Kate Cademan (Collections Curator) and Jo Smith (Registrar), here: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/people/2026/02/bidding-farewell-to-the-ironbridge-gorge-museum-trust/#

The National Trust is planning a phased reopening of each site over the following months. The  anticipated reopening timeline is as follows:   

Museum of the Gorge and Toll House from late April 2026 
Blists Hill, Museum of Iron and The Old Furnace from mid-May 2026 
Enginuity from summer 2026 (school visits from April 2026) 
Coalport China Museum, Jackfield Tile Museum, Darby Houses, Tar Tunnel and Broseley Pipeworks will open later.

Further details here: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/shropshire-staffordshire/our-work/our-work-in-shropshire/ironbridge-museums

**Staff, volunteers, and friends gather at Blists Hill to say farewell to IGMT, on 22 February 2026.**

South Wales & West England Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference 2026 (SWWERIAC) Open for Booking

February 6, 2026February 5, 2026mikenevell

The Worcestershire Industrial Archaeology & Local History Society (WIA&LHS) is hosting the South Wales & West England Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference (SWWERIAC) on Saturday 18^th April 2026 at Avoncroft Museum of Historic Buildings, Stoke Heath, Bromsgrove B60 4JR.

Get set for a day of engaging talks from leading speakers and a chance to explore Avoncroft’s remarkable open-air collection. The museum, home to over 30 rescued and reconstructed historic buildings spanning seven centuries, provides a unique backdrop. Highlights include the UK’s National Collection of Telephone Kiosks, working historic windmill, and a selection of timber-framed, brick, and prefabricated structures including a chain shop, nail workshop, sawmill, and icehouse. This inspiring setting promises a rich blend of learning, discussion, and heritage discovery.

Tickets cost £28 per person and include:

Six speakers covering a wide range of industrial heritage in Worcestershire
Access to the museum’s entire collection
Two 30-minute dedicated tours of the telephone kiosk collection and windmill
Buffet lunch including cold meats, new potatoes, crusty bread, and a selection of salads and cheese
Unlimited hot and cold soft drinks
Free parking

Society chairman Dr John Beale said “Avoncroft is home to 30 historic buildings and structures across a 19-acre site. For this reason, we have scheduled a 2-hour lunch break so that delegates can see the museum exhibits either self-guided and/or the dedicated tours of the 19th century windmill and the National Telephone Kiosk Collection. This marks a departure from the traditional arrangement of offsite visits as there is so much to see at Avoncroft.”

Get your tickets by submitting an online or Microsoft Word booking form available at https://wialhs.org.uk/swweriac2026/ or contact conference@wialhs.org.uk

*Avoncroft’s National Collection of Telephone Kiosks. Image copyright WIA&LHS.*

Catalyst Science Discovery Centre & Museum Looking for Volunteers

February 3, 2026February 3, 2026mikenevell

Catalyst Science Discovery Centre and Museum, in Widnes, is seeking to expand its team of volunteers as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund ‘Synergy Project’. The museum hopes to increase volunteer numbers from 24 to 70 by the end of 2027.

Heather Royle, volunteer coordinator at Catalyst, told Runcorn and Widnes World: “Our volunteers play a vital role in helping visitors have a memorable experience. There are so many different roles available, so there really is something for everyone. With all the exciting changes happening through the Synergy Project, this is a brilliant time to get involved.”

No previous experience is needed, and volunteers are only asked to give a couple of hours a week. Full training, coaching, and ongoing support are provided. Roles include helping with events and activities, engaging visitors through science “busking” in the interactive galleries, preparing workshops, supporting the café, and preserving the museum’s archives. Additional opportunities include helping maintain the historic 1860s building and welcoming visitors.

The Synergy Project will transform the museum’s ‘Birth of an Industry’ gallery into an immersive, interactive space bringing the story of the chemical industry to life. Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Heather Royle at heather.royle@catalyst.org.uk for more information.

*The Catalyst Science Centre & Museum. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell*

South East Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference 2026 Open for Booking

January 30, 2026mikenevell

The 2026 South East Regional Industrial Archaeology Conference (SERIAC) will take place on 25 April at Stanley Arts, South Norwood, London, from 10.30 to 16.45.

The day will consist of papers from members of the constituent societies in the region, including topcis such as Brunel’s Viaducts and Reading’s Other Industries. Display Space will be available for those Societies who wish. An optional box lunch will also be available. Further details here:

SERIAC_2026_NL Download

Book your tickets online via this link: https://tinyurl.com/SERIAC-2026

Get Involved With National Mills Weekend 2026: 9 & 10 May

January 28, 2026mikenevell

To celebrate the National Mills Weekend 2026, 9th and 10th May, the SPAB Mills Section wants to build up a new and comprehensive picture of mills of all types throughout the UK and Ireland. This year’s theme, ‘Now and Then’, invites owners, volunteers, millwrights or anyone interested in the history of a mill to write about how one has 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 tidemill, or an industrial mill. The mill must be located in the UK or Ireland. Up to four photos or drawings can accompany the text.

All submissions must be the writer’s own work, and photographs to be accompanied by the date and name of the photographer and their permission. Or, if it is a historic photo, permission of the copyright holder. Drawings to be similarly annotated.

Entries may be edited, and selected submissions will be incorporated into a SPAB Mills Section publication in 2026. Entrants will need to grant copy and reproduction rights to SPAB in print or online.

The chosen entrants will receive a copy of the publication, which will be available for sale through the SPAB.

The deadline for submissions is Thursday 30th April 2026. All entries to be submitted via email to: nmwsubmissions@spab.org.uk

IHN Guidelines

Welcome to the IHNs website!

Your News and Your Stories

Tag: museums