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 Council for Britsh Archaeology (CBA) has launched a new volunteering page, listing opportunities across the UK. You can search by your region to find volunteering callouts near you. However, the page doesn’t just listed opportunities for volunteers, but also has a section where groups, sites, and museums can list their own volunteering opportunities in archaeology and heritage.
Current industrial archaeology and heritage volunteer openings include opportunities to help Kingswood Heritage Museum (a brassworks) in South Glouscestershire, digitising opportunities with the Food Museum, and helping out with the North Tynside Steam Railway.
To learn more about new volunteer opportunities sign up for the CBA volunteering newesletter by following this link:
Milsl Archive Trust volunteers learning new archibing skills. Image couresy fo the Mills Archive Trust.
The Mills Archive Trust’s ‘Living Heritage’ appeal is designed to keep alive the legacy of millers and millwrights found within the Trust’s archives, sharing this knoweldge with the public and providing life-changing experiences for their volunteers.
The Mills Archive Trust is a permanent repository for the documentary and photographic records of traditional and contemporary mills and milling, as well as similar structures dependent on traditional power sources, in the UK and beyond. It makes that material freely available for public inspection and use in research and learning.
Their latest appeal is designed to help volunteers acquire the skills needed to catalogue archives relating to specific millers and wind and watermill restorers and experts, such as David Nicholls (1938-2020), and Alan Stoyel. Not only does that help to save these archives and improve public access to them, but the skills acquired help many volunteers to find work within the hertiage sector.
The Mills Archive is one of the world’s great mill collections. It has rescued over three million documents and images that might otherwise have ended up in a landfill site. It is an Aladdin’s cave filled with memories and is free to use. The collections show the rich and diverse crafts, buildings, machinery, equipment, and people involved with mills in the UK and around the world. There is an urgent need to record and make public the technical details of these crafts and the potential impact of the loss of this aspect of our shared cultural heritage.
The Canal & River Trust is seeking people to join its team of fantastic volunteers and help care for the historic Gloucester Docks and the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal. There are a wide range of opportunities on offer.
The Trust is seeking volunteers to join its Gloucester Task Force, which cares for the environment around Gloucester Docks, making it a special place to visit, popular with boaters, local people and visitors. People who have a passion for teaching and inspiring young people are needed to support the Trust’s Explorers education programme. This role offers the opportunity to bring the waterways and their heritage to life for children and schools through events, visits and the National Waterways Museum.
The National Waterways Museum Gloucester is a popular visitor destination in the heart of the docks. The museum needs volunteers to act as guides and talk to visitors, sharing their passion for local history, the docks and what the waterways has provided for people and wildlife for over two centuries.
The canal boasts 18 historic swing bridges running down its entire length from Gloucester to Sharpness. Volunteer bridge keepers are needed to keep these bridges open for boats to navigate the canal, speaking to people and keeping them safe while operating the bridges.
Once the broadest and deepest canal in the world, the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal still stands out from other navigations because of its sheer scale and impressive engineering. Its rich history in acting as a bypass to protect boats from a treacherous stretch of the River Severn is still alive today, with Gloucester Docks a stunning Victorian inland port, and home to the popular Tall Ships Festival. To discover more about the work of the Canal & River Trust, and how you can volunteer or donate, go to canalrivertrust.org.uk.
19th century canal warehouse at the Glouscester Docks. Image copyright Dr Michael Nevell.
Tickets for this year’s Heritage Volunteering Group Conference, #HeritageVolunteering22, on the 8th to 9th November, are now available.#HeritageVolunteering22 willexplore how we make the most of our varied skills to build a new future for heritage volunteering.
The conference will open with a Keynote talk from Shaun Delaney, Head of Volunteering Strategy at DCMS. The rest of the conference will feature a combination of workshops, panel discussions, and the awarding of HVG’s Volunteer Leader of the Year Award.The full agenda is available on the Eventbrite page
General tickets are available at £25. Follow this link to buy your tickets: here.
Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings will be opening to the public later in 2022. The Friends of the Flaxmill Maltings will manage the new interactive visitor experience, which will bring the past, present, and future of the site to life. They will also offer guided tours and run the shop.
The Flaxmill Maltings is recognised as the first iron-framed building in the world, and has undergone a £20.7 million renovation. The Friends are calling for additional volunteers ahead of the opening. From front of house to behind the scenes roles, the Friends need more people who have some time that they can give to this internationally important landmark.
As part of their recruitment drive they are holding a series of volunteer recruitment events. This will include manning a stall at the Shrewsbury Museum and Arts Gallery between 10am and 4pm on March 19, with further events planned to be held on April 8 and April 9 at the Flaxmill Maltings site. At these events you’ll be able to meet the Friends staff and some of their existing volunteers, and find out what’s involved in being a part of their friendly team.
Industrial Heritage Networks 