The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) is to collaborate with Heritage Crafts in the sponsorship of the ‘Emerging Building Craftsperson of the Year Award 2026’. For over 100 years SPAB has trained generations of building craftspeople as well as architectural professionals to shape the repair of old buildings with sensitivity and skill but…
Cross-party Praise for Smaller Museums in Westminster Hall Debate
On the 6 March a Westminster Hall Debate was held on the contibution of local museums to the UK. The debate was called by the Labour MP for Thurrock, Jen Craft, who highlighted the positive impact of her borough’s “fantastic local museums”, but also the challenges they are facing due to limited funding and the…
Historic England Launches Guide to Developing Creative Industry Hubs
Historic England has launched a new guide, ‘Heritage Works for Creative Businesses’. This new publication is designed to help developers who want to transform empty and underused historic buildings into thriving creative industry hubs. Heritage and the creative industries are major sectors of the UK economy. The former is often inspiration for the latter with,…
Spring Online Seminars from AIM
The spring series of online seminars from the Association of Independant Museums (AIM) are now booking. AIM run regular events for members and non-members, in-person and online, designed for those working with and for independent museums. The Spring 2026 online seminars include a number relevant to industrial heritage sites such as: The AIM Conference 2026…
Historic England – Free Carbon Reduction Training for the Heritage Sector
Historic England – Free Carbon Reduction Training for the Heritage Sector
UK Government Announces Five Year £1.5 Billion Investment in the Cultural Sector
The UK Government has announced that £1.5 billion will be invested in the culture sector (including arts venues, museums, libraries, and heritage buildings) in England over five years in order to prevent closures and address urgent capital needs. The support includes more than £100 million of new monies specifically earmarked for local museums (many of which…
Canal & River Trust Recieves Extra Funding for Canal Repairs
With the British canal system facing pressures from extreme weather and rising maintenance costs, the UK Government has announced that it is providing an addtional £6.5 million in funding for the Canal and River Trust (CRT), who care for the majority of the canals and river navigations in England and Wales. This in addition to…
Science Museum Group & RICHeS Survey – Empowering Safety
The Science Museum Group is running a Collections Hazards project, ‘Empowering Safety‘, funded by RICHeS (the UK’s Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science). The ‘Empowering Safety’ project aims to increase knowledge and guidance around hazards in museum collections through targetted training, which is especially relevant for industrial heritage sites. As part of the project…
The National Lottery Heritage Fund: Museum Collections, Storage, Access, and Resilience Research
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is working with Heather Lomas and Emma Chaplin to research the current landscape for UK museum collections, including industrial heritage collections. The research focuses on how collections are stored, acquired, and rationalised, as well as the extent to which stored collections are accessible to the public. The findings will directly…
Early Engines Database Finds New Home With the AIA
The Early Engines Database of eighteenth century steam engines has a new permanent home, courtesy of the Association for Industrial Archaeology (AIA). The database is a record of the steam engines constructed in the United Kingdom up to the end of the year 1800. It records only the first erection of each engine, (although what…
Industrial Heritage Support 