The latest annual Museums Association (MA) members survey for 2025/26 has been published, shedding light on the condition of the sector across the UK. 705 responses were recieved from people working in or with museums. This latest survey shows that the financial pressures on museums of all types and sizes remained high in 2025/26. This…
Category: industrial heritage
SPAB/Heritage Crafts Emerging Building Craftsperson of the Year Award
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,…
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…
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…
Historic Environment Scotland’ ‘Inform Guide’ to Ceramic Tiled Flooring
Historic Environment Scotland (HES)’s ‘Inform Guide’ on ceramic tiled floors is available to download. Fired clay tiles have been in use since the Middle Ages, and a large manufactruign industry developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. The guide gives a brief overview of the traditional, and often decorative, floor tiles. The Inform Guide explores…
Winners of 2025 National Railway Heritage Awards Announced
The 2025 National Railway Heritage Awards – established in 1979 to recognise best practice in the re-use, restoration and upkeep of historic railway and tramway buildings – were presented on 3 December by the Minister for Rail, Peter, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill. This year’s honours included the restoration of the former Cambrian Railways headquarters…
Industrial Heritage Support 