A new documentary from Forestry England delves into the life of the freeminers of the Forest of Dean. For centuries, the freeminers of the Forest of Dean have held a rare and ancient right, to mine coal wherever they find it beneath the forest floor. Freemining in the Forest of Dean was formally granted by…
Tag: conservation
‘Mills Transformed – Stories of Mill Regeneration’ Book Launched
A new book has been published on the regeneration and restoration of historic textile mills. Entitled ‘Mills Transformed – Stories of Mill Regeneration’ https://johnhudsonpublishing.com/mills-transformed/. it is written by Neil Horsley with a forward by Charles Smith (Policy Director, Historic England). The volume looks at the regeneration of textile mills in northern England and is richly…
Severn Valley Railway Launch Fund Raising Appeal to Repair Landslip
Around 30m (32yds) of the Severn Valley Railway (SVR) track and track bed was damaged in a landslip on 30 January. A section of the track is impassable after the embankment collapsed about 300m (328yds) north of Sterns on the Shropshire section of the line. The affected area lies between SVR’s northern terminus station at…
Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings to Join English Heritage
Historic England have annoucned that they will be handing over the visitor attraction at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings to the care of English Heritage from the 1st April 2025. The visitor experience at Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings will become part of the charity’s 400-strong portfolio of historic attractions, welcoming thousands of potential new visitors. It will sit…
Industrial Heritage Sites Benefit From Final Round of UK Government Community Ownership Fund
The UK Government announced the recipients of the final round of the Community Ownership Fund (COF) at the very end of 2024. Amongst the 85 sites and groups receiving £36 million in grants are several industrial heritage sites, including the East Lancashire Railway and the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway. More than £1m will go…
Association for Industrial Archaeology Grants & Awards Deadlines in 2025
The deadlines for the 2025 Association for Industrial Archaeology grants and awards are fast approaching (31 January and 31 March 2025), but there is still time to consider applying for a restoration or research grant, or nominating a book or thesis for an award. Recent winners have included Wayne Cocroft and Paul Stamper for their book Legacies…
Historic England & English Heritage Update Their Climate Change Adaptation Report for 2024
Historic England and the English Heritage Trust have updated their ‘Climate Change Adaptation Report’, a document written in response to the Government’s Fourth Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP4) call under provisions in Part 4, Section 62 of the Climate Change Act 2008. This latest edition builds on the Third Adaptation Reporting Power (ARP3) report submitted jointly…
Conservation Matters in the North 24: Transferrable Skills in Conservation Conference
The Northwest Conservators Group are holding their annual conference in December on the theme of ‘Transferable Skills in Conservation’. The conference is open to all with an interest in conservation including curators, conservators, historians, students, volunteers, interns, and related disciplines such as those runnign industrial hertiage sites. A series of short talks will explore questions…
Save the Date for Railway 200 Says HRA
The Heritage Railway Association (HRA) is appealing to heritage railways, tramways, and museums up and down the UK to build the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway into their plans. With exactly two years to go until the anniversary of the famous opening of the railway linking coal mines in the Shildon area with…
Ecton Copper Mine Removed from Heritage At Risk Register
Completion of the restoration work on the balance cone at the historic Ecton Copper Mines in the Staffordshire Moorlands means that the site has been removed from Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk Register’. The mines were worked for over 3,500 years, closing in 1891. The Ecton Mines are a complex site, which includes a scheduled…
