NEWSLETTER 68 AUTUMN 2006 > EDITORIAL Welcome to another Newsletter and season of lectures. I hope you have had an enjoyable summer. I spent an interesting week in Jersey where there are still many remains of the World War II German Occupation including gun emplacements, watch towers and underground bunkers. There are also working granite quarries, a desalination plant, lighthouses and a thriving port at St Helier. There are no railways left in Jersey but the old St Helier to St Aubin railway which opened in 1870 is now an attractive footpath and cycle path. The line was extended to Corbiere in 1899 where there is a spectacular lighthouse, but closed in the early part of the 20th due to the rise of motor transport. I have just returned from the annual AIA conference which this year was held in the Isle of Man and based in a comfortable hotel in Douglas instead of the usual student halls of residence. Although the hotel was comfortable, it didn’t cope very well with 120 people all turning up for breakfast at 8am! We saw a good range of IA including the famous Laxey Wheel and trips on the Manx Electric and Steam railways, not to mention the horse trams. I will produce a full report for the next Newsletter. I am looking forward to our 2006/7 lectures. As you will see from the enclosed details, our Lecture Secretary Jane Ellis has put together an interesting and varied programme. We have strayed into the mid 20th century with the talk on English Heritage’s Defence of Britain project and the reminiscences of the Barnbow Tank factory. Jane has suggested that additional information about the lectures be provided on the programme sheet to encourage a greater attendance. To accommodate this, I will be producing a separate membership renewal form for section only members to use when the subscriptions are due in January 2007. If you are a main society member, then you will receive your membership renewal information directly from Claremont. Let me know what you think of the new arrangement. I make my usual reminder that suggestions for future speakers are always welcome. Also enclosed are the minutes of the 2006 AGM, it was poorly attended but if any member has a correction to the minutes please contact me with your proposed amendment, contact details as usual at the end of the Newsletter. Our excursion to Ackroydon is reported in more detail later, again it was poorly attended and unfortunately even the walk leader failed to turn up, so the small party guided itself with the aid of a useful leaflet produced by Calderdale Council. Section only members should all by now have received their membership cards for 2006, if any member has not received one please let me know. Cards for 2007 will be issued when 2007 subscriptions have been paid. It is important that you have your membership cards with you when visiting Claremont, otherwise you may be charged for access to the facilities such as car parking and higher photocopying charges. No new members to welcome since the last Newsletter. Don’t forget that membership leaflets are available at Claremont and if you would like spare copies of the lecture programme to display at your workplace let me know (or make your own copies). I shall be producing the next Newsletter in January 2007, so please let me have your news items, details of future events, reports of visits etc or longer items for inclusion as soon as you can. I hope to see you at a forthcoming lecture. Margaret Tylee NEWS FROM CLAREMONT There have been difficulties this year in processing the annual accounts in time for the scheduled Annual General Meeting of the main Society due to have been held on 24 June. The AGM was due to take place on 16 September where the major topic for discussion will be the Society’s Strategic Plan. However I never received any notification/confirmation of the new date, so I don’t know whether it happened or not. The Programme of Events leaflet gives notice of the 2007 AGM to be held on 30 June 2007 with nominations for the Management Board and Council to be submitted no later than 31 March 2007. The Society is also looking for a Membership Secretary and volunteers to help with the running of Claremont, to advise on Health & Safety matters and to help with fund raising. If you can help in any way, please contact Jo Heron at Claremont. A reminder that non members who wish to use the Library at Claremont will be charged £4 for a full day session, also non members are charged 55p for an A4 photocopy and 80p for an A3 sheet. Society and Section members are charged 10p and 20p respectively for photocopies. NEWS ITEMS English Heritage has recently completed a survey of the country’s military aviation sites which has resulted in several sites being listed for the first time. Two are in Yorkshire. One is RAF Catterick which started life as a Home Defence Station in 1914 and is regarded by English Heritage as the best preserved fighter sector station in the North of England retaining a group of First World War hangers. The site is not open to the public. However the second site is open and visitors are welcome to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington near York. It was originally a grass airfield but hardened runways were built in 1942 and it became the base for 77 Squadron RAF. The 1940s control tower is listed, one of only a handful to survive in its present state of preservation. The museum is open daily 10am to 3.30pm in winter and 5pm in summer. Another Restoration series has been shown on BBC2 over the summer. The 7 September programme featured sites from the North and Howsham Mill in North Yorkshire was the winner of this heat. Unfortunately it was not the overall winner in the final losing out to Chedham’s Yard in Warwickshire, a 19th century wheelwright and blacksmith’s forge which has been left untouched for over 30 years. Newsletter 66 included information about the project to restore the Mill as an educational resource centre promoting renewable energy using the reinstated waterwheel to generate electricity. Section members Bob and Mary Steeds have visited the Mill recently and have reported that it is a very interesting site with a lock on the River Derwent Navigation adjacent to the Mill and the footbridge to the Mill going over the lock chamber. The Mill is open on the first Sunday in the month. Leeds City Council and Yorkshire Forward are consulting on the development of a Holbeck Urban Village. Proposals include sound engineering and light installations in the Dark Arches, creating the disused railway viaduct into a skywalk route, adding a new bridge across the canal and opening up the Tower Works as a new public canal side concourse. The Millennium Galleries in Sheffield is holding en exhibition celebrating James Dixon & Sons, one of the most largest and prolific manufacturers of cutlery, flatware and holloware in Sheffield. James Dixon and Thomas Smith established their company in Silver Street, Sheffield, producing articles made from Britannia metal and pewter. The company moved to the Cornish Place Works in 1822 and by the time of its centenary in 1906 the workforce had increased to around 1,000. The exhibition is called Silver City and runs from 5 August to 29 October. Associated with the exhibition are lunchtime talks on the company given by John Bradshaw who has been researching the history of the company. There is one on the 11 October, 1-2pm. Bradford Council have produced a free leaflet describing four self guided walks in and around Saltaire, now designated a World Heritage Site. The walks are Saltaire Village Heritage Walk; Aire Valley Woodland & Water; Shipley Glen & Hirst Lock and Tong Park Dam. Still on the subject of Saltaire, it has been designated an Anchor Point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. This is a network of the most important industrial sites in Europe and currently includes sites in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. The Anchor Points will be the starting point for a variety of regional and themed routes. Other Yorkshire sites on the Route are Kelham Island Museum in Sheffield and the National Coal Mining Museum near Wakefield. More details about the Route can be found on the website www.erih.net. The Standedge Visitor Centre re-opened in summer 2006 situated near to the entrance to the Standedge Tunnel at Marsden on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal. Unlike the previous arrangement, entrance to the Visitor Centre is free where there are displays on the Tunnel’s history and the restoration of the canal. 30 minute boat trips into the Tunnel are available costing £4 for adults, £3.50 for concessions and £3 for children (5-15). There is also the opportunity to travel through the whole of the tunnel on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays, cost for this trip one way is £8 and must be pre-booked three days in advance by calling the customer services office on 01977 554351 (Mon-Fri). The Visitor Centre is open until 29 October 10am – 5pm but is closed on Mondays & Fridays. Sheffield Archives have reported that the Wharncliffe Muniments have been accepted by the Treasury in lieu of inheritance tax and will belong to the nation but will be available at the archives, where they had previously only been on deposit. The papers are a valuable source of local information from the Middle Ages to the 20th century and of particular interest to industrial historians are the records relating to the development of the Wharncliffe Silkstone collieries, the Wortley Forges, local railways and waterworks.