Newsletter 90 Spring 2014
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NEWSLETTER 90 SPRING 2014 EDITORIAL We have reached the 90th Newsletter and another new year. I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and New Year and didn’t get blown away or flooded! By the time you read this we will be over halfway through our Lecture Programme and we have already had some varied topics – all of interest. Ideas are welcome for the 2014/15 season so if you have any suggestions please contact Jane Ellis (details at the end of the Newsletter). Please note that we have added a new event to this year’s programme – a visit to Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley, organised by section member Graham Collett, on 17 May. Details of the visit are given on the accompanying information sheet / booking form. Do contact Graham as soon as you can to book your place. I am also trying to arrange a visit to the Monckton Coke Works near Barnsley as a follow-up to the talk given at the September day school at the National Mining Museum. If this visit goes ahead it is likely to be in the summer so details will be included in the next Newsletter. The 150th anniversary year of the main Society has come to an end and I hope you managed to join one of the events. Attendance at the events varied, with some proving very popular but others having to be cancelled due to low interest, or in the case of the visit to Barnsley Experience, no interest. The YAHS Collections book which was produced highlighting the range of material in the library and archives was very well received and copies are still available at Claremont at the reasonable price of £5. With hindsight perhaps we over reached ourselves and possibly should have concentrated our efforts on fewer events and activities. The anniversary year did manage to attract a small number of new members to the main Society – an overall increase of 11, but we had hoped for more. I hope some members saw the three articles in the Dalesman on historic mills which included a “plug” for the YAHS and the Industrial History Section. The author Sebastian Oakes has subsequently approached me with a view to collaboration on another series featuring industrial buildings at risk throughout the county. We are aware of the English Heritage list of Buildings at Risk but if any members have views on which industrial buildings should be included in the article please let me know as soon as you can (my contact details are given on page 10, below). Work has continued on the Industrial History data base with section member John Suter putting a considerable amount of work into developing a version of the database that would have the potential to be available online for data entry and searching. The group met on 4 January to view a trial version which looked very promising so much so that we have decided to stop pursuing the original idea of using the GLIAS database structure, even though we did finally receive the information required to enable us to copy the database and send it out on a CD to members for them to load onto their own computers and add data. We will keep you posted on developments. I wasn’t able to attend the 2013 AIA conference which was based in Dundee but a full report can be found in Industrial Archaeology News 167, Winter 2013 available in the YAHS Library. This year’s conference will be nearer to home being based in Chester from 5-10 September, outline details of the programme are now available and these are given later in the Newsletter. Also in issue 167 of IA News you will also see details about current industrial history issues in Yorkshire that I have provided as the correspondent for Yorkshire. The details were rather sparse and concentrated on South Yorkshire, so a plea to members elsewhere in Yorkshire to let me know of anything of industrial history note that is happening in their area so that I can not only include it in this Newsletter but also wider in the IA News. Unfortunately no new members have joined since the last Newsletter, so don’t forget to recommend joining to your friends and colleagues who might be interested. I shall be producing the next Newsletter after the AGM in April, so please let me have your news and information in good time before then. Finally, please don’t forget that your 2014 subscriptions are due in January. Margaret Tylee NEWS FROM CLAREMONT Those of you who regularly check the YAHS website will be aware that Claremont has new opening hours which have been introduced to allow the staff to be able to spend more time helping and training volunteers and dealing with telephone and online queries. The new hours mean that Claremont is now closed to the public on Mondays and Fridays, opening hours are Tuesdays - Thursdays 10am – 5.30pm and Saturdays 9.30am - 5pm. The hours will be reviewed at the end of 2014. There is also a new arrangement for the reading rooms – the library and archives reading rooms are now combined into the Sir Charles Clay Room. The card catalogue has been moved to the former archive room which is now used by the volunteers and other groups for meetings. The aim is to give researchers more space and a quieter environment for their work. Also if you have looked at the YAHS website recently you will see that references to the 150th year have been removed but you can still find reports of events that happened during the year by clicking on the Highlights button on the left hand side list, then selecting 2013. It has been agreed to continue to add information about YAHS events from 2014 onwards – as long as there is someone who is willing to provide the information. Longstanding Claremont staff Robert Frost and Janet Senior retired towards the end of 2013 – if you look on the website you’ll find pictures of their retirement party at Claremont http://www.yas.org.uk/. As a result, staffing for the archives and Library has been re-arranged and a new part time Library Assistant, Simon Craddock was recruited and started at the beginning of January, working alongside the other Library Assistant, Diana Miles and Collections Manager, Kirsty McHugh. There have been problems at Claremont with car parking, particularly when there are several meetings being held on the same day. Management Board have requested members to avoid parking at Claremont on Saturdays when there is free parking available nearby, this will leave room for those with disabilities and also visiting speakers who may need to unload equipment. If you have a disability and need to park at Claremont please contact the staff in advance so that a space can be reserved for you. OTHER NEWS ITEMS Some of you may be aware of the Skelmanthorpe Textile Heritage Centre situated at 6 Queen Street, Skelmanthorpe. I visited for the first time at the Heritage Open Days weekend in September and found it very interesting. It is a small privately owned museum in a one up/one down former weaver’s cottage. The ground floor has been maintained and furnished as it would have been in the early 1900s and upstairs is an authentic handloom in working condition along with displays and artefacts associated with the local textile industry. The house is owned by local historian Leslie Robinson and together with his friend Stanley Sheead they show visitors around the Museum and demonstrate hand loom weaving. Both men are in their 90s and a Friends group was formed in 2012 to preserve and promote the Museum and like most voluntary groups they are keen for people to join the group. There are opportunities for guiding visitors, helping to maintain the house, learning to operate and demonstrate the hand loom or just to give moral support. The Museum is not open on a regular basis but guided tours can be given to small groups (maximum of 10) or to individuals on a pre- booked basis. If anyone is interested in becoming a “Friend”, a visit or just finding out more about the Museum contact the website www.friendsofskelmanthorpetextileheritagecentre.btck.co.uk or email [email protected] One of the projects funded by the East Peak Innovations Partnership (EPIP) and English Heritage Industrial Heritage Support Programme was the production of a series of oral history recordings with Leslie Robinson and Stanley Sheead at the Skelmanthorpe Textile Heritage Centre. Extracts from the recordings can be found at www.denbydalekirkburtonarchives.co.uk/skelmanthorpe. The three year Industrial Heritage Support Programme finished in November 2013 having funded 24 community projects, archaeology training days, an Industrial Heritage Summer School, numerous interpretation boards and much more. Free copies of the end of programme review are available from EPIP at 12 St Mary’s Street, Penistone, S36 6DT, T 01226 763201 or by emailing Stephen Gould at [email protected]. A copy has been deposited in the YAHS Library. The Portland Works, Randall Street, Sheffield were built in 1877 for the firm of R F Mosley & Co. The works were one of the earliest examples of an integrated metal trades complex and in 1914 became the first place in the world to manufacture stainless steel cutlery under the Rusnorstain trademark. The company continued to operate on the site until the 1950s and the works subsequently became the home of a number of small workshops employing a total of 35 people, many still involved in metal working.