INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY 157 SUMMER NEWS 2011 THE BULLETIN OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY FREE TO MEMBERS OF AIA Crossrail G AIA Annual Report G National Heritage G Swansea Copper Great Yarmouth Jetty G The Future for Canals G TICCIH Big Stuff G William Armstrong Transform at Snibston Colliery Reuse is essential if Industrial Heritage is to be This challenging integration of industry and maintained but it can be achieved in many ways. art is beginning to offer new routes for Leicestershire County Council’s Snibston Colliery discovering and exploring the significance INDUSTRIAL is the focus for an innovative arts project called industry has played in shaping our collective past. Transform that is bringing together the visual To this end a vital part of the process is to engage ARCHAEOLOGY arts and the industrial, technological and design local people and wider audiences in the process heritage of Leicestershire. of developing these pieces. A long-term ambition NEWS 157 is for artists to begin to see Snibston as a place of Summer 2011 Carolyn Abel, Principal Curator, Snibston, inspiration and a landscape in which major works Leicestershire County Council can be exhibited. It affords opportunities for Honorary President partnerships with other industrial heritage sites Prof Marilyn Palmer Maurice Maguire, Lead Artist, Transform & 63 Sycamore Drive, Groby, Leicester LE6 0EW Senior Lecturer, De Montfort University both within the locality, the region and beyond – Chairman for example, the Ruhr Valley, where there has long Tony Crosby been an interface between industry and artistic Snibston is a large visitor attraction located in 261 Stansted Road, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts CM23 2BT culture. But at the heart of Transform and Vice-Chairman Coalville, North West Leicestershire, located on Snibston’s regeneration programme is the Mark Sissons the site of the former Snibston Colliery. The latter, 33 Burgate, Pickering, North Yorkshire YO18 7AU interpretation and preservation of our industrial built by George Stephenson, opened in 1832 and Secretary past for future generations and the means by David de Haan following its closure in the 1980s, was reborn as which we can encourage our audiences to share AIA Liaison Office, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, a museum and industrial heritage centre in 1992. Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX in the understanding of that past and care about Funded by Arts Council England, the Treasurer its future. Bruce Hedge Transform project is at the heart of Snibston’s To find out more about the project and the 7 Clement Close, Wantage, Oxon OX12 7ED major regeneration programme. Through a series progress of the work, visit: www.snibston.com IA Review Editors of commissions, the site and its collections will be Helen Gomersall & Dr Mike Nevell and follow the links through Facebook. 14 Church Hill, Luddenden, Halifax HX2 6PZ the creative inspiration for works produced by IA News Editor Midlands-based visual artists. The aim is to reveal Chris Barney new dimensions to Snibston, highlighting the The Barn, Back Lane, Birdingbury CV23 8EN Affiliated Societies Officer connections it has to other places, activities and News from the Vacant people; linkages that extend beyond the Conference Secretary immediate vicinity to engage with wider regional, Wider Heritage John McGuinness national and international contexts. 29 Altwood Road, Maidenhead SL6 4PB World Endangered Sites Officer Transform was officially launched in August Amber Patrick 2010 when the Lead Artist Maurice Maguire, Flat 2, 14 Lypiatt Terrace, Cheltenham GL50 2SX transformed Snibston Colliery buildings with a The decision to abolish many of the ‘Quangos’ did Librarian and Archivist not, of course, abolish the tasks they performed. John Powell series of illuminations and projections, based on Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX his interpretation of the grain of the site, to re- Here is a summary of how these tasks will be Publicity Officer clothe and texture the headstocks and ancillary achieved with more limited resources. Roy Murphy 3 Wellington Road, Ombersley, Worcs WR9 0DZ structures. This event, captured by photographer Recording Awards Officer John Robertson, revealed a whole new way of Tony Crosby Dr Victoria Beauchamp viewing and, more importantly, thinking about 3 Parsonage Court, Parsonage Crescent, Walkley, Sheffield S6 5BJ the iconic structures embodied in this At Risk English Heritage – Although English Heritage Sales Officer Scheduled Monument. (EH) survived the review of the quangos last year Roger Ford by the Coalition Government, they are having to Barn Cottage, Bridge Street, Bridgnorth, make over 30% savings over the next four years Shropshire WV15 6AF Council Members with the majority of the savings having to be David Alderton (Heritage Link) made in the first year. EH are therefore having to Bill Barksfield (overseas trips) prioritise their work, concentrating on their Mike Bone (Heritage Alliance) Dr Robert Carr (BA Awards) statutory duties and functions which only they Dr Paul Collins (Conservation Award & Partnerships) are able to perform. Their National Heritage Steve Dewhirst (Conservation Award) Dr David Gwyn Protection Plan (NHPP), the framework for their David Lyne work over the next four years to 2015 will be Michael Messenger (Website manager) published and launched by the Minister in May. Stephen Miles (Conference bookings) Paul Saulter (overseas trips) The Interim NHPP published late last year took Mark Watson (TICCIH GB National Rep) into account comments made in an earlier Dr Ian West (Health & Safety) consultation and the new grant settlement they Honorary Vice-Presidents Prof Angus Buchanan Sir Neil Cossons will receive from DCMS. Industrial and transport Prof John Hume Stuart B. Smith heritage figure large in a number of the activities Liaison Officer and projects that EH plan for the next four years David de Haan and Anne Lowes (assistant), AIA Liaison and they intend to build on successful models of Office, The Ironbridge Institute, Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale, Telford TF8 7DX. Tel: 01325 359846. good practice, such as the production of the E-mail: [email protected] Brewery SHIER (State of the Historic Industrial Website: www.industrial-archaeology.org Environment Report) achieved in partnership with the Brewery History Society. In fact the NHPP COVER PICTURE envisages that partnerships with other TRANSFORM at Snibston Colliery organisations such as the AIA are essential to the Photo: © John Robertson Photo: © John Robertson successful implementation of the Plan. 2—INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS —157 Consultation on the Interim NHPP proved to be and conservation. The council would have very supportive of the Plan and drew in helpful The Future for the influence rather than power. The change is comments. An Advisory Board of about 20 Inland Waterways supported by all parties and by BW’s Board. A members is being established representing a ‘national trust for the waterways’ has long been wide range of stakeholders from across the an aspiration of the Inland Waterways The government’s proposal to transfer the heritage sectors and is to be administered by the Association. management of the inland waterways from the Heritage Alliance. More details of the National BW’s management has stressed it will not British Waterways Board to a new charity has Heritage Protection Plan and the AIA’S merely be BW under another name but will be a now entered the consultation stage and this is contribution are on page 10 totally new organisation, though with much due to close on 30 June 2011. Below is the staffing continuity from the old. It will certainly government’s summary of the proposal followed The Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck need a change in attitudes: in 2009/10 BW had a by comment from Peter Brown on the possible Sites ceased to exist on 24th March 2011. From turnover of £187m, and nine staff were paid over consequences of the change. now English Heritage will provide advice on £140,000. (In fairness, they did waive their designations and licensing of historic wrecks performance-related bonuses, which would under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, while Official Summary probably have been a minimum of an extra the Devolved Administrations will secure their This consultation seeks views on how in future £20,000 each). This compares with the National own advice for their Ministers. the inland waterways in England & Wales, that Trust, which had a turnover of £406m, but had are currently managed on behalf of the Secretary only one person paid over £140,000. The Advisory Committee on National Historic of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Will it be successful? Much depends on Ships – Having been declassified in the quango will be run. It sets out the rationale for moving funding. The government has announced that its review, National Historic Ships (NHS) will these waterways out of the public sector and into grant to the charity would be £39m in 2012/13 continue to receive a Government grant for a a new civil society organisation and the principles and that it would not fall below this figure up to further four years, but with a 15% cut in the which will guide the Government in deciding on 2022/23. However, this is a 24% cut in grant grant. Negotiations are still underway as to which the way forward. compared with 2010/11 and so far there has been organisation will host the NHS in future. Soon a The creation of a New Waterways Charity no promise that the £39m would be revised proposal regarding the transfer of the NHS’s (NWC) will give waterways users and their local annually for inflation. functions to the National Maritime Museum is communities a greater involvement in how the What about membership? Unlike the likely to be on the NHS website for comments. waterways are managed. The proposal will also National Trust’s members, the members of the help the waterways to be more financially new charity will not have voting rights — they The Railway Heritage Committee – Having sustainable, as the new charity will have access to would more truly be described as ‘supporters’.