NEWSLETTER 96 EARLY SPRING 2016 NEWSLETTER 96 EARLY SPRING 2016 EDITORIAL Welcome to the first of our 2016 Newsletters. I thought about changing the name of this issue from Early Spring to Winter as perhaps being more appropriate for something which is issued at the end of January/early February when winter is usually still with us but decided a) it might be confusing after all this time and b) it’s more optimistic that warmer days are not so far off, although this year it hasn’t really got cold so far at time of writing! Still on change of name, I reported in the last Newsletter that the Society’s AGM approved the name change to Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society; this change is gradually being implemented. As you can imagine even a simple change needs to be registered with the Charities Commission and Companies House not to mention bank accounts, the website, stationery etc. By the time our next Newsletter is produced, you should see a new heading to the Newsletter. For those using the Society’s website, a new domain name www.yahs.org.uk has been acquired but is not yet in use. Subscription for both main Society members and Section only members were due on 1 January. YAS members should have received a reminder from the YAS Membership Secretary; Section only members have received a reminder by email or with this Newsletter. Section subs remain unchanged at £16pa and, as previously reported, arrangements for YAS members have been simplified; you will pay either £45pa and receive the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal or £23 pa without the YAJ plus £6 for the Industrial History Section membership (plus other amounts if you also belong to other Sections). See YAS website www.yas.org.uk for details. Membership cards have not been issued to main Society members for some years now but Section only members have been sent cards, mainly so that they can be identified at any events. It is likely that cards will no longer be issued unless on request. Separate arrangements are available for members wishing to use the collections at the University of Leeds library and these were advertised in the last Newsletter. A reminder that if you are a Section only member you can use the University of Leeds collection but on a reference only basis – as it was when the collections were held at Claremont, the arrangement that Section only members could borrow material that had been donated to the Library from the Section proved to be too complicated to carry over. We have had three lectures by the end of 2015 in our new venue at the Swarthmore. I have received generally positive feedback on the venue; the café open on site is appreciated, together with good projection facilities. The room we have used so far (Room 3) can be a little cramped with more than 25 people but hasn’t been a problem so far. Access via the Leeds City bus remains as before – I recommend getting off the bus at the Leeds City College stop and walking a few yards up hill to Swarthmore - as does the free parking at the Joseph Well car park (the one nearer to the College). I’m sorry to have to report the death of Section member Brian Slater. Brian was a Section member for many years and had given lectures and led walks. He was also an active member of the Railway & Canal Historical Society and the Railway Ramblers. He had been suffering from liver cancer and resigned from the section in October having been given two months to live. Typical of Brian’s good organisational skills, he set about tidying up his affairs before he died at home in York on Boxing Day. His funeral was attended by over 160 people from the various groups he participated in. Brian’s knowledge and contributions to the IHS will be much missed. A welcome to new member Mr P Sowden who has joined us since the last Newsletter - I hope you will find our events of interest. I shall be producing the next newsletter after the AGM in April, so please let me have any items and reports etc. as soon as you can and by 18 April. I hope you enjoy the rest of the lecture programme, there are no excursions arranged at present but there are ideas being worked up – details in the next Newsletter. Margaret Tylee NEWS FROM THE SOCIETY At the Society’s AGM last September I came to the end of my six year tenure on the Management Board – one is elected for three years and available for re- election for a further three years, after that one has to stand down for at least a year. This is to allow some rotation in membership, allowing for new ideas etc. It does mean that I don’t have as much immediate access to current information as before, but I still Chair the Promotions Committee whose membership includes the President and Hon Secretary, so I am not completely out of the loop. Also I am still invited to attend the twice yearly YAS Council meetings and the meetings which are now being held between the YAS Officers and representatives from the Sections. One of the items that are being considered by the Promotions Committee is an update of the YAS website. Some of this is necessary because of the various changes that the Society has gone through e.g. the name change, move of the Collections to the University of Leeds, changes to membership arrangements etc. Others are needed to refresh the look and content of the site. Some factual changes have already been made and the new President, IHS member Gill Cookson, has started a President’s Blog to keep people up to date on her many and varied activities (definitely worth a read). However, we still need a volunteer to act as a website editor which will involve pro-actively finding out news items, keeping the website up to date and liaising with the web mistress Sue Alexander. If you are interested contact the Society Secretary David Buck at [email protected] The Society has a new Excursions officer, Louise Thompson Phillips. She has already organised a couple of events (see YAS website) but is keen to have suggestions for more. Jane and I have suggested a visit to the Calderdale Industrial Museum and the Piece Hall (provided the former is still open see item below). If you have any suggestions please contact Louise at [email protected]. YORKSHIRE INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE ONLINE The development of the Yorkshire Industrial History Online (YIHO) database continues, being led by John Suter and Robert Vickers. There are currently 2260 sites on the database. During the past couple of months contact has been made with the following Yorkshire societies: Huddersfield Local History Society, Halifax Antiquarian Society Industrial History Section, Keighley & District Local History Society, and Northallerton & Dales Local History Society. Several of these are already interested in contributing to the database, alongside our current partners the Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society and the South Yorkshire Industrial History Society. Changes continue to be made to the software to improve the workings of the database. These include the resolution of duplicate entries, incorrect grid references and the uploading of large data files. The latter means that scanned copies of written and word documents, converted to PDFs, that might otherwise never be preserved and made publicly available, can now be uploaded to YIHO. Work has commenced on preparing a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to scan the photographs taken by Jane Hatcher for her 1985 book on The Industrial Architecture of Yorkshire which she donated to the Section with the intention to add them to the database. Discussions are being held with commercial scanning / archiving firms to explore how the images should be captured and how / where they can be stored. A key aim of creating YIHO is to help people gain a greater awareness of the industrial heritage of Yorkshire by enabling enquirers to identify the historically important industrial sites and buildings in their area or field of interest and put them in the broader context of rural and urban environments. For instance, it might be possible to create “virtual” industrial trails that could be followed by using mobile devices. The project team meets approx. monthly - please do let Robert know if you would like to attend: email [email protected] OTHER NEWS ITEMS Queen Street Mill in Burnley, the world’s last remaining steam powered weaving mill, is under threat of closure following the announcement of cuts faced by Lancashire County Council. Its steam engine “Peace” is capable of driving more than 300 looms in the weaving shed housed in a grade 1 listed building and the Mill has featured in several films and TV series including The Kings Speech and North and South. The Helmshore Mill Museum is also facing closure due to cuts. In 1860, there were 2,650 cotton mills in Lancashire employing 440,000 people and producing half the world’s cotton, now there are only two left and soon it’s possible there may be none. Eighteen papers from the First International Early Main Line Railways Conference held at Caernarfon 19-22 June 2014 are due to be published by subscription in early 2016. All subscribers will receive a copy of the book at a discounted price for advance payments and will have their subscription acknowledged in the book. The subscription list will close on 1 February 2016.