YORKSHIRE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY INDUSTRIAL HISTORY SECTION NEWSLETTER 97 LATE SPRING 2016 (website edition - this edition is incomplete as some items/illustrations from the original newsletter are not available electronically) EDITORIAL We have come to the end of the first lecture series to be held at our new location at Swarthmore and I hope those members who have attended the lectures have found it a suitable venue. The only adverse comments I have received relate to the new screen in Room 3 which is in fact a smart form of a whiteboard (but it is black) and has proved too low down on the wall for those at the back of the room to see the presentations properly. As it turned out, delays to the completion of the sale of Claremont has meant in principle we could have stayed at Claremont for the 2015/6 season but the lecture room has been used for sorting and storage of material due to be moved, it would have been colder and less welcoming than before. The good news is that our Lecture Programme Secretary Jane Ellis has finalised the details of the 2016/7 programme, the dates and details are given later in the Newsletter and the full programme will be distributed with the Autumn Newsletter and be available on the YAHS website. The 2016/7 programme will continue to be held at the Swarthmore starting on 15 October. The Section’s AGM was held on 16 April and was attended by 15 members, the minutes will be circulated with the Autumn Newsletter. The Officers were all re-elected and I was nominated and approved as the section representative to be put forward for the Management Board at the Society’s AGM likely to be in June/July. The Section Annual Report was discussed and approved and a copy is enclosed for information to those members unable to be present. I was pleased to report that the Section’s finances appear to be on an even footing with the income from subscriptions showing a slight surplus over our expenditure in producing Newsletters and the events programme, thanks go to all who give up their time to help the Section. More savings could be made on postage/envelopes if members preferred to receive Newsletters etc. electronically, although we do make savings by using the franking machine at Claremont, sending something second class using the machine costs 37p instead of 53p. If you are willing to receive the Newsletter electronically please let Robert Vickers know. Robert gave a brief update at the AGM on the good progress being made on the development of Yorkshire Industrial History Online, a fuller update is included later in the Newsletter. I was also pleased to report that we have two excursions lined up over the next few months. Robert Vickers has arranged a visit to Queen’s Mill in Castleford on 26 May. The mill was previously known as Allinson’s Mill and was the world’s largest stone grinding flour mill with 20 pairs of grinding stones. It closed on 2010 but was subsequently bought by the Castleford Heritage Trust and re-opened in 2013. If you can’t make this date, the Mill has regular Open Days during 2016, for details see the website www.castlefordheritagetrust.org.uk. A photo of the interesting roof trusses in the Mill appears in IA News 176 p17. At the AGM Robert reported that 10 members/friends had signed up for the visit, so there is room for a few more. Our second visit has been organised by Jane Ellis and is a walking tour of Lawnswood Cemetery in Leeds on Thursday 1 September to discover the graves of many notable Leeds industrialists. See Forthcoming Events for details. At the AGM I reported that our membership was stable with 78 members compared to 79 at the time of the 2015 AGM and would like to welcome four new members who have joined since the last Newsletter – Mr P Robson, Mr M Turpin, Mr J Whitaker and Mr A Garford. I hope you will be able to join us for the two excursions we have arranged and if not, will be able to get to our 2016/7 lectures. The main Society will be discussing a possible membership campaign once we know where our new home will be but that doesn’t stop Section members encouraging others to join. I shall be producing the next Newsletter in early September in time for the first lecture on Saturday 15 October. Please let me have any news/information as soon as possible and by 9 September. I hope you all have an enjoyable summer and maybe see some of you at the AIA Conference in September. Margaret Tylee MAIN SOCIETY NEWS Yes it’s time to change this heading, although at time of writing Claremont is still occupied and remains the formal registered office, the sale is still proceeding albeit slowly. The planning application was published on 15 April and I was surprised to learn that it is for a conversion into 16 flats, according to the plans the majority will be one room only with a fold down bed and a separate bathroom. It doesn’t seem like the “high end” residential accommodation that was originally indicated but I suppose they may be affordable, you can view the details of the plans on the Leeds Council website (www.leeds.gov.uk) follow the link to planning applications and the reference number is 16/01802. Closing date for comments was 6 May and it is expected that the plans will go before the planning committee some time after that. Meanwhile investigations will be underway to identify a suitable home for the Society after Claremont is vacated. It is likely to be rented office accommodation in Leeds initially for 2 or 3 years until we have a better idea of how the Society’s finances and new arrangements are working out. The current Treasurer Brian Barber has given notice that he intendeds to give up the post at the forthcoming Society AGM, a new Treasurer will therefore be required. The Society is also looking for a new Excursions Officer since Louise Thomas-Philips will be standing down. We are still looking for someone to become the Society’s Newsletter Editor who can revive the production of the hard copy and electronic newsletters. If anyone who is a main YAHS member is interested in these posts please contact David Buck. Initial discussions are taking place to consider the production of a revamped website for the Society, in the meantime pages of the current website are being updated or deleted to reflect the current arrangements. Don’t forget to read the President’s Blog which is where you will find all latest information and news. YORKSHIRE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY ONLINE (YIHO) YIHO has made considerable progress since in the last year. After some 12 months hard work the YIHO project has become an active collaboration that currently includes YAHS, Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society, South Yorkshire Industrial History Society, Northallerton & District Local History Society, Halifax Antiquarian Society, and Keighley & District Local History Society. Efforts are on-going to expand the collaboration – there is positive interest from East Leeds History & Archaeology Society, Huddersfield Local History Society, Nidderdale Iron Age Project, South Leeds Archaeology, Swaledale and Arkengarthdale Archaeology Group, amongst others, as well as several Yorkshire industrial and local museums. John Suter has undertaken a considerable amount of work on the software in the light of suggestions by the project team with the result that: the software is much more robust; the appearance of the pages and functions has been aligned so that there is consistency across all the screen displays; it is now possible to add scanned images of photographs and documents. The project team has continued to add records to the database and to date over 2400 site records have been collated by members of the team and others. A work placement student from Huddersfield University input records of c750 sites from record cards donated to us by architectural historian Jane Hatcher. Two members have begun to add scanned images of their original research notes and we are exploring the possibility of digitally scanning Jane Hatcher’s photographs and other collections we know of. A significant recent development has been the creation of a training module to use for group training or for self-teaching to increase the number of people involved in data entry. Once the initial data entry phase has been completed, expected later this year, and greater digital storage capacity has been acquired it is proposed to make YIHO visible to the general public. Robert Vickers OTHER NEWS ITEMS The Yorkshire Dialect Society together with the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield are recording dialect words and expressions used in Yorkshire before they are lost. There will be many dialect terms used in industry, for example when mechanisation was introduced the names of parts of machinery would be new and perhaps later superseded. There are no doubt words used in the textile industry which have passed into history. Information and contributions are welcome and can be sent to [email protected] or to the Centre for English Traditional Heritage, Spring Hill, Edale, Hope Valley S33 7ZB. Our November lecture will be given by Geoffrey Snowdon on the subject of the excavations at Yearsley Mill, near Helmsley. The work has been carried out by a community group having discovered the remains of a medieval/post medieval watermill site which probably went out of use in the mid 18th century.