NEWSLETTER 89 LATE SPRING 2013 EDITORIAL I hope you all enjoyed the summer and made the most of the wonderful weather we have experienced in being able to visit some IA sites. I am now looking forward to our next Lecture programme and another year of activities. Details of the lectures and events are enclosed with this Newsletter and are also available on the YAHS website. Don’t forget to check the website regularly for details of other events and news throughout the year and a reminder that you can also use the website to order publications from the online shop. Also enclosed are the minutes from the April AGM, please let me know in writing or email if you have any corrections to propose to the minutes. We are now three quarters of the way through the Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society’s 150th anniversary year and I hope that some of you have been able to attend some of the events that have been organised to celebrate the year. Highlights of the events are available on the YAHS website and include the Section walk on 12 May led by Robert Vickers. A more extended report of this event is included later in the Newsletter, the weather could have been better but the small group who attended were appreciative of Robert’s efforts in researching and leading the walk. The Section’s next event as part of the celebrations will be held on Saturday 21 September with the day school at the National Coal Mining Museum and I hope this will be well attended. During the spring and summer I have been working with a researcher who was preparing a series of articles on Yorkshire Textile Mills for the Dalesmanmagazine. He was keen to include a list of twenty of the best textile mills as a key part of the approach. As you can imagine it was a pretty daunting task to produce this list and I am well aware that the final selection will have omitted several mills that members will feel should have been included. The first of the three articles appeared in the September issue of the Dalesman (including a photo of me!), so keep an eye out for it and any feedback and your views on what was eventually included in the list would be welcome. The good news is that the society has already received one request for more information about the YAHS as a result of the article. The next two instalments will be appearing in the October and November issues. I reported at the AGM and in the last Newsletter that work had been slow on developing the Industrial History database, the small group has met recently to discuss the best way forward and we now know how to add images to the database which is a small step forward. At present we are still waiting for the information regarding how to involve more people remotely in adding information to the database I have included a lengthier summary of the current position later in the Newsletter and will be able to update members at the first lecture meeting on 5 October. A welcome to new members Mr & Mrs J Watkinson who have joined the Section since the last Newsletter. The News Items section is a bit short this time, so a reminder that information about events and news with an industrial theme across Yorkshire is welcome at any time from members. Living in South Yorkshire means that I often miss information from the rest of Yorkshire unless members send it to me. I have recently been approached by the Association for Industrial Archaeology to be the reporter for Yorkshire; this will involve sending the editor for the Industrial Archaeology News short pieces of information from the region, so any information of an industrial history nature will be gratefully received. I shall be producing the next Newsletter in early January 2014, but please send any material as and when you can before then. I hope to see many of you during the coming months. Margaret Tylee Celebrating 150 years of the YAHS NEWS FROM CLAREMONT The AGM of the main Society was finally held on Saturday 10 August after being postponed twice due to the annual accounts not being ready and signed off by the auditors. This was partly due to problems with reconciling the membership figures with membership income since the computer holding the previous membership information finally stopped working and the replacement database which has been being developed for at least two years was still not fully working. At the meeting most of the discussion on the Annual Report for 2012 centred on the Society’s financial situation. The accounts showed the main Society’s deficit had reduced from £106,516 in 2011 to £39,780 for 2012; when the individual sections’ deficit was included this rose to £58,000. The accounts for the individual sections are not shown now in the Annual Report but I have asked the Treasurer for the breakdown for our section. The main reasons for the reduction in the deficit were an increase in value of the Society’s investments and less money having to be spent on maintenance of the building. It was pointed out that the accounts do not take into account the value of the building or the collections held within it. However clearly something has to be done to improve the finances, several suggestions were put forward and it was reported that the Finance Committee was due to meet on 13 August to review all possibilities and to produce a document for the Management Board to consider at its September meeting. The President made a request for anyone who had accounting experience to offer to help the Treasurer and be able to cover for him when he was away. At the end of the meeting there was a presentation to the outgoing Hon General Secretary Jo Heron who was retiring from the post after 17 years. Earlier in the meeting Paul White had been elected as the new Hon General Secretary. Jo was presented with flowers, a small gift and a cheque. If you look on the YAHS website you will find a report of the presentation. In Newsletter 88 I mentioned the appeal going out to Society members asking them to consider making a donation or to leave a legacy to the YAHS in this anniversary year. A special legacy leaflet has gone out to all main Society members and enclosed with this Newsletter is a copy for those who are section members only. The President reported at the AGM that anonymous donations of £1,000 and £3,000 had been received and the Parish Register Section, which was closing at the end of 2013, had donated £20,000 to the Society specifically for the improvement of security at Claremont. Please consider making a donation, however small, by sending a cheque made payable to the Yorkshire Archaeological & Historical Society to the Treasurer at Claremont. Members whose YAHS subscription does not include the annual volume of the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal may be interested in several of the items included in the 2013 issue which is now available. There are two articles, one by John Collis and one by Brian Barbour, which cover the history of the YAHS, highlighting some of its personalities and its publishing activities which were written as part of the 150th celebrations. The article by David Hey on The Domestic Economy of the 17th & 18th century Holmfirth Textile Industry uses probate inventories to provide evidence of the manufacture and marketing of woollen cloth in the Holmfirth area. Robert Vickers has provided a communication describing the setting up of the industrial history database and I reviewed the Record Series Publication 162 on the Swaledale Lead Mining Dispute 1705-8. OTHER NEWS ITEMS On 27th June Barnsley’s first museum dedicated to the history of the Borough of Barnsley opened in Barnsley’s Town Hall. It is called Experience Barnsleyand also includes the Discovery Centre which houses the local studies library and archives which have moved from the Central Library. Many of the artefacts were donated by local people and cover a range of historical periods from a Stone Age axe head, previously used as a door stop to 1950s football rattles and leather jackets worn by the rock band Saxon. Of more interest to industrial historians are the displays highlighting the Barnsley industries of coal, glass and linen (although nothing on quarrying). The museum is free and open Monday – Friday 10am – 5pm, Saturday 10am-4pm and Sunday 11am - 4pm. More information can be found at www.experiencebarnsley.co.uk. There will be a YAHS visit to the Museum on Saturday 26 October at 2pm when there will be a short introductory talk about the Museum and the opportunity for members to see it for themselves. The ground floor of Caddies Wainwright Mill, a 19th century former textile mill on the River Calder in Wakefield has been converted to a new arts space adjacent to the Hepworth Gallery. This will add 600sqm of exhibition and event space for the Hepworth which has already exceeded visitor expectations since it opened in 2011. The annual English Heritage Angel Awards were launched on 13 March 2013. The awards celebrate and reward the efforts of local people in saving their heritage. Linked to the English Heritage’s Heritage at Risk Register, there are four categories, including one for the best rescue of an industrial building or site. The rescue must be of a listed building, a scheduled monument, a registered park, garden, landscape or battlefield, a protected wreck or a conservation area and must have been completed since 2008 or be well on the way to completion.