NAMHO Handbook
Members list | Handbook introduction | By area | By interest | Affiliates | Museum members | Other museums | Reps list
The webpages for each member organisation are based on the fourth edition of the NAMHO Mining Heritage Guide. The original cover of this edition is below. The webpages includes entries for all the current members of NAMHO and a section about the formation of NAMHO in 1979. Museum members are listed separately and there is a map showing their locations. There is also a page of mining museums including members and non-members.
The webpages have not been comprehensively revised since publication of the handbook although clubs and organisations have been invited to review and correct their own entries. The editor and NAMHO, however, cannot accept responsibility for any alterations which may have occurred within the Organisations or Societies subsequent to the date NAMHO originally received the information. If you select your entry and click on 'view extra information' at the head of the page, you will be able to see what additional information can be submitted. If the reader discovers that any amendments are required, it would be appreciated if details are sent to the Secretary or Webmaster at NAMHO.org for updating. Updating can be carried out very rapidly. You can also send amendments on paper to:
The Secretary, NAMHO, c/o Peak District Mining Museum, The Pavilion, Matlock Bath, Derbyshire. DE4 3NR
Left: The Pavilion at Matlock Bath (above) currently (2024) houses the Peak District Mining Museum and is the 'post-box' for correspondence to NAMHO. Right: The cover of the last printed edition.
Acknowledgments
In the printed edition, Rob Vernon, the Editor, wrote that he "would like to acknowledge and thank all those who have contributed to the Mining Heritage Guide. Since the previous edition, published in 2000, membership has continued to grow, making the task of Editor even more demanding. I would especially like to thank Adrian Pearce, Ivor Brown and Roger Gosling for their reflections on the formation of NAMHO in 1979, and its development. Contributors or sources of photographs are acknowledged in the text, or [else were] provided by a member organisation. A special thanks to Peter Claughton and Ivor Brown for comments."
Members' pages
"Towards the future" an introduction to the 4th edition by the chairman of NAMHO in 2006, Dr Peter Claughton
For over a quarter of a century NAMHO has worked for mining history interests. Since 1996, the 'National' element has been something of a misnomer for the association now represents organisations throughout Britain and Ireland. The formation in Dublin of what is now the Mining Heritage Trust of Ireland marked a widening of our interests, particularly as it has been instrumental in the development of pan-European mining heritage networks.
Nevertheless, if we look back at the issues of concern in the early years there are some familiar subjects - insurance, access, conservation and archives - which continue to demand our attention. Mine exploration interests led to the formation of NAMHO in 1979 and are still important. So in many respects things have not changed, although we are now in a position to apply the experience of the last twenty five years to the challenges which are the future of mining history.
There are new challenges particularly on environmental issues, and their relationship to the legacy of past mining activity, but there is also a new approach which recognises the wider heritage value in abandoned mine workings. Increasingly, conservation attracts grant aid from heritage, and other, bodies; and many of NAMHO's constituent organisations are in a position to facilitate that work. Also, there is an increasing diversity in leisure activities which brings the general public into contact with mining as part of the landscape and consequently there is a need to improve its interpretation.
An important challenge is to attract young people to our ranks. To do that we must ask what it is about old mines, what aspect of this broad subject area that we call 'mining history' that interests a younger generation. Much as I, and others, might believe that the old statistically based approach led by economic history is central to any study of post-medieval, and earlier, mining activity, perhaps this is no longer true for younger people. For some it is the physical environment, the ability to read the landscape, to extract the detail which is beyond the written record, which is attractive today. We should build on that attraction for it can be a powerful tool, a multi-facetted tool, for 'mining history'. The evidence for that is already there as mining related archaeology has moved beyond the 'industrial' tag of twenty five years ago and has helped push the boundaries back into prehistory.
NAMHO has to adapt and to take on new skills. Now is the time to be outward looking, prepared to take up opportunities, exchange ideas across boundaries and accept the challenges. Our membership today, our constituent organisations, represents every aspect of the broad subject area which is 'mining history'. They are well placed to take us forward over the next twenty five years; to keep both the study of 'mining history' and the memory of past mining activity alive.
This, the fourth issue of the Mining Heritage Guide, provides the contact information for NAMHO and its constituent organisations. It is the portal to a wider understanding of the subject at all levels, whatever your involvement.