Past Events

Mandy Morgan, UON’s Archivist, led two successful introductory sessions focused on the fundamentals of establishing and managing archives. These workshops, attended by a diverse group of heritage professionals and volunteers, delved into crucial aspects such as how to appraise a collection.

Participants provided enthusiastic feedback on the workshops’ practical and informative content, appreciated the foundational approach and praised the direct applicability of the workshop:

“Being given a tour of the University’s Archives and information about the documentation needed to manage an archive. It was great to meet other professionals and chat about other organisations archives and similar problems and successes with archiving.”

“Started at the very basics and built on that. Did not assume any knowledge and kept things moving steadily without overloading information.”

“It was directly relevant to my work project. The session flowed well, it was a nice mix of hands on, discussion, and teaching, it was well paced and I enjoyed viewing the archives. Mandy was engaging and knowledgeable and pitched it just right for my level of expertise.”

Drakon Heritage and Conservation led an informative course focused on caring for object or archive material. The course provided attendees with a foundational overview of key collections care aspects and practical ways to apply this knowledge to their own collections. Participants learned to understand common collection issues, including object handling, appropriate materials for storage and display, effective storage solutions, and how to conduct condition assessments. The sessions also covered the agents of deterioration, risk mitigation, carrying out risk assessments, and appropriate actions in case of emergencies or damage.

The feedback highlighted the comprehensive and practical nature of the course, with participants valuing the breadth of topics and hands-on training:

“The whole day, practical examples and knowledge that can be used in day-to-day role.”

“The wide range of topics covered to suit an ability of levels. There was also some hands-on practical training.”

“It will certainly help us to put the right policies and procedures in place, it will improve our approach to collection and how we handle it. Also, it will give us plenty of information on how and when to call on expertise and find resources to assist in the conservation process.”

“I’ve taken away so much learning – I am also about to submit our first ‘working towards accreditation’ application, which this learning will support.”

The Cultural Cuppa is a bi-monthly informal networking opportunity established in response to requests for more connection outside of formal training and events. Launched in November 2024, it has seen a steady increase in numbers since its inception and offers a relaxed environment for networking and inspiration.

These cozy afternoon gatherings foster cultural exchange and conversation over a cuppa. Each session, held from 4-6pm, features a “Get Inspired” segment, a 15-minute slot where individuals share their experiences and insights.

The inaugural Cultural Cuppa took place on November 6 at Waterside Campus. The “Get Inspired” segment featured socially-engaged artist Carole Miles, one of the first Corby Heritage Accelerators, who discussed her current projects and showcased her creative work.

The second Cultural Cuppa was held on February 5 at the Engine Shed at Waterside Campus. The “Get Inspired” speaker was Jack Pishhorn, Head of Service for Culture, Tourism and Heritage for North Northants Council.

The third Cultural Cuppa took place in April and featured Becky Carrier, Director of Northampton Film Festival and a member of the second cohort of Heritage Accelerators. She showcased the film “Not The Type To Be Typecast,” which explores Northampton’s history of notable individuals, and reflected on the first six months of The Creative Place.

Attendees have expressed positive feedback:

“I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth of activities that are going on in Northamptonshire.”

“Great initiative, and I look forward to the next event :).”

The second Heritage Education Fair took place at Waterside campus at the start of March, welcoming new organisations to the event. The event connected Northamptonshire heritage professionals with educators and provided networking opportunities. The benefit of being at Waterside was that students from a range of courses engaged with the event. Two Student Ambassadors supported the event, ensuring everything ran smoothly. The event featured a marketplace showcasing unique educational programs, resources, and opportunities for school visits, as well as taster workshops and talks on relevant heritage education topics, and valuable networking opportunities.

“I enjoyed the fact that a mixture of heritage groups were present and this provided an opportunity to network and find out about each other.”

“We appreciate being included as a heritage organisation – we do have new communities, and they bring with them a rich tapestry of religious and cultural heritage.”

LGBTQ+ Awareness training was delivered with QSpace. Attendees provided resoundingly positive feedback, highlighting the ability to network and have conversations, as well as the activities that encouraged everyone’s involvement and more discussions, as the most useful aspects.

“I think going forward I will be more empathetic and considerate of daily challenges faced by members of the LGBTQ community and better clued up on how I can support them.”

The fantastic trainers were praised, with one participant stating it was “Very helpful to hear about their lived experience.” Testament to Will and Atlas for creating a safe space where people could ask questions without judgement.

The positive impact of these two training session is clear: “I am returning to ask for better training in the company as a whole.”

Colleagues from both the heritage and educations sectors in the county joined us to mark the launch of the Heritage Skills Hub in July 2023. An afternoon of mixed weather did not dampen the enthusiasm of our speakers who covered a variety of topics which included the needs of schools when considering the development of their curriculum, examples of heritage sites being used to develop young entrepreneurial skills and an insight into the fantastic opportunities that local heritage provides in developing a relevant and engaging curriculum that reaches beyond history alone.

The opportunity to network, while exploring Stanwick Lakes’ rich heritage and consider how the Skills Hub can support both sectors moving forwards, was popular, as was the presentation from one of Luton’s Heritage Impact Accelerator Practitioners. This generated much interest in our Corby Heritage Accelerator programme and how schools will be able to engage with this aspect of our heritage project.

What attendees said:

“As a launch event it was spot on! Next events would be nice to have some workshops to begin to develop practical skills. I will continue to explore Heritage curriculum beyond history. Thanks so much. It was lovely to be part of such a positive, well organised and inspiring event.”

“The presentations were all great, but there was also time to network during the breaks and when looking around the site, which I really enjoyed. I was unfamiliar with the site.”

Thank you to everyone who supported the event, to our inspirational speakers and to the amazing Stanwick Lakes team for hosting us so wonderfully!

Training from Historic England on their Heritage Schools programme were run in Corby and East Northants and brought together teachers from local schools to consider how to teach History at KS1 and KS2 from a local perspective.

With support from both Northampton Museum and Corby Heritage Centre, the two days were well received, and teachers went away with ideas, and resources to use.

“The local heritage walk showed us the key areas of the town. I also found the activities that you could use in the classroom incredibly useful too. The pack is amazing too, thank you!”

“It was good to make local links and connections with other schools, heritage and artists.”

“Learning about the use of maps and aerial photography was most useful as well as the games and techniques to make students look at images.”

“It was very informative, learned very useful techniques.”

We are looking to run these sessions again in the next academic year so please do contact us if you would like to be involved.

Hosted by Corby Sixth Form, the first Heritage Education Fair in February 2024 saw teachers come from across the county to find out about the rich heritage available locally.

We were joined by a wide range of Northamptonshire Heritage Organisations who all had a unique offer for schools: from hands-on days onsite to loan boxes and outreach workshops. Organisations were given the opportunity to run taster workshops in addition to a traditional marketplace which were particularly well received.

“All presenters were very friendly; the workshops were good and informative.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed the two workshops that I attended and loved meeting colleagues from Heritage venues across the county.”

The Corby Heritage Accelerators were also in attendance, talking to both schools and heritage organisations about their work and their current lines of research and many seeds were sown, and feedback was positive. Heritage Organisations were overwhelmingly positive and supportive about the event developing in the future.

“It was a brilliant first event – the number of attendees will only grow with time.”

“It is great we all have the chance to run talks and workshops at the event. The highlight was our starting a partnership with a local school, who are excited to help us develop our offering. We spoke to other museum professionals and briefly discussed ideas to work together on learning projects.”

When asked if this should be an annual event the response from everyone was a definite yes and we have already received may offers from heritage venues around the county about hosting next years!

Our workshops series facilitated in partnership with the Northamptonshire Community Foundation and Richard Clinton, CEO of Delapre Abbey Preservation Trust guided participants through the process of developing a heritage project, step-by-step. Each session provided valuable insights and practical guidance, with time in between for the application of what was learnt, 1:1 support available to discuss and develop ideas and opportunities for networking.

“It has helped me to visualise the shape and content of my project in a very helpful way.”

“The slides were excellent and great to have them after the even to refresh or highlight things missed.”

“An incredibly useful event held in a great environment.”

Run by our partners at the University of Bedfordshire, this interactive workshop explored oral history projects that experiment with participatory approaches to community engagement to explore issues where public history and intangible cultural heritage concerns intersect.

The benefits and challenges of merging creative expression with oral history were discussed and sharing of creative interpretations of some of the local and national oral history projects.

“It was useful to look at some case studies of existing projects.”

“I found the practical tips to be useful, i.e. information about securing funding and choosing appropriate equipment.”

“The discussion about ethics was also food for thought.  I hope to incorporate some Oral History into my practice; this is not something that I have ever done before. I now feel better equipped to do so.”

We were delighted to provide training with leading experts in copyright and licensing, Naomi Korn Associates, who delivered an engaging and informative training session to over 30 different heritage individuals and organisations from the county.

“It was very informative and engaging with opportunities for questions and mini-tests.”

“Naomi was inspirational and excellent at communicating and enthusing.”

“A huge thanks for all the work that you put into the Copyright Day. A massive effort to wrangle all those folks was needed and you managed brilliantly and delivered something of real value. Awesome job!”

Look at their website for many free resources to support the cultural and heritage professionals and organisations.

Image Credit: UoB.