The association organises a number of visits each year, one longer tour, usually overseas and others in the UK.

Many field visits are also included in the Annual Conference and the Practical Days

Overseas

Previous trips have included: Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Spain and the USA.

The 2019 Spring Tour

Hungary

Planning is at an early stage but we hope to include some of the following:

• Dunaújváros, once called Stalin City, a unique site of communist industrialisation
• Paks where we may something of nuclear power
• Pecs where there is coal mining history and the Zsolnay ceramics manufactory
• The Herend porcelain factory described as a “must-see”
• The Museum of the Hungarian Petroleum and Gas Industry at Zalaegerszeg, which has some amazing displays of large equipment
• Historic automotive engineering at Gyor and we might see modern production there too
• Urban Public Transport can be found at Szentrendre
• The former Borsod industrial area in the north of Hungary, sometimes called the Hungarian Ruhr. There are remains of two large iron-making complexes in Miskolc and Ózd, with examples of workers’ settlements, coal mines, and power plants
• The museum of iron-mining at Rudabánya
• In Budapest we must visit the Open Air Museum which includes spinning and weaving shops, leather workers’ premises, wind and water mills and limekilns and a floating mill formerly on the Danube
• We might visit the Foundry Museum and we could ride on the Children’s railway – not a railway for children but a real railway run by children
• And of course we couldn’t go to Budapest without seeing the Chain Bridge
• We hope to include an introductory lecture by Györgyi Németh from the University of Miskolc who is also the head of TICCIH in Hungary

Previous Spring tours have sold out very quickly so click here to register interest to get first refusal on a place on the tour when booking opens.

In the UK

There have been a number of visits investigating Country House Technology led by Professor Marilyn Palmer (President) and Dr Ian West.

During the late 18th and 19th centuries a variety of technological innovations were becoming available to enhance the comfort and convenience of domestic life but, far from urban centres, the great Country Houses had to be self sufficient in the provision of gas, electricity, sanitation and water supply if they wished to make use of them.

Subsequently, the decline of many country houses, together with their being donated to the National Trust, has meant that less alteration has taken place than in domestic property. In 2008 Professor Marilyn Palmer (AIA President) and Dr Ian West began studying the technology in a wide range of country houses, examining both the physical remains and the historical evidence and trying to place them in the wider context of the effects they had above and below stairs.

Previous tours have included the South West, The North West, The North East and Scottish Borders, The Welsh Borders, East Anglia and Bucks, Oxon & Surrey.

These Country House Comfort & Convenience tours are run in agreement with the Association by Heritage of Industry Ltd.
For full details visit: http://www.heritageofindustry.co.uk
Email: info@heritageofindustry.co.uk
Write: Heritage of Industry Ltd, The Gables, 20 Main Road, East Hagbourne, Didcot OX11 9LN
Phone/Fax: +44 1235 352275