National Conference Telford 2025

On “Fire”.

“I just wanna dance the night away, with senoritas who can sway… right now tomorrow’s looking bright…just like the sunny morning light…”

…was the opening tune sung by the evening entertainer following the dinner on Saturday evening at the Mercure Hotel in Telford. In the photograph members from The Deepings were enjoying the fun task of selecting tunes from laminated sheets prepared by the artist. (I did speculate to myself if he had a raft of laminated sheets for each occasion : 50th birthdays; 60th birthdays; rugby dos; Round Table; Rugby Club… and did he have any for much younger people ? He seemed especially good at the songs from Les Misérables). He was a good singer and the song selections had us invariably jiggly away, laughing and smiling all evening. He did invoke an undercurrent of knowing grumbles at his ‘wife jokes’. Did no-one explain to him NWR is all about ‘lively minded women coming together in sisterhood’? LOL.

The 2025 conference theme was ‘Fire’ the first speaker: Kate Cadman, who trained as a ceramicist [BA in three-dimensional design] was well qualified to deliver her engaging talk “Fired Up” talking about the museums and the collections in her capacity since 2022 as Curator at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Kate Cadman first began working for Blists Hill Victorian Town after graduating holding posts :

Costume Dept
Demonstrator of ceramic processes at Coalport China Museum
Curatorial assistant at CCM
Curatorial Officer at CCM
Curatorial Officer at Jackfield Tile Museum
Curatorial Officer at Broseley Clay Tobacco Pipe Museum

In the blurb for ‘Fired Up’ we get a glimpse of her experience and dedication to UNSECO World Heritage Site that is The Valley of Invention : forged by fire and the sweat of men and women on the last two centuries.

Since 2022 I have been Collections Curator for the whole of the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, which hold a wide range of Designated collections, including decorative tiles, cast iron, steam engines, porcelain, costume, and fine art. Not forgetting the National Collection of Slag!

The reason for the birth of the industrial revolution in this part of Shropshire is the underlying geology: quality coal – 13 different kinds; a range of clays and waterways which access ports and markets. Those richest of natural resources [and working people] were exploited by early industrial geniuses and entrepreneurs.

Ironworks
Coal mining
Clay extraction
Brick & tile works
Porcelain works

The locations synonymous with this emerging industrial landscape were :

Coalbookdale
Ironbridge
Coalport
Jackfield
Broseley
Bliss

Hmmm… no mention of Telford in that illustrious list of placenames (I had heard of only 2 until that morning). I discovered to my shame that Telford was named as a New Town officially in 1968 and was planned and built from scratch in the 1960-70s.

Ironbridge

Yikes – how can my A-level geography have let me down so badly? It just “sounds old”. And double shame – Ironbridge Bridge wasn’t built by him either. Ironbridge was designed by the Shrewsbury architect Thomas Farnolls Pritchard whose idea it was to combine engineering expertise and new iron-casting techniques, he proposed the world’s first iron bridge, which would link the parishes of Madley and Benthall over what was one of the busiest rivers in the country. Abraham Darby (1678–1717) the first in what would become a distinguished dynasty of iron masters – had pioneered an innovative method of iron smelting.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/iron-bridge/history

The radical new structure, which formally opened on New Year’s Day 1781, used a total of 378 tons of iron.

On The Sly – Fireworks Sound Engineering

Dan Snaith the tall, handsome son of NWR member Ruth Snaith gave us a fascinating insight into the computer generated audio soundtracks to the formidable events such as Coldplay’s world tour, the FA Cup final and Tour De France. His company https://www.onthesly.com/ has been orchestrating the NEW YEAR FIREWORKS soundtrack for The Mayor Of London for several years – so amply qualifying as a speaker for the NWR 2025 conference theme of ‘Fire’.

Dan took the time to talk about his career as a teenage DJ in Telford, through BBC Radio 1, tv and radio advertising before settling into the niche market of audio visual compositions for largescale Live Events.

I think Dan was a brave chap bringing his subject to our NWR audience (with mum Ruth on front row). He proved to be a witty speaker with clear passion and wide experience in his field. His technical talk about the company he has co-founded and directs with examples of how the digital soundtracks are made culminated in a 10 minute Firework display (with overlay firework sounds muted) from the London 2025 New Year’s Eve televised programme. At that point we appreciated some of the political and artistic and copyright decisions that had taken place over 6 months to reach that short piece of creative output. A very interesting subject and well done Dan.

Workshops

I looked aghast at my choice of workshop one. In a fit of madness I had opted for Line Dancing (so far out of my comfort zone). Well what a good choice that turned out to be! I really enjoyed the whole experience, even though I frequently lost the sequence of the steps when rotating to a different direction i.e. I was pretty okay whilst facing the front but lost my way facing the back wall.

I enabled my Garmin watch cardio program and at one point noticed my heartrate was 146 bpm. It settled around 125 bmp for the 45 minutes so not a bad workout, although it just felt like a lot of fun rather than a workout.

but… I’m still NOT a fan of Country Music …

Workshop Two was a gentler affair with a lovely presenter Kate Innes – author of an Early Medieval Trilogy set on the Welsh Boarders told from a women’s perspective. I like the idea of retelling history from objects and especially objects associated with women.

Kate Innes is a natural educator with a beautiful manner and style. After all the excitement of the morning speakers and the line dancing, Kate’s workshop was a marked contrast and left a lasting impression on me. An archaeologist and museum curator by training, Kate used her love and knowledge of historical myths, folklore, places, photography and artefacts to weave stories. In addition to her adult fiction she has written two books for young readers but insisted that poetry was her absolute medium of self expression.

She gave us some tools and techniques to use in our own writing attempts. Her workshop was a highlight of the conference.

Blists Hill Victorian Town

As a first timer in Telford I wanted to see everything but realised during the booking that a place that is a UNSECO World Heritage site known as “The Valley of Invention”, isn’t somewhere I am going to see in a single day. I opted for the very kind offer of discounted day ticket to Blists Hill Victorian Town.

It was an incredible experience – a step into the year 1900. I absolutely loved visiting Blists Hill right down to the Colts Foot sweets I bought in the sweet shop using pre-decimal currency and the chips I ate from the chippy (fried in beef dripping). The outrageous costumes worn by 95% of visitors that day marked the weekend as “Steam Punk” madness. We were given a passport on entry listing all the crazy events that adults get up to on these occasions. I am only sorry to have missed the Grand Parade at 4pm.

https://www.ironbridge.org.uk/

http://www.ministryofsteampunk.com