• A new partnership between Keele University and The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust will boost opportunities for students and researchers;
• The two organisations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that will see them cooperate on projects;
• Keele academics will carry out research using the Trust’s unique set of collections and archives, to further explore the site’s remarkable heritage and its social and economic impact.
  
  

Experts from Keele University have partnered with The Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust in a move that will develop student opportunities and open doors for new research into 300 years of industrialisation.

The two organisations, who have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, will have a closer working relationship and work together on projects and research where they share common aims and interests.

The Trust runs museums and manages multiple historic sites within the Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site in Shropshire. The Iron Bridge was the first bridge in the world to be built of cast iron and opened to traffic in 1781. Crossing the River Severn, it remains a symbol of Britain's industrial past and is celebrated as a key part of the Industrial Revolution.

Keele academics will carry out research using the Trust's unique set of collections and archives, to further explore the site’s remarkable heritage and its social and economic impact. Students and graduates will also be able to undertake internships and placements across the Trust’s museums and archives.

A first-hand experience of the industrial revolution

Professor David Amigoni, Professor of Victorian Literature at Keele, said: "This is a brilliant partnership that will see both organisations working together to explore the history and legacy of the Industrial Revolution.

"We're excited to be able to use the unique archival resources the Trust holds to better understand the profound transformation and changes people underwent throughout this period. To see that first-hand experience of the Industrial Revolution will help us to understand its legacy and the remarkable transformations we ourselves are now experiencing."

As part of the partnership, a series of lectures will be delivered by colleagues from Keele and the Trust, including distinguished external guest speakers, which will focus on the country’s industrial heritage, and the need for new sources of energy and materials. The first lecture - Ironbridge, Innovation, and Imagination: Industrial Memory as Global Challenge – takes place on Monday, July 3 on Microsoft Teams and people can register to watch here.

Access to Keele’s world-leading research

Nick Booth, Collections and Learning Director at the Trust, said: "The partnership means we have access to world-leading research and expertise at Keele. We're going to be working together on shared lectures and with students through internships who we can give real-world experience of working in museums and on projects with us.

"This is about making the most of the knowledge base in the University and the Trust to tell the story of why the Ironbridge Gorge is so important to industrialisation."