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‘Make historic environment a higher priority’ say MPs in a report to Parliament entitled Protecting and Preserving our Heritage, dated 12 July 2006. The report is critical of the government and local authorities on a number of fronts. They say that English Heritage needs more money and are disappointed that VAT still has to be paid on repair work to listed buildings. At a local level, they are concerned that ‘Even in local authorities which do employ core, dedicated conservation staff, those staff do not hold positions of particular seniority or influence to ensure that due weight is given to specialist advice in relation to the management of the authority’s policies and programmes’. The MPs also note that staff levels are declining and that ‘Local Authorities should be encouraged to treat the historic environment as a higher priority’. Of particular interest to local historians and their societies is the recommendation that Heritage Link is seen ‘as the collective voice of the voluntary heritage sector’. To see the full report, visit www.publications.parliament.uk/ pa/cm/cmcumeds.htm. The report costs £14.95 to buy and has 93 pages.

Restoration of Barton upon Humber's historic step galleried infant school is to go ahead, thanks to a £858,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (see LHM No.97, July/August 2004, pp9-10). The Wilderspin National School in Queen Street was built in 1844 and has stood empty since closing in 1978. It is the only surviving school in the country where educationist Samuel Wilderspin (1791-1866) taught. Before he arrived in Barton and the school opened in 1845, there was no education in the town for children from poorer families, except in Sunday schools. In 1846 he was awarded a Queen's Civil List pension of £100 a year for his 'services as the founder and promoter of infant schools'. Contact: Friends of Queen Street School, c/o Eileen Coombe, M/ship Secretary, 39 Castledyke West, Barton upon Humber, North Lincolnshire, tel: 01652 632957. There is a website www.queenstreetschool.co.uk which has been off-line, but may be back in action by the time you read this.

Cinemas of York by leading cinema and theatre historian Mervyn Gould has just been published by the Mercia Cinema Society. The 226 page traces the history of cinemas in the city from 1896 to 2000. Cost £14.50 from Mercia Sales, 100 Wickfield Road, Hackenthorpe, Sheffield S12 4TT (cheques should be payable to Mercia Cinema Society).

Kent and Cumbria county federations have found new volunteers to be their secretary and chair respectively after appeals in their society periodicals earlier this year. Sheila Broomfield was elected Secretary of the Kent History Federation in June and a volunteer, subject to his election at the AGM in September, has come forward to be the new Chair of the Cumbria Local History Federation. This is good news for both federations, but the struggle to find and keep volunteers is a continuing one for many societies.

Finding Britain's local community history ambassadors is the aim of 'a competition' organised by BBC History Magazine, which wants to 'find the people who are really making history matter' in their communities. Entries have to be about an event which has happened, or is happening, before 31 October 2004 'to promote the importance of the past in your local area or local community'. The closing date for entries is 17 November 2006 and entry forms can be downloaded from www.bbchistorymagazine.com. The winner will be announced in the February 2007 issue of the magazine, with a feature on the winning project. The winner will receive £200 of local history books from Tempus Publishing.

Courses leading to part-time Certificates in Local History, to commence in September 2006, are being offered by Lancaster and Nottingham universities. Lancaster's is based on three modules costing £145?£295 each (there are three levels of charges depending on your financial resources). The first two are around 8 months long and require 4-6 hours study weekly. The third module is a research project 'based around the subject which particularly interests you and (you) will be supervised by an academic with expertise in your field'. Nottingham's certificate takes two years to complete and is based on seven modules which, when successfully completed, earn you the '120 credits' you need to awarded a Level 1 certificate. The cost per module is £75-£225, with a total cost over two years of £900. Contacts are as follows:
Dept of Continuing Education, Lancaster University, Ash House, Lancaster LA1 4YT, tel: 01524 592623, email: conted@lancaster.ac.uk, web: www.lancs.ac.uk.
Undergraduate Office, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Nottingham, Dearing Building, Jubilee Campus, Nottingham NG8 1BB, tel: 0115 846 6466, email: ce-enquiries@nottingham.ac.uk, web: www.nottingham.ac.uk (you can also contact Dr David Marcombe direct on 0115 9514391, email: david.marcombe@nottingham.ac.uk for more information).

Bradford's hidden local history was the theme of a six month project by the University of Bradford involving over 200 pupils from nine schools in the city. Projects covering the following topics were completed: 'Hidden History on the Home Front' by two primary schools surveyed Scholemoor Cemetery looking for and recording distinctive war graves; 'Street Surveys' were carried out by two primary schools to see how their areas developed and why they changed; 'The Influence of War' involved two primary schools studying the impact of the Second World War on Bradford and listening to first-hand accounts of event from people who were there; 'Surveying Bradford' looked at the city's urban, suburban and open space environments, with pupils from a local grammar school taking part in a mock council planning meeting, with pupils playing the roles of planners, developers and residents. The final project was a 'World War 2 Searchlight Survey' by a community college and secondary school in the Otley Chevin Country Park, which also examined the important role played by women in ant-aircraft defence. All the projects were brought together for a celebration event on 11 July 2006 at Bradford University. The project was organised by John McIlwaine of the University's Archaeological Sciences Department. Contact: Emma Banks, Press Office, Bradford University, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP, tel: 01274 233089, email: press@bradford.ac.uk.