HERITAGE OF INDUSTRY - Key Persons
Bill was born and raised in the heart of the chairmaking industry in the Chiltern Hills but graduated in Computer Science from Brunel University and then spent many years in the IT business designing and building systems for City institutions. During that time he also had a long involvement with BCS The Chartered Institute for IT, organising events for the West London Branch. Bill's main interests outside of work are the History of Engineering, Industry, Science & Technology and travel. He has now left IT behind and is combining his interests managing Heritage of Industry. He serves on the AIA Council and is a member of the Newcomen Society, GLIAS, the Victorian Society, the Inland Waterways Association, the Cotswold Canals Trust, the Railway and Canal Historical Society, the Computer Conservation Society, the Kew Bridge Engines Trust and the Society for Industrial Archaeology in the United States. If there's any time left over he also maintains a website chronicling the local history of the village of Frieth.
Job Titles:
- Founder & Special Advisor
Paul founded Heritage of Industry (then known as "Cornwall of Mine") in 1989 organising tours of the mining industry in Cornwall and was chief executive until the end of 2011 then Chairman until February 2015. He is a past President of E-FAITH, the European Federation of Associations of Industrial and Technical Heritage. Paul was born in Surrey but was brought up in Cornwall, which might account for his interest in mining! After Truro School, he studied modern languages at Oxford and after a spell with the CEGB, became Deputy Head of the Overseas Division of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturers Association, which launched him on his career in international affairs. He was Director of International Affairs for the British Chambers of Commerce, Secretary-General of the British Chamber of Commerce in France and Chief Executive of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He was Secretary of the foreign trade working group of the European mechanical and electrical engineering trade organisation, a member of the Council of British Chambers of Commerce in Continental Europe and of the CBI Export Promotion Committee. He is a member of the Association for Industrial Archaeology and of Newcomen, the International Society for the History of Engineering and Technology, for both of which he has served as Council member and organised visits abroad.
Peter was Treasurer and Deputy Chief Executive of Great Yarmouth Borough Council before taking early retirement and moving to Shropshire. He has been an officer of the Railway & Canal Historical Society (Secretary, Journal Editor) and the Inland Waterways Association (Shrewsbury & North Wales Branch Chairman), is a member of the Association for Industrial Archaeology, the British Association for Local History, several other transport and local history societies and for eight years was a member of the Council of the Canal & River Trust. His publications include the Shropshire Union Canal: from the Mersey to the Midlands and Mid-Wales (2018), which won the AIA Professional Publications Award in 2019, and A Shropshire Union Miscellany (2021).
Sue was born in Buckinghamshire but moved to Hastings at an early age. She read History and Archaeology at Liverpool and also has a qualification in museum studies. She may have started out as an archaeologist but soon changed to being a social and industrial historian. She has worked in museums for most of her life, apart from a spell teaching and a break when her daughter was small. Much of her work in museums has been with industrial collections, ribbon weaving, nail-making and shoemaking. With her husband, Mike, she has explored much of the British and European waterways network. As a social historian she is interested in how people live and how they organise their living spaces and environment. A mind like a dustbin (clean, of course) and an insatiable curiosity have led to her gathering all sorts of odd facts and she likes to seek out the unusual and the quirky.