Down County Museum and Newry and Mourne Museum have joined together to organise the fourth annual conference on aspects of local heritage which will take place on Friday 3 June at Down County Museum. The theme of this year’s conference is Transport, Heritage and Vintage Vehicles.
In 2013 Down County Museum and Newry and Mourne Museum inaugurated a new network to bring together organisations and groups involved in heritage across the County. The purpose of the network is to share expertise and experiences and enable community, heritage and cultural groups to learn from each other to maintain and improve heritage resources and skills in local areas.
This year’s event will feature a number of talks from a variety of speakers. The conference will start with Madeleine McAllister of Down County Museum speaking on agriculture and maritime collections in the Museum.
Neil Hamilton of Downpatrick and County Down Railway will be speaking on railway heritage. Mark Kennedy from National Museums Northern Ireland will be talking about the transport collections and vintage vehicles in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum’s collections.
And Sean Patterson will be giving a speach on the history of the Newry Canal. The event includes lunch and an afternoon visit to the Museum’s ‘Harvests from Land and Sea’ gallery and a ‘mystery visit’ to another location. The conference is free to attend with lunch included, although places must be pre-booked.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Vice Chairperson, Councillor Gillian Fitzpatrick said: “This conference promises to be an extremely interesting and informative event shedding much light on our important transport and industrial heritage.
“This is a great opportunity for members of historical, vehicle and preservation groups as well as individuals to learn more about this very important part of our local heritage. It is also a great opportunity for local groups to exchange information on how they are working to preserve and interpret aspects of local history.”
The Museum is also calling on all owners of vintage vehicles to come along to our ‘Father’s Day Vintage Car Display’ event on Sunday 19 June. Contact us for more information on how to get involved in this display of amazing vehicles.
Down County Museum: 028 44 615218.
Newly and Mourne Museum: 028 30 313182.
