New 'Buildings at Risk' Volunteers Recruited - Belper and District u3a

Peter Milner talking to Belper and District U3A.

Anna Cluley, Miles McIntosh and Peter Milner from our B@R team were back at the

Strutt’s Centre in Belper on the 13th May.

The team were invited by Laura Romney to run a training session for members of Belper and District u3a on the use of the B@R app, created by our colleagues at the West Midlands Historic Buildings Trust with support from Historic England, and its role in our ‘Buildings at Risk’ project.

The event was particularly well attended by those with an interest in local history, as well as walking and the outdoors.

The session began with an overview of the afternoon’s activities by Anna, DHBT’s

Heritage Development Officer. Following Anna’s introduction, Peter Milner (DHBT

Trustee) guided the attendees through the ‘Building Condition Survey Training

Module’ that prepares volunteers for completing the simple surveys within the app.

This proved a great chance for the volunteers to learn more about assessing the

state of repair of a historic building and also provided some excellent opportunities

for discussion with each other and the DHBT team.

After the attendees had passed their training with flying colours, Anna took over and

showed the new volunteers how to create an account in Mergin Maps, the app that

hosts the B@R project.

Anna and Miles (DHBT’s Heritage Development Support Officer intern from the University of Derby) then invited all the new members to the project and provided hands on support with the procedure for accepting the invitation and completing the registration process.

An enjoyable, informative session finished with Anna giving the attendees a live

demonstration of the app and some of its most useful features, as well as providing a

full step-by-step walkthrough of the survey process itself and an opportunity for

volunteers to have their questions answered by our knowledgeable team.

A huge thank you to Laura for her help organising the event and to all the amazing

volunteers who gave up a sunny afternoon to join our mission to protect local

heritage!

If you would like to get involved or receive some support with our ‘Buildings at Risk’

project, send the team an email to:

volunteers@derbyshirehistoricbuildingstrust.org.uk

We are always happy to provide online support or arrange a 1:1 support session at a time to suit you.

This project has been made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery Players.