Building Futures with Keelmen’s Hospital
On Thursday 21st May 2026, Kari and Katie were part of a panel at the Heritage Network‘s event ‘Building Futures: Community-Led Heritage in the North East’ at the astonishing Redhills, historic home to Durham Miners’ Association.
The day was made up of 2 sessions for network members to share about their projects, advice from all-important funders, and a fascinating tour of Redhills itself.
Alongside Navigator North and Hadrian’s Wall Wetlands Landscape Recovery, Kari and Katie presented for the panel ‘Building Futures in the North East’. The panel discussed the revitalisation and re-use of historic buildings for public benefit – which is what the Trust is all about!
Given the busy day ahead, each organisation only had 10 minutes to present – so Kari and Katie gave a whistle-stop tour of Dunston Staiths, St Mary’s by the Tyne, Stories of the Stones and Pop Recs. All of this was followed by our current showstopper, Keelmen’s Hospital. Bringing at-risk heritage back to life for the community has always been at the heart of the Trust’s work but restoring and regenerating Keelmen’s Hospital is an especially important project as it safeguards one of the most significant at-risk heritage buildings in the region whilst also meeting the need for affordable housing. Speaking on this panel was a brilliant opportunity to share our work with members of the Heritage Network, make new connections and learn from our peers.
During the afternoon tour of Redhills, our team were fascinated to learn more about how the history of this building is intertwined with that of Keelmen’s. Beyond the keelmen transporting coal mined by local pitmen, large parts of both populations were Methodists (more on keelmen and Methodism soon) and both buildings were funded through subscription! Built in 1915 and also recently restored, over 150,000 miners contributed money from their wages towards Redhills as a home for the Durham Miners’ Association – just like keelmen contributed a penny per tide for their almshouse two centuries earlier.
The name of the event itself was inspired by the Durham Miners’ Association motto ‘The past we inherit, the future we build’ – the venue were clearly such an inspiration to us and all of the organisations there.
A huge thank you to Heritage Network for inviting us along to speak, to Redhills for hosting the event and, as always to our funders on the Keelmen’s Hospital project (and speaking at the event!) the Heritage Fund and Historic England.
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