Over the summer we were part of an exciting new English Heritage initiative to test the potential of crowd-sourcing to tackle heritage at risk. It aimed to provide the means for members of the public to volunteer to carry out surveys of England's 345,000 Grade II buildings as a first step to continued engagement in saving local heritage. (see http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/eh-mobilise-volunteer-heritage-army/).

Working in partnership with South Yorkshire Building Preservation Trust and Peak District National Park Authority, we covered the Peak District. Volunteer students from the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University were put into teams, each lead by a heritage professional, trained and equipped with digital tablets to record their observations.

Encouraged by glorious weather, everyone did a sterling job. We would like to thank the students for their time and enthusiasm and hope that the experience gained will be useful in their future careers.