The Nottinghamshire Historian, No.88 (Spring/Summer 2012)

The latest edition of The Nottinghamshire Historian journal has arrived and contains the following articles:

• The leather industry in Nottingham with particular reference to Turney Brothers’ Leather Works, Trent Bridge
• Commemoration of the 1817 Pentrich Rising
• The Nellie Greenhill Memorial Prize

The issue also includes a wide range of news items, book reviews and list of local history lectures in the county. Further information on the journal and the Nottinghamshire Local History Association is available on the website.

Event: 'New windows on our past: recent archaeological discoveries in Nottinghamshire', 31 March 2012

The Nottinghamshire Local History Association has organised a day-school on Saturday 31 March devoted to recent archaeological work in the county. The programe includes:

• 12 years of excavation on the Romano-British site at Besthorpe Quarry in the Trent valley
• Archaeology under the A46: results of the initial assessment
• Roman remains at Southwell
• Community excavation of Kirkby Hardwick manor house

The event will take place at the Village Hall, Ravenshead between 10 and 4.15.

Fee £6.50 for members of the NLHA, £7.50 for non-members.
Please contact David Anderson, 35 Sycamore Road, East Leake, Loughborough LE12 6PP or telephone 01623 870515, to secure your place or for more information. Attendance is possible without booking, although it is helpful to the Association to know how many are attending.

New book: 'Awsworth through time' by Bryan Maloney

Amberley Publishing have recently published another attractive book in their 'Through Time' series. Awsworth is a little known village on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border about 6 miles north-west of Nottingham. Glass was made here in the late 17th century and mining was the principal occupation of its inhabitants by the late 19th century. The Nottingham Canal was constructed around the village in the 1790s and two monumental railway viaducts were built nearby to carry lines across the Erewash valley in the 1870s: the brick-built '40 Bridges' was sadly demolished in 1973 but the impressive iron-built Bennerley Viaduct still stands.

The author, Bryan Maloney, has assembled a fine selection of images to show how the village and its people have changed over the last 120 years. What is striking is just how much of the industrial past has vanished from the area: much of Nottingham Canal in the area was removed as part of open-cast coal mining or to make way for roads, the chemical works and Bennerley ironworks have long since vanished, the railway network torn up and the mines closed. 

Rather than just provide an endless succession of photographs of streets and buildings Bryan has wisely opted to give equal weight to the human dimension so there are many photographs of village events, sporting teams, school classes and local characters. I was particularly struck by the photograph of Don Brown which shows him seemingly leaping to his doom from the 40 Bridges railway viaduct (he was, in fact, jumping onto the earth embankment at the western end of the viaduct). The sepia image of the Awsworth Bicycle Club, gathered in an orderly fashion outside The Gate pub in the early 1900s is another favourite.

Bryan should be commended for making this collection available to the wider public as many of the photographs are from private sources and have not been seen before. I should admit a personal interest here as I had a minor role in helping to prepare the photographs for publication and it is rewarding to see how well they look on the page despite the poor quality of some of the originals.

It is a splendid collection of images with very informative captions.

• Book details on the Amberley Publishing website

New entries on the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website

The latest history research guides to be added to the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website over the last few months include:

• The Luddites
• Canals of Nottinghamshire
• The village of Tollerton
• Women's history in Nottingham
• Boots
• John Player & Son
• Raleigh

English Civil War museum planned for Newark

Newark and Sherwood District Council has agreed to submit a bid for £3m to the Heritage Lottery Fund to establish a "national Civil War museum" in Newark. The plan is to use the Old Magnus Buildings (which ironically used to house the town's museum until a few years ago) on Appleton Gate to accommodate the new museum.

• Article in the Newark Advertiser
• Friends of Newark Museum website

King John's Palace at Kings Clipstone on Time Team

The new series of Channel 4's Time Team has just started and the episode devoted to the excavation of the medieval royal palace and hunting lodge at Kings Clipstone will air on 1st April. At long last the programme has   made it to darkest Nottinghamshire - it's only taken 19 years!

While we wait with eager anticipation there are some nice photos of the dig on the Nottingham University website and a report and photos on the Mansfield Chad site.

For Sale: 43 to 59 Castle Gate and Severns House, Nottingham

A substantial part of Castle Gate is being put on the market by Nottingham City Council. The fine Georgian terrace which once housed the Costume Museum and the 14th century Severn's House are being sold on behalf of the council by Bruton Knowles. The medieval Severn's House was originally located on Middle Pavement but was dismantled, moved, and re-erected in its current position back in 1968 to make way for the Broadmarsh Centre.

• Bruton Knowles
• Nottingham Evening Post article

Tours of Welbeck Abbey, August-September 2012

This year there will be a  rare opportunity to see the state rooms at Welbeck Abbey. The Harley Gallery is organising tours of the house (though sadly not the underground ballroom or tunnels) in August and September. Tickets are selling fast so if you are interested see the Harley Gallery website.

Nottingham University Local History Seminars, January-March 2012

Nottingham University's School of History is running a series of Saturday Local History Seminars early next year. They take place at the School of History in Lenton House, start at 10am and admission costs £5. The programme is as follows:

• 14 January 2012 – Researching Nottinghamshire's Architectural History by Elaine Harwood (English Heritage)
• 11 February 2012 – Going Local with the National Trust by Ben Cowell (National Trust)
• 10 March 2012  – The South Oxfordshire Project: Perceptions of Landscapes, Settlement and Society, c500-1650 by Stephen Mileson (VCH and editor of the Oxoniensia journal) 

Full details from Professor John Beckett at john.beckett@nottingham.ac.uk

The latest from Nottinghamshire Archives

Two new publications from Nottinghamshire County Council's Libraries, Archives and Information department offer a bit of a contrast:

• A Grisly History of Nottinghamshire is aimed at children and "reveals the gory details of the bloody and gruesome history of Nottinghamshire" - sounds fun!
• Stone Age Nottinghamshire, written by David Budge and Chris Robinson, is a well illustrated guide to the archaeology of Stone Age Nottinghamshire and includes the recent discoveries from Creswell Crags caves 

Nottinghamshire Archives is also offering free 15-minute 'taster sessions' to introduce new users to the search room (how to use the microfiche machines, finding your way around the catalogues and indexes etc). You can also take part in one of the 'special interest' topics on offer:

• Cemetery records
• Electoral registers
• Building plans
• Maps
• Poor law records.

More information is available on the Nottinghamshire Archives website.

Friends of Newark and Sherwood Museum Service launch, 15 December

The Friends of Newark and Sherwood Museum Service are holding a launch event this Thursday between 6 and 9pm at the Millgate Museum in Newark.

The group has been set up to "to educate, promote, support, assist and improve the Newark and Sherwood Museum Service" and alongside the launch event they are promoting their "Adopt an Object" project which encourages members of the public to adopt objects in the museum collections.

More information on the Friends' website: www.civilwarnewark.co.uk/

The Victoria County History of Nottinghamshire

There's an article in Tuesday's Nottingham Evening Post on the VCH Nottinghamshire project.

The first two volumes of the Victoria County History of Nottinghamshire were published in 1906 and 1910 and some 100 years later work is now underway to produce parish histories.

A draft of the first parish history (Plumtree with Clipston and Normanton-on-the-Wolds) is now online, with others in preparation.

A printed volume of 10-15 parish histories is planned for 2012/13.

• Nottinghamshire Evening Post article
• Victoria County History of Nottinghamshire website
• VCH Nottinghamshire volume 1
• VCH Nottinghamshire volume 2

Listed buildings in Nottinghamshire on the English Heritage 'Heritage At Risk' Register

The ruins of Haughton chapel

English Heritage has just published its 2011 Heritage At Risk register for listed buildings in England. The Risk Register "includes grade I and II* listed buildings, listed places of worship, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, protected wreck sites and conservation areas that are at risk as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

Pages 59-68 of the East Midlands summary document highlight the heritage assets at risk in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Entries include Annesley Hall (last occupied in 1974 and a worry to locals ever since), the Roman fort at Scaftworth near Bawtry, the ruins of the medieval chapel at Haughton near Walesby, the west front of Newstead Abbey, Worksop Manor Lodge (seriously damaged by arsonists in 2007) and the Roman vexillation fortress at Osmundthorpe near Southwell.

• Heritage At Risk Register 2011 - East Midlands

Open day at Kirkby Hardwick excavation, 15 October 2011

I had an interesting time on Saturday morning wandering around the archaeological excavation at Kirkby Hardwick near Sutton in Ashfield. The ruins of an impressive house dating from the 16th century stood here for many years until the wrecking ball demolished most of it in 1966. Nottinghamshire County Council's Community Archaeology Team, along with local volunteers, have spent the last fortnight trying to determine how much of the complex has survived among the trees.

The archaeologists were very informative and helpfully explained the site and its potential. It is hoped that the Heritage Lottery Fund will provide sufficient funding for further seasons of work on this intriguing site.

• G G Bonser's article on Kirkby Hardwick on the Notts History website

Kirkby & District from Old Photographs

Amberley Publishing has just sent me a review copy of 'Kirkby & District from Old Photographs' published last year. Kirkby-in-Ashfield was a predominantly agricultural village until the mining industry and the railways transformed it in the late 19th century.

The photographs are from the archives of the Kirkby & District Conservation Society and they have been carefully selected to reflect all aspects of life in the town: work, sport, education, religion, entertainment and heritage. There are some evocative images of some of the fine houses, such as Kirkby Hardwick and the Manor House, that were lost in the destructive 1960s and of well attended Whitsuntide marches which, to my surprise, continued into the 1960s. One of the most eye-catching photographs is the snapshot of a bricklayer balancing 10 bricks on his head!

It is a fine collection of images with very informative (and occasionally amusing) captions.

• Amberley Publishing website