CaveCity Underground Festival 11-13 May 2018

Here are the details of a couple of additional events at Nottingham's CaveCity Underground Festival this coming weekend:


The Confetti Caves - #CaveCity Underground Festival - Saturday 12 May

Hear about the caves recently discovered under the Confetti site (Convent Street/ Lower Parliament Street corner). These caves - one believed to be medieval, and the other to have served the Woodlark Beerhouse - were previously unknown.

Trent & Peak archaeologists Joe and Laura, who worked on the site, will talk about the discovery of the caves, the artefacts (and beer!) found inside them, and their history. With finds and photos from the caves to view and handle.

Talks take place at 12 noon and 2pm and last around one hour, with the chance to see and handle finds and photos both before and afterwards

Venue: Newton Building, Nottingham Trent University, Goldsmith Street/ Burton Street corner, NG1 4BU.

Booking: Advance booking is required (£4, students/seniors/children £3).

Book at yat.digitickets.co.uk or on 01904 615505.

For further information contact Laura at Trent & Peak Archaeology on 0115 8967400 or at lbinns@yorkat.co.uk

For more information about the caves, and photos, see https://buff.ly/2HMP1Vu or https://buff.ly/2HQ80OS7

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Finds from the Broadmarsh Caves - #CaveCity Underground Festival - Friday 11 May, 10am-5pm

Nottingham Historical & Archaeological Society 

Formed in 1968, when Drury Hill was threatened by development, NHAS has excavated and documented a number of caves in Nottingham. See their display of photos and finds from the caves (some now lost) excavated in the Broadmarsh area. 

Members involved in the these excavations will be on hand to talk about the caves and answer questions. 

Free.

Nottingham Castle gatehouse, Lenton Road, NG1 6EL 

For more information about the group see facebook.com/NHASARCHIVE 

A full list of activities can be found on the Visit Nottinghamshire website.

Nottingham Heritage Partnership launch event on 26 November 2016

Last year stakeholders throughout Nottingham launched a Heritage Strategy for the City. As part of the strategy there is a plan to establish a heritage partnership/forum for the City that will be open to all those groups and individuals who have a stake in heritage within Nottingham. The first meeting of the partnership will be on the 26 November, 9.30-4 at the Council House Ballroom.
Booking is through an eventbrite website (which is live now at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nottingham-heritage-partnership-launch-tickets-27928281241 ) or contact Alice Ullathorne by email (alice.ullathorne@nottinghamcity.gov.uk) or phone (0115 876 1993).

Remembering Victoria Station exhibitions (August-September 2016)

It has been 50 years since the closure and subsequent demolition of Nottingham's Victoria Railway Station. To mark the anniversary, Nottingham's Railways Remembered is holding exhibitions at Nottingham Industrial Museum (6 & 7, 13 & 14 and 20 & 21 August), GCR Ruddington (27 & 28 August) and Intu Victoria Centre (29 August to 4 September).

New book: 'Lost Nottingham in colour' by Ian D. Rotherham

Another attractive and lavishly illustrated book from Amberley Publishing has arrived for review. Lost Nottingham in Colour by Ian D. Rotherham (Professor of Environmental Geography and Reader in Tourism and Environmental Change at Sheffield Hallam University) includes a wide range of images showing the city and its environs in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The illustrations are sensibly organized into themed chapters, each with a brief introduction on such topics as industry and commerce, parks and gardens, education and health etc. Many of the images are from early postcards but there are also a large number of sepia-toned engravings presumably taken from The Illustrated London News and The Builder.

The book is printed on good quality paper and the illustrations are well reproduced. However, the captions contain a few minor errors and at least one 'howler': the house on page 29 was known as 'Thurland Hall' not 'Thirland Hall'; the Plumptre not the Pumptre family had a house on the site of the Flying Horse Hotel (p67); the engraving of the Guildhall on page 76 clearly dates from 1888 rather than 1988; the picture of a young lady by the River Trent cannot have been near Kimberley as it is 7 miles from the Trent!

However, that said it is a very attractive book with many delightful and interesting illustrations of Nottingham in the past.

'Nottingham: a history' by Jill Armitage

'Nottingham: a history' by Jill Armitage is the latest Nottinghamshire history book to be published by Amberley. The author is a photo-journalist based near Derby and has previously produced a number of titles on aspects of Derbyshire history.
The book is nicely produced and well organised with clearly titled sections within each chapter. It also covers a very wide range of subjects. The chapters are a mixture of historical periods (e.g., 'Nottingham in the Twelfth Century') and themes (e.g., Crime and Punishment') which makes it fairly easy to find areas of interest, despite there being no index. There is also a good selection of illustrations.
My main reservation is that, while accepting that this is clearly intended to be a popular history rather than an academic work, there are very few mentions of the sources she has used and there is not even a page listing further reading.
More worrying is a use of out-of-date history books; for instance, the chapter on Roman Nottingham (which also covers the Anglo-Saxon period) cites James Orange's 1840 book on Nottingham as an authority. It surely would have been preferable to have used more recent source, like 'A Centenary History of Nottingham' (1997)?
A map of the key places and streets of the pre-1960s city would also have been useful.
Criticism aside it is clear the author has put a lot of work into the book and it does contains a wealth of information. It is a good book to dip into!