"From Villa to Minster, Southwell - its origins, and place in our national heritage" on 29 March 2011

A public meeting has been organised by Southwell heritage groups to discuss the national significance of the town's Roman archaeology and will feature leading experts on Roman and ecclesiastical archaeology.
The aim is to raise awareness of the importance of the remains recently uncovered on Church Street prior to council planners considering an application for 31 houses on the site.
Further details are available on the Southwell Archaeology website.

Free access to Nottinghamshire museums, 20 March 2011

BBC Nottingham has organised another "Big Day Out" - "a celebration of the county's history and heritage" for 20 March. Many museums in Nottinghamshire will offer free entry and those participating include:

• Clumber Park
• D H Lawrence Birthplace Museum and Heritage Centre
• Flintham Museum
• Brewhouse Yard, Nottingham
• Iron Age Roundhouse, Calverton
• Galleries of Justice, Nottingham
• Laxton Heritage Centre
• Newark Air Museum

and many more!

See the BBC Nottingham website for further details.

Metal-detectorist uncovers Bronze Age tools near Newark

Maurice Richardson, who discovered an impressive Iron Age Torc near Newark a couple of years ago, has uncovered a cache of Bronze Age tools 8 miles outside Newark. The cache includes "several well-preserved socket axe handles, chisels, a spear head, broken sections of swords, and unmoulded clumps of bronze."

• Story in the Newark Advertiser

Time Team avoid Nottinghamshire again

I'm enjoying the current series of Time Team (while quietly hoping that Channel 4 don't mess about with the scheduling like they did last year) but find myself musing on the fact that this is series 18 of TV's longest-running archaeology show and yet again the team give Nottinghamshire a wide berth! Is it something we said???

What sites in the county would be sufficiently interesting to lure Tony and his chums here? Here are a few suggestions:

•  Haughton Hall, near Walesby, was a magnificent medieval house, surrounded by a moat, set in impressive parkland. There is a ruined medieval chapel a short distance away from the site of the hall, presumably associated with the deserted settlement of Haughton, and a duck decoy refashioned from a motte and bailey castle (see the following articles on the Notts History website "Haughton to the verge of splendour" and "Haughton Hall")
• Greasley Castle, a mid-14th century fortified manor house near Eastwood (see article covering brief excavations in the 1930s and the Greasley Parish website for further information)
• Cromwell Roman villa just north of Newark is clearly visible from the air but (as far as I know) hasn't been excavated
• Medieval-18th century coal pits near Strelley village on the western outskirts of Nottingham
• The English Civil War defensive earthworks around Newark-on-Trent
• Clipstone Peel in Sherwood Forest, identified by Dr David Crook, was "a sophisticated wooden palisade with external ditch and gates ...  [it] included a gatehouse, hall, royal chamber, a chapel, bakehouse, grange, and animal sheds" - it only lasted a few years in the early 14th century before being dismantled (further information on The Gatehouse website)

Any others?!

Nottingham University Museum of Archaeology 'Prehistory Day', 23 February 2011

There's a chance to connect with our prehistoric forbears at the The University of Nottingham Museum of Archaeology's 'Hands on Prehistory Day' tomorrow. See the article on the BBC Nottingham website for further details:

• BBC Nottingham article

Latest 'The Nottinghamshire Historian' published

The Spring/Summer edition of The Nottinghamshire Historian has just arrived through my letterbox and contains the following articles:

• Sutton-in-Ashfield: The Unwin Dynasty and the Bag Hosiers
• Homes fit for Heroes: Nottingham's First Council Houses, 1919–1927
• The centenary of the first cinemas in Nottingham

Further information is available on the Nottinghamshire Local History Association website.

Searching for the grave of the 5th Duke of Portland

During a recent visit to London I spent a couple of hours wandering around the impressive monuments of Kensal Green Cemetery. Not only is it a superb example of an early Victorian cemetery but it also contains the grave of the eccentric 5th Duke of Portland, best known for being "The Underground Man" or "Mole Duke" who spent much of the family fortune constructing tunnels and underground rooms at Welbeck Abbey.

The Duke's monument is quite difficult to find*, despite being the largest plot in the cemetery, and is surprisingly plain (in stark contrast to those of many of his contemporaries). It consists of a pink Peterhead granite slab surrounded by grey granite kerbs and posts. The memorial was damaged by World War 2 bombing and bronze chains and fittings were stolen in the early 1950s. The inscription reads "SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE MOST NOBLE WILLIAM JOHN CAVENDISH BENTINCK SCOTT FIFTH DUKE OF PORTLAND. BORN 17TH SEPTEMBER 1800. DIED 6TH DECEMBER 1879."

• The eccentric Duke and his underground tunnels
• County Pedigrees
• Welbeck Abbey

* Thanks to John Clarke of Brookwood Cemetery for help with locating the monument.

Bid for funds to investigate prehistoric site near Newark-on-Trent

Farndon Archaeological Research Investigations (FARI) are applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund for £50,000 to enable them to further investigate a prehistoric site in the fields near Farndon. It is likely that the site was a camp (or several camps) where hunters processed killed animals.
Further information on the BBC Nottingham website:

• Archaeologists look to protect rare prehistoric site
  

Notttinghamshire Archives news

Nottinghamshire Archives has purchased a 12th century charter at auction in London. The charter dates from the 1180s and records a grant by Rufford Abbey of land in Eakring to Osbert de capella and his wife Emma.

• Article in the Nottingham Evening Post, 18 January 2011

A £38,000 project to catalogue the archives of Southwell Minster now held at Nottinghamshire Archives has been completed. Information on the 7,000 documents is available on the Nottinghamshire Archives Online Catalogue:

• Nottinghamshire County Council press release

Society of Landscape Studies Study Weekend in Nottinghamshire, May 2011

The Society of Landscape Studies has organised a study weekend for the 14-15 May 2011 which will focus on the area around Norwell, Ossington and Egmanton on the first day and the parkland landscape of Thoresby Hall on the second day.
Further details are available on the society's website.

New book on the Pierrepont family

Ashbracken of Radcliffe-on-Trent has recently published a lavishly-illustrated, comprehensive history of one of Nottinghamshire's most illustrious families, the Pierreponts. Their extensive estates were centred on Holme Pierrepont and Thoresby and members of the family were prominent in military, political and sporting fields. Amongst their strong-willed women were "a daughter whose broken marriage laid the way for modern divorce; another who introduced inoculation against smallpox; and a bigamous duchess."
Further information is available on the Ashbracken website.

Recent publications from Nottinghamshire County Council

The County Council has recently published the following:

• Turning Back the Pages on Nottinghamshire Canals by Ray and Joanne Bickel (see article in the Nottingham Evening Post)
• An outline history of the Railways of Nottinghamshire by Michael A. Vanns
• Map of Nottinghamshire from The English Counties Delineated by Thomas Moule, 1837
• Politics, Law and Society in Nottinghamshire: The Diaries of Godfrey Tallents of Newark 1829-1839, edited by Richard A Gaunt

See the local studies publications page on the County Council website for further details and an order form.

Watson Fothergill's buildings in Nottingham

The BBC Nottingham website has an interesting article on the exhuberant buildings of Victorian architect, Watson Fothergill, which are a characteristic feature of Nottingham. The article is accompanied by two short videos presented by Dominic Heale:

• A bus tour of central Nottingham to show some of Watson Fothergill's finest buildings
• A look at the restoration of the impressive former Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank on Thurland Street

For further information on the architect and his buildings see:

• The Watson Fothergill website
• Ken Brand's article on Fothergill and other Nottingham architects on the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website

Archaeologists to study Viking meeting place near Warsop

A mound in Sherwood Forest ("Thynghowe") is to be investigated in January by archaeologists from Nottinghamshire County Council and University College, London. The County Council team will be conducting a topographical survey of the mound and its surrounding landscape and the University College archaeologists will undertake a magnetometry survey.
Thynghowe is said to be a Viking meeting-place, also known as a "Thing", and was discovered five years ago by a couple from Rainworth.

• The Yorkshire Post article on the project
• The Friends of Thynghowe website

BBC's Turn Back Time Flickr project

"Turn Back Time is a new BBC TV living-history series that transports four empty shops and a group of contemporary shop-keeping families back to the high street's heyday in the 1870s." The series will also cover the families through the following 100 years.

The BBC have a number of projects and activities accompanying the series, including a group on the photo-sharing website, Flickr, that allows people to upload "then and now" photos of high street shops in their area.

Nottinghamshire museums, libraries and the archives office are also running events (workshops, talks, walks and exhibitions) in association with the project.

• BBC Nottingham news article
• Turn Back Time Flickr Group