Nottinghamshire's Great War Roll of Honour

Nottinghamshire County Council has commissioned the county's first ever Great War Roll of Honour dedicated to the men and women of the county who died in World War I and will contain the names of 11,500 servicemen and women. The information is being compiled by a team of volunteers using war memorials, stained glass windows and plaques in buildings all over Nottinghamshire.

There will also be a Nottinghamshire Great War Centenary Exhibition at Nottingham Castle from July to November 2014. "Marking one hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, this exhibition will explore the experiences of Nottinghamshire people, at home and at war, whether by land, sea or in the air, through powerful visual images, artefacts and tours of city and county Great War landmarks."

The Roll of Honour and exhibition form part of 'From the Trent to the Trenches', a major programme of events and activities taking place in 2014 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

Events and exhibitions at Nottinghamshire Archives

A varied programme of events and exhibitions over the summer has been announced by Nottinghamshire Archives:

Wednesday Workshops

19 June: Records of Royalty
17 July: Apprenticeship
21 August: Hospital and asylum records

Each workshop starts at 2.30pm and costs £4.

Archive Skills Workshops

30 July: Reading Parish Registers (English)
6 August: Reading Parish Registers (Latin)
13 August: Interpreting Dates

Summer Talk

9 July: Local, National & International – RAF Ancestral Research
This talk starts at 6.30pm and is free.

Nottinghamshire’s People: Ancestral Stories from the Archives

7 June – 1 September 2013 at the Weston Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre
Admission free

Lunchtime Talks (to accompany the exhibition)

(All talks are free and can be booked by contacting the Lakeside Arts Centre Box Office on 0115 846 7777)
26 June and 9 July: Students, Sinners and Surveys
3 July: Weaving My Family Tapestry
7 August: Unlocking the Parish Chest:
14 August: Kinship and Connectedness

For further information visit the Nottinghamshire Archives Events page.

Archaeology at Rufford Abbey, July 2013

The Community Archaeologists at Nottingham County Council are organising a volunteer dig at Rufford from 1st to the 12th July.

The first week (1st-5th July) will be run as a field school and will examine the foundations of an ornamental gateway at the north end of the Broad Drive, near to the mill. It is intended that the week will be "ideal for people who want to get a proper introduction to professional excavation techniques."

The second week (8th-12th July) will see the excavation of a disused water channel and studying the former garden features in an attempt to understand their layout.

For further information or to book a place email (community.archaeology@nottscc.gov.uk) or phone on 0115 969 6525.

Local History Fair at Mansfield Library, 19 May 2013

There is a FREE local history fair at Mansfield Library on Sunday 19 May, between 11am and 3 pm.

There will be local history displays, screenings of old films of Nottinghamshire, demonstration of conservation techniques for documents and books by specialist staff from Nottinghamshire Archives with practical advice on how to take care of your own family documents, craft demonstrations, free children's activities, displays of old photographs and local history books on sale.

Further information and directions are here: http://www.experiencenottinghamshire.com/whats-on/the-great-nottinghamshire-local-history-fair-2013-p550281

Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire

The latest volume of the Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire has just been published. It includes the following articles:

• The Origins of Nottingham: Archaeological Investigations in the Medieval Town from 1969 to 1980 by David Knight, Scott Lomax and Gordon Young
• Community archaeology at Thynghowe, Birklands, Sherwood Forest by Lynda Mallett, Stuart Reddish, John Baker, Stuart Brookes and Andy Gaunt
• Bingham Hall and the Porter Family: A New Interpretation of the 'Deserted Medieval Village' at Crow Close, Bingham, Nottinghamshire by Adrian Henstock & Peter Allen
• Coal mining in medieval Nottinghamshire: consumers and producers in a nascent industry by Richard Goddard
• Dr George Ridding: First Bishop of Southwell, 1884-1904 by J.V. Beckett
• 'And many of the little ones died' Public health, sanitation and weather in early 20th century Nottingham by John Wilson

Further details are available on the Thoroton Society website.

Annesley Hall and Church on BBC East Midlands Today, 23 April 2013

The east front of Annesley Hall in 2003.

Tonight's edition of BBC East Midlands Today on BBC1 at 6.30 will feature Annesley Hall and church.

• Annesley Old Church Project Facebook page
• Annesley Hall on the Nottinghamshire History website

Nottinghamshire's People events

The Nottinghamshire Ancestral Tourism Partnership has organised a programme of genealogical events and activities in the county throughout 2013. Highlights include:

• 7 June - 1 September: Exhibition by Nottinghamshire Archives and Manuscripts and Special Collections at the University of Nottingham
• June-August: Lunchtime talks
• April-October: Nottingham Central Library talks
• 19 May: The Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair at Mansfield Library
• 15 June: Boots Archives event at Lenton House, University of Nottingham
• 16 June and 30 June: Talks on the Pilgrim Fathers at Babworth Church and Scrooby Village Hall
• 22 June: Nottinghamshire Family History Society Family History Day at the Galleries of Justice
• June-September: Worksop Library exhibitions, talks and walks
• 29-30 June: Bassetlaw Museum Farm Festival
• 9 July: Newark Air Museum talk at Nottinghamshire Archives
• July-August: Nottinghamshire Family History Society Monumental Inscription Recording at Mansfield Cemetery

Full details can be downloaded from the Experience Nottinghamshire website.

Event: Transport and Trade on the Trent, 1850–1970

Transport and Trade on the Trent, 1850–1970 is a University of Nottingham day school, organised in association with the Friends of Newark Heritage Barge and the Railway & Canal Historical Society. It will take place on Saturday, 18th May 2013 at The Newark Academy on London Road, Newark.

The university has been awarded a substantial grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake a one-year research project on the history of the Trent between the mid-19th century and the end of commercial carrying on the river around 1970. The day school is an opportunity for university staff to introduce the project and describe what is planned.

• Download the flier

Conference: 'Archaeology and Landscape in the Trent Valley'

Archaeology and Landscape in the Trent Valley, the Fourth Trent Valley GeoArchaeology Conference, will take place on Wednesday 15th May 2013 at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth.

"This year’s conference provides a forum for discussion of a wide range of projects, including research on early hunter- gatherer communities, later prehistoric and Roman landscape change, cultural resource management and developments in site prospection techniques."

The conference programme and booking form are available on the Trent & Peak Archaeology website.

'Robin Hood: the real story of the English outlaw' by Jim Bradbury

A respected authority on medieval archery, Jim Bradbury, has spent many years researching Robin Hood and his book examines how the legend of Robin Hood has developed over the centuries and attempts "to work out the historical origin of the hero as far as possible."

The author takes an interesting 'reverse chronology' approach, looking at the influence of Hollywood and TV, then the novel writers of the nineteenth century, the antiquarians of the eighteenth century, seventeenth century ballads, sixteenth century plays and finally the medieval plays and poems. He also considers the audiences for which these literary works were intended. Bradbury adopts this approach in order to filter out the later additions to the story and to prove how much of the modern view of Robin Hood is myth and invention.

A later chapter considers the locations mentioned in the early poems, plays and histories and he concludes that Yorkshire "is one of the two most popular and common locations in the earliest works" and discusses the references to Barnsdale, Kirklees Priory and 'the Saylis'. Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, however, get equal attention and he argues that there is nothing to choose between the two.

This is followed by a discussion of 'real' Robin Hoods and 'Who was Robin Hood?' Bradbury admits that if there was a real Robin Hood we have not yet found him in the sources but hopes that at some point in the future the search for him will be successful.

The author starts by setting the reader a set of 10 questions (to which we return at the end of the book) to show how most of what we know about Robin Hood is the result of cinema and TV and not based on the available evidence. The book provides a very useful summary of the literary and historical sources and is recommended.

Archaeological work at King's Clipstone

Archaeologist James Wright has been in touch to tell me about fieldwork and excavation at King's Clipstone, near Mansfield. King John's Palace was the subject of a Time Team dig back in 2011 and, more recently, James and colleagues have been working on "a condition survey of the ruin of King John's Palace, loose masonry recording, an 11 acre resistivity survey, two evaluation excavations and test pitting." In addition, the team have conducted "a standing building survey of two properties ... which contain partial remains of the medieval boundary wall and buildings associated with the ... palace complex." Photographs of work in progess and further information on the programme of work are available here:

• Archaeology and History of King's Clipstone, Nottinghamshire (Facebook)
• Mercian Archaeological Services CIC (Facebook)
• King John's Palace (Wikipedia)

Event: 'Stories of Ordinary Folk', 23 March 2013

The Spring meeting of the Nottinghamshire Local History Society on 23rd March at Ravenshead Village Hall is devoted to 'stories of ordinary folk'. The programme includes the following talks:

• 'Reading between the lines - stories from parish registers'
• 'Joseph Woolley - the diary of a framework knitter'
• 'A common fate - people in the workhouse'
• 'When the bands played on'

Further information on the NLHA website.

The Nottinghamshire Historian

The latest edition of The Nottinghamshire Historian ('a bi-annual magazine of news, views and articles concerning Nottinghamshire local history and conservation')  journal has just arrived. Content includes:

• 'Nottingham Cinemas, Part Two' by Michael Payne
• 'After the Ides of March' (World War II German PoW camp near Carburton) by Robert Ilett
• 'Help at Hand' (the medical team of the 7th (Robin Hood) Battalion in World War I) by Stuart Wilson and others

Further information on the Nottinghamshire Local History Association website.

People's Histreh YouTube Channel

People's Histreh (Nottingham Radical History Group), have uploaded recordings of the following events to their YouTube Channel:

• 'Rethinking Luddism in Nottinghamshire' - a talk by Dr Mathew Roberts, Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at Sheffield Hallam University
• 'To the Castle!' - A walk retracing the 1831 Reform Riots in Nottingham

Talk on poachers and poaching in Nottinghamshire

Rosemary Muge is researching poaching and poachers in Nottinghamshire for a PhD and will be giving a talk about the subject at The Swallow's Nest in Nottingham on the 17th February at 2pm.

Further information is available on the People's Histreh website.