New book: 'The Portland Path'

Jacksdale Area Culture and Heritage have published a 68-page book describing "the early railways linking the collieries at Selston with the Cromford Canal at Jacksdale, the methods used and the people involved."

The Portland Path Project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund with the aim of highlighting the history of a tramway that stretched between the Portland
No. 1 colliery, in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, to Portland Wharf and Butterly Iron Works in Jacksdale.

The book costs £4.95 and will be launched on 3 June on Jacksdale Soldier Day at the Jacksdale Miners' Welfare Club.

• Article in the Eastwood & Kimberley Advertiser

An Updated Research Agenda and Strategy for the Historic Environment of the East Midlands

Nottingham University and York Archaeological Trust have jointly published an update to 'The Archaeology of the East Midlands: An Archaeological Resource Assessment and Research Agenda' published by Leicester University in 2006. It is lavishly illustrated and contains a large number of photographs of sites in Nottinghamshire.

• East Midlands Heritage. An Updated Research Agenda and Strategy for the Historic Environment of the East Midlands
• The Archaeology of the East Midlands: An Archaeological Resource Assessment and Research Agenda
• The East Midlands Archaeological Research Framework Project

Our Mining Heritage event in Eastwood, Sunday 27 May

"Our Mining Heritage" is a forthcoming event designed to celebrate the culture and heritage of the former Nottinghamshire coalfield.

There will be displays with a mining theme and two talks:

• "Having the Crack - Pit Poetry and Humour" from John Stafford and David Amos
• "The Mubu Coalmining Project 2010-12" from David Amos

The event will take place at the D H Lawrence Heritage Centre in Eastwood on Sunday 27 May, 11am-4pm.

Further details are available on Nottingham University's Connected Communities website and David Amos' Facebook site.

Transactions of the Thoroton Society, Volume 115 (2011)

The latest Transactions of the county historical society has just been published. Contents include:

• Settlement Patterns in The Parish Of Bingham, Nottinghamshire from the Mesolithic to Modern Times by Peter Allen 
• Bothamsall Castle, Nottinghamshire an Archaeological and Historical Landscape Analysis by Andy Gaunt and James Wright 
• The Nottinghamshire History Lecture 2011: Trent Bridge School Nottingham 1909-1919: a decade of loyalty, service and endurance by David Nunn 
• 'It's not what you know...' Patronage in eighteenth and nineteenth century Nottinghamshire. Introduction to Patronage essays by Richard Gaunt 
• Patronage and power in eighteenth century Newark by Stanley Chapman 
• The eighteenth century country attorney: Professionalism and Patronage. The Hodgkinsons of Southwell by Michael J. Kirton 
• Church and class patronage in Nottinghamshire in the nineteenth century by Michael Austin 
• Keeping it in the family: political patronage in early nineteenth century Nottinghamshire by Richard Gaunt 
• Samuel Barker: the Duke of Newcastle's head gardener at Clumber, 1899-1935 by Philip Jones 
• The Building Works of William, 4th Lord Byron, at Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire 1700-1736 by Rosalys Coope

Further information and ordering details are available on the Thoroton Society website.

Exhibition: “The many lives of DH Lawrence - memoir, legacy and biography revealed”

A new exhibition devoted to D H Lawrence has recently been opened at The Lakeside on the Nottingham University campus. The exhibition draws on the internationally important collection held by Nottingham University and "traces the origins and development of the biographical preoccupation with Lawrence" from the widely different accounts of his life published in the 1930s by his contemporaries to recent academic research based on recent discoveries that offer new perspectives.

Admission is free and a series of talks has been arranged to accompany the exhibition. Further information is available on The Lakeside website.

Angel Row History Day, 12 May

The Nottinghamshire Local History Association has organised a History Day at the Local Studies Department of Nottingham Central Library on Saturday 12 May, 11-3pm.

Groups such as The Thoroton Society and Nottingham Women's History Group are involved and help and advice from archivists and local studies librarians will be available.

All are welcome.

• Download the flyer