'The Welbeck Atlas' has recently been published by the Thoroton Society

The Welbeck Atlas: William Senior’s maps of the estates of William Cavendish, Earl of Newcastle, 1629-1640, edited by Stephanos Mastoris with an interactive digital flashcard edited by Andrew Nicholson, is the latest volume in the Thoroton Society Record Series.

Over the previous twenty years Senior had undertaken a similar survey for Newcastle’s Cavendish cousins - the 1st and 2nd Earls of Devonshire - of Hardwick and Chatsworth in Derbyshire. For both branches of the family Senior produced outstanding examples of vividly coloured maps bound into folio ‘atlases’.William Cavendish, Earl (later Duke) of Newcastle, of Welbeck Abbey, Nottinghamshire and Bolsover Castle, Derbyshire, was one of the largest English landowners of his day. In 1629 he appointed the surveyor William Senior to map his extensive estates in seven counties.

The Welbeck Atlas contains maps surveyed between 1629 and 1640 for Newcastle’s properties in Nottinghamshire (19 maps), Derbyshire (27), Staffordshire (9), Northumberland (20), Gloucestershire (3) and Somerset (3). Together these cover over 106,000 acres of land and provide an important primary source for local historians and archaeologists of the counties involved as well as for genealogists and cartographic historians.


This ground-breaking Record Series edition incorporates two elements. Firstly this book contains a detailed Map Catalogue listing the names of all villages, fields and commons recorded on each map as well as the names of their tenants. This is prefaced by a scholarly introduction by the editor, Stephanos Mastoris, illustrated by over sixty colour plates of details from the maps.

Please see the Ordering Thoroton Society publications page for information on purchasing Record Series volumes. Secondly, a digital set of full colour reproductions of the maps is provided on an interactive USB flashcard at the end of the volume. All images are capable of being enlarged on screen to any desired scale.

Latest edition of the Transactions of the Thoroton Society published

The latest edition of the Transactions of the Thoroton Society has been published. Ordering information is available on the Thoroton Society website.

Table of contents:

• Archaeology in Nottinghamshire 2016 by Chris King
• The Portable Antiquities Scheme in Nottinghamshire 2016 by Alastair Willis (with contributions by Richard Davies)
• The Newark Iron Age Torc by Rachel Atherton (kindly supported by the Vernon Radcliffe bequest)
• The use of gypsum plaster and lime-ash for flooring in medieval east Midlands: evidence from Bingham, Nottinghamshire by Peter Allen and Anthony Cooper
• Landscape surveys at Kelham, Nottinghamshire by Matthew Beresford
• 'By floating and watering such land as lieth capable thereof: recovering meadow irrigation in Nottinghamshire by Jonathan Hillman and Hadrian Cook
• The Northward Expansion of the Boundary of Sherwood Forest in the Sixteenth Century by David Crook
• The dating of the completion of the composition of the Memoirs of Colonel John Hutchinson: the evidence of the imprisonments of Captain John Wright and Lieutenant Richard Franck, by P.R. Seddon
• Victorian Gardening, Horticulture and Arboriculture in the Midlands: John Frederick Wood (1806-1865) of Nottingham and the Midland Florist and Suburban Horticulturist by Christine Drew and Paul Elliott
• Mapping the Robin Hood Rifles in Mid-Nineteenth Century Nottingham by Lucie Sutherland
• The Nottingham Exhibition of 1903-1904: An amusement Park by Keith Fisher
• Nursing the wounded in the First World War: the Nottinghamshire VAD hospitals, by Jill Oakland
• The Scientific Community in Nottingham: Bromley House to the University College by John Beckett

Halfprice sale of Nottinghamshire local history books

Nottinghamshire Archives and Libraries are selling some of their local history stock at half-price. There's a wide range of subjects: railways, the English Civil War, pubs, the Stone Age, Raleigh bicycles etc.

They are listed on the Inspire website:
https://www.inspireculture.org.uk/heritage/local-studies/books-sale/

Transactions of the Thoroton Society for 2015 published

The latest issue of the Transactions of the Thoroton Society : the Journal for Nottinghamshire History and Archaeology is now available.

Articles include reports of three major archaeological projects in the county: the Time Team evaluation at King John's Palace, Kings Clipstone, Iron Age and Romano-British sites discovered while widening the A453 and the Ice Age Journeys project at Farndon Fields, Newark.

Other articles cover such diverse subjects as the receipt (recipe) books of the Countess of Oxford, the Stretton and Lowe families who worked as Sir Richard Arkwright's builders and millwrights, how the village of Edwinstowe became associated with the Robin Hood legend in the 19th century, changes to Rufford Abbey in the Victorian and Edwardian periods and the importance of cigarette marketing at John Player & Sons.

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

From Here We Changed The World - a new book from Adrian Gray

Bookworm of Retford have recently published a book on the religious history of North Nottinghamshire (and west Lincolnshire) by local author, Adrian Gray. Subtitled 'Amazing Stories of Pilgrims and Rebels from North Nottinghamshire and West Lincolnshire' this well illustrated book reminds us what a huge impact this small area of the English midlands has had on the development of the Christian faith.

As the promotional literature says, 'from this area have come of the great martyrs of the English Reformation, the leading puritans of Elizabethan England, the "Separatists" who became the "Mayflower" Pilgrims, and the founders of the Baptist, Quaker and Methodist denominations.'

Further information is available on the Bookworm website: www.bookwormretford.co.uk/publications.html

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.

New magazine launched: 'East Midlands History and Heritage'

A new magazine called East Midlands History and Heritage (EMHH) has been launched. It aims to 'uncover and publicise the wealth of interesting stories that lie untold about the region’s past, its people and places.'

See below for a press release from Nottingham Trent University giving further details.

Led by Nottingham Trent University, the magazine is aimed at anyone with an interest in history, whether through local history societies, schools and colleges, museums or simply as individuals or families.  The magazine will also welcome contributions from people who would like to write about their own history.

The first issue, available online now, focuses on the English Civil War.*  This coincides with the opening of the new National Civil War Centre at Newark. The Civil War was a brutal affair and the East Midlands played a critical role.  The region had strategic importance: it was a crossroad between north and south; armies marched across it back and forth.  It also endured several destructive sieges, which brought death and disease (and treachery and heroism).  The costs were high, and the long-term consequences profound in terms of disability and social and religious disruption.

The first two issues of EMHH will be available as hard copies in outlets such as local libraries, archives and the National Civil War Centre itself, as well as being downloadable from the website: eastmidlandshistory.org.uk/. The magazine will also be distributed to schools in the region.

Dr Nick Hayes, EMHH editor and reader in urban history at Nottingham Trent University’s School of Arts and Humanities, said: “There are so many interesting stories to tell about the history of this region. We want to make it a real community magazine, so we’re looking for stories from everyone with something to say – from family histories, to events, to school or community research projects. And we’re happy to help with this and to help you reach new, bigger audiences.”

The EMHH magazine is supported by universities, academic historians, archivists and museums specialists across the region. Hard copies of first issue will be available week commencing 15 June 2015.

* The magazine includes several articles on aspects of the Civil Wars in Nottinghamshire.

'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!

New book: Newstead Abbey : a Nottinghamshire Country House, its Owners and Architectural History 1540-1931

The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire has just published a book on the architectural history of Newstead Abbey by Rosalys Coope and Pete Smith.

'The Augustinian priory of Newstead in Nottinghamshire’s Sherwood Forest was founded in c.1163. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was acquired in 1540 by the Byron family who used it as a country house until it was sold in 1818 by Lord Byron the poet.  Under the name of Newstead Abbey it subsequently passed through the hands of the Wildman, Webb and Fraser families before being presented by Sir Julien Cahn to Nottingham City Council in 1931. Since then the Council have maintained the house and gardens together with important collections of furniture, paintings and Byron artefacts.

This volume gathers together in a single chronological narrative a series of articles on different phases of the Abbey’s architectural history written over a period of 35 years by architectural historian Dr Rosalys Coope and published in the Transactions of the Thoroton Society.  The opportunity has also been taken by Dr Coope - assisted by retired English Heritage officer Pete Smith - to revise and extend some of the original conclusions in the light of new research, particularly the evidence offered by newly identified drawings, paintings, and engravings (some even painted on Sevres dinner plates).

The book is a masterly piece of detective work incorporating evidence from written records, illustrations and the fabric of the building itself to unravel the complex architectural history of this remarkable country house.

The book is lavishly illustrated with 112 plates and diagrams, most in full colour.'

For more information see the Thoroton Society website

Transactions of the Thoroton Society, Volume 117 (2013)

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

• Archaeology in Nottinghamshire by Keith Challis (editor)
• A romantic royal retreat, and an idealised forest in miniature: the designed landscape of medieval Clipstone, at the heart of Sherwood Forest by Andy Gaunt and James Wright
• The interpretation of field walking finds from Bingham in the post-medieval to modern periods by Peter Allen and Geoff Ashton
• The Soke of Dunham and its Liberties in the Twelfth and Early Thirteenth Centuries by David Crook
• Annual History Lecture: The emotional landscape of Sir Thomas Parkyns of Bunny by Lizbeth Powell
• Fee trees and rogue verderers in early eighteenth century Sherwood Forest by Sara Morrison
• The Newark Navigation 1740-c1850 by Stanley Chapman
• The much lamented late Lord Byron: Nottinghamshire Visitors to St Mary's, Hucknall 1825-1834 by Ralph Lloyd-Jones
• 'Hanging For Sheep Hanging's Sake?' Convicted Murderers and the Nottingham Press 1850-1880 by Matthew Grogan

Further details are available on the Thoroton Society website.

New books (May 2014)

Amberley Publishing have just sent me a copy of Nottingham from old photographs to review. It is yet another book in their attractive series of pictorial local history books. The author, Joseph Earp, is Team Leader of the Nottingham Hidden History Team and a large number of the photographs in the book come from the collection of the late Paul Nix who was a founder member of the team back in 1965.

The book aims to provide a 'new side to Nottingham's ever changing history' by making good use of this collection and it is interesting to see a wide range of hitherto unseen views of the city, particularly those from the destructive 1960s. The photographs of Maid Marian Way under construction and the demolition of the Black Boy Hotel and Victoria Station are a sad reminder of what we've lost.

• Amberley Publishing website

Southwell & District Local History Society have just published Southwell at War: 1914-1919, an account of Southwell during World War I. It contains biographical details of the 650 Southwell men who served in the war and includes a list of over 550 men from the surrounding villages. Other chapters include the news stories covered by the Newark Advertiser, the 8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters on the Western Front, the South Notts Hussars in the Middle East, life on the home front and individual stories of tragedy and heroism.

• Southwell & District Local History Society website

New historical guides to walking and cycling in Nottingham

Chris Matthews has designed and written two historical guides to walking and cycling in the Nottingham suburbs of Aspley and Bilborough. These well produced and informative guides are freely available from most public libraries in the city or can be downloaded from his website (where you can also find Blog entries to accompany the guides):

• A New World: Blog & Booklet
• Garden City: Blog & Booklet

There is also a launch event at St John's Church in Bilborough on Saturday, 5th April (6-8pm), which will include a talk about the history of the area with 'specially sourced archive film footage'.

New publications from Mercian Archaeological Services

Mercian Archaeological Services has produced its first newsletter, summarising recent work at King John's Palace in Kings Clipstone, The Sherwood Forest Archaeology Project, plus details of excavations at Ticknall in Leicestershire, Codnor Castle in Derbyshire and elsewhere. The newsletter can be accessed here: www.academia.edu
Mercian have also published the first two papers in their Occasional Papers series, both by James Wright:

• Brammer Farm House & Arundel Cottage - Standing Building Survey Report, and
• The king’s houses a palace or a mere hunting lodge?

The papers are available online here: http://issuu.com/mercianarch

New books on Worksop and East Midlands Canals

Amberley Publishing have sent me copies of two new titles in their attractively produced 'Through Time' series.

'Worksop through time' by Retford author and photographer, Sally Outram, includes a good selection of photographs showing how the town has changed over the past 130 years or so. She also includes images of the country houses in the neighbouring Dukeries, such as Clumber, Welbeck and Rufford.

Worksop's history tends to be overlooked so it is good to have reminders of its best built heritage: for example, the early 12th century priory church, the impressive 14th century priory gatehouse, the earthworks of the castle, Worksop Manor Lodge (dating from 1590), the railway station and Albion Mill. Unfortunately, some of the then-and-now images give a sadder impression of Worksop in the early 21st century. For example, the decline of the pub is exemplified by The French Horn on Potter Street, a splendid example of Edwardian exuberance with its distinctive green-glazed tiling and colourful architectural details, which closed in 2007 and now has boarded-up windows. Other photographs record architectural losses in the town, for example, the charming cottage hospital that stood on Memorial Avenue was demolished in 1996 and replaced by an undistinguished Farmfoods store and the fine Victorian Priorwell Brewery was pulled down in 1962; a dull red-brick archway and some office buildings are all that survive.

Ray Shill's contribution to the series is 'East Midlands Canals - Soar, Trent, Derby, Leicester & Nottingham - Through Time'. The author takes a chronological approach to the development of canals in the region and has chosen his images well. Nottinghamshire canals mentioned and illustrated are the Nottingham Canal, the Trent Navigation, the Chesterfield Canal and the Grantham Canal.

New book: East Coast Main Line Disasters

Nottinghamshire-based author, Adrian Gray, has recently published a fascinating book examining fatal disasters on one of Britain's premier rail routes, from Newham Bog (Northumberland) in 1847 to Great Heck near Selby in 2001. 

The East Coast Line has run through the east of Nottinghamshire since the mid-19th century and Adrian discusses several accidents along this stretch, including disasters in Retford in 1873 and 1923 and one south of Newark in 1870 that left 18 dead.

The official launch of the book will be held at The Well on Hospital Road, Retford on 16th Spetember at 7.30pm. Adrian will give an illustrated talk about the various key accidents on the route.

• Pendragon Publishing
• 'East Coast Main Line Disasters' on Amazon

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.

'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.

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.

New book: 'Lowdham, Caythorpe & Gunthorpe Through Time'

Another attractively produced volume in Amberley Publishing's 'Through Time' series has arrived for review. The book focuses on the large village of Lowdham which is located in the Trent valley, some 8 miles north-east of Nottingham, and also covers the neighbouring villages of Caythorpe and Gunthorpe.

The book has been compiled by members of the Lowdham Local History Group and the selection of photographs is both interesting and varied. Each page is a 'then and now' illustration of the ways in which the villages have changed over time.

One of the most intriguing set of photographs is the one covering the development of the house with the misleadingly understated name of 'The Hut'. The house was originally built in the early 1920s to the north of Lowdham and incorporated two American Pacific Railway coaches that the owner had bought after they had been displayed at the 1926 Great Exhibition in Paris. In the 1980s this unusual building was replaced by a grandiose country house.

I also enjoyed the images of 'Gunthorpe on Sea', a popular destination for locals and Nottingham residents in the mid-20th century. Apparently, the nearby lock on the River Trent was a tourist attraction (particularly for children who enjoyed watching the boats being raised or lowered) and this was often followed by a picnic on the extensive common between the Unicorn pub and the Trent.

'Roman Nottinghamshire' nominated for an award

Roman Nottinghamshire by Nottingham-based writer Mark Patterson has been nominated for Book of the Year by Current Archaeology. The book is a well written and comprehensive introduction to the area during the Romano-British period and a worthy contender.

You can vote online for it on the Current Archaeology website.

Mark's Roman Nottinghamshire blog is also worth a look.