The History Festival 2017, 5-7 April at Nottingham University

Nottingham University's first History Festival will take place across various locations and all the events are free. Activities include:

• behind the scenes at Manuscripts and Special Collection
• lecture by Dr Nick Barratt of BBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? fame
• find out about the history and heritage of University Park Campus
• walk in the footsteps of the Nottingham 1831 Rioters
• find out more about the history of Nottingham’s Green Spaces and the
  First World War in Nottinghamshire
• step back into the past with living history and reenactment displays

Full details are available in the History Festival Flier.

The Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair, 7 May 2017

Sneinton Pride of Place Project, 4-18 March 2017

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/

Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record now online

The Nottinghamshire Historic Environment Record (HER) is now online courtesy of Historic England's Heritage Gateway website. This is excellent news for researchers interested in archaeology and the built environment in Nottinghamshire. Please note the HER does not, regrettably, include the City of Nottingham itself.

The HER (formerly known as the Sites and Monuments Record) is a database of information on archaeological sites and finds, historic buildings and historic landscapes in Nottinghamshire. According to the county council website 'there are currently over 15,000 data entries in the Nottinghamshire HER. They refer to features ranging in size from single chance finds, such as Roman coins, to WWII airfields.'

Results from a search on the small village of Winkburn in central Notts are shown below:

Details of the record on the church of St John of Jerusalem are shown below:

Interestingly, there is no mention in the Heritage section of the Notts CC website that the HER has gone online. I found out today thanks to a posting by Emily Gillott on the East Midlands History and Heritage Facebook page.

Is this an example of what they call a system 'soft launch'?!

Death & Demons season at Nottinghamshire Archives

Nottinghamshire Archives is running a series of talks this month under the banner of 'Death & Demons Season'. They promise 'stories of murder and dastardly deeds from letters and diaries held at [the] Archives, with tales of the macabre inspired by the county’s history.' The next talk is at 2.30pm on the 17 November and the third in the season is about John Darrell, the Mansfield-born 16th century exorcist and takes place on 25 November.

Further details are here: www.exploreyourarchive.org/category/east-midlands/

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.

Nottinghamshire Archives re-opens on 28 April 2015

Nottinghamshire Archives, currently closed while it is extended and refurbished as part of a £2.5m project, will re-open on the 28 April. According to the county council press release the building now has

• 'additional space to accommodate new archives for decades to come, including specialist storage for photographs and digital media
• a computerised building management system
• an additional new meeting room/multi-purpose learning space
• improved computer suite for accessing digital heritage, with free public wi-fi throughout the building.

There will be an 'Archives Fun Open Day' on 2 May 'with entertainment and activities for all the family'. The programme for the day will include:

• 9am onwards Explore the new building, with a display of archives
• 10.30am Official opening ceremony
• 11am – 3pm Family activities: seal making, design your own coat of arms, dress up in historical costumes
• 11.45am onwards Tours of the new building, go behind the scenes to discover more of the changes
• 1pm Talk about historical fiction by writer Judith Alnatt 

The Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair at Mansfield Library, 10 May 2015

The third Great Nottinghamshire Local History Fair will be held at Mansfield Library on Sunday, 10 May, 11am-3pm. 

It promises 'fun for all the family with craft demonstrations, local history displays from across the county, screenings of bygone Mansfield film footage and children’s activities PLUS meet real owls.'

Further information is available on the Our Nottinghamshire website.

The King's England: Nottinghamshire

I spent an industrious few weeks in December scanning a battered copy of The King's England volume on Nottinghamshire edited by Arthur Mee, converting the text to HTML, adding a large number of carefully chosen images (in addition to the ones in the book) and uploading the pages to my Nottinghamshire History website.

Mee's King's England series was an ambitious project to produce guides to the counties of England and 41 volumes were produced. Nottinghamshire: The Midland Stronghold appeared in 1938. Most of the research was undertaken by Mee's sister and her husband and Mee himself had a close connection with the county having been born in Stapleford in 1875.

There is an entry for virtually every town and village in the county and although the focus tends to be on the architecture of the parish church and local notable families or personalities it makes for a fairly interesting read. However, the content has been criticised by the author of the Suffolk Churches website for being 'verbose, sentimental. nationalistic and just plain old-fashioned inaccurate' and warns that if you read other volumes in the series 'after a while all England becomes a blur of romantic twaddle.'

See what you think!

• Arthur Mee's The King's England: Nottinghamshire

Event: 'Stories of ordinary folk', 19th October 2013

'Stories of ordinary folk', the Nottinghamshire Local History Autumn Day-School, will be held at Ravenshead Village Hall on Saturday, 19th October 2013, 10 am – 4:15 pm.

"The man-in-the-street may not make the history books, but people in the past at least had their rites of passage recorded. If they fell by the wayside the workhouse was there to offer some relief and perhaps a form of escape. Other diversions included the village bands."

The speakers are:

• Valerie Henstock: Reading between the Lines - Stories from Parish Registers
• Peter Hammond: Joseph Woolley, the Diary of a Framework Knitter
• Victoria Preece: A Common Fate - People in the Workhouse
• Chris Weir: When the Bands Played On

Cost: £6.50 (members of NLHA) and £7.50 (non members).

There is no need to pre-book. For further information call 01509 820067

The Nottinghamshire Bibliography Online is launched

The Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire held an event at Bromley House Library in Nottingham yesterday to launch The Nottinghamshire Bibliography Online. The Bibliography provides a single web-based means of access to bibliographic sources for the history of the city of Nottingham and county of Nottinghamshire.

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

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.