Wollaton Dovecote Museum open 8-9 September 2012

Wollaton Dovecote Museum (built in the late 16th century) will be open during Heritage Weekend, Saturday 8th to Sunday 9th September, 2-5pm. The museum is located on Dovecote Drive, off Bramcote Lane, Wollaton, Nottingham, NG8 2NB.
"Photographs of Lord Middleton's visit in May will be displayed, and the original door will be open to show the interesting brickwork on the side of the building not normally accessible to the public. Displays this year include The People of Wollaton, a History of the Willoughby Family Through 700 years, a poster about the Wollaton Antiphonal, and more old photographs from the Russell School. Andrew Hamilton will lead a guided walk around the village on Sunday afternoon starting at the Dovecote at 3.00pm lasting around 45 minutes, refreshments provided. Admission free."

New entries on the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website

The latest history research guides to be added to the Nottinghamshire Heritage Gateway website over the last few months include:

• Lord Byron
• Almshouses
• Canals

Heritage Open Days in Nottinghamshire, 6-9 September 2012

Heritage Open Days "celebrates England’s fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to places that are usually closed to the public or normally charge for admission." A list of properties and sites in Nottinghamshire (from a tour of the Grade I listed D10 building at Boots to behind the scenes tours of the Galleries of Justice museum stores) is now available:

• Heritage Open Days in Nottinghamshire

'Ice Age Journeys' project at Farndon

Farndon Archaeology Research Investigations (Fari) have recently launched a project to further investigate prehistoric archaeology found during the construction of the new A46 at Farndon. The project is called 'Ice Age Journeys' and aims to discover more about Ice Age hunter gatherers. The Heritage Lottery Fund is funding the first two years of research which will involve "surveying, fieldwalking, some excavation, recording and publishing." Fari is looking for volunteers to take part in field walks and the archaeological investigation itself.

• Article in the 'Newark Advertiser'
• 'Ice Age Journeys' website

Festival of British Archaeology

Apologies for nearly having missed it but The Festival of British Archaeology has been running since 14 July and is due to finish on Sunday, 29 July. There are a few events taking place in Nottinghamshire:

• Finds from Adrian Oswald's excavations of Mansfield Woodhouse Roman Villa can be seen (and pottery handled) at Mansfield Museum
• Nottinghamshire Community Archaeologists are running a 'living history' event at Newark Castle on Saturday, 28 July
• Also on Saturday there is a drop-in event for finders of archaeological objects at Bassetlaw Museum
• Make your own fossil at Cresswell Crags

There doesn't seem to be anything happening in the City of Nottingham, although if you search the events database for 'Nottingham' you get a tour of Oakham Castle (Rutland), an event celebrating the story of Robin Hood at Conisbrough Castle near Rotherham and most bizarrely of all, an organised visit to The Wag of Forse in Caithness, northern Scotland!

For more information visit the CBA website.

Open Churches Weekends, 9-10 and 16-17 July 2012

Just reminder that churches across Nottinghamshire and the city of Nottingham will be open to visitors over two weekends this month. The special weekends, on the 9th-10th and 16th-17th July, are intended to give people "the chance to discover or rediscover the rich variety of churches we have across the county. For information on which churches are participating please visit the Southwell and Nottingham Open Churches Project website.

News from Nottinghamshire Archives

Nottinghamshire Archives (along with the County Council, Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham University and  Nottinghamshire Local History Association) is running a conference called 'Make History Happen!' on Wednesday 18 July 2012, 10am - 4.30pm. The event is intended for 16-21 year-olds interested in heritage:

• 'Make History Happen!' conference flier

A new online exhibition is now available on the history of Southwell Chapter. Of particular interest are the documents relating to cases before the Chapter Court; for example, in 1683 John and Jane Beckit were summoned before the court for fornication (prior to their marriage) and excommunicated. However, they declared penance in 1684 in order that their second son could be baptised in church.

• The Southwell Chapter online exhibition

A talk on Nottinghamshire’s Sporting Heritage will take place on 10 July at 2.30pm. See the Events page for further information:

• Nottinghamshire Archives Events page

Newark gets Heritage Lottery funding for Civil War centre

Newark has been successful in securing £3.5 million of Heritage Lottery funding for a national English Civil War centre to be based in the Old Magnus Buildings in Appletongate. The whole project has been costed at £5.4 million and the local council is now looking to other funding bodies to make up the shortfall.

• Newark Advertiser article
• News item on Friends of Newark and Sherwood Museums Service website
• BBC Nottingham article
• BBC video clip

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

Nottinghamshire County Council Community Archaeology

The county council's community archaeology team, supported by local volunteers, has spent another fortnight at Kirkby Hardwick in an attempt to better understand the development of this intriguing site. Photographs of this year's excavation can be viewed on Facebook.

Other recent projects have included a geophysical survey of Willoughby deserted medieval settlement (near Norwell) and Moor Pond Wood at Papplewick.

For more information on their work see:

• Community Archaeology section of the Nottinghamshire County Council website
• Community Archaeology on Facebook

One of the archaeologists, Andy Gaunt, is responsible for the History and Archaeology of Medieval Sherwood Forest website ("a website dedicated to the archaeology and history of Medieval Sherwood Forest; its landscape and people, the dreaded forest law, Robin Hood, and Outlaws and Villains.") - well worth a visit!