If you are looking for ‘what’s-on’, events, activities, exhibitions or visits for any of our local heritage sites:
have a look at www.nottinghamheritage.org.uk
Farnsfield lies in central Nottinghamshire approximately 14 miles north-east of Nottingham, a mile or so to the east of the main A614 road linking Nottingham to Doncaster and the north of England. It is quite a large village with a population of approx 300. The village lies in a predominantly farming area on the eastern edge of what used to be the Nottinghamshire coalfield.
Farnsfield Local History Society exists to collect and publicise the history of Farnsfield. Their aim is to keep the history of Farnsfield alive by uploading images, archives and important information. They are keen to collate information both from the past and more contemporary issues of interest to historians of the future.
The unveiling ceremony on Saturday 18th June 2016 marked the completion of a project to provide interpretative panels for the village. Funding for this panel was provided by Farnsfield Local History Society, Nottinghamshire Local History Association, Farnsfield Parish Council and the John and Nellie Brown Farnsfield Trust.
Kay Humpries after completing her swim
Kay Humphries has started a month-long fundraising campaign for the Framework Knitters Museum by taking part in the Great North Swim in Lake Windermere last Friday.
Audrey Winkler, Chairman of the museum trustees and Kay’s mother, said “I’m immensely proud of Kay, and extremely thankful that she chose to raise money for the Framework Knitters Museum with her swim.”
Kay swam the 5KM race in a time of 1 hour, 36 minutes and 44 seconds. This time placed her 7th out of the women in the 50-54 year old age group, and 267th out of the total 585 competitors, male and female of all ages.
The museum, on Chapel Street in Ruddington, is currently in the middle of a massive fundraising drive to raise a total of £750,000. This money will be used to redevelop the site to include an adjoining cottage they have recently purchased, doubling the exhibition space and creating a new visitor centre. They have already achieved over £150,000 of their target, and have more fundraising events coming up throughout the year.
Kay said, “I only started open water swimming a year ago and absolutely love it. The fact I was able to raise money for such a great cause, and support the museum my mum puts so much time and effort into, made this swim even more rewarding.
The Great North Swim takes place over three days. It is Europe’s biggest open swimming event, with over 10000 swimmers challenging themselves by swimming a variety of distances in the open water of Lake Windermere.
For more information about the Framework Knitters Museum visit www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk
If you would like to donate to the fundraising appeal please visit www.everyclick.com/kayswimsforframeworkknittersmuseum
The Framework Knitters Museum has been awarded the Working with Children and Young People Award at the Nottinghamshire Heritage Awards 2016 for their partnership with Rushcliffe School. The award was announced at a formal ceremony at Nottingham Trent University on Wednesday 8 June.
Deputy Chairman of the museum trustees, Julian Ellis, said, “This award does not only recognise the innovative thinking of our museum manager, Paul Baker, but is a tribute to the pupils and staff at Rushcliffe School for their work in developing this award-winning partnership”.
The unique partnership between the museum and the school started when the museum undertook a £100,000 redevelopment in 2014. Pupils were invited to work alongside the professionals who were responsible for designing the exhibitions, creating new educational resources including a multi-award winning interactive film, and for promoting the relaunch of the museum. Their feedback, ideas and input not only directed the decision-making processes for the professionals, but the pupils were able to engage creatively in the project by starring in the film.
This latest award win joins an already extensive list of accolades which the partnership, and the resulting educational film, have achieved. This includes an award at the European Heritage in Motion Awards, two at the East Midland Heritage Awards, and attaining the coveted Sandford Award.
For more information on the Framework Knitters Museum visit www.frameworkknittersmusuem.org.uk.
Newark Book Festival aka ‘Books in the Castle’ is being held during the weekend of 9th/10th July. Aside from the usual stalls the focus this year is on three main genres, Crime/Murder, Children’s and History. 11 Crime authors attending to put on seven talks on the Saturday. Special guests include; Eva Schloss, Anne Franks stepsister who had a unique view of the publication of one of the worlds biggest ever selling books ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ and Eva Clarke, one of only three Jewish babies known to have been born in a Nazi death camp and survived, her story was a focus in the recent bestseller ‘Born Survivors’ by Wendy Holden. Children’s activities include multiple free author events and the local cruise boat will be converted into a pirate ship. Bestselling history authors Stephen Church and Marc Morris coming also.
More information at www.facebook.com/BooksInTheCastle
Ernest Gimson designed the cottage to appear as if organically grown among the rocky outcrops of the Charnwood Forest, and he succeeded. Bizarrely, the cottage’s eleven rooms sit on seven different levels – keeping count becomes an intriguing challenge while you explore with an expert guide. In fact, Ernest was so successful in establishing Stoneywell as part of the landscape that one ex-local, who’d left before it had been built, said on returning to the area that it was odd that he should have forgotten the old cottage.
Save for its slate roof – which replaced the original thatch when it was destroyed by fire in 1939 – Stoneywell retains much of its original magic. First intended as a summer house away from Leicester industry, before becoming a family home from the 1950s, Stoneywell was adapted rather than changed. Thus the philosophical mantle which first inspired Ernest passed by descent through the family, until the property was acquired by the National Trust in 2012.
Today the cottage is still furnished with many original pieces made by Ernest and his circle of craftsmen. The dining table with a top fashioned from a single oak plank stands proud beyond the front door, while stone hot-water bottles on the slate steps and children’s toys in the nursery allude to family life in a much-loved home.
Stoneywell survives as the realisation of one man’s dream for a simpler life, and the enduring embodiment of a rural escape which speaks to us even today.
The National Trust offer a talks service to promote the property and are particularly keen to encourage young people to come and visit.
Stoneywell is at Whitcrofts Lane, Ulverscroft, Leicestershire, LE67 9QE
For more information visit the website at www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stoneywell
Bob Massey’s book Snippets from History Vol 1 has sold very well and it is now in its second reprint.
As everyone has been asking about vol two this is now being published. It covers articles from NG5 Arnold, NG3 Mapperley and this time from the NG14 area – the villages.
Bob is speaking at the Lowdham Book Festival on the 25th June on Murder, Mystery and the Plain Ordinary about local history so the new book is being launched then and will be out from the beginning of July. It will be available directly from Bob as well as Five Leaves Book Shop Long Row Nottingham, The Bookcase Lowdham and MSR News Front Street Arnold.
The Life and Work of William Martin, 1767-1810, Actor and Man of Science
William Martin, the principal subject of this work, was born in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire in 1767. From his earliest childhood, he was raised in a one-parent family, owing to his mother Ann having been deserted by her feckless husband. Economic circumstances obliged Ann to seek a career on the provincial stage, which in turn became William’s destiny. He however, was to become more than a successful comic actor. He was also a pioneer in the field of palaeontology and geology, as well as a reputable artist, engraver and teacher. Employment with a touring company obliged actors to lead the life of a gypsy. For the stock-player, this meant very little remuneration, which was the lot of William and his mother. By sheer chance, a number of Buxton, Derbyshire Theatre playbills have survived from the latter part of the 18th century and into the early decades of the 19th century. It is from this treasure house, that it has been possible to resurrect long forgotten plays, plots and characters. At the same time, it has enabled quite a comprehensive theatrical picture to be drawn, not only of the lives of the Martins, but also of their peers, including larger than life personalities such as George Frederick Cooke. But more than that, it has enabled glimpses to be made of much of the Hanoverian period; life in the spa town of Buxton and its wealthy patrons of the theatre. The reader may also feel a tinge of sadness, that William Martin, through financial difficulties and a fatal illness, was never able to fulfil all of his early promise as a polymath.
The books is available now and can be obtained from Alan Mallatratt at 12 Twyford Gardens,
Grantham, Lincolnshire, NG31 9BY at a cost of £10 each, postage and package will be inclusive.
For more information please contact Alan at mallatratt@btinternet.com
The top three poems will each win a cash prize; a further seven will be commended, and all 10 will form part of an exhibition. Entrants can submit up to three poems. Open to all over-18s in Nottinghamshire.
Are you inspired by Nottingham’s Green Spaces? There are plenty of them – Nottingham has been awarded 22 Green Flags for the excellence of its parks. Some of them are also amongst the oldest parks in the country and are protected from development by an Act of Parliament passed in 1845 and these have been explored by the Nottingham Historic Green Spaces project.
There is an association between these spaces and creative literature. The Arboretum and public walks, like Queen’s Walk and Elm Avenue, were partly inspired by the Sherwood Forest school of writers, while the opening of the Arboretum in 1852 was commemorated in a poem by Edward Hine, published in the Nottingham Review, 14 May 1852. The following week The Review featured another Hine poem, ‘Nottingham Park by Midnight’.
We are looking for lively, original and contemporary poems that relate to these spaces and respond to and are inspired by the five themes of the Project. The themes are:
Poems can, of course, imaginatively combine more than one theme, and weave in new ideas from the poet’s own imagination and experience. We welcome poems from established as well as new poets.
The competition deadline is 5pm on 1 August 2016.
For full details, please see: www.ng-spaces.org.uk/poetry-competition
NEW LIFE FOR FORMER BOOTS’ SOCIAL CLUB, TRENT BRIDGE NOTTINGHAM by Chris Weir
On the 25th May 2016 an event was held at ‘The Embankment’ to celebrate its Grade II Listed Building Status. This followed the wonderful restoration of this historical building by the Castle Rock Brewery. The building itself was designed by local architect Albert Nelson Bromley, who worked with Jesse Boot on many of the company’s buildings. It was opened as Boots’ No.2 Store in the early 1900s and also became the Company’s Social Club in 1919. The whole building became the Social club in 1979. Many local people will have fond memories of events and gatherings held at the Club over the years.
After a more recent period of disuse it was acquired by Castle Rock in 2015 and has been restored during its conversion as a pub and restaurant. Original windows with fine stained glass details have been revealed and a chandelier-lit function room upstairs can be booked for events. For a time another upstairs room was used as an office by Jesse Boot and this has also been restored. Nottingham Civic Society provided key research information on The Embankment and on promoting listed building status. With this venture Castle Rock have underlined their commitment to Nottingham’s heritage and to partnership working in the City.
The official proceedings of the evening included speeches by Hilary Silvester of the Nottingham Civic Society and the new Sheriff of Nottingham, Jackie Morris.
Hilary and Jackie are great supporters and enthusiasts of local history and its role in preserving and improving the modern day landscape of Nottingham.
