The Framework Knitters Museum has been awarded the prestigious Sandford Award for its new education programme. This is the third time the museum’s schools programme has received an award this year. International and regional recognition has included awards for Innovation and Working with Young People. In addition the museum was the only British winner of the European, Heritage in Motion Award for the unique film which forms the core of the programme. The Sandford Award crowns an exceptional year for the museum.

The Sandford Award is a national quality assurance mark of distinction awarded to education programmes at museums, heritage sites and archives across the British Isles. All winners pass a rigorous assessment process overseen by independent, expert judges. The ceremony was presented by Professor Peter Neil, Vice Chancellor of Bishop Grosseteste University, and was held at the London Transport Museum.

Paul Baker, the museum manager, said “we are all thrilled to have been awarded such a prestigious accolade for the museum, alongside such respected institutions as the Science Museum and the London Transport Museum. Educational visits form a large part of our visitor base, and to receive confirmation that what we provide is such a high standard is really rewarding.”

The museum’s education programme is centred on an innovative interactive film, called Breaking the Frame. The film’s narrative follows a young framework knitter during the Luddite riots. This character faces a variety of dilemmas when dealing with his exploitative employer and struggling to provide for his family. The audience ultimately chose which direction the film takes by advising the framework knitter when confronting dilemmas. This process allows the audience to explore their moral choices, and experience the consequences of them, in a safe environment.

The film is supplemented by an array of resources, which include detailed lesson plans, historical letters and documents, and classroom games. The film and resources are all available for free on the museums website, and can be used in conjunction with a trip to the museum, or on their own. You can view the resources and the film at www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk/education-section

The Framework Knitters Museum is Nottinghamshire’s only working textile museum. It celebrates the trade, and associated workers, which gave birth to Nottingham’s Lace Industry and the violent Luddite uprising. Situated on the outskirts of Nottingham, in the small village of Ruddington, the museum is located in a preserved early nineteenth century knitter’s yard. The site includes frameshops, workers cottages, and a chapel where the workers worshipped. The museum underwent a £100,000 redevelopment last year, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Nottinghamshire County Council.

For more information please visit www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk, or contact the museum on 0115 984 6914 or office@frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk.

Bob Massey has finally got round to publishing some of the articles he has written for NG5, NG3 and NG14 magazines since 2006 in a book to come out on 11th December called Snippets from History.

Volume 1 will be about Arnold and Mapperly in 64 pages with 70 illustrations in an A5 format with card covers. Copies will be available at £4.95 Plus £1.50 postage per copy and can be obtained from 9, Worrall Avenue, Arnold NG5 7GN. Cheques should be made payable to B Massey.

The book is also available at:

• NG Magazines Stanhope Crescent Arnold
• MSR Newsagents Front Street Arnold
• Five Leaves Bookshop Long Row Nottingham
• The Bookcase Main Street Lowdham

On Wednesday 18th November, the Life Lines Group launched the book that they have been working on. Dave Wilkinson, Volunteer Co-ordinator, formally presented the book to Nottinghamshire Archives with Culture Syndicates CIC.

You can download the book at http://www.lifelineslakeside.org.uk/ and explore the stories of local Nottinghamshire people during the First World War.

This 9 week course will act as an introduction to Fascism in a historical context

We will examine the development of Liberal democracy in Italy and try to understand why Fascism was able to rise. We will study the influence of Benito Mussolini and link his brand of Fascism to Great Britain and Germany

We will investigate how Italy became the first Fascist State in Europe

The course will begin with how Italy became a nation in the nineteenth century, we will also look at how Fascism spread to other countries.

The influence of Benito Mussolini on Italy after the Fist World War will be a key component.

Links will be made with Nottingham and the East Midlands

The Course Tutor – Ann Parker, was a lecturer in the Adult Education Department of Nottingham University. A specialist in Modern History, Ann has worked with the Atlantic Council, the Defence Academy and NATO

Fee – £52  (Free to those on benefits)

Venue – Rumbletums Cafe, 2a Victoria Street, Kimberley, NG16 2NH

Date – Tuesdays 3.15pm – 4.45pm,  9 Meetings from 12 January to 8 March 2016

Workers Education Association 39 Mapperley Road – Nottingham – NG3 5AQ

Phone 0115 9628400

The University of Nottingham Department of  Manuscripts and Special Collections offers visits for local groups. These usually take the form of a talk by a member of staff, giving an overview of the department and the collections, a display of original material and a tour of the reading room and archive store. If anyone is interested in arranging a visit for their organisation please contact Hayley Cotterill to discuss the details. These visits tend to be very well received and the collections would offer lots of material of interest to any organisation or group.

Hayley Cotterill
Senior Archivist (Academic and Public Engagement)
Manuscripts and Special Collections
University Of Nottingham
King’s Meadow Campus
Lenton Lane
Nottingham

Tel: 0115 951 4562
E-mail: hayley.cotterill@nottingham.ac.uk

Ellie Ball has joined the Museum team as Creative Learning Officer. Ellie will be developing an exciting new programme of workshops, activities and events for visitors to the museum and for schools.

If you are a teacher and interested in Prehistory, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons and more, as well as classroom-based Travelling Exhibitions and outdoor local history activities, you can contact Ellie at: eleanor.ball@nottingham.ac.uk or 0115 748 6264.

The Portable Antiquities Scheme records archaeological objects found in England and Wales. Many are found by metal-detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. The scheme’s database holds records of more than 1.1 million artefacts and coins found by the public. Records are accessible to the public at www.finds.org.uk.

Alastair Willis (Finds Liaison Officer for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire) will now be working at The University of Nottingham Museum on the third Tuesday of each month and can help identify and record objects you have found that are over 300 years old. For large numbers of objects, please make an appointment in advance by calling 01332 641 903 or emailing alastair@derbymuseums.org.

For single or small numbers of objects feel free to drop in to the Museum between 11am and 4pm.

2015 has even the inaugural year of the Skylarks HLF project; a joint venture between Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and the County Council to celebrate the cultural and natural heritage of the site.  The Skylarks Nature Reserve is near Holme Pierrepont and is owned by the Wildlife Trust.  It has been a focus for human occupation right from the Palaeolithic through to modern times.  Barrows and flint tools show a prehistoric landscape similar to that seen in other river valley sites in Nottinghamshire such as Attenborough.  Excavation prior to quarrying revealed part of an extensive Early Medieval cemetery, dating to between the 5th and 7th centuries, and focused on a large prehistoric ring ditch feature. A total of 118 graves were excavated here, along with a sunken floored building thought to be on the edge of an associated settlement.

The Nature Reserve has recently been extended and is being improved with new paths, signage and hides.  A corner of the site has been put aside for experimental and experiential archaeology to encourage direct involvement in the cultural heritage of the area.  Earlier this year volunteers broke ground on the first burial mound to be raised in Nottinghamshire for around 500 years.  Dubbed ‘the Rag Howe’, it will host a time capsule rather than a burial, and is based on the example excavated nearly at Great Briggs.  In July we dug a firepit and this has been used over the summer for various workshops and demonstrations.  The summer saw a series of workshops that took attendees through ancient technologies from flint-knapping to firelighting, and from spinning to dyeing with natural dyes, and this culminated in the Skylarks Festival where we put on a display of Iron Age life.

We have great plans for the site over the next two years.  A sacred grove, called the Nemeton, is being created as an outdoor education space, and plans are currently being submitted for the construction of an Anglo Saxon dwelling.  This will be built by volunteers and will include free workshops in traditional skills such as wattle and daub, hazel hurdle making, and thatching.  We are also encouraging reenactment and history groups to get in touch with us if they would like to carry out their own experiments on the site.

If you would like to get involved in the Skylarks Project just get in touch with the Community Archaeologists at communi.archaeology@nottscc.gov.uk.  For the latest updates check out our Facebook at facebook/SkylarksArchaeology.

Emily Gillott and Lorraine Horsley Oct 2015

A thousand years of history lie beneath Rufford Abbey Country Park from Monastic ruins to one of the most curious grand houses in the county. Nottinghamshire County Council Community Archaeologists returned to Rufford this year for the third season of a series of excavations to investigate the extent and condition of buried remains around the park.

Fig_1

This year the investigations focused on the area to the south east of the main monastic complex around an ornamental ruin at the end of the Orangery garden (fig. 1). This romantic ruin was designed as a water cascade, carrying water from the Orangery canal down into the Japanese garden of the post-medieval grand house. But archaeologists at the Council have long suspected that this feature might conceal something older and more intriguing; the remains of a medieval mill built by the monks of Rufford to serve their estate.

The Cistercian monks were great architects of the landscape, and were known to have embarked on large scale projects involving water management. At Rievaulx in North Yorkshire, the Mother Abbey to Rufford, the monks altered the course of the river to provide power to mills. The monks who founded Rufford were no less ambitious and old water channels and great dams can still be seen in the landscape. The remains of two medieval mills have already been discovered in the area of the Country Park, and it is thought that there may well be others.

Fig_2

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The stone walls of the romantic ruin clearly have different phases. The walls have been altered and rebuilt, not just when the grand country house was lived in, but also more recently in the 1980s. There is one area in particular that stood out as being of genuine medieval origin (figs. 2 and 3). There is a water channel running through the structure which is now infilled and overgrown. An old black and white photo of the garden shows water in the channel and a small cascade coming from the ornamental canal a short distance away. The cascade fell onto a circular carved stone, still in situ today, which dispersed the water in an attractive way. The photograph also shows a variety of plants and a walkway at the top of the wall (fig. 4). The walkway has since disappeared and the archway blocked up. The whole area has become covered by grass and vegetation although the water channel can still be seen as a depression in the ground.

To investigate the remains, NCC Community Archaeologists ran a two week excavation from 29th June to 10th July which was carried out by a total of 26 volunteers and students. A field school took place in the second week to train beginners in archaeological techniques.

Fig_5

Initially the extant stone walls were cleaned back and fully uncovered. A stone floor layer was found only a few centimetres beneath the turf in the main trench which was part of the post-medieval garden. It was not possible to remove this and investigate underneath and stone surfaces will now be left exposed for visitors to see (fig. 5).

Fig_6

A short distance from this surface, a course of a substantial wall of possible medieval date was uncovered and a large medieval roof tile lay discarded nearby (fig. 6.). These attest to a medieval building on the site of unknown function.

A large amount of demolition rubble of post-medieval date was found in other areas of the trench so a later brick structure must have stood in the vicinity.

A small test pit was dug on raised ground behind the portion of the large standing wall where the archway used to be. This came down on to a post-medieval brick tunnel which is now blocked up and buried. This has helped to provide further information on water flow and management for the 18th and 19th century gardens. One glazed medieval tile came from this pit which had clearly been redeposited. It was not possible to dig through the depth of soil to clear the modern made up ground and look for medieval remains below. The tile does provide further evidence that at least one medieval building used to stand in this area and has left a few clues as to its existence, if not its purpose.

Fig_7

Trench 2 was a 2m wide section across the water channel. The tops of stones were visible either side of the channel underneath vegetation. These were uncovered and as the channel was cleared, the stones were found still lining both sides to a depth of around 1.5m. A thick layer of modern coal silt covered the top of the channel with clean sand below. Evidently the channel had been cleaned out at some point in the past and filled back in with sand and gravel. The lowest courses of stone were of substantial size and are possibly medieval, which would mean that this channel was in use in the medieval period (fig. 7). The upper courses were a later addition and had re-used some pieces of shaped building stones. No medieval finds came out of this trench due to the thorough cleaning out and infilling for the later garden.

The site has clearly been remodelled over many centuries which has obscured a lot of the finer details of the full sequence of events. Medieval and post-medieval remains are in some places jumbled together. The medieval standing remains could have formed part of a retaining wall close to a medieval building of unknown function, which still leaves the possibility that there could be a mill somewhere along the water channel. After the medieval building was levelled, the site was used in the ornamental gardens of the country house and remains have been incorporated into the romantic ruin that can still be seen today.

NCC Community Archaeologists would like to thank Rufford Abbey Country Park for funding this excavation as part of their summer events programme and all volunteers who came along to take part.

Lorraine Horsley

Age Concern and The New Arts Theatre Nottingham, in collaboration with The Broadway Cinema, are currently conducting an oral histories project with people from Nottingham and the surrounding areas.

At Age Concern we’ve been collecting stories from our volunteers, people who are engaged with our Social & Activities Centre and friends. Our main focus has been to gather these truly amazing experiences as testimonials in order to showcase them on a dynamic website which we have been developing over the last couple of months. It is our desire that this digital platform become a proactive space that will enhance and further strengthen the community.

On the 4th of November we will be having an evening of stories, music and dance to exhibit and present the website.

If you think that you would be interested in attending or in collaborating with us, please let us know by email to Alexandra Mocanu at alexandra.mocanug@yahoo.com we will send you more information about the event and our work.