A 6 session pilot adult education course on local coalmining history. Eastwood Library (10am–12 Noon) and at Kirkby Library (1pm –3pm) starting on 24th September 2015 until 29th October 2015. Tuition fees apply £2.80 per hour or whole course £33.60. Free for people on means tested benefits. More information available from Dave Amos 01773760030 at home, mobile 07914373745 or david.amos99@ntlworld.com.

Course Programme is as follows;

1. 24th Sept Development of the Nottinghamshire Coalfield

2. 1st Oct Life in Nottinghamshire Coalmining Communities

3. 8th Oct Safety, Disasters & Rescue in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield

4. 15th Oct World War Two, Bevin Boys and Nationalisation (1939 – 1947)

5. 22nd Oct National Coal Board & British Coal Days (1947 – 1994)

6. 29th Oct Swansong and the End of an Era for Nottinghamshire Coalmining.

The course is funded by the Adult & Community Learning Services (ACLS) and ACLS tuition fees apply (£2.80 per hour – Whole Course £33.60) –Free for people on means tested benefits.

Work from the course can be included in the proposed book “After the Coalrush – Aspects of Nottinghamshire’s Coalmining History”

If you are interest in coming on the course drop Dave Amos a line (e-mail) or give him a buzz on either phone line. Enrolment will be at the first session.

David Amos
Heritage Consultant
Mine2Minds Education

Publicity, publicity, publicity; to repeat a now-famous maxim. If you have some words to share,in today’s electronic world, getting your own words online, into people’s Kindles, iPads or distributed through Amazon are the ways to do it. Recent publishing surveys high-light the slow decline in sales of traditional books, steady rise in electronic versions but the meteoric rise in self-published titles. Don’t forget, self-publishing could yield big financial returns! Do you want to find out more?

Clarborough & Welham IT Group have come together with local author, Kath Sutton, to promote her recent title, Clarborough & Welham since 1778. Kath’s book project is funded by Sharing Heritage from the Heritage Lottery fund. The book was released in August 2015 in conventional ‘hard copy’ but in conjunction with Clarborough & Welham IT Group is looking to produce e-book versions for distribution through Amazon.

The IT Group has also taken first steps to launch an associated website (www.clarborough-welham1778.btck.co.uk) which will be designed to explore the methodology that Kath used – and reflections on their use – during researching and creating her book. This will be aimed at researchers/authors who may follow similar local history paths to Kath in the future. Currently, the vast majority of self-published e-books fall into the fiction or fantasy categories, so our project is groundbreaking too.

Both of these projects, e-book publishing and website development are in their infancy. We are looking to form a small group based on Clarborough & Welham IT Group’s current provision to move these projects forward. This new group will be in addition to our usual groups which will continue as usual. The new group will include tuition in such key skills as conversion of word processed material into Kindle and iPad products, guidance on upload-ing such products to Amazon and related e-publishing topics. A second focus will be development of the above website. This will include not only structuring and developing the site content but also selecting relevant extracts from Kath’s book to illustrate these themes. This latter task will not only involve critical analysis of Kath’s book, but also extracting sections from our proof copy and conversion to pdf files which will be incorporated in the website.

An initial meeting, for anyone interested in getting involved in these projects, is scheduled for 15:15 on Tuesday 22nd September at Clarborough Village Hall. Anyone is welcome to this initial meeting although prior booking of your place would be appreciated. The meeting will start with a brief introduction by Kath Sutton before IT Group tutors explore possible ways forward for the group.

This could be of interest to anyone looking to develop any of the skills associated with e-publishing or website development as well as anyone with such skills who would like to help. For further information, or to pre-book your place at this initial meeting:

Contact Greg on (01777) 700 918 or e-mail clalrboroughwelham@gmail.com

Recording First World War sites in the UK for community groups

The Home Front Legacy 1914–18 project is supporting community groups researching local places associated with the Great War with an online toolkit and guidance for recording the remains of surviving sites, structures and buildings around Britain.

Coordinated by the Council for British Archaeology the Project is working with Historic Eng-land and partners across the UK to help local communities identify and map the remains of the First World War Home Front.

The Home Front Legacy website provides you with the tools, guidance and resources for you to carry out archaeological recording and submit your data to your local historic Environment Record and National Monuments Records. This collection of data is essential to enable our growth in knowledge and to inform future protection for sites.

They are inviting community group and individuals to get involved and we hope very much that the members of the Historical Association will take up the call from Home Front Legacy to use their expertise in this great project.

To help they are organising a series of regional day schools during the Autumn of 2015, you are invited to attend a day school, they are free and informative.

They have one planned for the East Midlands on the 3 October at Bingham near Nottingham.

You can find the full programme and booking details on the web site www.homefrontlegacy.uk.org

The society’s project aims to bring together local people from Cuckney, Norton and Holbeck to discover more about some of the key moments in the area’s past.

Plans for the project include archaeology workshops in local schools and digitising a collection of images of Cuckney and the Welbeck Estate dating from between 1880 and 1940. There will also be training for volunteers in non-invasive archaeological techniques including Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and Magnetometry.

The volunteers will then use these new skills to investigate the grounds of St Mary’s Church, Cuckney where the remains of Cuckney Castle are sited. It is hoped the work will help to determine the site(s) of the mass graves discovered in 1950 / 1951 which may relate to the Anglo-Saxon Battle of Hatfield (632 AD).

A Community Open Day will be held on the 26th September and onsite activities will take place between Monday 26th and Friday 30th October 2015.

Commenting on the award, Chairman Paul Jameson said, “We are delighted to have received the backing of the Heritage Lottery Fund and are confident the enterprise will bind local people together in a common purpose. We’d also like to express our appreciation to the Cuckney Village Hall committee for granting use of their facilities at a very minimal cost to support those taking part in the five on site days and the prior first community Day”.

Vanessa Harbar, Head of HLF East Midlands, said: “This area has an intriguing and untold history and this National Lottery investment will equip people with the skills to explore it.”

The project was formally announced at their “kick off” barbe-que on Saturday 18th July (see picture) which was attended by about 80 people and raised £415.

A student from Nottingham Trent University, has created what is thought to be the first piece of knitted artwork using a Nottinghamshire museum’s historic knitting frame.

Jacaranda Brain, 20, only started to learn how to use the knitting frames at the Framework Knitters Museum in July, and has since used one to create what is believed to be the first piece of art using this machine, a 15 inch by 15 inch picture of a giraffe.

Jacaranda is about to begin her second year of studying for an undergraduate degree in Fashion Knitwear Design and Knitted Textiles. She is volunteering over the summer holidays at the Framework Knitters Museum, after visiting the museum with her university. Using the machines to knit involves eight individual movements that need to be joined together into one flowing action.
The creative process involved painstakingly transferring up to 200 stitches by hand in each line of knitting, with only a basic outline drawn on a piece of paper to guide her. After being taught the basics of how to use the machine, Jacaranda went on to teach herself how to knit lace by transferring the stitches from one needle to another, and from there she devised the method used to create the knitted image.

Jacaranda said, “I wanted to learn how to use the machines to a good standard as it is such a rare skill to have and gives you such appreciation for knitting and the knitting industry. It has been time consuming, but I’m really happy with what I have achieved”.

The keen frame-knitting enthusiast is also working at G H Hurt, the historic Nottingham shawl makers established in 1912. They are famous for supplying the Royal christening shawls, as well as creating other items of the finest lace knitwear. Jacaranda is planning to link her two experiences together by using the knitted artwork to create a unique shawl.

Paul Baker, Museum Manager, said “the rate at which Jacaranda has mastered the knitting frames is truly exceptional, and as far as we are aware no one else has ever used the machines to create an image in quite the way she has. It is unlikely that framework knitters in the past would have created artworks with no financial value to them so we suspect that this is a first.”

The knitting machines at the Framework Knitters Museum date from the 18th Century. They would have been used to knit material for stockings originally, and were eventually adapted by the workers to knit the first Nottingham lace. They are on display at the museum, and can be seen in action every day the museum is open.

For more information on the Framework Knitters Museum, including opening times, visit www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk

A drama that tracks the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement, women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal State. These women were not primarily from the genteel educated classes, they were working women who had seen peaceful protest achieve nothing. Radicalized and turning to violence as the only route to change, they were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality – their jobs, their homes, their children and their lives. Maud was one such foot soldier. The story of her fight for dignity is as gripping and visceral as any thriller, it is also heart-breaking and inspirational.

A new film featuring Carey Mulligan, Meryl Streep and Helena Bonham Carter and due for UK release on 7th October 2015 at the London Film Festival.

There is a video interview with writer Abi Morgan and Director Sarah Gavron of the making of the film which is worth viewing at theguardian.com website

Please find attached details of the short local coalmining history course being run in the autumn of 2015 at Eastwood Library (10am – 12 Noon) in the morning and then repeated at Kirkby-in-Ashfield Library in the afternoon (1pm – 3pm). The pilot-course starts on Thursday 24th September 2015 and runs at both Libraries for six sessions until 29th October 2015. The course is funded by the Adult Community Education Services (ACLS) at Nottinghamshire County Council. ACLS course fees are £2.80 per hour i.e. £33.60 for the whole course and is free for people on means tested benefits. Pending the course going ahead, it is envisaged running a follow on course where people can submit pieces of work on local coalmining for inclusion in the proposed book “After the Coalrush: Aspects of Nottinghamshire’s Coalmining History”.

Course details as follows;

Session 1 – Development of the Nottinghamshire Coalfield

Session 2 – Life in Nottinghamshire Coalmining Communities (Visit to the Breach House at Eastwood can be arranged in conjunction with this session)

Session 3 – Safety, Disasters and Rescue in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield

Session 4 – World War Two, Bevin Boys and Nationalisation (1939 – 1947)

Session 5 – The National Coal Board & British Coal Corporation in Nottinghamshire (c1950 – 1994)

Session 6 – Back to Private and the End of an Era – The Nottinghamshire Coalfield 1995 – 2015

For more details on the course and enrolment details contact me on either of the phone numbers below or by e-mail. The course is planned to run at each library with a minimum of six and a maximum of 12 adult learners.

Best Wishes

David Amos
Joint Coordinator
Mine2Minds Education

Tel: (01773) 760030 – Home Landline

Mobile: (07914) 373745

Website: www.miningheritage.co.uk

From Nottingham Women’s History Group.

Castle Brewery are producing a beer called Munionettes’ in honour of women munition workers. It’s a great opportunity for publicity about these women, and the Nottingham Women’s History Group so this is a call out for women to join us for the brewing.

The beer is being brewed on Wednesday 2nd September in the morning.

Castle Rock would like as many women as possible for a photograph of the event – it seems “We only use the female hop in beer” The shoot will be around 9.30am at the Vat & Fiddle (12 Queensbridge Rd, Nottingham NG2 1NB) no more than an hour

Anyone interest in coming along either email the group, or ring Val 07930406631 – don’t ring Mo – she’s in the Lakes!

nottmwomenshistory@googlemail.com
Nottingham Women’s History Group

Nottinghamshire County Council Heritage Tourism Team, in partnership with Hucknall Tourism and Regeneration group, are proud to present their first ever free bus tour of three Nottinghamshire Medieval Monasteries – Beauvale Priory, Rufford Abbey and Newstead Abbey

The bus will depart from Hucknall Market place at 9:30am and will return at approximately 3.30pm

There will be guided tours of each site and an opportunity to purchase refreshments. There will be time to purchase lunch at Rufford Abbey or you can bring your own.

Please note that due to the nature of these historic sites, they are unsuitable for wheelchairs.

Places are limited. To book call 0115 963 8566 or email htrg@outlook.com

The Arkwright Society Academic Conference on the Industrial Revolution returns to Cromford Mills on Saturday 26 September 2015. This second Conference will be on the theme of Industrialisation and Society.

Leading British experts on the Industrial Revolution will set out their views on the time when Britain changed in every way, led by a new spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation:

• Professor Stanley Chapman (Nottingham University) will talk about the builders who helped Arkwright deliver the totally new type of industrial building needed for his machinery.
• Dr John Stevenson (Oxford University) will discuss the role played by the radical political thinker of the Industrial Revolution, William Cobbett.
• Professor Carolyn Steedman (Warwick University) will set out what it was like ‘Living the Industrial Revolution’.

Afternoon Seminars to include a review of new thinking on the Cotton Triangle with Dr Emily Buchnea (Newcastle University), the interrelationship between social and technological change With Professor Barbara Hahn (Texas Technical University) and the social and industrial impact of machinery on nail making with Guy Sjogren (Birmingham University).

Please note that this year there is an early bird booking opportunity for concessions – Save £5 if you book before September 1st! The Conference fees will be £40 general and £30 concessions. For concessions only there is an Early Bird price of £25 until September 1st [Concessions: students, over 60s, Arkwright Society members].
Places are expected to fill up fast! – To reserve a seat and request your conference programme please call Cromford mills on: 01629 823256