What's New

There are a lot of exciting heritage events happening this March! Have a look at some of them below:

Thursday 6th March: ‘The Friends of Bassetlaw Museum are delighted to announce the return of guided tours. They will focus on the Museum building, its history from its construction in the 1780s through to the present day, and the stories of the families that owned it.’ The event is free (although donations are appreciated), and booking is not required. For more information visit the event page here.

Thursday 6th March: Head to the Nottinghamshire Archives ‘for an evening of discovery where you will experience their collections like never before with Augmented Reality features, taking you on a trip into the county's rich past’. During this tour you will be able to take a tour around the archives, view historic manuscripts, and explore interactive maps. The event is free but booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 7th March: Mansfield Museum will be hosting an exclusive ‘Cocktails with the Curator’ event. ‘Begin your night with a cocktail as their curator shares fascinating insights into the history of the building and the incredible work they do. Take a behind-the-scenes tour with their Collections Officer, who will guide you through our vast stores and reveal hidden treasures from our extensive collection. You'll also have the rare opportunity to handle select objects from their archives. Explore their current exhibitions at your leisure, and cap off the evening with a fun and engaging mystery object quiz’. Tickets cost £5 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 7th March: The National Civil War Centre will be hosting the evening talk ‘The Poet and the Regicide’. You will be introduced to ‘Lucy Hutchinson, translator, poet and biographer and wife of Newark’s arch enemy, John Hutchinson, Governor of Nottingham during the British Civil Wars and regicide. This International Women’s Day talk reveals the fascinating story of a seventeenth-century power couple and challenges our beliefs about women in this period’. Tickets are £10 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Saturday 8th March: ‘Family Saturday at the National Civil War Centre is moving to the second Saturday just for March to coincide with International Women’s Day. Meet a very special lady and her friendly horse, find out how women played a special role in the Civil War as secret spies and learn the best way to hide a message during the Civil War using invisible ink and secret codes’. Entry is free for Newark and Sherwood residents. For more information, visit the event page here.

Tuesday 11th March: Head to Mansfield Central Library to ‘take a journey through a thousand years of history at Rufford Abbey - from humble monastic origins to a grand country estate. Learn how the place has changed over the years and about some of the fascinating characters who lived there. NCC’s Planning Archaeologist Emily Gillott will also look at what has been revealed by archaeological work since the 1960’s’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Above: Rufford Abbey

Wednesday 19th March: At Beeston Library, ‘join Peter Godley from the Nottingham Historical and Archaeological Society for a talk about the extensive network of caves that lie beneath the streets of Nottingham’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 19th March: At Worksop Library, ‘join NCC’s Planning Archaeologist Emily Gillott for a fascinating look at the history of the gallows and capital crimes with a focus on Nottinghamshire. Emily will present some of the known gallows and gibbet sites in the county and what remains of them, from Thieves Dale to Gallows Nooking. She will explore medicine and the hanged corpse, from an age when science and magic were intertwined’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 20th March: At Bassetlaw Museum, Benedict Jephcote will be exploring ‘A gleaming medieval seal that was found at Gringley-on-the-Hill’. They will be looking into ‘how the seal-bearer’s identity was found and why Constance was an important figure in medieval England’s history’. The event is free but booking is required. Book your place here.

Monday 24th March: At Hucknall Library, ‘join one of the Heritage Librarians for a small group session where they will demonstrate the range and variety of local newspapers available in Inspire libraries on microfilm and online’. The event is free, but booking is required. Book your place here.

Monday 24th March: Hosted by the team at Creswell Crags, an online talk by Matilde Gliubich Tomat from Bangor University will be diving into here palaeophenomenological research. ‘Blending archaeology, anthropology, phenomenology, alchemy and analysis, this approach reaches beyond the confines of traditional research, tapping into the lived experiences and consciousness of ancient peoples. In this 45-minute lecture, Matilde will not only explain paleophenomenology as a theoretical framework but also share the story of how this unique methodology was developed — part vision, part discovery, part adventure. From her own encounters with both personal reflection and archaeological sites to the insights drawn from analysis and mythology, this talk will offer a glimpse into the process of connecting past and present, mind and matter’. Tickets are free, but booking is required. Book your place here.

This great article comes from our Spring 2000 Heritage newsletter:

Many of you will remember the days when going to the cinema meant a trip to the local ‘fleapit’. These were often large, impressive looking buildings that could accommodate a large section of the local community in one go. Some have been converted into bingo halls or warehouses and a few still retain their original interior decoration. The most fabulous and complete examples have been protected as listed buildings for some time now.

The cinema industry began in the 1890’s when the first shows were put on in small music halls and travelling fairs. The early films were made from highly combustible material and fires were a regular hazard. It wasn’t until the 1909 Cinematograph Act that the first ‘safe’ purpose-built buildings were constructed. By 1914, there were already some 3,500 cinemas across Britain. The ‘showman’s booth’ design was most common, with elaborate frontages behind which there would be a hall with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, panelled walls and, in more elaborate cases, a rear balcony. Names like ‘Electric’, ‘Picture Palace’, and ‘Imperial’ were typical, while the name ‘Coronation’ indicated a 1911 opening date. The Picture Palace, Long Row in Nottingham is a good example, dating to 1912, with its ornate front, decorated with marble and tile.

Following the First World War, a second generation of new larger venues were built. The Elite on Upper Parliament Street in Nottingham had an auditorium which could seat 1,500 people when it opened in 1921. Meanwhile in America, cinemas were even larger, incorporating the ‘splayed’ auditorium layout, and in 1927 the era of the ‘talkies’ was ushered in by the film ‘The Jazz Singer’. This was a time of rapid technological development and big business deals that produced the international chains like the ‘Empires’, and the British ‘Gaumonts’ and ‘Odeons’. Other Nottinghamshire cinemas from the 1920’s include the Majestic in Retford.

By the middle of the 1930’s and following the Second World War, the ‘Modern’ style came to be the one favoured by British cinema architects. Although essentially ‘international’ in style, regional variations are still visible, the Capitol in Radford is said to have Germanic influences, while the Regent in Kirkby has a softer ‘arts and crafts’ feel to it.

English Heritage have previously looked at cinemas that might be worthy of listing. They focused on pre-WWII cinemas or ones built before 1960 that have remained unaltered. Only the best examples of the nation’s cinemas were listed; for the rest, acknowledgement of their local important was more appropriate.

We already know about many of the old cinemas of the county. Here are some examples:

The Byron, Hucknall

The Regent, Kirkby

The Majestic, Retford

The Capitol, Elite and Picture Palace, Nottingham

Stanford Hall Cinema

The Strand, Market Warsop

February is jam packed with exciting heritage events! Here are just a few:

Saturday 1st February: ‘Are you thinking of applying for funding to support your creative development?’ Join a specialist workshop at Mansfield Museum to ‘explore applying to Developing Your Creative Practice from Arts Council England’. Booking is required and costs £5 per person. For booking and more information, visit the event page here.

Saturday 1st February: ‘Interested in a creative and/or technical career in Arts, Heritage and Culture? Come along on Family Saturday at the National Civil War Centre in Newark to enjoy some snacks and chat with their team. Learn about what it’s like to work in a theatre or museum and how to build a great CV.’ Booking is not required, find out more here.

Thursday 6th February: ‘Come and see behind the scenes and discover the secret world of the Nottinghamshire Archives! Be the first to try out their new Augmented Reality content to uncover hidden stories and images from the Archives. As part of this free tour, you will be able to interact in new ways with their collections via your own tablet or smartphone device: view a pop-up version of an Archival document directly on your device, explore 360 degree images of modern-day Nottingham blended with historic photographs to explore change over time, and listen to new audio descriptions of our Archival materials’. This event is free, but booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 13th February: Head down to Mansfield Museum ‘for a hands-on workshop where you'll stitch your own unique bookmark. Inspired by the rich tradition of sampler designs from the museum's collection. Perfect for all skill levels, this is a fun way to learn, create, and connect with heritage’. Tickets cost £3.50 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 13th February: The National Civil War Centre in Newark will be hosting the evening talk: ‘The Most Unfortunate of Kings?’. In this talk, Dr Jonathan Fitzgibbons, Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Lincoln, will examine if King Charles I can be blamed for his own fate or if he was, as a medal in the museum collection states, a good but unlucky King’. Tickets cost £10 per person, and booking is required. Book your place here. 

Saturday 15th February: At Sherwood Forest, ‘join Sherwood’s legendary lovebirds Robin Hood and Maid Marian for this special Valentine’s Day storytelling walk deep into the heart of Sherwood Forest. Take heed of their tales of deeds and of how the history of the greenwood is intertwined with their timeless romance’. Booking is required, ticket prices range. Book your place here.

Above: Annesley Hall, ancestral home of the Chaworth-Musters family (see below).

Tuesday 18th February: Head to Mansfield Central Library where Author Nicola Webb tells the story of John Patricius (Patrick) Chaworth Musters and Mary Ann Sharpe. Born in different classes, the two love birds are sent to live a private life in Norway by his family but years later, they return to wed and take on Chaworth-Musters’ family estate. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Tuesday 18th February: The National Holocaust Museum will be revealing ‘brand-new Handling Box, packed full with incredible artefacts. Explore how ordinary people became and still become refugees, by handling amazing objects that have been donated to us by Holocaust Survivors’. This event is free, and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Wednesday 19th February: Our Historic Environment Officer Janine will be hosting a talk at Worksop Library on her wonderful book ‘Colliery Stables & the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony’. ‘With first-hand accounts from former pony drivers and freshly discovered documentary and photographic evidence, this talk delves deeply into the lives of a workforce that gave all they had. Learn how their working conditions changed over time, and how they are remembered by their former handlers. Join Janine for this fitting tribute to Nottinghamshire’s hidden heroes’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 20th - Saturday 22nd February: Head to the Workhouse and Infirmary in Southwell to take part in their event ‘Tales from the Workhouse’. ‘Write on a slate, help with the washing, learn to pick oakum. Meet our costumed characters and come and find out what life was like within The Workhouse. Listen to their stories as you encounter the inmates doing their daily jobs’. Booking is not required, and this event is free, normal admission fees to the Workhouse are still in place. For more information about the event, visit the event page here.

Friday 21st February: At the Harley Museum, Join picture frame conservator Claire Ridley to take a fresh look at the frames in their museum with a museum talk. In this talk Claire will delve into traditional and decorative gilding techniques. Using frames in our museum as examples, you will learn to identify different types of gilding and discover how gilded surfaces deteriorate and can be conserved. You will also get an up-close look at Claire’s conservation toolkit, from rabbit skin glue to gold leaf to burnishing stones. Booking is required and tickets costs vary. Book your place here.

Saturday 22nd February: ‘Bring along your archaeological finds to Bassetlaw Museum to be identified and recorded on the Portable Antiquities Scheme database’ by the Finds Liaison Officer for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. This event is free, but booking is required. Book your appointment here.

Saturday 22nd February: As part of the Nottingham Festival of Culture and Science, Lakeside Arts will be hosting a ‘Museum Explorers’ crafting workshop. This workshop will allow you to ‘explore the world of Iron Age art including metal work and stone carvings to make your artwork inspired by the artefacts. Create a Celtic plaque base on an Iron Age coin or a Celtic stone head from clay’. This event is free and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Thursday 27th February: At the Bassetlaw Museum, the Museum’s new Curator, Dr Mike Galer will be talking about The Derbyshire Yeomanry in the First World War. He will explore the fortunes of this part-time territorial cavalry unit as it was mobilised and sent to Egypt, Gallipoli and then to Bulgaria. Tickets are £5 per person. For more information, visit the event page here.

This lovely article comes from our Winter 1999 Heritage Newsletter:

Quoting from Celia Fiennes, the trouble with Mansfield is that ‘there is nothing remarkable here’, an opinion echoed by a later commentator, Roy Christian who remarked that it is a ‘pity that this quite pleasant town that has had a market since 1277…should have so few distinguished buildings, though its locally quarried white and red sandstone has added distinction to such buildings elsewhere as the Houses of Parliament and St. Pancras Station’. There is, however, evidence to counter such views not only in the buildings that unfortunately have gone but also in those that are still standing. We shall look at one building in Mansfield and see what made it remarkable.

The Mansfield Public Baths were erected in 1853 near the corner site of Bath Street and Littleworth. Even though they have been demolished, it is fitting that they have been replaced by the Water Meadows Swimming Centre, thereby continuing the watery theme! They were built by the architect C.J. Neale and builder C. Lindley, when the population of England was steadily increasing, with a major growth in the population of England and Wales from around 8 million at the beginning of the century to over 32 million towards the end. The building was constructed from a local material, the grey Mansfield stone which was used in the building of the Houses of Parliament, as Roy Christian pointed out.

Barbara Gallon has given us a fascinating insight into how the original baths served the public before replacement by the modern version. Their purpose was arguably more important in that they provided facilities which the majority of the patrons would not have possessed. Baths and showers could be had at varying costs depending on the class of ‘cleaning’ required, as well as whether towels were hired out or not (with the charge of 3d for the pleasure) and the time of day one went for one’s toilet. For example, first class warm bath and use of warm towels cost 6d, whereas second class use cost 4d, whilst cheapest of all was a third class bath with only one towel provided for 2d. for using the swimming pool, 1d or 2d was charged depending on the time of day. The entrance hall was reputedly quite spacious, with the ladies’ area running off to the right and divided into first and second class bathing area. The gentlemen’s section was to the left of the entrance hall, again offering different classes of bathing.

The photograph shows how the building looked in August 1969, markedly changed – four decorative chimney stacks had been removed and modern windows replaced the stone mullioned originals. Ornate iron railings used to flank the building, only the wall gate piers remain as evidence of their former glory.

If you fancy going to a heritage event this new year, we’ve got you covered! Here’s some events going on this January:

Until Monday 13th January: An exhibition at Bilsthorpe Museum called ‘Mining Stories’ is currently running and will be open until 13th January. This exhibition allows you to immerse yourself in stories of the mines using Walkman’s. For more details, visit the event page here.

Tuesday 14th January: The librarians at Inspire will be hosting online one-to-one meetings to help you discover your family history. This event is free to attend, but booking is required. Spots are limited so book your place here.

Friday 17th January: Opening on 17th January, an exhibition at the University of Nottingham Museum featuring incredible Iron Age artefacts. ‘This exhibition will feature a fascinating range of everyday objects from both hillforts, with a spotlight on a spectacular hoard of chariot fittings from Burrough Hill’. The exhibition is free to attend, and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Wednesday 22nd January: A talk by ‘Local historian and retired theatre consultant Bob Massey unravels the story behind some of the fascinating [Victorian] optical toys and how they informed the work of our earliest cinema pioneers’. This talk at Beeston Library is £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 23rd January: 'Find out how to party like it’s 1639, in this fascinating talk about the role of dance in Stuart England' at the National Civil War Centre in Newark. Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

Thursday 30th January: ‘Curious to learn more about your family's history? Join one of [the Inspire] librarians for a small group session, where they will demonstrate some of the key features of this valuable online research tool’. This event takes place at Kirkby-in-Ashfield Library and Learning Centre and is free to attend. Booking is required however so book your place here.

Friday 31st January: Newark's National Civil War Centre's 'Tudor Hall will become Westminster Hall for this interactive performance event in honour of the 400th anniversary of Charles I’s accession to the throne. Take part in the trial and decide if you would sign the warrant to execute a King!' Booking is required and tickets cost £10 per person. Book your place here.

Above: A projecting praxinoscope, 1882 (by Louis Poyet, from La Nature, Public Domain)