A new year brings a new set of exciting heritage events happening in Nottinghamshire! Check out just a few of them below:

Starting Saturday 17th January: Inspire will be hosting a six-session course teaching you all about how to research your family history. ‘Over six sessions, you will be introduced to the main types of records available for your research. You will discover where to locate family history documents and online information, as well as developing your research skills to help you make sense of what you find’.  ’The course is suitable for complete beginners in family history but may also be useful for those with some family history experience who would like to update their knowledge, particularly in terms of online records’. Held at Worksop library, the course runs from the 17th January to 21st February costs up to £48 (although the course can be received for free for some receiving certain benefits) and booking is required. To book your place and for more information, visit the event page here.

Saturday 17th January: Head to the D. H. Lawrence Museum for a behind-the-scenes tour during their annual deep-clean. ‘These hour long sessions will show you the importance of conservation in preserving the museum and collection and you will learn techniques to look after your own treasures at home. These select tours are a unique opportunity to gain experience with historic objects’. Tickets cost £10 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 21st January: ‘Come along to [Worksop Library] to discover the history of the Worksop and Retford Brewery Company (from its nineteenth century origins to its 1959 takeover by Sheffield Brewers, Tennants) and its effects on cultural and sporting life in Bassetlaw’. ‘This illustrated talk, by local authors and researchers Dave Pickersgill and John Stocks, tells the half-forgotten story of what was once one of Worksop’s foremost industries’. Tickets cost £3 and booking is required. Book your place here.

Opening Friday 30th January: The University of Nottingham Museum will opening their new temporary exhibition ‘The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Broughton Lodge, Willough-on-the-Wolds’. ‘The cemetery discovered at Broughton Lodge, Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, in Nottinghamshire was a pioneering community archaeology excavation of the 1960s. Since that time the remains, held in partnership between Nottingham City Museums and the University of Nottingham Museum, have never been displayed together until now. This exhibition reinterprets the evidence from the cemetery creating a picture of a Nottinghamshire community with pan-European connections in the sixth century AD’. The exhibition is open until early July 2026 so don’t worry if you can’t see it straight away! The event is free and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Saturday 31st January: Head to Newark’s Palace Theatre for a wonderful new evening talk: ‘For Whom The Bell Tolls’. ‘Visible for miles around, the spire of St Mary’s church was a beacon, vantage point and source of local pride. Learn more about the central role played by St Mary’s Church in local life during the British Civil Wars with renowned local historian Stuart Jennings’. Tickets cost up to £10 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Photograph of the Church of St Mary Magdalene

Above: Church of St Mary Magdalene, Newark

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We are delighted to reflect on another successful year in the Nottinghamshire HER! We've spent the year dedicated to improving our current heritage records, liaising with the public, volunteers and private clients, creating fascinating blog content, creating new heritage records and much much more!

This year the team has added over 170 new sources and reports onto the HER this year, which has added over 180 new event records and over 320 new monument records.

Check out some of our new monument records:

On top of this, over 1,100 previous monument records have been improved and over 220 event records have also been improved.

Check out some of the updated records here:

Early in 2025, we received an amazing result from our routine audit which analyses how effectively our team is maintaining and improving the our HER. Across all four areas, we consistently received top marks, with very minimal suggestions for improvement. It signifies that the Nottinghamshire HER is currently amongst the highest rated in the country! This is a great achievement for us and one we are all very proud of. If you would like to read more about our results, click here.

This year the HER team has also embarked on Project K, a project hosted by Forestry England to help improve the quality of our current SHINE records. SHINE (Selected Heritage Inventory for Natural England) records are a national dataset of heritage assets, managed by local HERs, which have influence on agricultural and environmental schemes and funding. These records also help to protect the heritage assets against the damage that could potentially occur as a result of agricultural practices.

The HER team also worked alongside a small number of volunteers from Nottingham Trent University to record some significant sites in Nottinghamshire, including Laxton Castle and Old Ox, using LiDAR and photogrammetry. The results are currently in the process of being accessioned onto the HER, but you can view raw results through the 3D model of Laxton castle here and the image of Old Ox below.

Image of Old Ox Iron Age hillfort

Above: Iron Age multivallate hillfort at Old Ox, Oxton, taken by NTU volunteers.

The wider heritage team at NCC has been very busy as well! The Archaeological Planning team have been occupied with a large quantity of development applications and subsequent site visits. There has been a lot of amazing archaeology uncovered in Nottinghamshire this year which we are excited to soon accession onto the HER. Watch this space!

The team have amazingly still had time to conduct a few public talks along the way as well. Our planning archaeologist Emily has presented talks focusing on the archaeological works at Rufford Abbey and another on the recent archaeological discoveries in Nottinghamshire. Did you manage to catch one?

Our Historic Buildings team have also had a jam-packed year!

Following the publishing of her two books last year, 'Country House Stables of Nottinghamshire' and 'Colliery Stables and the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony'  (in association with the project Major2Miner), our historic environment officer Janine has continued presenting her talk on ‘Colliery Stables and the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony’ across the county.

The Historic Buildings team has also had a lot of interaction with volunteers, work experience students, and interns, all of which did a great job! Some of these wonderful volunteers have joined in on one of the many training schemes run by our Senior Practitioner for Historic Buildings, Jason, around Nottinghamshire.

Here are some of the training schemes the Historic Buildings team has helped conduct:

  • Gedling Station received National Lottery Heritage Funding for their restoration project phase 1. The team helped to deliver some of the ‘hands-on-training’ as part of this. The funding will go towards a new Welsh slate roof, Notts ogee cast iron gutters, and timber sash window restoration.
  • Tuxford Walks of Life Museum are undertaking the restoration of 33 Lincoln Road (a timber frame and later brick farmhouse), where the Historic Buildings team are helping to host task and training days. Hemp lime render and plaster ‘retrofit’ has been a focus for this year, along with some Bassetlaw DC funded Yorkshire sash window restoration which was also carried out. A traditional craft skills boot-camp is planned to help restore the rear elevation in the new year.
  • The team also helped to undertake this season’s work with Kirkby and District Archaeology Group at Kirkby Hardwick Medieval manor site which focused on higher level masonry repairs and repointing, and some further ivy removal and capping of the east gate range (which was the focus in 2024).
  • At Saint Mary & All Saints Church in Bingham, the team was involved in running ‘task and training’ events focussed on historic C18th brick wall repairs. They worked with the Town Council to repair and reinstated the saddle-back copings along the western wall and repairing the footpath wall around the London Plain Tree root damage.
  • At Saint Giles Church in Balderton, working with the parish council, the team oversaw groups of church volunteers and work experience students to clear ivy and prepare a section of collapsed wall for repairs.
  • Working with IHBC East Midlands, the team delivered two lime training events for homeowners as part of the Mansfield Townscape Heritage Initiative at the St Peter’s Centre and a CPD ‘hot lime’ event for estate managers and architects at Leicester City.
  • At Bramcote's Old Church Tower our council ecologist, nature conservation intern, and historic building conservation officers worked with the charity’s volunteers to successfully renew the bird mesh on the bell tower louvres, being extremely careful not to disturb the Brow long-eared bats!

We’re all proud of the work the NCC heritage team has undertaken this year to protect and restore our local heritage, and to improve the knowledge and understanding of our local environment. We will continue to do the same in 2026 and can't wait to see what we will get up to in the new year!

If you have any questions for us or would like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you! Email us at heritage@nottscc.gov.uk.

The festive season and the end of 2025 is upon us! Whether you are looking to learn or spend time with family and friends, there are plenty of heritage events in Nottinghamshire to keep you occupied this December! Here's a list of just a few of the events happening in December:

Sunday 7th (and 14th and 20th) December: ‘Join the Creswell Crags Stone Age guides this Christmas and venture into their deepest, darkest cave to hear tales of winters long ago [before Santa!]. Take part in an interactive cave experience and meet their mysterious (but friendly!) Abominable Snowman - he may even have a magical gift for each child!’ Tickets cost £10 per adult and £8 per child (not suitable for children under 5), and booking is required. This event is set to occur on multiple occasions so if you can't make one date, don't worry! Book your place here.

Sunday 7th December: Head to the National Holocaust Museum ‘for a virtual tour available both in person and online, of our newly re-created exhibition ‘The Journey’. Through a series of immersive period rooms, you’ll step into the world of a German-Jewish family in 1930s Berlin, witness the aftermath of Kristallnacht, and follow young Leo’s escape to Britain. You will then meet Kindertransport survivor John Fieldsend, who will share his memories of making this journey, and whose testimony has shaped "The Journey" exhibition. You will also hear from Dr Amy Williams about her spectacular re-discovery of archival documents, which have cast new light on individual stories of the Kindertransport.’ Ticket prices vary but booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 10th December: A talk at Beeston Library will delve into the history of the Christmas Radio Times. ‘In this talk, local historian Robert Mee will look at the changing nature of the magazine, from the first edition in 1923 until 1999. He will also look at the programmes offered by the BBC on Christmas Day - there will no doubt be an element of nostalgia for days-past, but broadcasting trends and improvements in technology will also be covered’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Historic image of the Christmas Radio Times

Above: Christmas Radio Times,18th December 1931, Southern Edition (By Rex Whistler, Public Domain)

Thursday 11th December: 'Join David Marsh and Nottinghamshire Gardens Trust for a Christmassy journey through plant history and imagery' in this online talk. 'Once you start exploring the history of mistletoe it becomes more and more complex and lost in a web of legends. But how did it became to be associated with Druids? This talk tells the story of the plant and the man who almost singlehandedly invented most of what we think we know about the Druids…and that includes mistletoe too!' This talk event costs £5 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 11th December: 'Zig Zag’s Christmas City Quiz Crawl to save The People’s Hall!' 'Join Zig Zag Tours for a classic Zig Zag pub crawl with the added twist of quizzing your way around several historic pubs...You’ll be guided to various pubs, where you’ll meet a Zig Zag quizmaster who will test your knowledge while you wet your whistle. The evening will conclude with the winners being announced, trophies awarded, and possibly the best raffle ever to take place on the banks of the canal.' 'All profits will be going towards the new roof at the Peoples Hall'. Tickets cost £13 (this includes 5 raffle tickets and a chip cob), you may come solo or as a team, and booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 12th December: ‘Back by popular demand, A Merry Noyse will be regaling us with a feast of music from Christmas past [at the Palace Theatre, Newark]. A joyful mix of history, poetry and musical performance, the perfect cosy historical start to your Christmas season!’ Tickets cost up to £10 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Saturday 13th December: Head to the Framework Knitters Museum in Ruddington for a magical step back in time at their Victorian Christmas — a festive day packed with music, traditional crafts, food heritage, and family-friendly activities in their beautiful historic setting’. ‘Try your hand at their historic circular knitting machines’, ‘discover how the Victorians made mince pies and what festive food looked like in times gone by’, browse ‘unique gifts and local goodies’ and much more! This event is free and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Monday 15th December: In association with Creswell Crags, join Dr Helen Fewlass online to discover how new fieldwork & science are developing understanding of Homo sapiens and Neanderthal encounters’. This event is free but booking is required. Book your place here.

Saturday 20th December - Sunday 4th January: ‘Step into the heart of Sherwood Forest this Christmas and join Robin Hood and his Merry Band for a seasonal adventure! Follow the trail through the winter woods, completing merry tasks and solving clever Christmas dingbats along the way. Collect hidden letters from the Yule Log Challenge to crack the final festive code for a Christmas surprise!’ It’s £4.50 to enter but booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

During a time with no maps or road signs, travellers feared getting lost, or even worse – coming across a highwayman.

The first record we have of the word ‘highwayman’ came from 1617 but evidence for highwaymen can be found earlier in the medieval period. The peak of highwayman activity spanned from roughly 1660 to 1714, but the threat of highwaymen continued into the 19th century to a lesser extent, with the last recorded mounted robbery was in 1831.

A large cause for this peak in robbery was the English Civil War. With the beheading of King Charles I in 1649, the civil war ended which left some of Charles’ Royalist soldiers, that had no other skills or trades, without means to support themselves and their families. In most cases, they had little choice but to rob to stay alive.

Some highwaymen chose to attack travellers and coaches to take their money and expensive items. In other circumstances, highwaymen forced travellers to pay a fee to go free and unscathed. It was not only rich travellers who got held up by highwaymen, postboys who carried the mail were often targeted.

The hot spots for highwaymen encounters in the East Midlands included the Peak District and the old Great North Road, which ran between Newark, East Retford and Tuxford.

At this time, parish policing was rather ineffective and making arrests was difficult. This did not mean that being a highwayman was an easy vocation. With an average life expectancy of a highwayman estimated to be only 28 years old, it was a very risky trade. Being caught, more often than not, lead to death by hanging, following which their bodies would be placed in gibbets near roads to warn other highwaymen and criminals.

Painting of a road robbery by Francisco Goya

Above: Asalto al coche (Attack on a Coach), by Francisco Goya (1786-1787), Public Domain

The most famous highwayman based in the East Midlands was John Nevison, sometimes nicknamed ‘Swift Nick’.

Born in 1639 in South Yorkshire, Nevison became a highwayman after death of his father. Before that, he was serving under the Duke of York in an English regiment, reportedly taking part in the Battle of Dunkirk in 1658 before being leaving. Even during his time serving under the Duke of York in Flanders, he was reportedly arrested for stealing!

As a highwayman, Nevison based himself in Newark. He worked with a gang of, potentially, up to 20 other highwaymen who he met at safe houses in Tuxford and Newark to divide up their spoils. It is reported that the gang kept rooms at the Talbot Inn (possibly the now demolished Clinton Arms Hotel) in Newark all year round for this reason. They tallied up over £1,500 in one year which would have been around £150,000-£170,000 in today’s money, according to retellings of the housekeeper’s reports. Nevison and his gang focused their efforts on the old Great North Road and would travel as far York and Huntingdon on occasion for opportunities.

Nevison found some fame during his lifetime, with his actions being acknowledged, and perhaps even praised by King Charles II. Charles supposedly named him ‘Swift Nick’ and granted him free pardon upon hearing of his dastardly famous ride. This famous ride involved Nevison travelling from Kent to York in 1676 after robbing a traveller in Rochester. To escape capture, he rode all the way up to York (which is over 200 miles north!) and met with the Lord Mayor of York to create an alibi. When he was arrested for the Rochester robbing, the Lord Mayor provided him with this alibi and Nevison was amazingly acquitted.

He also had a reputation for being a gentlemanly highwayman. According to written sources, Nevison chose not to use violence against his victims and only robbed those who were rich. He was even reportedly polite to those he robbed! Unfortunately, this version of Nevison comes mainly from 18th and 19th century literary works and therefore may be more fiction than reality. This romanticised portrayal of his character during this period is similar to how the legend of Robin Hood has evolved over time to be more noble, and in some situations, Nevison is compared to Robin Hood.

Nevison was tried for theft multiple times between 1674 and 1681 but managed to avoid the hangman’s noose. After which, he restarted his robbing ways. In 1684, however, he was finally caught, tried, and later hung at York for the murder of a constable who was attempting to arrest him. He was buried in an unmarked grave in a church in York.

Cut to the modern day, ‘Swift Nick’ Nevison is the feature of multiple songs and even a novel. The 1913 novel ‘Swift Nick of the York Road’ by George Edgar portrays Nevison as a gentleman who can hold himself in many a dual.

A blue plaque is even placed on the Three Houses Inn public house where John Nevison was thought to have been arrested for the final time.

Photo of blue plaque commemorating John Nevison

Above: Blue Plaque commemorating John Nevison, 2009 (by Mike Kirby, CC BY-SA 2.0)

November is upon us. A month of fireworks, bonfires and orange leaves but also a great month to get involved in some Nottinghamshire history! Here is a list of some of the events happening this coming November.

Monday 3rd November: In association with Creswell Crags, ‘join folklore expert, Icy Sedgwick, online to discover the fascinating legends of Bonfire Night. From penny-for-the-guy to parades and public bonfires, this talk will explore some of the customs surrounding the 5th of November. You'll also dig into a couple of the legends about the events of 5th November 1605 to see why it became such an important date in the British calendar’. This event is free, but booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 7th November: At the Palace Theatre, Newark, ‘the creators of ‘The 17th Century Show’ bring you, ‘The Amazing Exploding Girlfriend and Other Tales of Mad Science: A Professor Edvard von Goosechaser Comedy History Lecture’. The year is 1669, and it’s time for the annual Professor Edvard von Goosechaser lecture. This time the subject is mad scientists, fool hardy inventors and heroic herbalists. Find out which Royalist super soldier liked to dabble in science and how a hole in his head lead to a spectacular innovation in fashion. Discover which inventor built the first ever lighthouse on a rock, in the middle of a war with France and during the worst storm in England history. And hear about how an amateur herbalist challenged the might of the medical establishment and almost got himself arrested for witchcraft. But which one of them had and amazing girlfriend, and why on earth did she explode? Join the Professor to find out’. Ticket prices vary up to £10 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Friday 7th November: ‘Enjoy a taste of Victorian decadence, with an evening viewing of the gas-lit D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum followed by a sampling of gins’. In this Gin and Gaslight event, ‘the D.H. Lawrence Birthplace Museum is lit with original gaslight, making an evening visit charming and atmospheric. Guests will have time to engage with the hosts and learn more about D.H. Lawrence and his literary legacy. Then, guests will be offered several gins to sample and learn about their history and flavour profiles’. Tickets cost £17.50 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 13th November: Also at the Palace Theatre, Newark, a ‘talk by Michael Rayner, chair of the Battlefields Trust's Battlefield Panel, will look at how landscape is crucial to understanding why and how battles were fought. This will include looking at how terrain influenced commanders, as well as how landscape studies are used to interpret what happened. Examples will be drawn from a range of periods and across the country’. Tickets cost £10 per person, and booking is required. Book your place here.

Thursday 13th November: Lakeside Art currently have a free exhibition in their Weston Gallery titled ‘The Leen – Nottingham’s River’. A public event on the 13th invites you ‘help preserve the history of the River Leen for the future, by sharing your own memories, all while exploring historical archival photos! Examine images drawn from the archives of local businesses such as Gerard’s/Cussons and institutions such as the QMC. Reminiscences collected at the event will be mapped to the course of the River Leen to examine how its meaning for local residents has shifted over time’. This is a free drop-in event throughout the day (10am-4pm) and booking is not required. For more information, visit the event page here.

Tuesday 18th November: Mansfield Central Library is hosting the heritage talk: ‘Sherwood Boys, Biography of a Battalion’. ‘Hear the story of how the 2/5th Sherwood Foresters, a Territorial battalion, developed during the Second World War from a group of untrained young men from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire into a hardened unit of veterans from every corner of Britain, capable of facing, and beating, the might of the Wehrmacht’. Tickets are £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 19th November: The heritage talk ‘Worksop’s WW1 VC: William Henry Johnson’ will be held at Worksop Library. ‘William Henry Johnson was a miner at Manton Colliery and a bell ringer at Worksop Priory before enlisting for service in the First World War. In this fascinating talk, learn more about the man, his life, and his remarkable act of bravery in the field which earned him Britain’s highest military award, the Victoria Cross. Following his talk, which will last approximately 45 minutes, there will be chance to explore historical records relating to WW1 servicemen from the local area, including newspaper reports, photographs and more’. Tickets cost £3 per person and booking is required. Book your place here.

Wednesday 19th November: Beeston Library will be hosting the talk: ‘Women of the British Civil Wars 1642-1659’. ‘Women played a significant role in the conflicts known as the British civil wars, and Nottinghamshire women certainly played their part. As local historian Sandra Berrington demonstrates, they helped defend castles, wrote pamphlets and propaganda, raised funds, spied, nursed, preached and even contributed on the battlefields. From highborn ladies to ordinary housekeepers, these remarkable women showed, as was said at the time, “A courage beyond their sex”’. Tickets cost £3 per person, and booking is required. Book your place here.

Monday 24th November: At Newark Library, you have a chance to explore local parish registers with the Inspire team. ‘Join one of their librarians for a small group session to talk about the history of Nottinghamshire's parish registers and look at some of the fascinating stories they contain. Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials are a major resource for anyone beginning their family history’. This event is free, but booking is recommended. Book your place here.

Image of fireworks