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.

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.

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)