What's New

This year has been an exciting and successful year for the HER and the Historic Environment team at Nottinghamshire County Council. 

Throughout 2024 we have added over 350 new sources to the HER. This has resulted in around 380 archaeological events and over 500 new archaeological features being recorded. Some of the new records added this year were the mid-19th century Whiteley Silk Mill in Stapleford, an Anglo-Saxon burial in Bingham, a Late Iron Age – Early Romano British settlement at Radcliffe-on-Trent, and prehistoric to Post-Medieval mixed finds from King John’s Palace in Clipstone.

On top of this, over 720 previously recorded features have been modified to be more accurate and more detailed. Edited records included: former Coffee Tavern and Institute in Hucknall, Forest Town in Mansfield Woodhouse, a series of Late Iron-Age to Roman enclosures at Aslockton, and Newark Castle.

Within the wider heritage team, we sadly saw the retirement of our Senior Archaeological Practitioner Ursilla in the first half of 2024. With that, our new Senior Practitioner Matt started with us in July. Matt joined us from Lincolnshire County Council and brings a wonderful wealth of experience to the heritage team. We are very lucky to have Matt as part of our team!

This year also saw the end of a large-scale project called Miner2Major, with which we had a strong involvement. ‘Miner2Major was a five-year Landscape Partnership Scheme supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It focussed on the heart of the Sherwood Forest area from Bestwood to Ollerton, and Mansfield to Rufford Abbey, an area that has a distinctive landscape character which is recognised and valued by local people as well as visitors from around the world’ (Miner2Major website, 2024).

Across the years of the Miner2Major scheme, our team helped to oversee archaeological projects at Sherwood Pines, Strawberry Hill, and Moor Pond Woods, and also ‘commissioned a 0.16m resolution LiDAR map’ of the Sherwood landscape (available through the 'Map' section of our website). To find out more, you can visit ‘The Veiled Landscape Project’ website pages on the Miner2Major website, as well as our own website.

(Above: Excavations at Sherwood Pines)

Under the bracket of the M2M project, our Historic Environment Officer Janine published two equestrian themed books: ‘Country House Stables of Nottinghamshire’ and ‘Colliery Stables & the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony’. Based on these books, Janine has hosted many public outreach events this year at Rufford Abbey and several Nottinghamshire libraries. These books are available free of charge in larger Nottinghamshire libraries, and The Book Case bookshop in Lowdham and Five Leaves bookshop in Nottingham (while stocks last). They are also available to download as e-books. You can read 'Country House Stables of Notitnghamshire' here and the 'Colliery Stables & the Nottinghamshire Pit Pony' here.

The results of Miner2Major projects provided us with over 50 archaeological features and events to add to our records and the results of historic buildings research and surveying also provided information to either add or improve over 50 historic building records. In 2024, we set about adding the information gleaned from Miner2Major project into the HER.

Our team is hoping to host many more public events and continue to maintain the HER to a high standard. Keep an eye out on our website in 2025 for event news, interesting blog posts, and new historical records!

This lovely little article originates from our Winter 1999 newsletter:

Bells are part of our culture, and references abound:- ‘Ding-dong bell, Pussy’s in the well’, ‘Great Tom is cast…’, ‘…for whom the bell tolls’, ‘the sunken bells of lost Atlantis ring’, to name but a few.

The sound of bells was more common in medieval England than today; calling people to services, to work or play, to wake or sleep, or put out their fires in their thatched homes at curfew (couvre-feu, ‘cover the fire’) in the evening. Bells were rung at baptisms, weddings, funerals and festivals; for joy, sorrow and emergencies. People believed clanging bells drove away the evil spirits of storms, and Spalding Church records show ringers were paid three pence for ‘ringing when the tempest was’.

At Claughton, Lancs., a bell survives bearing the date 1296, and even older ones remain; the earliest were long and narrow in shape. In the 17th century, improvements in hanging and tuning bells to a musical scale led to change-ringing (unknown outside England).

Molten bell-metal, an alloy of copper and tin, was poured into moulds lined with cow or horse manure (still used today) at the foundry. The bells often carry beautiful lettering, inscriptions, names, foundry marks; things of great interest and beauty but rarely seen. The great frames on which bells were hung in the bell-tower were designed and constructed by expert carpenters using massive oak timbers, hand-sawn, split, adzed and joined together with mortice and tenon joints secured by one inch oak pegs.

At the dawn of the 21st century, belling ringing was given a tremendous boost by the prospect of ringing in the millennium. All over England, foundries were casting new bells, bell-hangers were improving existing bells and hung new ones, and new recruits were trained in the art of bell ringing. There are 5000 churches in England with 5 or more bells, and Southwell Minster has 13! But let us not forget the little villages; at Headon-cum-Upton there is just one bell, although two were recorded in 1740. The inscription should read ‘CUM VOCO VENITE’ (‘come when I call’) but the last word is spelt ‘VENITI’ and some of the Gothic capital letters are placed sideways or upside down. The bell is thought to be late 16th century, but the magnificent two-bay frame may be earlier.

This articles comes from our Winter 1998 newsletter:

Imagine being dressed in your smartest regalia, out for a stroll after a large Sunday roast, surveying your fine territory and gardens, when, oops, looking out across the well-cut lawns, you stumble, lose your footing and fall flat, while your friends and family around you have a good giggle at your expense. This could be the fate for anyone walking along in a garden ever since the turn of the eighteenth century, and the wicked culprit – the ha-ha.

The first ha-has were seen in England during the late seventeenth century and regarded as a way of seeing the garden landscape as well as the wilderness beyond it, where landscape architecture was becoming a rising feature of the well-to-do and their gardens. Whereas garden walls would restrict the prospect of what a person could see across the land, the ha-ha was viewed as something which wouldn’t limit what the eye could see and gave an awakening to sensations and curiosity where, according to the inventors of the ha-ha, Bridgman and Eyres – Royal Gardeners of Chiswick Park, variety and concealment were the pre-requisites of the art of landscape.

‘The destruction of walls for boundaries and the invention of fosses – an attempt then deemed so astonishing that the common people called them Ha! Has! to express their surprise at finding a sudden and unperceived check to their walk’ – Horace Walpole, ‘The History of the Modern Taste on Gardening’.

In reality, the sunken ditch of the ha-ha was used to separate the lawns from the working meadows and fields, though leaving the view of the entire countryside to the eye, while keeping the animals, i.e. the deer and the stock including the cows, out of the gardens. Normally the garden side of the ditch was vertical, faced with brick or stone, while the outer side of the ditch sloped up gently to the normal level of the ground, leaving the view of the countryside beyond free and unhindered.

Nottinghamshire has many examples of ha-has, some date from the early eighteenth century through to the late nineteenth century that have listed building status. They range from 150m long at Shireoaks Hall to over 800m long at Wollaton Hall;1m high at Brackenhurst Hall to up to 3m tall at Kelham Hall; made of bricks at Norwood Park to stone at Stanford Hall; and often incorporating other features of landscape architecture, such as fountains at Hardwick Terrace to gates at Scofton Church.

Could you help the HER team?

Recently the team came across some photographs of ten buildings in Nottinghamshire which have unfortunately lost their context. We would love to know more about these buildings, especially their locations. They may be from the district of Arnold but this is not certain!

We also do not know when these photographs were taken so it is possible that these buildings have been altered or even are no longer standing. 

Please take a look at the photos below and let us know if you recognise any of these buildings. Comment below or email us at heritage@nottscc.gov.uk .

Building 1:

Building 2:

Building 3:

Building 4:

Building 5:

Building 6:

This coming September will be very exciting for heritage lovers in Nottinghamshire with the return of Heritage Open Days’ annual community festival!

The festival, which has been running for over 25 years in the UK, provides individuals with the chance to get involved in heritage through exclusive local events. This festival contributes to the European Heritage Days in which 50 signatory states celebrate diversity, culture, and heritage every September.

Heritage Open Days aims to celebrate heritage and community by organising talks, workshops, and tours of historical sites. All the events in this festival are free. This includes rare visits to selected sites that normally ask for an entry fee. For example, usually closed on Sundays, the DH Lawrence Birthplace Museum will be opening its doors to the public, for free, on Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September. Other sites included in this festival are Trent Bridge cricket ground, Newstead Abbey, Bromley House Library, and the Workhouse and Infirmary. Visit the Heritage Open Days website for the full list.

Running from Friday 6th September until Sunday 15th September, there are over 70 exciting events happening in the Nottinghamshire area.

Above: 22 & 24 Kirkgate, Newark. To learn more about timber buildings in Newark, there will be a guided tour of Newark's timber framed heritage on Sunday 8th and Sunday 15th September. Visit the event information here.

Here are some of the events we’re excited about:

• Join the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Special Collections team for a captivating journey through time. In a talk titled 'On the Road: Nottinghamshire's Early Tourists in Europe and Beyond', you will follow in the footsteps of early travellers from Nottinghamshire who ventured abroad on the 18th and 19th centuries. The talk takes place on Friday 6th September, booking is required. Book your place here.
• Nottingham Trent University will be offering an opportunity to visit the original Bramley apple tree in Southwell, Nottinghamshire on Saturday 7th September. No booking required. For more event information, visit the event page here.
• Join a guided tour covering the rich history of a beautiful community-owned wildlife site of Spa Ponds Nature Reserve that sits on the edge of the historic Clipstone Deer Park near Mansfield. ‘The site's story connects with Sherwood Forest, King's Clipstone, and King John's Palace’. The tour will take plan on Saturday 14th September, booking is required. Book your place here.
• A demonstration on how to maintain and repair historic buildings will be hosted in Newark by Nottinghamshire Buildings Preservation Trust and Newark Civic Trust. ‘There will be demonstrations of the skills and techniques required and the chance to get hands on with some of the skills. There will be stalls around the demonstration area related to the experts and the groups involved’. This event is due to take place on Saturday 14th September, no booking required. For more information, visit the event page here.
• ‘Celebrate nature and heritage at Mill Waters, Sutton in Ashfield, with free traditional crafts demos and activities, nature-based crafts for kids, story trail, heritage display, traditional games, abseil of England's oldest railway viaduct, live music and more’. This event takes place on Saturday 14th September, no booking required. For more event information, visit the event page here.

To find out about all the events being offered in Nottinghamshire, including dates and booking information, please visit Heritage Open Days.

Please be aware that free entry to some sites is only on specific set days and some events may require booking.