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What Is Heritage Crime?

Heritage crime can be any act that causes harm to an asset or its surroundings.

For example, damaging or undertaking unauthorised alterations, such as building upon or digging up, heritage assets are considered a heritage crime. Even things that might seem innocent like metal detecting without authorisation, making ruts in the soil of an asset using a bike, or putting in fencing without permission can be considered a heritage crime.

Other crimes that are not necessarily specified as a heritage crime can also affect sites and historic landscapes. This could be graffiti, fly-tipping, theft, criminal damage, or arson.

Scheduled assets are legally protected against crimes, which means anyone who causes damage to any assets could have enforcement taken against them and ultimately be prosecuted. In such cases The Local Authority, Historic England and the Police work together to establish the facts and take any required action.

Protected heritage assets that we have in Nottinghamshire include:

• Scheduled Archaeological Monuments - such as Margidunum Roman Station or Rufford Abbey
• Listed Buildings – such as Papplewick Pumping Station or Lutterell Hall
• Registered Battlefields – such as the Battlefield at East Stoke
• Conservation Areas – such as Southwell or Cropwell Bishop
• Registered Parks and Gardens – such as Thoresby Park or Clumber Park

Other protected heritage assets, that aren’t present in Nottinghamshire, are World Heritage Sites, protected marine wrecks, and protected military remains of aircraft and vessels of historic interest.

You can check whether an asset is scheduled or listed by searching the Historic England database. Historic England maintains and updates all records of designated assets. Search the National Heritage List here.

You can also check the protected heritage assets specifically in Nottinghamshire via the ‘designations’ section of our search page.

Above: Graffiti at King's Mill Viaduct, Mansfield

Why Does It Matter?

Heritage crimes not only threaten our valuable local assets, but they threaten to destroy both local and national understanding (current and future) as well as public enjoyment.

Alongside large areas like conservation areas and designated parks and gardens, there are a range of smaller assets can be listed or scheduled, such as bridges, war memorials, phone boxes, even garden urns. Heritage assets are all around us and some people may not realise how special the things around them are.

 A large number of our heritage assets in Nottinghamshire are in remote areas or lack the protection of physical security features, so we rely on everyone keeping an eye out and reporting any issues or signs of damage/alterations.

A study conducted by Newcastle University, Loughborough University and the Council for British Archaeology in 2011 suggested that over 70,000 listed buildings (18.7% of all listed buildings at the time) had been affected by crime in a single year. Within that, nearly half of those buildings (30,000) had been majorly affected by the crime committed.

The study also suggested that antisocial behaviour is one of the most common threats to our historical sites. In a year, 12.3% of all heritage assets were affected by antisocial behaviour.

You can read the full 2011 study here: Heritage Crime: the size of the problem

To learn more about heritage crime, how large scale the issue is, and why it matters, visit the Historic England website here.

Above: General Baptist Chapel, Kirkby Woodhouse, with no roof due to a fire/vandalism.

What To Do If You Spot A Heritage Crime?

If a crime is in progress, a suspect is nearby, violence has been threatened or is occurring, or there is danger to life – treat this an emergency and call the police through 999.

If you witness a heritage crime that is not an emergency and not currently occurring, or suspect one has been committed, report it to the police through 101 or anonymously through Crimestoppers through 0800 555 111.

There is currently a team of six police officers equipped with specialist skills to deal with heritage crime courtesy of training by Historic England. ‘Those interested in getting in touch with an officer can contact the heritage crime team via email at heritagecrime@notts.police.uk’. You can read more about the new heritage crime police team here.

If it is not an emergency and you are unsure or would like some guidance on reporting a heritage crime, you can contact our NCC heritage team who will be able to help you via our email at heritage@nottscc.gov.uk

Have you ever wondered what Historic Environment Records (HERs) are or what they are used for? Alongside Historic England, HER offices across England have collaborated together to produce two wonderful introductory short films showcasing how HERs work and why they are such a valuable resource.

There are over 80 HER offices across England, each bringing together all sorts of information about archaeology, historic buildings and landscapes within its designated area. Together, they provide national coverage - helping people access trusted local knowledge and supporting the understanding, management and conservation of historic places.

Every single HER record brings together written information and geographic data about the historic environment in a particular area. They help planners, researchers, communities and visitors understand what exists, what matters, and how places have evolved over time.

This first short introductory film explains what exactly the Historic Environment Records are in more detail: What are Historic Environment Records?

Why are Historic Environment Records important?

Most of us walk across layers of history every day without realising it. Not just famous landmarks, but ordinary places. Fields. Streets. Buildings. Coastlines. Places we pass without a second thought. What stories do these places hold? Who or what was here before us? The answer is out there, sometimes all it takes is knowing where to look.

This second short collaboration film aims to show why HERs matter: Why Historic Environment Records Matter

Behind every historic record is a person making sense of it.

HER teams work with information, maps and evidence as well as with judgement, context and care. Their role is to help translate layers of the past into something useful for the present. It’s quiet work, but it shapes real decisions about places and landscapes.

Across England, these teams are dedicated to the ongoing effort of keeping track of change, recording what matters, and helping places evolve without losing what makes them special.

Have you ever really looked at where you live? Everything around you has a story that ties the people who use it today to the people who used it in the past, be it a large site like manor house or a small site like a phone box. Explore where you live on our Nottinghamshire County Council HER website, with map and search functions, or get in touch with us at heritage@nottscc.gov.uk.

For more information on Historic Environment Records across England, visit the Historic England website here

The Battle of Bosworth in Leicestershire in 1485 altered the course of English history and ushered in the reign of the Tudor dynasty. It was regarded as a significant win for the House of Lancaster during the War of the Roses, a war that had seen the House of York and the House of Lancaster fighting for the English throne since 1455. In this battle, Henry Tudor’s (subsequently known as Henry VII) army managed to kill the current king Richard III on the battlefield, allowing Henry and the House of Lancaster to take the throne.

Today, this battle is largely considered to have ended to the War of the Roses as the Tudor dynasty managed to consolidate and maintain power until Elizabeth I’s death in 1603. But at the time, the Yorkists weren’t ready to give up and were making moves to secure the English throne once again.

The Yorkist side found hope in Lambert Simnel, a 10-year-old boy pretending to be the Earl of Warwick, supposedly the son of Edward IV’s brother. The leaders of the Yorkist side used Simnel to re-group support after the devasting Battle of Bosworth.

To gather an army, the Yorkist leaders travelled to Dublin in May 1487 and managed to recruit over 4000 men. Simnel was even crowned ‘King Edward VI’ in Dublin by the Yorkist leaders and Irish nobility.

Above: 19th century illustration depicting Irish supporters carrying Simnel (By Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XXV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 124. - Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Ed. Vol XXV. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1910. 124., Public Domain)

Returning to England at the start of June 1487, the army numbers increased to around 8,000 soldiers and the men began travelling south from Lancaster. Along the way, the rebel Yorkist army encountered Lancastrian cavalry which started three days of skirmishes at Sherwood Forest. The Lancastrian cavalry was forced back to Nottingham by the rebel Yorkists, and there the cavalry waited for Henry’s main army to come and assist.

King Henry’s army of some 15,000 men arrived in Nottingham on 14th June, including reinforcements from Wales. The poorly-equipped Yorkist army were dangerously outnumbered.

Both sides clashed in battle on 16th June 1487 in East Stoke, a battle to be known as the Battle of Stoke Field. It remains Nottinghamshire’s only registered battlefield.

Only parts of Henry’s army had formed up properly when the battle started but even so, the Yorkist army, with their fewer numbers, poorly-equipped soldiers and weaker leadership, suffered a devasting loss with heavy casualties. By the end, almost all of the Yorkist leaders had been killed and many of the soldiers tried to ‘flee towards the River Trent but were captured or killed. The River Trent is said to have “run red with blood”’.

The number of men killed in the battle is estimated to be between 4000-7000 men and unfortunately the hope of putting a Yorkist on the throne died with them.

Burial pits containing some of the fallen have been recorded near East Stoke (M1680 and M17856). A small number of 8-11 individuals recovered from this pit were analysed as recently as the mid 2010’s. The results suggested all the remains belonged to robust males aged between 17 and 46. Sharp force trauma was encountered on many bones including skulls and tibia. Some of the skulls recovered from one of the burial pits, illustrating battlefield trauma, are on display currently at the National Civil War Centre in Newark.

Dr Samantha Tipper at Anglia Ruskin University is also currently undertaking osteoarchaeological analysis on a set of skeletons recovered from the battlefield and it is hoped that from this project we can find out more about a bit about who these soldiers were, what they experienced during their lives, and where they spent most of their lives.

The Battle of Stoke Field is not only important for Nottinghamshire’s heritage but also in English history as the true end of the War of the Roses.

For fantastic videos, including some wonderful interviews with some of the main characters of the battle, and a self-guided trail on public footpaths to visit the site, visit the Nottinghamshire County Council’s web page here.

As a registered battlefield, Historic England manages the record and research of this site, you can view their list entry here.

Above: Battle of Stoke Field at ground level (By Andrew Tatlow, CC BY-SA 2.0)

One invention that is thought to have originated out of Nottinghamshire is the Stocking Frame. The stocking frame, invented in 1589, was a revolutionary knitting machine used within the textile industry. The use of this machine helped bring about the Industrial Revolution and the principles of machine knitting laid out by this machine are still used in the textile industry today.

Its invention is attributed to an Englishman named William Lee. Sadly, nothing much concrete is known about William. Most reports theorise he was a clergyman from Calverton, Nottinghamshire. There has been some argument that he lived in Sussex instead, but scholars predominantly believe he was a Nottinghamshire man. We are inclined to agree!

The stocking frame worked by imitating hand-knitting movements. It was unlike anything available at the time. Lee sought out a patent for the machine from Queen Elizabeth I. Upon demonstration of the machine, Elizabeth declined his patent request on the fear that his machine would be highly detrimental to those working in the hand-knitting industry. Elizabeth promised William that if he could improve his machine to be able to make silk stockings then his patent would be approved (Rowlett 1886).

His machine wasn’t a perfect invention from conception. The frame originally could only produce coarse fabrics as it contained eight needles in an inch. So, William worked on improving the machine, by increasing the needles per inch, until, in 1598, it was capable of knitting silk stockings.

Above: Stocking Frame at Framework Knitters Museum, Ruddington, Nottinghamshire. By John Beniston (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0).

Unfortunately for William, despite his improvements, his patent was declined again by Elizabeth’s successor James I. Upon this rejection, he decided to take the stocking frame and his workers to France under the protection of King Henry IV.

In 1610, however, Henry IV was assassinated. At a time where religion was a very divisive aspect of society, the death of the Protestant King Henry and the succession of the Catholic Louis XIII had consequences for the Protestants in France. As one of those Protestants, William’s stocking frame business badly suffered. William died in Paris a few years later (many report that he died in 1614) with his business that he had worked at for decades in disrepair.

Some of his stocking frames made their way back to England with his workers. Many workers sold their frames in London while his brother James is reported to have helped to establish the use of the stocking frame into the textile industry in England.

In the seventeenth and eighteen centuries, the stocking frame ‘was probably the most sophisticated textile machine in common use in western civilisation’ (Lewis, 1986). The frame could hold around 38 needles per inch by 1750 (Lewis, 1986), a stark difference from the number of needles on the initial conceptions of the machine. By the mid-seventeenth century , attempts were made by framework knitters to ‘regulate the exportation of machinery and skilled labour…as a reflection of the workers’ new-found estimation of his machinery and skills’ (Lewis, 1986).

Further adaptions of Lee’s machine continued even up to the 19th century as the stocking frame was adapted for different textiles and knitting styles. By the start of the 19th century, the machine had notably been adapted as a lace making machine, which also has special connections to Nottingham in the form of the lace market.

Lee most likely had no idea how much of an importance his machine would have on the textile industry centuries down the line. His influence ‘laid the foundation for an industry that now gives employment to millions. There can be but few people in the world who do not make daily use of its products’ (Pasold, 1975).

If it weren’t for the dedication and determination of Lee and his loyal workers to continually improve the stocking frame, the history of textile production would look wildly different.

If you would like to learn more about the stocking frame or about the textile industry, we suggest you visit the Framework Knitters’ Museum in Ruddington.

Bibliography:

Lewis, P. 1986. ‘William Lee’s Stocking Frame: Technical Evolution and Economic Viability 1589-1750’, Textile History, Volume 17. Pp. 129-147

Pasold, E.W. 1975. ‘In Search of William Lee’, Textile History, Volume 6. Pp.7-17

Rowlett, W.T. 1887. ‘Framework Knitting’, Journal of the Society of Arts, Volume 36. Page 445

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.

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 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.

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